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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:That thing about the movie theater chain with the unreasonably expensive tickets going under reminded me of this article I read about how baseball is dying. None of the baseball people in the article seemed to even consider in their heads for a second that if they just made the experience cheaper, more people would go to games. It's the most obvious solution! What is wrong with people??
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May 24, 2019 15:45
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:That thing about the movie theater chain with the unreasonably expensive tickets going under reminded me of this article I read about how baseball is dying. None of the baseball people in the article seemed to even consider in their heads for a second that if they just made the experience cheaper, more people would go to games. It's the most obvious solution! What is wrong with people?? infinite growth forever!
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May 24, 2019 15:53
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There’s a theatre near me that does the $25-ticket-plus-food-and-drink thing and every show I’ve been to there has been pretty full, as has the bar in the lobby. I think they’re doing OK.
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May 24, 2019 16:07
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:reminded me of this article I read about how baseball is dying. None of the baseball people in the article seemed to even consider in their heads for a second that if they just made the experience cheaper, more people would go to games. It's the most obvious solution! What is wrong with people?? I also think some of it is that recent generations also may not care about sports nearly as much.... My sample size is small, but at least people I know around my age (35), and some younger than that just don't seem to be as interested in sports, like say their parents are.
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May 24, 2019 16:11
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Every time theaterchat comes up I end up scratching my head because around here all of the theaters have upgraded screens, assigned seating in pretty nice recliners, and at least a few decent beers on tap and they've lowered the ticket prices to cheaper than they were ten years ago, like nine bucks for an adult at an evening showing. Even the concession prices are reasonable - you're still paying a few bucks for a thing of popcorn that cost the theater $0.02, but it's not $12 or whatever. Those theaters are always packed (although due to assigned seating it's fine) and I pretty much always leave satisfied and planning another movie night within the month. Obviously the renovations cost tons of money up front but they're obviously paying off so well that it's hard to imagine trying to struggle along under the older business model. I seriously went from seeing a movie maybe once a year over the holidays with family to one every month or so, it's a great cheap easy date night.
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May 24, 2019 16:23
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I really think there's gonna be some selection bias in location/class when it comes to $25+ theater nights.
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May 24, 2019 17:39
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I grew up when they cranked out stinkers and the ticket prices were dirt cheap. In turn I watched way more movies with broken hidden needle seats with sticky floors. There are very few movies now I would pay $20 to see. I'm a weirdo.
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May 24, 2019 17:40
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The one here in Texas we've been going to lately is great. Pretty much turned me back on to the theater experience. Reasonable ticket prices, good cocktails and a decent local/regional beer selection, no unaccompanied children because it's a bar, no children at all after some certain hour, it's pretty great, very nice experience every time we've gone. Food is alright too. Star Cinema Grill. But they're only here in Texas and it looks like one location outside Chicago under a different name. Looks like they're expanding, though.
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May 24, 2019 17:42
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anonumos posted:Ticket prices are numbers, too, you know. https://deadspin.com/how-much-longer-will-baseball-stadiums-be-for-baseball-1833463105 This is the article. It's wonderful and about how wretched the whole MLB is and how they're getting worse. People want to blame "pacing issues" or TV or whatever for the decreasing popularity of baseball, when in reality if an average person could drive to a game on a weekday and have a hot dog and a beer and have the whole thing cost $30 or less, it'd fix their attendance problems right quick.
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May 24, 2019 17:59
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Just go to minor league games if you want cheap baseball.
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May 24, 2019 18:02
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Krispy Wafer posted:Just go to minor league games if you want cheap baseball. They're also more entertaining than major league games
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May 24, 2019 18:06
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:https://deadspin.com/how-much-longer-will-baseball-stadiums-be-for-baseball-1833463105 It can be both. MLB is dull as gently caress, since it takes so damned long, and the pacing is determined by TV.
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May 24, 2019 18:29
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ReidRansom posted:The one here in Texas we've been going to lately is great. Pretty much turned me back on to the theater experience. Reasonable ticket prices, good cocktails and a decent local/regional beer selection, no unaccompanied children because it's a bar, no children at all after some certain hour, it's pretty great, very nice experience every time we've gone. Food is alright too. Star Cinema Grill. But they're only here in Texas and it looks like one location outside Chicago under a different name. Looks like they're expanding, though. Hollywood Palms! That one hosts an old-school style Rocky Horror every so often.
