From Usedcarsalesman.com: "The Surprisingly Honest Opinion Blog"
I read a post the other day made by Cory Doctorow (a post which was apparently pulled from a blog called MarginalRevolution.com) in BoingBoing.net called "What's Killing Hollywood? (And, Its Not Piracy!)" I believe it was posted there on July 13, 2005. This post listed a lot of reasons for the on-going "murder" of Hollywood's theatrical releases that included the usual suspects: high-quality TV programming making people avoid theatres, nice High Definition plasma-screened televisions becoming more affordable and keeping people at home, movie-executives who are understandably risk averse and box office expectations that are higher than in the past (so the variety of theatrical releases is suffering).
The BoingBoing post suggested to me that, pretty soon, when the viewing public seeks visual entertainment we are all going to avoid movie theatres and basically just stay home and turn on the HD plasma screen. Well, it "suggested" this to me, yes, but "convinced" me, no. Why? Let's face facts: going out to a movie theatre has the "going out" and "social" elements going for it. "Let's go out to the movies," "let's go see the latest Spielberg flick," "it's going to be a full house," are all thoughts that most people have entertained. Often people (me) settle on going to a movie because it's a relatively easy social event to organize and because there's little socially to do with your friends in the evenings (besides getting bombed at a party :).
Sure, movies aren't the only thing you go out and do that have a social element. You also have live-theatre and music, religious services, professional sporting events, sports-participation, charity participation, conventions (at least a ton in So. Cal.), and amusement/theme parks, too. But, going to a movie theatre is admittedly still one of the few economic and entertaining things that you can do in a large room with other individuals. And, maybe it also offers (at least to me) a hard to quantify value such as an answer to how "strangers" will respond to the same visual stimuli that I am viewing ( movie theatres, for me, inadvertently provide political insight; and, all theatre viewers are probably subconsciously heartened by the warmth of reacting to entertainment in the same manner as people they do not know).
Article comments
1 - chris franklin
Ok, I'll play chess vs. myself:
Chris, your an ass. Movie theatres suck, digital or not. Why? People won't shut up, cell phones go off, food's too expensive, I can't hit pause when I have to pee, at my theatre the screen resolution often appears lower quality than a DVD played on my 42 inch plasma, I have to wait in line, I have Netflix now, Satellite Pay-per-View is good, Digital Cable pay-per-view is good, I only play Doom 3 and never go to movies, I have small children or a baby and find it easier to stay home for entertainment, somebody else has small children or a baby and brings them to the theatre, parking sucks, cars get broken in to because thieves know you are going to be busy for at least two hours, dirty film, bad sound, crowded restrooms, petulant teen theatre workers, basketball team always decides to sit in front of me, I got thrown out when they found the large Pizza pie I smuggled in to the AMC, can get stoned at home watching a DVD and there's no "5-0," I am a 60 year old man who loves the Olsen Twins but who hates to sit alone in a theatre full of 14 year girls, theatres don't offer quality porn like they used to, I'm a blogcritic and need to constantly be in front of a computer, I am afraid of the dark, I smell bad and always get beat up when I attempt to sit next to somebody, movie theatre seats are't made of leather and I only sit on leather, I have a snow-cone maker and my psychiatrist says I need to eat a snow cone every half-hour during action films, I am on call 24 hours with a phone sex company, I like to watch movies while naked and I am "challenged" by the movie theatre environment, my ass is wider than it used to be and I can't fit in the theatre seats, I'll miss Monday Night Football, I can't bring my dog!
Geez, Movie Theatres are screwed. I win!
2 - Chris Beaumont
Personally, I love going out to the movies, and have done so over 80 times this year. There is nothing quite like that big screen/communal experience.
As for the social side of things, Loew's does something that I find interesting, Single's night, where they open up a showing early for singles to mingle prior to seeing the movie. Interesting idea....