4 ms·

I don't know if Americans are going to the library more, or shunning movie theaters because of price increases and Hollywood's creative bankruptcy and a lack of

by fmajid 7y ago

I don't know if Americans are going to the library more, or shunning movie theaters because of price increases and Hollywood's creative bankruptcy and a lack of decent films.

mymythisisthis 7y ago
I feel that most of the movies at the theater are made for 14 year olds.
- cm2187 7y ago
  I think they are made to please the least common denominator between a US audience, a European audience, and a Chinese audience. But the result is pretty much what you say.
  - mymythisisthis 7y ago
    I should add that the movies are made for 14 year old boys. I think parents are more hesitant to let their young teenage girls out alone.
    - goto11 7y ago
      The reason is that girls will still watch to movies made for boys but not vice versa. Also grown ups will still watch movies made for 14 year olds, but not vice versa. So making movies for 14 year olds will reach the largest demographics.
jcadam 7y ago
Could also be the changes in consumer technology. Back in the day, watching a move at home meant renting a VHS (or Beta if you chose your VCR poorly) at Blockbuster/Hollywood video/et al., (and after a new movie was released to VHS, it was frequently rented out for a couple of weeks and you had to wait), then plopping it into your VCR and viewing it on your 19" fuzzy CRT with built in speakers. Now, you just rent/buy the movie you want from your couch, and watch it on your 65" 4K widescreen TV connected to a home theater system. The movie theater experience, by contrast, hasn't really changed much since I was a kid (1980s) - oh wait, ticket and concession prices have gone way up. IMO, if I can wait to watch a new movie until it's released on Amazon (and being 40, I'm much more patient than I used to be), I'd much rather do that.
- ghaff 7y ago
  The number of tickets sold is down a bit but it's still as high as it was in 1995. (It peaked in about 2001.) [1] I rarely go myself these days, partly for the reasons you say. But I think it's still a pretty popular and relatively inexpensive activity for younger people who aren't too poor. [1] https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ https://www.the-numbers.com/market/
adolfojp 7y ago
I stopped going to the movie theater because the movie going experience has become garbage. They upgraded the sound system of every movie theater near me without also upgrading the sound proofing. Now you can't watch a movie without hearing the music and the sound effects of every other movie around you. Ushers stopped enforcing rules so texting and talking has become normalized. And a lot of people don't go to the movies to watch movies but to hang out with their friends. Some theaters "upgraded" to narrow seats to fit more people. You now sit shoulder to shoulder and fight over who gets the arm rest. I don't expect the situation to get better for two reasons: 1. A local movie theater company has a total monopoly so they don't have any competition and thus no need to improve. 2. Teens are the largest movie going demographic and this new normal is to them, normal.
- astura 7y ago
  Wow, this is really surprising to hear because literally the opposite happened around here, the experience has drastically improved in the last ~7 years. Now multiple theaters have been converted to "luxury"-style theaters with huge reclining seats, giant aisles, and dedicated arm rests with a swiveling side table.
  - adolfojp 7y ago
    We have those too. You get to enjoy the same noises and distractions while drinking wine and reclining on a bigger seat.
- criddell 7y ago
  The theater my wife and I usually go to is one of the Alamo Drafthouse theaters and they don't allow under-18s in unless they are accompanied by an adult. That helps a lot. In theory Alamo is strict about talking and use of phone but in reality, quite a bit of it happens anyway. Still, audiences are a bit better behaved and I think it's because they are a bit older.
andrewzah 7y ago
Choose your adventure: - people using their phones during the movie - people talking during the movie - $15-20 for popcorn and soda - droll hollywood plots - seats too far in the back (unless you can book seats, and did so early enough) - driving 20-40 minutes to a nice theater and parking - can't bring in alcohol (unless your local theather allows it) - no pausing/rewinding - dwindling sales means higher ticket and concessions prices, which makes less people go, and repeat Yeah it's really a shocker that people want to watch movies at home. My home setup is really nice, and, well, it's my home. However our local theater is $10/ticket. So we've caught some showings for new films like Uncut Gems, or stuff like Studio Ghibli Fest that I actually wanted to see on the big screen. Also at home I can watch old, cheesy Jackie Chan films from my collection with friends with some beers and laugh our heads off.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
VLM 7y ago
As per another post the price is increasing slower than inflation. I found it impossible to get price data for museums and hard to get verifiable data for music concerts, although those are activities that seem to be explosively more expensive than inflation but are not showing attendance declines. I'm old enough (gen-x) that when I was a kid, the expensive part of a day at the public museum was going out for ice cream afterwards, the tickets were pretty cheap in 1980 or similar. I considered taking my kids to the public museum over christmas break, but tickets for the whole family would be over $100, so rather than ice cream being more expensive than the museum, it would be cheaper to go to a cheaper chain steakhouse and skip the museum. To some extent I think the "public" museum locally gave up on the public and exist to send ever larger invoices to the local public school districts for field trips so that might be a local issue OR a long term shift in the business model. There's no point in a business and profit sense, in letting the general public in for $5 per head, if the school district doesn't mind getting invoiced $30 per kid for field trips.