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May 24, 2019 18:34
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I think I've only seen movies in theatres 3 or 4 times in the last 10 years. I'm just boring and don't care about movies that much.
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May 24, 2019 18:40
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Picnic Princess posted:I think I've only seen movies in theatres 3 or 4 times in the last 10 years. I'm just boring and don't care about movies that much. Same here... Watching movies is kinda boring to me. I may watch one of the big blockbusters when it makes it out to DVD/bluray or something, but that is about it. I would guess I've not seen about 70% of the movies that have come out in the past 2-3 years. Also doesn't help my attention span these days doesn't lend itself to focusing on a movie for 2 hours.
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May 24, 2019 18:49
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Volmarias posted:It can be both. MLB is dull as gently caress, since it takes so damned long, and the pacing is determined by TV. I grew up a baseball fan and still am a baseball fan and it's just too long. Make the games 7 innings or something, idk.
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May 24, 2019 19:21
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:https://deadspin.com/how-much-longer-will-baseball-stadiums-be-for-baseball-1833463105 Yeah this. It’s a whole lot a bullshit that if I wanna go to a game with a friend it’s a $200 day for both of us easy (probably more TBH).
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May 24, 2019 19:32
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After looking at what movies I wanted to see this summer I picked up a subscription to AMC A list. It's $20/month and with their regular tickets in the $10-15 dollar range I only need to go to two big movies a month to break even. But I can see up to 3 a week (including any of their premium formats). It's a pretty good deal if you like going to the movies. Now I mentioned all that because as good a deal as AMC is offering for tickets their food prices are outrageous. I'm talking $8 for a soda! $9 for popcorn. More for new "specialty" flavors. A $15 soft pretzel! Even Disneyland isn't that expensive. I really have no idea how they get people to pay that much. You'd think it would just result in more "pirated" snacks. But every time I'm there people are lined up for the food. Zero One has a new favorite as of 19:42 on May 24, 2019 |
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May 24, 2019 19:38
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Zero One posted:After looking at what movies I wanted to see this summer I picked up a subscription to AMC A list. It's $20/month and with their regular tickets in the $10-15 dollar range I only need to go to two big movies a month to break even. But I can see up to 3 a week (including any of their premium formats). It's a pretty good deal if you like going to the movies. Eh, it's always been that way because the studios get most of the ticket price for a certain length of time. The theaters make up for it with concession prices being astronomical. My best guess is most people want more volume of pirated snacks than what they can easily carry. Plus it's hot "buttered" movie popcorn! You can't get that at home! You can, the secret ingredients are just Flavacol and yellow dyed coconut oil
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May 24, 2019 19:43
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Segmentation Fox posted:A small, local, upscale theater chain called Cinetopia (2 locations in Vancouver, WA, one on the west side of Portland, and one in Kansas City of all places), looks to have gone under: I can't speak to the upscale market, but it's a rough market for small independent theaters now a days. I live in a small town, about 4500 people and maybe ~7000 within 30 miles or so. A few years back, our local single seat theater closed, the only one within 125 miles. When it went up for sale, my wife and some friends looked at buying it. After reviewing the books (wife is an accountant), there was no way in hell she was buying it. At the time, it was still running film projectors. Getting film prints at the time (about 5 years ago) was getting very hard as theaters switched to digital distribution. So to keep getting movies, we would have to upgrade to digital at a cost of around $75k-100k. Luckily, a few months later somebody did buy it, a retired engineer, but he had to sink practically his whole life savings to get it modernized and it took him 2 years to see any money coming back to him at all. Unlike AMC and Century and the like, small theaters don't deal directly with the studios, but go thru bookers to get films to show. The studios take a cut of the ticket sales, from a low of 50-60% to 100% of the first week or two of a major blockbuster like a Star Wars or Marvel Movie. Often times to get an Avengers, Star Wars, or other big movie for opening day means not only do you have to commit 100% of the box office for a week or two, but take a 4 week minimum run to do it. And since the studio basically demands the exclusivity of that screen during the run, you can't show any thing else on that screen. That means missing out on other movies or waiting a few weeks after release. The up side is that by waiting the studios take a smaller cut. The downside here is that people have to travel quite a bit around here and they will just see the movie while they are out of town. We will finally be getting Shazam today, what, two months after release? Everyone I know has already seen it.
