17 ms·

Every top comment on HN is someone with an unprofitable use case complaining that no one serves them. Change my mind.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
kbenson 5y ago
There are theaters that are dedicated to playing older movies, and they apparently turn enough profit to subsist in some locations. I think that makes this a top comment on HN with a profitable use case complaining that there's not enough around. Also, I would watch the shit out of the Good the Bad and the Ugly in a theater. Same with original Star Wars (which I think happened during extra trilogy releases occasionally), The Matrix, the Princess Bride, and anything in that vein which either has a cult following, is a different/better experience to watch in a theater, or both.
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  You can watch all these anytime on streaming - why do you need a cinema to see them?
  - logical_proof 5y ago
    There is a remarkably different experience between seeing Clint Eastwood 20 feet tall versus 25 inches tall
    - dogorman 5y ago
      The angular size of Clint Eastwood is or can be made the same, by adjusting your distance from the screen. The difference is everything else about the experience, everything except the apparent size of Clint Eastwood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter
      - allturtles 5y ago
        Your brain can perceive the difference between a 25 foot tall figure and a 25 inch tall one even if the angular distance is the same. Just like you can tell the difference between a giant ant striding through your neighborhood and a tiny ant on the wall in front of your face. One is impressive, the other isn't.
        dogorman 5y ago
        If you watch Clint Eastwood on a drive-in screen where he's 50 feet tall, does that make it twice as impressive as a regular theater? I like drive-in theaters, but not for this reason.
      - heleninboodler 5y ago
        It's a lot more complicated than distance from the screen. My brain is pretty good at telling the difference between a small screen up close and a big screen far away at the same "apparent size," due to binocular vision and the effect focal distance (of both our eyes and the camera) has on the end result.
  - kbenson 5y ago
    Some movies benefit enormously from a shared viewing experience, and the more people the better (to a point). Here's an example of a recent movie which such a moment (there's actually a lot of audience reaction videos to just this singular moment in this movie, which is telling as to how many people feel the same way).[1] This specific example likely wouldn't be quite the same in an older movie where people knew to expect it, but I doubt it would be entirely absent. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_klBA8Dvcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_klBA8Dvcs
    - KptMarchewa 5y ago
      I think this type of behavior happens only in USA. I can't imagine hearing more than a gasp during movie in my country.
      - smegger001 5y ago
        On the other hand think of the reaction people had when watching the First Star War Prequal when the opening crawl started on opening weekend(we didn't know yet), Avengers: Endgame when Tony got the Gauntlet. Watching all of the Doctors show up at the climax of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Episode simulcast in theatre. Its a communal experience then. the first glory shot of the Enterprise in 2009, The cheer of the crowd knowing everyone else is feeling the same as you are is a amazing feel you cant get at home watching you 80 inch flat screen.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  - Zababa 5y ago
    Why do people go to the cinema at all? Because the experience isn't the same. The screen is way bigger, the sounds often better.
  - jdavis703 5y ago
    There’s also the community aspect. Being in an audience that’s actively engaged in a movie is like being at a sports game vs watching the game on TV.
    - chrisseaton 5y ago
      I guess that’s cultural then - here it’s polite to stay quiet in a cinema.
- 542458 5y ago
  Anecdotally, there are two in my town. One seems to go bankrupt every few years. I’ve been told (by somebody who would know) that the other basically survives thanks to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Room, and Troll 2. Everything else loses money according to that fellow.
  - lumost 5y ago
    This type of theater is closer to the business model of community theater. Your banking on the notion that enough people are interested in seeing a particular set of classic movies to make ends work - or more likely you're betting that you can lose money slow enough to make a fun go of things.
  - narrator 5y ago
    The phenomenon of "The Room" being one of the most popular cult movies ever needs to be examined. I think the thing that makes "The Room" work is its raw authenticity. It totally, unashamedly owns its weirdness. Badly written novels and screenplays often have the feeling of watching a cheap puppet show where the author is clearly visible puppeteering all the other characters because they act unrealistically and in accordance with the author's poor understanding of the world and people. In "The Room", the painfully eccentric author is not only puppeteering, but he's acting and directing it, and not in a hypothetical way. It goes so totally over the top with that that it's epic in an unexpected way because the writing intends to be serious.
