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Post by henrycpa on Jun 26, 2023 9:02:43 GMT -5
I have been pondering this for a bit. But even before Covid lockdowns I found myself not wanting to go to the Theaters to see a move because of both pricing and convenience. With an 85" TV at home, 4K resolution, and my Sonos home theater, I can get 80% of the Theater Experience right in my own home. When I add in I can eat what I want, at a much cheaper price, it makes even more sense.
Then Covid Came and theaters shut down and Streaming came to the fore and I was getting new releases immediately and even when theaters reopened I just had to wait a few weeks and I got them at a pretty good discount over a theatre ticket.
It seems like we really have had very few blockbuster movies released in the past few years. Part of that was the writing and acting shutdown that limited filming. I get it. But I also think people got comfortable watching the releases in their home vs going out to do so and that may be a permanent change.
Thoughts?
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Post by Adelard of Bath on Jun 26, 2023 10:09:15 GMT -5
We get to the theater maybe 3x/year. Maybe. We just aren't big movie people. But my opinion is that for the things I DO go to the theater for, it's John Wick or Mission Impossible or something like that. It's an experience that can't be gotten at home no matter what the setup. Plus, we go so rarely that we get the excitement of getting popcorn (and a giant soda hee hee) and seeing the place and picking our seats etc. Seeing previews, etc.
I can watch youtube videos of people walking around the parks and going on rides, or I could get 3D goggles and watch someone hike Grand Canyon, and get a certain percentage of the experience but of course it isn't the same.
For everything other than those 2-3 action movies a year that I feel the need to see in the theater - watching at home is great: There aren't any strangers, it doesn't cost $40, you can pause it for bathroom breaks, I can go get cheetos, whatever. But the popcorn isn't as good.
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Post by Adelard of Bath on Jun 26, 2023 10:13:49 GMT -5
A theater by me is hooked up with a company that shows old movies a few times a month, it's a blast to get the chance to go see some of these things. I dragged my wife to see Alien, Die Hard, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Private Ryan, and most recently Star Trek and Star Trek II. Next month they will be showing Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" and I told her we are going. The fact that I am jumping at the chance to see movies I've seen a hundred times, but now I get to watch it on the big screen? tells me something about the theater experience.
A couple years ago they were going to show "The Blues Brothers" for 40th anniversary but theaters were closed for covid. Dang.
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Post by johnb on Jun 26, 2023 10:20:49 GMT -5
We have a decent home theater set up. I haven't been to a movie theater in many years. I think Ted was the last movie I saw in a theater. Cost, comfort, access to my own food and drinks, behavior in theaters, etc. are my reasons. Before kids, we went to the movies 2-3x/month; when the kids were old enough to sit through a movie, probably once a month.
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Post by fuzzylogic on Jun 26, 2023 11:38:52 GMT -5
Times change. Kids also don't hang out at the mall or watch cable either. And who needs an arcade when you can play any game you want with all your friends at home.
Movies-- so many have come out in the last 10 years that were more direct to home. Big Hero 6, Incredibles 2, TS4, Moana, Inside Out, Star Wars, Guardians, Marvel... Some in there were chart-smashers like Infinity War, Force Awakens. Moana was barely edged out by Frozen. Outstanding content, just a different world today where streaming is where it's at. It's all about who can maintain the most subscribers.
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Post by brp on Jun 26, 2023 11:44:44 GMT -5
We have a theatre that is $8 on Tuesdays with recliner chairs. We go to movies that we feel need the screen. Being retired, we can go earlier in the day and it's easy to get seats. We recently saw:
John Wick, Chapter 4
Dungeons and Dragons
GotG, Volume.
Starting tomorrow,. for likely the next 4 Tuesdays, we have:
Transformers
Indians Jones
Flash
Maybe MI
Cheers.
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Post by tomandrobin on Jun 26, 2023 13:41:05 GMT -5
The answer is more then a yes or no.
Its not that there are not blockbusters, Super Mario made 1.3 billion this year. Last year we had Avatar, Top Gun and Jurassic Park make 2.3B, 1.5B and 1.0B respectively. What I see is not that people don't want to go to the Theaters, I see that quality movies are in decline. Movies are either messaging to hard or are the same copy cat of the past 6 movies. Missing is just good original movies, that are either thrilling, tell a good story, funny or simply entertaining.
Disney is in Fatigue mode. Why?....Nothing original, milk franchises to death, live action after live action....and become Movie irrelevant the past few years. Disney's last Billion Dollar movie was 2019.....And Disney had seven make over a Billion Dollars. To be fair, there have only been five Billion dollar movies since 2020.
