What can theaters do to attract more people?

[Ben]

March Of The Penguins in Imax?

Man, I can't even start to THINK how bad that grain would look at that size!


I think with Superman Retrurns striking out such large numbers for Imax screens that we may see an addition or two to their theater count, hopefully.

[Meg]

More IMAX would be awesome too. Unless you live in a big city, i t's virtually impossable to find one.

There's one that's a half-hour drive from my house...I'm very thankful for it, even though I've only been there a couple of times.

[DElf4242]

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.

I'm the same way. But then, I rarely eat or drink anything when I'm at the movies, anyways, and I always go to the bathroom right beforehand. I figure that if it's a movie that I want to see badly enough to actually go out to the cinema to see it, and it's my first time seeing it, I want as close to the perfect movie-viewing experience as possible, which means watching the whole thing through and not having any food or drink to distract me from the movie.

I guess that means we're both weird, no?

As someone who doesn't go to the cinema to eat, I don't really care about food prices, although I can never help but laugh at the ridiculous size of popcorn buckets. It'd be nice if they had a "Please Silence Your Toddlers" message, but unfortunately that's nothing more than wishful thinking. I do wish more parents would have the etiquette to take their kids out until they quiet down, though, or at the very least actually make an effort to make them be quiet. When I went to see Cars for the second time yesterday, I ended up next to two toddlers who were making more noise than the soft whispering that I can excuse coming from kids their age, but what really got me was that I didn't notice the parents doing a thing about it.

Aaanyways, I'm done there, since I don't think there's a whole lot the cinemas can do about that except remind parents to try to be courteous regarding children as well as cell phones. For me, the main reason I don't go to the movies much is the movies themselves. I'm thinking that Cars and possibly Dead Man's Chest are going to be the only movies I see in the cinema this summer (although I'm planning on seeing Cars at least four times ). I rarely go out to see a movie unless it's a movie that I think would have a chance of making my "favorite movies ever" list. So, yeah, seeing as I'm an anomaly in that for me it's the movies and not the facilities, I suppose I didn't add a whole lot, despite having written so much.

[Brandon Neeld]

Hey DElf! This is Dash (though I'm sure you knew that already) Glad to see you here now with I-k "down." (We need to talk about that later btw)

About your popcorn bucket size comment though - the sad part is that much can actually be eaten. Me and my brother polish one of th ebig ones off and still have time to spare.

[PixarVixen]

Several times at work, people will ask for refills for popcorn buckets...and that's usually not even halfway through the movies they're watching!

~~=oP

[DElf4242]

Hey, Brandon (I guess I'll be calling you that now, no?)! Wanting to ask you what had happened was actually one of the things that reminded me of this site.

I can understand whole families or other large groups sharing one popcorn bucket, but I think it wouldn't hurt the cinemas to offer smaller sizes that aren't so small as to be little-kid sizes, for those of us who go alone or with only one other person. I don't think I'd be the only person to appreciate it. I like popcorn fairly well, but not that much; believe it or not, movie theaters, America isn't totally obese. Yet.

[PixarVixen]

A lot of our customers HATE the small sizes of our popcorn bags, especially after they find out how much they cost. Most people go for the tubs.

~~=oP

[animated_guy]

When our whole family goes to the movies we usually buy a tub and refill it like 3 times. And a large drink and refill that like twice.
But i agree in the small popcorn prices being WAAYYYY to expensive.
~a-G

[ShyViolet]

Well, according to Mr. George "I know it all 'cause I'm so smart and mind-bogglingly rich" Lucas, movie theaters will be a thing of the past and the future of films is on T.V. and the 'net. (link gotten from Animation Nation)


I REALLY hope this isn't true. To me one of the best things about seeing a film for the first time is going to the theater. I know there are annoying things like babies crying, dirty floors, people talking, cell phones blinking, flashing, going off, turning on; getting robbed every time you buy a soda, etc....

But I love the experience of being in a theater with people I don't know and seeing there reactions, experiencing the film SHOULD be a public experience because it is part of our mass culture and we experience it together.

If they take away movie theaters, our culture, already riddled with cell phones, myspace, facebook, google, blackberries, downloadable movies, ipods and itunes will become even more splintered and people will become more and more cut off from each other. I really don't see anything socially positive being brought about by the elimination of the movie theater.



http://www.variety.com/VR1117951284.html

As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, we've moved away from the feature film thing, because it's too expensive and it's too risky.

Oh right. Too risky. Yeah, I'm sure he regrets "risking" his money on a unique, "quirky" and original film like "The Phantom Menace."