The big screen experience is doomed.

Gillvane said:
If you are over 20 your opinion about the theater experience being over is probably not relevant. The biggest demographic of movie goers is the younger crowd. They don't own big screen TVs. Even if there is one in their home, they are not the ones in control of it. They can't go to bars. Where else are they going to go after they've walked around the mall? The movies!
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Here's an MPAA study from 2011 with actual attendance numbers. And while people under 20 do make up a large section of the moviegoing public, they are not the majority. that honor goes to 25-39 years olds.

http://www.mpaa.org/resources/5bec4ac9-a95e-443b-987b-bff6fb5455a9.pdf
 
MattinSTL said:
When I was a kid we had one TV... it was 27" and I thought we were the rich family on our street. There were 5 channels, each of which came on with a concentrated "clunk" by turning the dial. Sure, there were a few shows I loved back then... Night Stalker being my all time favorite. Still not much choice and only a handful of good options anyway. Movies were under $2 and everybody was glued to the screen appreciating the experience.

Cut to today. Pretty much anybody can have a 50" or larger TV that beats the hell out of anything from even 10 years ago... (actually only 5 years ago)... because 10 years ago a 32" square TV was $1K or more.
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I was some what surprised by this as 40 inch wide screen (flat screen) TV's have been very common in the UK for well over 5 years. Also with Freeview (about 100 free terrestrial Digital channels), Sky (satellite across the whole of the UK) and Virgin 90% of urban areas most of the UK has had 100+ channels available on wide screen for well over 5 years. In fact the joke (over 5 years ago) was you could see who was on welfare benefits as they all had Sky satellite dishes to watch the sports with.

However in the local town we have a 10 screen multiplex with full size screens that always does good business... So if anything "going to the movies" seems to be more common now than in the past. Despite 40" screens being the norm in the average home for some time.
 
jagraphics said:
I was some what surprised by this as 40 inch wide screen (flat screen) TV's have been very common in the UK for well over 5 years. Also with Freeview (about 100 free terrestrial Digital channels), Sky (satellite across the whole of the UK) and Virgin 90% of urban areas most of the UK has had 100+ channels available on wide screen for well over 5 years.
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I think most people here are talking 25+ years ago, not 5 years ago.
 
jagraphics said:
I was some what surprised by this as 40 inch wide screen (flat screen) TV's have been very common in the UK for well over 5 years. Also with Freeview (about 100 free terrestrial Digital channels), Sky (satellite across the whole of the UK) and Virgin 90% of urban areas most of the UK has had 100+ channels available on wide screen for well over 5 years. In fact the joke (over 5 years ago) was you could see who was on welfare benefits as they all had Sky satellite dishes to watch the sports with.

However in the local town we have a 10 screen multiplex with full size screens that always does good business... So if anything "going to the movies" seems to be more common now than in the past. Despite 40" screens being the norm in the average home for some time.
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If you think of 5 years ago as a long time ago, you must be really young. :)
 
I do not think 5 years ago is a long time. Though the OP seemed to think that and in fact what he was describing as "new" has been Normal in the UK for 5-10 years. Having a CRT TV with only 5 channels has not been common in the UK for well over a decade.

In fact the UK turned off it's last analog TV channels earlier this year. Some regions lost them, from memory, over 2 years ago. I don't think you have been able to buy a square screen TV or CTF TV in the UK for over a decade.
 
jagraphics said:
I do not think 5 years ago is a long time. Though the OP seemed to think that and in fact what he was describing as "new" has been Normal in the UK for 5-10 years. Having a CRT TV with only 5 channels has not been common in the UK for well over a decade.
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Like roxics said, he was talking about 30+ years ago, when he was a kid.
 
MattinSTL said:
Do the right thing. Tell people who are ruining a movie to STFU.

To paraphrase Spock... Why are we letting the carelessness of the few ruin the experience of the many?
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I'm not Brock Lesnar or Forrest Griffin. Last time my friend told someone to STFU we nearly got into a fight with a posse of teens.

Tell management and let them handle it.
 
David Jimerson said:
Like roxics said, he was talking about 30+ years ago, when he was a kid.
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LOL.

Yes... I'm 41... I said "when I was a kid"... of course 5 years ago I may still have been a kid... but I digress.

My point was... back when some of the greatest movies of our time came out... like Jaws, Raiders, Star Wars... we all went to the movies because we couldn't get anything even remotely like that experience anywhere else... and, for the most part, people appreciated it... or maybe the general public wasn't so stupid back then.

If you can't go two hours in a movie without checking your phone for messages, updates, texts, or having to get constant affirmation from your friends around you... you are a child, and you should be home with a baby sitter, not at the movies with the adults.

"Children"... immature, socially desperate types... weren't so common, when I was a kid. I love my smartphone, but fortunately I'm not addicted to constant stroking from my peer group... so I can watch a whole movie w/o ruining it for those around me.

I'm glad this sparked some conversation... and hopefully it will make some people respect the cinema a little more. How ANYBODY that belongs to this forum could defend those who ruin the movie-going experience... is beyond me.

The ADD, short attention span generation, isn't the only problem... but I wish people like that would stick to youtube or other venues that don't require mutual respect.
 
MattinSTL said:
LOL.

Yes... I'm 41... I said "when I was a kid"... of course 5 years ago I may still have been a kid... but I digress.
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Yep, I am too. In 1982, the channels I had to choose from were ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS from a couple of different cities, two VERY cool independent stations out of Detroit, and occasionally some CBC and CTV from Windsor, ON, if the weather was right. On a 19-inch TV.
 