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May 24, 2019 19:45
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Yeah I know the deal. I don't want to sound like an old man yelling at clouds but it just feels like $8 for a cup of Coke should be way past most people's BS meters.
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May 24, 2019 19:46
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ryonguy posted:How does Burlington compare to Gabes? Because we got a TJ Maxx and a Gabes, and the Gabes always seems way shittier. I can't say I'm familliar with Gabes. Im in the western US and it doesn't appear they have any out here. Looking at the pics on wikipedia looks a bit nicer that a Burlington, about level with Ross maybe? Also, one of the only reason I hear people go to Burlington is they do quite a bit of baby stuff like furniture and strollers and stuff, and they were quite a bit cheaper than Babies R Us. I think we bought a stroller there back in the day, maybe a crib as well.
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May 24, 2019 19:49
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If anyone remembers MoviePass.... A friend of mine works for a company that does contracted tech support where all the agents work from home. MoviePass used said company for about a year or so for customer support. This was during the time when MoviePass' subscriber count blew up because of the price dropping to $9. Its "golden years" For several months, MoviePass was his main project, answering phone calls and tickets. If you had MoviePass and called their customer support, it is highly likely you spoke with him. I got to see it start and crumble all from the inside. It was a disaster from the beginning. My friend constantly bitched it was the most unorganized project he ever worked on. Most of the actual MP employees barely knew what was going on at any given time.. New agents received little training, resulting in mixed messages to customers. Policies would be changed without notice, often customers knew of changes before the support staff did. (this really started when the stock started tanking and they kept flip-flopping on things) Not to say that customers where not entirely at fault here... It is amazing how many people can't get their own email or mailing address right. Wrong emails where the most common reason for a phone call by far, followed by wrong mailing addresses. He got out before the worst of it started. As they where bleeding money, MP eventually terminated the support contract thus ending my friends project. I think they eventually got rid of all customer support except for chat.
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May 24, 2019 20:38
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Movie pass + amc Stubbs premier = plenty of free drinks lol. I was sad when it went under but there was no way it was gonna work.
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May 24, 2019 20:42
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Moviepass was nothing more than a grift to steal money from dimwitted venture capital firms and I will miss it forever, it loving ruled.
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May 24, 2019 23:14
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MoviePass, post-2017, was a self-admitted consumer data play where the movie tickets were the slightly-offset data acquisition cost. Which I think is maybe even more fun.
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May 24, 2019 23:21
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food court bailiff posted:Every time theaterchat comes up I end up scratching my head because around here all of the theaters have upgraded screens, assigned seating in pretty nice recliners, and at least a few decent beers on tap and they've lowered the ticket prices to cheaper than they were ten years ago, like nine bucks for an adult at an evening showing. Even the concession prices are reasonable - you're still paying a few bucks for a thing of popcorn that cost the theater $0.02, but it's not $12 or whatever. Those theaters are always packed (although due to assigned seating it's fine) and I pretty much always leave satisfied and planning another movie night within the month. Obviously the renovations cost tons of money up front but they're obviously paying off so well that it's hard to imagine trying to struggle along under the older business model. My favorite theater in the Phoenix area has followed this model and now with some recent hikes in Tucson is actually cheaper which is just weird, practically everything is cheaper in Tucson if there's ever a price difference. Volmarias posted:They could finance a "startup" that gets a sweetheart deal on licensing and just continuously shovel money into it. If they do it smartly as a "boutique" Netflix experience they might not even have to shovel that much. Stagger releases, only open for part of the year, who knows. Ah, yeah that would probably be the way to go. I wonder if maybe just partnering with some of these small theaters that are getting shut out of first run anyway. Distributing the films to them for cheap or free would probably get them at least some screens at some places. uli2000 posted:I can't speak to the upscale market, but it's a rough market for small independent