What can theaters do to attract more people?

Post by **Christian** » June 20th, 2006, 10:58 am

The problem with the snacks is that the theaters themselves don't have a lot of control over the prices. It is the companies who supply the food that insist that their product be priced so high. Of course if the prices were lower people would buy more. Why do I want to pay $8 for a bucket of popcorn whose real value is maybe 35 cents? If they charged $3 I might get it and they'd make a $2.65 profit but when they charge $8 I don't get it at all; therefore they make a $0 profit.

Post by **Meg** » June 20th, 2006, 11:44 am

And the popcorn isn't even that good!

Although I did pay $5.50 for a bucket last time I was at a theater becuase they had Cars buckets...I didn't even eat the popcorn though!

Post by **PixarVixen** » June 20th, 2006, 3:06 pm

Oh yeah! The one theater I went to in my area had the Cars popcorn buckets and cardboard popcorn trays. I've been meaning to go back and buy one because when I went there before, I only had a credit card and they couldn't accept it.

Meg, is the one that you got all white with the characters on it?

~~=oP

Post by **Meg** » June 20th, 2006, 4:20 pm

Yeah, McQueen, Mater, Sally, and Fillmore were on it.

Not sure why Fillmore was on it - I would have thought Doc would be there instead, seeing as he's one of the main characters.

Post by **ShyViolet** » June 23rd, 2006, 3:03 pm

Yes, it's Youngstown, Ohio.

In my old Sociology book some years ago, there was a whole section on this huge Nabisco factory strike that took place in Youngstown. Have you ever heard of it?

Post by **Chaya** » June 23rd, 2006, 7:03 pm

Waaay bigger screens and much better sound systems!!!!!... I'm fortunate enough to live near one of the BEST movie theaters in the whole freaking world, the Seattle Cinerama. I've seen movies like The Incredibles and {i]Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit[/i] as well as all the top blockbusters (ie, TLOtR Trilogy, HP:GOF, Narnia, the original SW, etc,etc). The screen is amazingly ginormous and the sound system is out of this world. It's like an IMAX on steroids with a wide instead of full-screen

Post by **PixarVixen** » June 24th, 2006, 8:29 pm

ShyViolet wrote:In my old Sociology book some years ago, there was a whole section on this huge Nabisco factory strike that took place in Youngstown. Have you ever heard of it?

No. I didn't even know there was a Nabisco factory in Youngstown. LOL

~~=oP

Post by **fani** » June 24th, 2006, 10:32 pm

one word: IMAX

Post by **Meg** » June 24th, 2006, 10:33 pm

Yessss.

Post by **ShyViolet** » June 27th, 2006, 7:45 pm

And more bathrooms dude.

And breaks in the film to visit them.

I agree about the breaks!

Like when you go see a play, they always have intermission.

When I saw Look Who's Talking in Israel a long time ago, they had an intermission, I remember.

People need an intermission to use the facilites, get more popcorn, soda, candy, and "freshen up." Especially with so many movies approaching the 3-hour mark nowadays, (and all those trailers and COMMERCIALS they show beforehand)

Post by **fani** » June 27th, 2006, 10:20 pm

bathroom break!! Ya, my friend in Jamaica told me they'd have breaks every "middle" of the movie. Usually people re-charge their drinks and snacks too at the time.

Post by **YCougar** » June 28th, 2006, 3:01 am

I dunno... maybe for three-hour movies, but I think you lose the effect of your "normal" movie (<2 hours) if you break off in the middle. It's like watching a movie on TV... the commercials break it up and it's irritating.

But then again, I don't think I've ever even considered that a movie could possibly need a bathroom/snack break. Yet another way in which I'm weird.

Post by **Christian** » June 28th, 2006, 3:27 am

It used to be normal for movies to have an intermission while the reels were changed. Last movie I saw theatrically that had an intermission: Gone With The Wind.

Post by **Ben** » June 28th, 2006, 3:47 pm

There used to be a rule way back when an average movie length was 90 minutes that anything over 2hrs 20minutes should have an interval break.

I remember seeing a re-issue of Mary Poppins in the 1980s that had an intermission.

Some smaller cinemas need to chop a film in two simply because their reels can't handle a three-hour epic like Lord Of The Rings or King Kong. I know of a place where an intermission was forced out of need and was gratefully acknowledged!

Post by **ShyViolet** » June 28th, 2006, 4:16 pm

I know of a place where an intermission was forced out of need and was gratefully acknowledged!

Yeah, 3 hours with a large Coke and no bathroom break....kinda hard to get through.

Also, a Starbucks would be nice to have in a theater. All those awesome snacks! But then you'd REALLY need an intermission.

More IMAX would be awesome too. Unless you live in a big city, i t's virtually impossable to find one. Sometimes museums have special engagements for films like March of the Penguins and they show them in IMAX too.