    - oceanghost 5y ago
      The Room, like all great comedies is lightning in a bottle. It's a key that fits a lock nobody knew about, and I'm not sure what you'd learn by studying it. If I could rephrase your statement slightly, what is funny is the delta between what was intended and what ended up happening. I am going to say something unkind, even though I am literally sitting next to a framed and signed Tommy Wiseau head shot and generally adore the guy. It is very obvious that the room springs largely from what appears to me to be some sort of brain damage.
- jbay808 5y ago
  In my area the local cinema used to do put on old Studio Ghibli movies. They always completely sold out.
- kristianc 5y ago
  > There are theaters that are dedicated to playing older movies, and they apparently turn enough profit to subsist in some locations. I think that makes this a top comment on HN with a profitable use case complaining that there's not enough around. Great. Now every movie theatre starts doing that. What happens to profit margins?
  - kbenson 5y ago
    > Great. Now every movie theatre starts doing that. What happens to profit margins? Why would every movie theater need to do that? That seems like an absurd proposition. Do I really need to watch older movies in some newer giant theater designed with a special sounds system that the entire theater needs to be certified for if I'm watching a movie that wasn't scored to take advantage of it? > What happens to profit margins? I dunno. Why don't you ask the theaters that run old/indie movies either exclusively or during designated time slots once a week or so? They seem to think it's profitable, since they do it.
    - kristianc 5y ago
      The OP is saying that movie theatres are economically unviable. GP said that the problem with the industry was that they limited themselves to showing latest releases. If a few can turn a profit by showing old timey films, that’s great for them and anyone who lives near them but hardly a solution to the sustainability of the movie industry as a whole.
      - kbenson 5y ago
        Whatever the article linked is about, the top level comment (and thus this thread of discussion) is about how we should shift the ratio of what movie theaters play from 99% new releases to something a bit less unbalanced. As to whether the industry is actually doomed, it's far too early to call that, IMO. I literally asked my wife last night what she thought about movie theaters now, as I was trying to decide whether taking the kids to one this weekend was worth considering. We both sorta decided "not yet" (and my own personal experience working at a movie theater when I was younger does not make me think they're the cleanest of places). Additionally, there's going to be slim pickings for good movies soon as I think the pipeline of stuff that was in production or delayed the release to now is used up, and the lack of much new production that happened for a year hits us for a year or so. Does that mean the industry is dead? Maybe if they can't hold on that long or find other revenue streams (and don't get a bailout), but I think it's a bit premature to be all that confident in any assessment.
- buu700 5y ago
  I'll go further than this, and say that this is practically the only use case I would have for a movie theater. As-is, movies air in theaters for only a couple months, and then they're gone. Like, what the hell. Every time in recent memory that I've ever suggested to someone that we go see a movie, I've had to find out that the movie was no longer in theaters, or was even already available for streaming. That's basically a non-starter for people with jobs. Not that I haven't also gone to a theater with no particular movie in mind and just watched whatever was playing, but if anything that seems way more niche to me. The last times I went to the movies were March 2019 and October 2017, and both of those were special cases (the latest installments in a series I was heavily invested in, Fate/stay night, each with a limited one-day release and a long expected wait before it would be available for illegal download via Blu-Ray rip). I haven't been to the movies with any kind of regularity since I was a teenager. Anyway, point being, I think movie theaters would actually be more compelling for more people if they included a revolving door of well regarded classics, rather than only whatever films happen to be the latest releases. I'm unlikely to wander into a theater with no idea what's playing or whether any of it is worth watching*, but if I could rely on them also having one or two that were known great and/or on my bucket list (Citizen Kane, Fight Club, Matrix trilogy, Dark Knight trilogy, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List, Shawshank Redemption, etc.) then I might just take the gamble that something playing will be worth the time. *: I suspect that this is also a generational gap in play. Older folks who primarily watch traditional TV with ads probably have a much better idea of current and upcoming movies.
- basementcat 5y ago
  Not all of these theaters are profitable. Many of them have special arrangements with municipal government (government secured loans or $1 rent) on the theory that these institutions serve some public good not unlike parks and playgrounds.