theaters now a days. I live in a small town, about 4500 people and maybe ~7000 within 30 miles or so. A few years back, our local single seat theater closed, the only one within 125 miles. When it went up for sale, my wife and some friends looked at buying it. After reviewing the books (wife is an accountant), there was no way in hell she was buying it. At the time, it was still running film projectors. Getting film prints at the time (about 5 years ago) was getting very hard as theaters switched to digital distribution. So to keep getting movies, we would have to upgrade to digital at a cost of around $75k-100k. Luckily, a few months later somebody did buy it, a retired engineer, but he had to sink practically his whole life savings to get it modernized and it took him 2 years to see any money coming back to him at all. Unlike AMC and Century and the like, small theaters don't deal directly with the studios, but go thru bookers to get films to show. The studios take a cut of the ticket sales, from a low of 50-60% to 100% of the first week or two of a major blockbuster like a Star Wars or Marvel Movie. Often times to get an Avengers, Star Wars, or other big movie for opening day means not only do you have to commit 100% of the box office for a week or two, but take a 4 week minimum run to do it. And since the studio basically demands the exclusivity of that screen during the run, you can't show any thing else on that screen. That means missing out on other movies or waiting a few weeks after release. The up side is that by waiting the studios take a smaller cut. The downside here is that people have to travel quite a bit around here and they will just see the movie while they are out of town. We will finally be getting Shazam today, what, two months after release? Everyone I know has already seen it. All the business ideas I try to come up with always involve some sort of theater type deal but yeah, I minored in film studies and like pretty much all the exhibition stuff convinced me that it's an almost impossible business for an independent owner of a traditional theater. I had a professor who programs for a local independent theater and she would tell us all these stories to try to not discourage us, and we examined many of the most famous independent theaters across the US, but one thing that was pretty clear to me that with only a few exceptions they were some form of non-profit business or half involved in something other than movies. The encouraging thing is sometimes the micro cinema style thing can be made to work but you have to find a market for it which can be tough.
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May 25, 2019 00:42
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food court bailiff posted:Every time theaterchat comes up I end up scratching my head because around here all of the theaters have upgraded screens, assigned seating in pretty nice recliners, and at least a few decent beers on tap and they've lowered the ticket prices to cheaper than they were ten years ago, like nine bucks for an adult at an evening showing. Even the concession prices are reasonable - you're still paying a few bucks for a thing of popcorn that cost the theater $0.02, but it's not $12 or whatever. Those theaters are always packed (although due to assigned seating it's fine) and I pretty much always leave satisfied and planning another movie night within the month. Obviously the renovations cost tons of money up front but they're obviously paying off so well that it's hard to imagine trying to struggle along under the older business model.  big chain - To get a ticket at a normal cinema (not the premium ones with reclining seats, alcohol brought during the movie etc) and a large popcorn and drink can be as high as $40 for one person. That's ~USD$28. Of course there are smaller independent places with better prices, and you can join the "free" membership to get discounted tickets and so on, but I wonder how all these big chains are staying in business. We only go to the premium ones when we get given Christmas/birthday vouchers, but those tickets are $40 without food. So two people, plus food, is over AUD$100. We have a cheap drive-in that's significantly cheaper, and you can bring your own food (and talk or sit on your phone if you want), but then you get assholes that keep putting their headlights on or pressing the brakes etc. And if the weather's crap, you gotta keep turning the A/C/engine on to prevent the windows fogging up.
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May 25, 2019 02:23
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I hadn't been to a movie for a while, and went and saw Endgame with my wife on Thursday night. $11. Total. 5.50 each for tickets and we aren't snack/soda people. Cheapest date night in forever, but I'm not sure what happened to prices. Just checked, and even weekend evening rates are only around $8, which isn't too bad. Edit - this was at a Cinemark in the Chicago suburbs.
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May 25, 2019 05:59
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There was a micro theater I loved where I used to live, but it was by whisper only and it only sat like 40 people and it was in the backroom of a dead strip mall. On second thought I think this was not being done legally.
