Are movie theaters just dying?

You are right. I went ro see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice the other day just me and popcorn and popular combo $22.50 which to me was reasonable

Also following the path of drive in theaters. Loved going to those as a kid. Whole family would go on a friday or Saturday night. That was in the 70s. Gone gone gone. In 10 to 20 years movie theaters will be gone too if not sooner. Sad

To me a couple hours movie is just not worth the risk of contracting covid and being unable to run for a week or two, possibly getting brain, lung or organ damage long term too.
stream on the couch, stay healthy

Sorry, you can't get the full experience of the worm riding scene of Dune 2 anywhere but the theater. And I have a projector theater at home with surround sound setup. It's not the same.

The answer to increasing theater viewership is making movies that NEED to be watched in theaters. Don't waste time with rom-coms. Theater design needs to evolve too. Take some inspiration from the design from the sphere in Vegas. Have the screen curve around the seats. You have to be totally immersed in it.

Don't know what you're talking about but there's matinee prices still going strong. I go mainly on Sundays and up until 4 pm the prices are 25% or more off.

We have a theater in town here that shows, what's the term, alternative movies, non mainstream movies, artsy movies, independent movies? It does really well. My wife goes there a lot usually meeting some friends. It's a social thing for her. I don't go as often as she does but I go when they're showing something that looks interesting. I go to that theater much more often than I do to the one showing mainstream films because there just aren't very many mainstream movies anymore that appeal to me.

That’s cheap. Is that expensive for most letsrun forum people?

We have vaccines now

Leave the comfort of my home to Sit around loud, obnoxious people on their phones non stop…

Sign me up!

If you grew up in the 90s, that means you are closing in on or are over 40. When you turn 40, the things you used to like fall out of fashion. Just accept that you only have a few more decades left of life, so it’s really not that bad that your old-timey movie viewing experience is also coming to the end of its cycle.

Right now the New York film festival is going on .... lines around the block

Family dinner and drinks for the adults at Olive Garden is going to cost about the same amount. $100 is not that much for any family event.

AMC, the largest movie chain in the U.S. just announced they will spend $2.2B over the next three years to refurbish their movie theaters. Movie theaters aren't going away. But the kinds of movies being shown in theaters are shifting more and more toward event-type pictures. Barbie and Oppenheimer last summer. Deadpool & Wolverine this summer. The success of these kinds of pictures is what drives the entire industry. It's always been that way. Most movies fail at the box office. But the big successes make up for the losses. It's true, COVID did drive a significant part of the audience to streaming, but that was already in play pre-COVID. Streaming is great for smaller movies that likely may not draw enough of an audience in a theater to justify the marketing spend, but blockbuster movies that the studio expects to be huge will always play theatrical first because that's where the upside is. If a studio sells a movie to streaming, the amount they get is capped. There's no cap with a theatrical release.

The cost to go to the movies has become a bit prohibitive. People now go only if it is ‘a movie they really want to see in theaters’. Also because streaming has movies on demand within 60 days or so, people will wait unless they are die hard into the film.

The content in the cinemas is lackluster. Movie studios became so infatuated with profits that they chose big budget tentpole franchises (which do tend to be more profitable) over artistic films, comedies, ‘let’s take a chance on this’ movies. That’s why you see a lot of sequels, franchise movies, and remakes. If a concept made money, the studios will squeeze every last dollar out of what they think is a sure thing. To me it’s a relief that Star Wars, Marvel, and some of these other franchises aren’t doing as well in the theaters because it will force studios to get creative and original again.

And finally, I also think that when it comes to most of the artistic style films or comedies, the studios became afraid of getting canceled on social media. Think of some of the best comedies from late 90s or early 2000s. Wedding crashers? Something about Mary? Old School? Some of these movies just couldn’t be made today because it would ‘offend’ a small minority. The small minority would hop on twitter and post a few tweets that maybe 5 other people would like. The news media turns this into a story that ‘people are complaining about the offensiveness of this movie….’ And then that creates a PR issue for the movie studio that they don’t want to deal with.

I went constantly growing up in the '90s, me and my friends would go. We'd bring girls. Girls, it was fun and a good way to get out. Now. I probably haven't been to a movie theater in at least 10 years. Maybe more, part of the issue? Also is that the theaters have primarily been located in areas of the town that are not as safe as they were in the '90s crime teen gangs drugs and so forth have spilled over into the areas that the local theaters are located at. Nothing like going to the movies coming out and seeing that your car window smashed then somebody rifled through your glove box.

This to the 10th power.

This makes me sad. Back in my day, movie theaters were a great place to cruise and hook up while watching some adult entertainment. Everybody from rookies to experienced cats all gathered for the same thing.

Now, no one goes anymore and I can't figure out how the hell to use grindr

Thanks, Obama

Movie theaters are still a thing? LMAO I haven't been to a movie theater since like uh...2015 I think? They don't make good movies anymore. There's nothing to go see.

MTG is that you