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Me too - it's a really insightful statement. I'd never thought about it before, but in social settings, the actual film watched is frequently an afterthought; i

Me too - it's a really insightful statement. I'd never thought about it before, but in social settings, the actual film watched is frequently an afterthought; it is secondary to the plan of 'going to the cinema'. Plans changing because someone is late is another factor. I really enjoy when this website makes me think of something obvious I'd never considered!

eropple 8y ago
I was thinking about it from the other way around: because I'm not sure I know anybody who would go to the theater without really wanting to see the film being shown.
- dmix 8y ago
  Agreed I don’t know people who plan to go to the theater as a general destination rather than to see a particular movie. But I’m not an avid cinema visitor. I think you’d have to be comfortable seeing big budget mediocre films if that’s one of your hobbies. There's a ton of bad movies out at any one time. Or rather a ton of mediocre (at best) ones.
- derefr 8y ago
  I don’t think that’s exactly what is being talked about; rather, people say “let’s go see a movie”, and then look at the movies app to see what’s in theatres lately. Of course they won’t end up going if there’s nothing worth seeing—but their criteria for “something worth seeing” is a much lower bar than it would be if they didn’t already want to “go see a movie.” When a new movie comes out, I say either “that looks like it would be a good movie to watch in theatre”, or (far more often) “I think I’ll wait for that to come out on iTunes/Netflix/etc.” When I’m making that decision, the bar is high. But that’s because watching-at-home really is good enough for the vast majority of movies—it doesn’t remove anything from the experience.
  - eropple 8y ago
    I understood what was being said. I am questioning the point of it. Everybody I know who I've ever talked about going to a film with (and my girlfriend really likes going to the movies so it comes up with her and her friend group a lot) always always always has a movie in mind when they come up with it. The most recent example for them (I didn't go) was the new Spider-Verse movie. They weren't going to see "a movie", they were going to see "that movie", and it was from that movie's release that the impetus originated. I'd like to see evidence of assertions to the contrary, because to me they don't jibe with reality.
    - derefr 8y ago
      Dates. The time when people go to the movies to “go to the movies” is when they’re on a date. (Not just at first, but also later in the context of a steady relationship where they want to see a movie together “because we haven’t seen a movie together in a while.”) For me, seeing a movie in a theatre vs. watching at home is a bit like going to a restaurant vs. eating at home. I used to “go to restaurants” to try specific things I’d heard about, when I was single. Now, though, I mostly only go to a restaurant to go to a restaurant, because that’s a nice thing I can do with my wife. With restaurants, this is the difference between choosing by word-of-mouth (“they have great X!”) vs. choosing by reviews (“this restaurant seems like they’d have something we’d enjoy, let’s go and find out.”) Movie theatres don’t really have the same element of diversity (unless you’re going to independent cinemas), so it’s more just a choice of whether to go to “the movies” at all. On the other hand, everything I said about restaurants applies exactly to the other kind of theatre. There’s a Shakespeare troupe here (Vancouver) that, each year, puts on three of the bard’s plays (several showings apiece.) You can certainly want to “see The Tempest”, and therefore go watch them perform it; but what I hear much more often is people wanting to “go to Bard on the Beach” (the troupe), and so then they look at what they’re putting on this year to see if it’s anything they could stand to watch. In this context, the theatre troupe is exactly like a restaurant: they want to go to it, as long as it has something they’d be okay trying.
- jaaames 8y ago
  This could be a HN demographic thing. The comment definitely piqued my curiosity, too. Interested in others thoughts. I think the sibling commenter may have got it right with the fact people make a conscious decision to go see a movie beforehand as an outing, rather than turn up at the cinema and see what's on.

eropple 8y ago

I was thinking about it from the other way around: because I'm not sure I know anybody who would go to the theater without really wanting to see the film being shown.

dmix 8y ago
Agreed I don’t know people who plan to go to the theater as a general destination rather than to see a particular movie. But I’m not an avid cinema visitor. I think you’d have to be comfortable seeing big budget mediocre films if that’s one of your hobbies. There's a ton of bad movies out at any one time. Or rather a ton of mediocre (at best) ones.
derefr 8y ago
I don’t think that’s exactly what is being talked about; rather, people say “let’s go see a movie”, and then look at the movies app to see what’s in theatres lately. Of course they won’t end up going if there’s nothing worth seeing—but their criteria for “something worth seeing” is a much lower bar than it would be if they didn’t already want to “go see a movie.” When a new movie comes out, I say either “that looks like it would be a good movie to watch in theatre”, or (far more often) “I think I’ll wait for that to come out on iTunes/Netflix/etc.” When I’m making that decision, the bar is high. But that’s because watching-at-home really is good enough for the vast majority of movies—it doesn’t remove anything from the experience.
- eropple 8y ago
  I understood what was being said. I am questioning the point of it. Everybody I know who I've ever talked about going to a film with (and my girlfriend really likes going to the movies so it comes up with her and her friend group a lot) always always always has a movie in mind when they come up with it. The most recent example for them (I didn't go) was the new Spider-Verse movie. They weren't going to see "a movie", they were going to see "that movie", and it was from that movie's release that the impetus originated. I'd like to see evidence of assertions to the contrary, because to me they don't jibe with reality.
  - derefr 8y ago
    Dates. The time when people go to the movies to “go to the movies” is when they’re on a date. (Not just at first, but also later in the context of a steady relationship where they want to see a movie together “because we haven’t seen a movie together in a while.”) For me, seeing a movie in a theatre vs. watching at home is a bit like going to a restaurant vs. eating at home. I used to “go to restaurants” to try specific things I’d heard about, when I was single. Now, though, I mostly only go to a restaurant to go to a restaurant, because that’s a nice thing I can do with my wife. With restaurants, this is the difference between choosing by word-of-mouth (“they have great X!”) vs. choosing by reviews (“this restaurant seems like they’d have something we’d enjoy, let’s go and find out.”) Movie theatres don’t really have the same element of diversity (unless you’re going to independent cinemas), so it’s more just a choice of whether to go to “the movies” at all. On the other hand, everything I said about restaurants applies exactly to the other kind of theatre. There’s a Shakespeare troupe here (Vancouver) that, each year, puts on three of the bard’s plays (several showings apiece.) You can certainly want to “see The Tempest”, and therefore go watch them perform it; but what I hear much more often is people wanting to “go to Bard on the Beach” (the troupe), and so then they look at what they’re putting on this year to see if it’s anything they could stand to watch. In this context, the theatre troupe is exactly like a restaurant: they want to go to it, as long as it has something they’d be okay trying.
jaaames 8y ago
This could be a HN demographic thing. The comment definitely piqued my curiosity, too. Interested in others thoughts. I think the sibling commenter may have got it right with the fact people make a conscious decision to go see a movie beforehand as an outing, rather than turn up at the cinema and see what's on.