  - kbenson 5y ago
    While I did specify theaters sort of like I expected a whole theater complex to be devoted to it, the more common example (at least around me) is for theaters to devote a portion of some theaters (as in "screens", the "theater" terminology is long past the point of being savable as referring to one distinct thing) to running specialty programs. For example, a weekly horror series where a couple showings a couple nights a week are Hellraiser this week, and Nightmare on Elm Street next week, and there's posters on the wall advertising the schedule and there have been fliers out for months outlining the schedule. Theaters do that not just because they have arrangements with local governments, but because it's profitable. The way the theater industry works (or at least did when I worked in it at the entry level twenty years ago and had it explained to me) is that new releases have about 80% or more of their ticket sale cost go to the distributor/producer, and the rest the theater, and that percentage goes farther in the theater's favor every week after release (making movies that draw crowds for a long time much more lucrative). That's why concession purchases are so expensive, it's where they make a lion's share of the profit. Older movies are likely much less costly to get and run, and could also possibly be offered to patrons for cheaper admittance. Concessions, of course, cost as they always do, and they still make that money. I suspect in a lot of cases, theaters might turn a better profit offering tickets at half price for older movies, making more money per ticket and for concession sales for each admittance, as long as they can fill the seats. Things like that are what appeared to be going on in my area prior to the pandemic, where they would do a cult film series and have the 7 PM and 9 PM showings on Thursdays devoted to the cult film of the week (not sure if they ran one or two screens for it, possibly depended on attendance and how good the other movies where doing on the 14 screens it has).
    - kritiko 5y ago
      There was a story about Disney stopping repertory showings of Fox movies after acquiring them: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vulture.com/amp/2019/10/disney-is-quietly-placing-classic-fox-movies-into-its-vault.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vulture.com/amp/2019/10/dis... I suspect as the streaming services continue to expand, we’ll see more limited access to back catalogs.
frainfreeze 5y ago
Don't confuse profitable with making millions based on hype.
joe_the_user 5y ago
GP isn't planing a business, they're wishing for a different reality. That reality could be realized in a number of ways - a nonprofit sponsoring art films is one example. The Pacific Film Archive[1] is example of such a non-profit. With sufficient interest we could have considerably more of these things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Art_Museum_and_Pacific_Film_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Art_Museum_and_Pacifi...
renewiltord 5y ago
Interestingly, SF's Fort Mason Drive-in during the pandemic was all old movies https://www.eventbrite.com/o/fort-mason-center-for-arts-amp-culture-20246696685 https://www.eventbrite.com/o/fort-mason-center-for-arts-amp-... I think I watched like Monsters Inc there. That's two decades old haha!
smcl 5y ago
The case this person has suggested is something that exists where I am - classic films are reshown in two cinemas in my city. One (before covid, I’d need to check if they restarted) also did a cool event each month where you’d show up with no idea what you were about to see, you’d pay what you like on the way out, no charge if you leave within 15 minutes. It was only ever an older film whenever I went
a5seo 5y ago
The problem is content owners still think of theaters as part of their fiefdom. They’ll let you, the consumer, watch TGTB&TU in your house for next to $0 but if a theater wants to show it, there’s a $200 minimum fee (or 60% of ticket sales whichever is higher) plus another $150 to ship a hard drive with the content and one-time key. You either have to find a lot of people who want to watch TGTB&TU at the same time and location or the studio needs to lower the costs of back catalog content to exhibitors and quit with the whole driving shipping bullshit.
matthewmcg 5y ago
Or someone with a “novel” idea for a business that already exists, e.g. revival or reparatory cinemas.
quickthrower2 5y ago
The way to make this work first off is the cinema on a quiet day offers the chance to rent a smaller theatre and play one of a preselected back catalog of movies. Then people will do it as a party experience kind of thing. They could just ask for a minimum of 10 customers, which might be a better turn out than the quiet days. Then extend it by offering a “ride share” where you let the cinema sell more tickets to strangers and as they sell you might get vouchers towards foods and drink thrown in. Why would anyone do this? Pick YOUR film and maybe get free drinks sounds great. Democratising the film festival ;-)
- bjt 5y ago
  The Cinemarks near me did this during COVID. For $100 last summer I was able to rent out a theater and see the original Jurassic Park with my extended family. Rather than a minimum number of people they had a max of 20 (because COVID). Looks like they're still doing it. https://www.cinemark.com/misc/private-watch-party/private-watch-party-info-page https://www.cinemark.com/misc/private-watch-party/private-wa...