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Post by brp on Jun 26, 2023 14:07:16 GMT -5
Movies-- so many have come out in the last 10 years that were more direct to home. Big Hero 6, Incredibles 2, TS4, Moana, Inside Out, Star Wars, Guardians, Marvel... Some in there were chart-smashers like Infinity War, Force Awakens. Moana was barely edged out by Frozen. Outstanding content, just a different world today where streaming is where it's at. It's all about who can maintain the most subscribers. For us it's about things that need a big screen. We have a 77" OLED TV, so most things are fine there. Some things just need a bigger screen for the experience, in our view.
And this is independent of whether blockbuster, big hit, makes money, breakeven, whatever. We see what we want to see, independent of what others may feel about it. One exception was the new Antman, where the reviews were so bad that we opted out after deciding to go. But how many people go to see the movie or how much it makes is irrelevant to whether we will go and see it.
Cheers.
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Post by tomandrobin on Jun 26, 2023 15:05:16 GMT -5
Big screens are nice....but the Big Theater Screen just takes it to another level, plus the movies are filmed and formatted that way. Having total darkness, kickass sound system, popcorn w/ butter or snowcaps (my choice) and Zero Interruptions. Like Bruce, our theater has the full recliners with built-in heat (if you get chilled).
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Post by Brian5581 on Jun 26, 2023 15:57:53 GMT -5
Big screens are nice....but the Big Theater Screen just takes it to another level, plus the movies are filmed and formatted that way. Having total darkness, kickass sound system, popcorn w/ butter or snowcaps (my choice) and Zero Interruptions. Like Bruce, our theater has the full recliners with built-in heat (if you get chilled). Not ventilated if you get hot? That's bullshit. Unfortunately will never happen down here in Florida with all those who get chilly in the air conditioning. Of course then that provides yet another excuse besides the real reason of cost-cutting for all these damn places (especially Disney) to turn down the air conditioning and make things insufferable for me. Ugh. |
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Post by mcd on Jun 26, 2023 19:52:08 GMT -5
Profitability for films has gotten tougher because streaming revenue is much lower than physical media sales used to be. More pressure is on a film to hit big at the box office opening weekend. I think that has lead to less variety. Other things that have lead to declining theater attendance - better quality viewing at home and faster availability of films released to personal viewing.
I have a 120” 4K home theater setup in my basement. It’s a wonderful setup to watch movies. However, I still enjoy the real movie theater experience. This year we have taken our kids to see Ant-Man, Across The Spider-Verse, The Little Mermaid, and Super Mario Bros.
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Post by helenabear on Jun 26, 2023 21:16:03 GMT -5
A few of our movie theaters are gross and have been for ages. Also sometimes movie goers really annoy the snot out of me. The only ones worth going to were kind of far and rather inconvenient especially during rush hour or the like. So we kind of stopped going - well really me as I was the one who went all the time. As sound and pictures got better at home and my strong desire not to be stuck in a sticky spot, I stopped going. This was before covid. I saw important movies in the theater but that was it.
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Post by bakerworld on Jun 27, 2023 8:14:04 GMT -5
DH has never been much for the movies because his butt falls asleep. I had never heard of that. I thought maybe it was a male thing until my eldest daughter said the same thing. Neither of them can really sit still. They're always getting up to do things - probably because their butts falling asleep. Whatever....
I enjoy seeing a movie but my current issue is that I fall asleep. This really became an issue at work with meetings, professional development and mandatory lecture participation. Snore.
So regardless of constant movie remakes, franchising and no interest in most current actors or studios (Disney or whatever) we stay home where DH can jump up and down a billion times and I can fall asleep or read a book while the movies running. LOL
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Post by johnb on Jun 27, 2023 9:18:26 GMT -5
DH has never been much for the movies because his butt falls asleep. I had never heard of that. I thought maybe it was a male thing until my eldest daughter said the same thing. Neither of them can really sit still. They're always getting up to do things - probably because their butts falling asleep. Whatever.... I enjoy seeing a movie but my current issue is that I fall asleep. This really became an issue at work with meetings, professional development and mandatory lecture participation. Snore. So regardless of constant movie remakes, franchising and no interest in most current actors or studios (Disney or whatever) we stay home where DH can jump up and down a billion times and I can fall asleep or read a book while the movies running. LOL Which raises another advantage of watching a movie at home...I can stop/start whenever I need to. |
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Post by Adelard of Bath on Jun 27, 2023 10:37:43 GMT -5
DH has never been much for the movies because his butt falls asleep. I had never heard of that. I have this problem in Small World, Pirates, and metal bleacher seating similar to high-school sports or the Nemo musical or Lion King. hee hee |
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