Is the end of the Movie theatre coming?

[ssrattus]

There is a train of thought that more and more movies will be going direct to DVD or video on demand over the net. Not just the low budget movies.

Why? The costs involved with movie theatres, distribution, wages, insurance, equipment etc will out weigh the profits that the distributors can make selling the DVD or the video on demand over the net.

With home theatres becoming more and more prevalent the numbers going to the movies will probably drop. maybe they are already, I don't have any figures.

The movie theatre may go the way of the drive-in in a few decades.

Your thoughts?

[slickstu]

In my opinion, DVD and home theatre will kill cinema in much the same way that TV didn't. That is, while it's true that TV did have a huge impact on cinema (it pretty much killed off the picture palace), cinema still offered something that TV couldn't provide - large screen, large sound and the sense of "event' that you get when you go to the pictures. It's true home theatre has narrowed the gap but it hasn't closed it yet. The sheer size of a cinema auditorium results in a quality of picture and sound which is difficult to replicate in a small room in your house. And there's still the social aspect of cinema which home theatre will never replicate.

A suitable likewise example is your local pub. Why do we continue to go to the pub when we could do exactly the same thing at home and for much less?

[mango]

nah, will never close the cinemas down, cause if they do they wont have any back row seats.

then where do u think they will train the olympic breast stroke team.

[ssrattus]

nah, will never close the cinemas down, cause if they do they wont have any back row seats.

then where do u think they will train the olympic breast stroke team.

Lots of Drive-ins have closed down and they were better training venues...

[fandtm666]

i used to love bass hill drive-in , ohh the times that were spent there fogging up windows

[mango]

i used to love bass hill drive-in , ohh the times that were spent there fogging up windows

there was a double james bond feature there one time.

i took me mrs there and she went 2 sleep about 20 mins into the first show and woke up around 5 mins b4 the 2nd show ended, she said are they still under water then the show finished, and she wanted something to eat, i told her it was all over and she cracked the shits, i never took here to another drive in after that.

[best4less]

I take the family to the drive inns a couple of times a year and they just love it. But I ask my kids friends if they have been to the drive inns and they have no idea what I am on about LOL

[aZz]

3d cinema is where they'll make the money its the way of the future for cinemas.

[slickstu]

And as cinema moves to digital they will become more prevalent - digital 3D is awesome! As long as they keep the content quality up rather than resorting to gimmicks it should do okay.

IMAX is also having a minor resurgence which is good (the action sequences in The Dark Knight were shot in IMAX). It would be great to see a full scale return of large format cinema, particularly with megaplex screens getting so large that 35mm is struggling to cope.

Regarding drive-ins, they were more a sign of the times rather than a serious cinematic alternative. They were great for nailing the missus in the back seat or letting the kids sleep in the back or play on the swings while mum and dad watched a fillum. But let's face it, the picture was shit, the sound was shit, your comfort depended entirely on your own vehicle (which was mostly shit). When video carved into the profits of cinema it was no surprise that drive-ins would be the first against the wall.

Regarding any perceived recent decline in cinema audiences, I'm sure that Birch/Greater Union/Village(?) choice to introduce mandatory allocated seating + $15 tickets will do them no favours. Especially when Cineplex (my employer) charge less than 8 bucks for a ticket!

[weirdo]

i used to love bass hill drive-in , ohh the times that were spent there fogging up windows

Hope you weren't by yourself in the car then 666

[weirdo]

It's the price of popcorn that keeps me at home

[rob916]

take your own popcorn

[slickstu]

We have cheap munchies too.

[z1gg33]

awesome question.

and allot of people previously have made suggestions as too the direction. I have no idea what will happen in the future I can only say that currently I do not go to the cinema I personally think that with technology there is no real need.

Granted its no where near as good watching a film on a big plasma compared to the big screen I think it all depends on the end user and what kind of experience/quality they wish to tolerate for me personally I don't really enjoy sitting in a crowed room with a bunch of people the amount of times I have had to put up with groups of teenagers and there interruptions/distractions has turned me anti social the last few times I have been I have gone gold class hoping to pay a premium to avoid this situation.

I saw an interview with some billion-aire media mogul and he was asked this exact question and he went onto say 3d film. not knowing anything about it I'll watch with interest.