I realized I really haven't experienced many issues at theaters for a long time and I think its due to the fact that I've been self employed for almost 8 years and set my own hours, so I usually go to the theater when I want, during daytime matinees. The side benefit is that there aren't any kids, teens or drunken rowdy adults.
 
Zak Forsman said:
Here's an MPAA study from 2011 with actual attendance numbers. And while people under 20 do make up a large section of the moviegoing public, they are not the majority. that honor goes to 25-39 years olds.

http://www.mpaa.org/resources/5bec4ac9-a95e-443b-987b-bff6fb5455a9.pdf
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It actually says 12-24 is the largest group, but "more 25-39 year olds are in the frequent movie group".

If you're over 40 and complaining that the movie theaters are going to die because you don't go any more, well, the theater owners are probably not to worried.
 
recently I am going to the cinema more than ever. Mainly due to all the discounts the cinema I go to give. I never pay more than 5€.
Today I went to watch Skyfall, 6 people in the room, nice screening huge screen great audio, two full seating rows for me (you know, to stretch yourself...).
Those are the screening I like, You can find good deals during the working days.
 
Gillvane said:
It actually says 12-24 is the largest group, but "more 25-39 year olds are in the frequent movie group".

If you're over 40 and complaining that the movie theaters are going to die because you don't go any more, well, the theater owners are probably not to worried.
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Nobody's complaining that theaters are going away... the complaint is that inconsiderate douche bags are ruining the experience for the other 90% of the theater. You've managed to miss several easy points that everybody else here has understood. Even the thread title is "the big screen experience is doomed"... that doesn't say movies are going away... it's the EXPERIENCE... Now we have to go to the theater and either accept all the inconsiderate people... or do something about it.

This isn't a ***** about kids... there are kids that go to movies and aren't so stupidly insecure that they have to be on their phone the whole time. The douche bags are in the minority... thankfully... but it only takes a few completely inconsiderate people to ruin it for the silent majority of the theater. If one of those few happens to be near me... the movie is going to be ruined for them, not me.
 
MattinSTL said:
This isn't a ***** about kids... there are kids that go to movies and aren't so stupidly insecure that they have to be on their phone the whole time. The douche bags are in the minority... thankfully... but it only takes a few completely inconsiderate people to ruin it for the silent majority of the theater. If one of those few happens to be near me... the movie is going to be ruined for them, not me.
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I don't know about y'all, but my movie-going experience is rarely ruined by young people. Sure, if you attend a kids' movie then you can expect lots of the talking to be from children whose parents have not taught them that talking during movies is rude (often, it's the parents that encourage and actively carry on these conversations, too). But my movie theater experiences over the last few years have been constantly destroyed by adults, and often the over-40 folks. Answering cell phones, repeating all the punch lines immediately after they happen, narrating for everyone else ('cause we're obviously not watching the same film)... this stuff comes from fully-grown adults who should know better.

One of our multiplexes here had wireless "tattle boxes" available for a couple of the theaters, and there were buttons that alerted the staff to things like talking, cell phones, etc. A button for each typical offense, and even a couple for climate complaints (too hot, too cold) and for technical issues (since there's no projectionist monitoring the film anymore). Staff would respond and address the issue directly, but the boxes were often out of order and they stopped offering them. They were great when they worked.

I went to see "Good Night, And Good Luck" in the theater and was privileged to have the entire film narrated by an elderly man sitting in front of me. I asked him to be quiet and he stood up, got right up in my face, and cussed me out because he was "trying to explain to my grandson what was happening at the time, because I lived through this." People are so wrapped up in themselves that the rest of the audience doesn't exist in their worlds.
 
anyone mentioned the sound volume level set to maximum, half out of focus projection, minutes of ads before the screening instead of movie trailers (when did that start to happen) it used to be 15 minutes or so of trailers, ...etc.

i think the most important problem is the content. out of the entire year, a few of ok comedies/drama-dies, a couple of mediocre dramas, all the action fell flat. overall, tv productions are head and shoulders above the all cinema offering. specially some of the offerings from bbc and some of the cable networks are bumping up the quality.
 
Alex H. said:
I went to see "Good Night, And Good Luck" in the theater and was privileged to have the entire film narrated by an elderly man sitting in front of me. I asked him to be quiet and he stood up, got right up in my face, and cussed me out because he was "trying to explain to my grandson what was happening at the time, because I lived through this." People are so wrapped up in themselves that the rest of the audience doesn't exist in their worlds.
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In the time before the recent general captioning and necessary equipment, if the Wife and I attended a non-captioned film, she would warn anyone sitting near us that I may be explaining to her what's going on in the movie. It was a royal pain in the ass. But fortunately our viewing of such shows were often on off hours, so there weren't too many people around anyway.

That problem has all but disappeared as we now only go to theaters that have captioning equipment and films with captions, even if we have to drive 60 or so miles to the theater. Essentially most of the So. Cal. area is our 'roaming' zone, if the movie is important enough for us to see. I think the furthest we have gone is Victorville, but that was sort of because the film had disappeared from nearer theaters by the time we could attend, and still get a captioned presentation.

Not about theaters, but I am amazed how many 'oldsters' have little 'pissing kid' decals and other types of potentially offensive stickers on their cars... Being a 'contemporary' in age I have no idea what 'happened', but that sort of thing definitely was not part of growing up in the 50's and 60's... (not even Mad Magazine, a magazine hated by parents far and wide... had that sort of stuff...).
 
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