by fmajid 7y ago

I don't know if Americans are going to the library more, or shunning movie theaters because of price increases and Hollywood's creative bankruptcy and a lack of decent films.

mymythisisthis 7y ago

I feel that most of the movies at the theater are made for 14 year olds.

cm2187 7y ago
I think they are made to please the least common denominator between a US audience, a European audience, and a Chinese audience. But the result is pretty much what you say.
- mymythisisthis 7y ago
  I should add that the movies are made for 14 year old boys. I think parents are more hesitant to let their young teenage girls out alone.
  - goto11 7y ago
    The reason is that girls will still watch to movies made for boys but not vice versa. Also grown ups will still watch movies made for 14 year olds, but not vice versa. So making movies for 14 year olds will reach the largest demographics.

jcadam 7y ago

Could also be the changes in consumer technology. Back in the day, watching a move at home meant renting a VHS (or Beta if you chose your VCR poorly) at Blockbuster/Hollywood video/et al., (and after a new movie was released to VHS, it was frequently rented out for a couple of weeks and you had to wait), then plopping it into your VCR and viewing it on your 19" fuzzy CRT with built in speakers. Now, you just rent/buy the movie you want from your couch, and watch it on your 65" 4K widescreen TV connected to a home theater system. The movie theater experience, by contrast, hasn't really changed much since I was a kid (1980s) - oh wait, ticket and concession prices have gone way up. IMO, if I can wait to watch a new movie until it's released on Amazon (and being 40, I'm much more patient than I used to be), I'd much rather do that.

ghaff 7y ago
The number of tickets sold is down a bit but it's still as high as it was in 1995. (It peaked in about 2001.) [1] I rarely go myself these days, partly for the reasons you say. But I think it's still a pretty popular and relatively inexpensive activity for younger people who aren't too poor. [1] https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ https://www.the-numbers.com/market/

adolfojp 7y ago

I stopped going to the movie theater because the movie going experience has become garbage. They upgraded the sound system of every movie theater near me without also upgrading the sound proofing. Now you can't watch a movie without hearing the music and the sound effects of every other movie around you. Ushers stopped enforcing rules so texting and talking has become normalized. And a lot of people don't go to the movies to watch movies but to hang out with their friends. Some theaters "upgraded" to narrow seats to fit more people. You now sit shoulder to shoulder and fight over who gets the arm rest. I don't expect the situation to get better for two reasons: 1. A local movie theater company has a total monopoly so they don't have any competition and thus no need to improve. 2. Teens are the largest movie going demographic and this new normal is to them, normal.

astura 7y ago
Wow, this is really surprising to hear because literally the opposite happened around here, the experience has drastically improved in the last ~7 years. Now multiple theaters have been converted to "luxury"-style theaters with huge reclining seats, giant aisles, and dedicated arm rests with a swiveling side table.
- adolfojp 7y ago
  We have those too. You get to enjoy the same noises and distractions while drinking wine and reclining on a bigger seat.
criddell 7y ago
The theater my wife and I usually go to is one of the Alamo Drafthouse theaters and they don't allow under-18s in unless they are accompanied by an adult. That helps a lot. In theory Alamo is strict about talking and use of phone but in reality, quite a bit of it happens anyway. Still, audiences are a bit better behaved and I think it's because they are a bit older.

andrewzah 7y ago

Choose your adventure: - people using their phones during the movie - people talking during the movie - $15-20 for popcorn and soda - droll hollywood plots - seats too far in the back (unless you can book seats, and did so early enough) - driving 20-40 minutes to a nice theater and parking - can't bring in alcohol (unless your local theather allows it) - no pausing/rewinding - dwindling sales means higher ticket and concessions prices, which makes less people go, and repeat Yeah it's really a shocker that people want to watch movies at home. My home setup is really nice, and, well, it's my home. However our local theater is $10/ticket. So we've caught some showings for new films like Uncut Gems, or stuff like Studio Ghibli Fest that I actually wanted to see on the big screen. Also at home I can watch old, cheesy Jackie Chan films from my collection with friends with some beers and laugh our heads off.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

VLM 7y ago

As per another post the price is increasing slower than inflation. I found it impossible to get price data for museums and hard to get verifiable data for music concerts, although those are activities that seem to be explosively more expensive than inflation but are not showing attendance declines. I'm old enough (gen-x) that when I was a kid, the expensive part of a day at the public museum was going out for ice cream afterwards, the tickets were pretty cheap in 1980 or similar. I considered taking my kids to the public museum over christmas break, but tickets for the whole family would be over $100, so rather than ice cream being more expensive than the museum, it would be cheaper to go to a cheaper chain steakhouse and skip the museum. To some extent I think the "public" museum locally gave up on the public and exist to send ever larger invoices to the local public school districts for field trips so that might be a local issue OR a long term shift in the business model. There's no point in a business and profit sense, in letting the general public in for $5 per head, if the school district doesn't mind getting invoiced $30 per kid for field trips.