I have no idea what it costs to run a "cinema" but common sense suggests it would be huge and perhaps is reflected in the price of admission

I guess my jadedness comes from the amount of times I have seen a preview and thought looks interesting seen it and then gone wow total rubbish and hence my real anger should be towards the marketing people that package this up to get me to want to see the film in the first place but as mentioned in above posts going to the cinema is a social outing and like many other things its about being in the world and experiencing something in a group of friends/strangers.

to put this into an example I have been to sporting events that cost allot more than going to see a film (the next event will cost $93 seesh) and the event has been less than average but rarely do you get anyone complaing about how much they paid to be part of it, for some reason films do not get this lee-way and i have yet to figure out why, how many times has some one gone and seen XYZ movie and then told someone it was not worth the money , but at the same time this same person will go and sit in the cold wet weather and watch a one sided football match!

sorry If i'm off topic and not adding anything of worth.

I was thinking the other day after watching the media mogul and his predictions and started to wonder if one day, we all will just pay and plug into the network in a global sense much in the same way pay tv works but on a larger scale, this is without taking into content the technical in-abilities to be able to do so at present (aka limited bandwidth for streaming, not possible to get access to some sat on the other side of the world).

he did mentioned/compare the speeds of delivery and went on to say that he found it laughable that people will watch youtube at hideous speed/quality when sat provides thousands of times faster/pure digital quality, so perhaps one day the cinema will be out in space and we will just point/tune and watch (after taking out a second mortgage on our homes to be able to do so)
at least the popcorn from local supermarket will save us some money

I hope cinemas never go away, it was a shame drive in-s died

[rob916]

I think that if the standard cinema goes there will still be gold class cinemas.
I am a convert, went to gold class once and never again to a standard theater.
I probably only go twice a year now with the current torrent situation as some movies have to be watched bigger than my setup(which does not even contain a plasma or lcd yet).

[roguefan99]

LOL rob, I went to gold class once and decided never again because the waiters and all the glasses clinking pissed me off. I'm the kind of cinema goer that kills the person next to them when they are rustling chip packets all the time, thus generally I dont go. Add parents who have kids freaking out because they didn't check the rating of a movie before taking them (yes I know pester power etc, but I've definately seen kids way too young in superhero flicks)

Will cinema die. No. Two reasons, first one is you can never get a screen as big as a cinema screen for the big action style flicks that hollywood produces. The spectale movies have to be seen on the huge screens so they will always survive on that. Second is "dates" and kids. Dinner and a movie or even for teenagers "Hungry Jacks and a movie" is something that is done a lot. Families will move away from movies (especially with the lack of G rated flicks) due to the cost but they teenager/early 20 year old will always see that as an opportunity (an easy choice).

As for costs, the small cinemas are the ones that get burned. These guys are dissappearing, being replaced with the multiplexs which are moving to digital to get rid of projectionists, some guy just inserts the DVD and hits "play". Thus they can run 30 screens, with just a few people (in theory 1 if they do it right), then all they need is someone to clean every three screenings (I've never seen a clean cinema) and a ticket dude (hmm online bookings) and candy bar operator.

[DND]

I've been 2 times in there last 5years to the cinema here. I think they have a bind dude running it because the picture is always shocking and the sounds not much better.

Next time I'll drive down the coast to the next cinema.

[mango]

I've been 2 times in there last 5years to the cinema here. I think they have a bind dude running it because the picture is always shocking and the sounds not much better.

Next time I'll drive down the coast to the next cinema.

oi oi! be carefull what u say here, the projectionist might be our own slickstu

bahahahahahahahahaha

[DND]

slickstu might need to come up here and show this dude how its done

[roguefan99]

I've been 2 times in there last 5years to the cinema here. I think they have a bind dude running it because the picture is always shocking and the sounds not much better.

Next time I'll drive down the coast to the next cinema.

LOL when I went to see Return of the King (in a pack theatre) they didn't actually turn the picture on during the trailers, so we could hear them, but not actually see them. People streamed out to the ticket office to let them know while the rest of just screamed at the projectionist (who I dont think was there).

I was tempted to ask for my money back because all I wanted to see was the trailers