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May 25, 2019 07:53
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I once went to something like that in Florida. Dead strip mall, a bunch of old recliners for seating, and the projector and poo poo was just sitting behind the seats. You could bring your own food and beer, though, which was how I was convinced to go to this sketchy setup to begin with.
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May 25, 2019 08:25
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Last Chance posted:just plug the laptop into the projector, bingo bango netflix in the theater! I don't know if you happened to be referring to this classic buttcoin tale, but if you weren't and it was just a coincidence, you should read it.
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May 25, 2019 13:53
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After a stint in downtown Seattle and the big fancy recliner theaters and megaplexes, I find myself really fond of the run down theater I go to in a no name western MA town where buckets catch water leaks, tickets are $7 or $5 on deal days, they’re not open until 4pm unless it’s F-S-S, and the guy who you buy your ticket from you buy your snacks from you also watch scurry to start the projector for your show Saw Endgame opening week in a half full theater, and Detective Pikachu in an EMPTY one, at noon, after a medical appointment, high out of my gourd It is exactly the theater my heart has called for all these years and I plan on supporting it often
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May 25, 2019 14:23
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Dollar theaters were good for scratching that cheap movie itch as long as you didn’t care what that sticky stuff was or worry about bedbugs. Movie prices are wildly disparate here. You’ve got a smaller regional chain called NCG that’ll sell you a $8 ticket no problem and then 5 miles away there’s a worse looking AMC with burnt popcorn and $15 tickets. None of it makes sense, although AMC’s prices make me think they’re not doing so hot. Their revenue has more than doubled in the last decade, but they’re privately held so there’s no mention of profits. When people finally tire of paying those prices it’s going to be real difficult got AMC to compete with cheaper rivals. Perhaps they’re hoping customers migrate over to their subscription model instead.
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May 25, 2019 15:21
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NCG is amazing if only for the free any size popcorn/drink refills and half off tickets on Tuesdays. All of the ones I've been to have been great, and some have recliner seats too!
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May 25, 2019 18:10
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We have a small, 3 screen mom and pop theater in my town that charges $4.25 per ticket and gets most of the major first run movies. They're actually doing quite well and I love going there as that particular place is an institution in my town and I like supporting local businesses. Within 10 years I think streaming first run movies in your home will be commonplace.
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May 27, 2019 15:18
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There’s a local theatre like that about 10 mins on foot away, and other than the fact that the seats hurt my back, it’s pretty decent. Of course, it’s part of a mid-rise B-grade office complex across the street from a subway station, so obviously the plan is for that whole corner to be condos and ground-level retail. Probably the right thing from an urban design perspective, but I’m going to miss it, especially for kids’ birthdays and such.
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May 27, 2019 17:16
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There's a historic mom and pop theater in Atlanta that survives only because of Rocky Horror showings and the fact the owners do everything themselves and have no staff. They either have a fantastically long lease or the building owners realize it'll cost too much and require too much red tape to retrofit the area for any other purpose. I haven't been there in 20 years and it even smelled bad back then. I'm just barely old enough to recall seeing revival movie houses, although I was too young to ever go to one. Those died about as fast as porno theaters when VHS hit critical mass.
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May 27, 2019 20:19
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I'm sad that our devotion couldn't keep our local independent afloat. The owner would hang out outside or take tickets in the lobby and wore a purple suit and top hat that put Willy Wonka to shame. They had real butter popcorn too.
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May 27, 2019 20:29
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Krispy Wafer posted:There's a historic mom and pop theater in Atlanta that survives only because of Rocky Horror showings and the fact the owners do everything themselves and have no staff. They either have a fantastically long lease or the building owners realize it'll cost too much and require too much red tape to retrofit the area for any other purpose. I haven't been there in 20 years and it even smelled bad back then. Until flatscreens came along at best you could get maybe around a 30" behemoth or a larger projection TV that looked like rear end unless the light conditions were perfect. To me the biggest draw to a theater is the larger than life screen. I can get that at home now; sitting 4-10 feet away from a 50" or bigger is essentially the same field of view as a theater screen. I wonder how much that has to do with the drop in ticket sales.
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May 28, 2019 01:04
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