  - quickthrower2 5y ago
    Looks like that link has made cloudflare think our hug of love is a DDOS
TOGoS 5y ago
Maybe because many of the nice things we would like to have are not profitable, and the insistence that profit is all that matters[1] is the reason we can't have nice things. [1] to be clear: I'm referring to the insistence by those who have the gobs of money/stocks to decide what we can have, not by the average HN commenter.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  The gobs of money people will do what they think will make them more money, and based on tragedy of the commons, that’s something that appeals to individual self interest. That’s why Facebook hand Google are free to use, but they mine data for profit. That’s why we have shit films for the most part, and mediocre restaurants. There are rare bubbles of quality where there is consumer demand and habits around that. Coffee where I live is pricey and good. But in other places it can be cheap and crap if that’s more profitable. Get millions of fussy people to spend thousands on the movies and you could conjure up some great experiences!
ecdavis 5y ago
Every premium cinema near me makes plenty of money showing old movies. Here's one example: https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/events/cult-classics https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/events/cult-classics

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

There are theaters that are dedicated to playing older movies, and they apparently turn enough profit to subsist in some locations. I think that makes this a top comment on HN with a profitable use case complaining that there's not enough around. Also, I would watch the shit out of the Good the Bad and the Ugly in a theater. Same with original Star Wars (which I think happened during extra trilogy releases occasionally), The Matrix, the Princess Bride, and anything in that vein which either has a cult following, is a different/better experience to watch in a theater, or both.

chrisseaton 5y ago
You can watch all these anytime on streaming - why do you need a cinema to see them?
- logical_proof 5y ago
  There is a remarkably different experience between seeing Clint Eastwood 20 feet tall versus 25 inches tall
  - dogorman 5y ago
    The angular size of Clint Eastwood is or can be made the same, by adjusting your distance from the screen. The difference is everything else about the experience, everything except the apparent size of Clint Eastwood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter
    - allturtles 5y ago
      Your brain can perceive the difference between a 25 foot tall figure and a 25 inch tall one even if the angular distance is the same. Just like you can tell the difference between a giant ant striding through your neighborhood and a tiny ant on the wall in front of your face. One is impressive, the other isn't.
      - dogorman 5y ago
        If you watch Clint Eastwood on a drive-in screen where he's 50 feet tall, does that make it twice as impressive as a regular theater? I like drive-in theaters, but not for this reason.
    - heleninboodler 5y ago
      It's a lot more complicated than distance from the screen. My brain is pretty good at telling the difference between a small screen up close and a big screen far away at the same "apparent size," due to binocular vision and the effect focal distance (of both our eyes and the camera) has on the end result.
- kbenson 5y ago
  Some movies benefit enormously from a shared viewing experience, and the more people the better (to a point). Here's an example of a recent movie which such a moment (there's actually a lot of audience reaction videos to just this singular moment in this movie, which is telling as to how many people feel the same way).[1] This specific example likely wouldn't be quite the same in an older movie where people knew to expect it, but I doubt it would be entirely absent. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_klBA8Dvcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_klBA8Dvcs
  - KptMarchewa 5y ago
    I think this type of behavior happens only in USA. I can't imagine hearing more than a gasp during movie in my country.
    - smegger001 5y ago
      On the other hand think of the reaction people had when watching the First Star War Prequal when the opening crawl started on opening weekend(we didn't know yet), Avengers: Endgame when Tony got the Gauntlet. Watching all of the Doctors show up at the climax of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Episode simulcast in theatre. Its a communal experience then. the first glory shot of the Enterprise in 2009, The cheer of the crowd knowing everyone else is feeling the same as you are is a amazing feel you cant get at home watching you 80 inch flat screen.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
- Zababa 5y ago
  Why do people go to the cinema at all? Because the experience isn't the same. The screen is way bigger, the sounds often better.
- jdavis703 5y ago
  There’s also the community aspect. Being in an audience that’s actively engaged in a movie is like being at a sports game vs watching the game on TV.
  - chrisseaton 5y ago
    I guess that’s cultural then - here it’s polite to stay quiet in a cinema.
542458 5y ago
Anecdotally, there are two in my town. One seems to go bankrupt every few years. I’ve been told (by somebody who would know) that the other basically survives thanks to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Room, and Troll 2. Everything else loses money according to that fellow.
- lumost 5y ago
  This type of theater is closer to the business model of community theater. Your banking on the notion that enough people are interested in seeing a particular set of classic movies to make ends work - or more likely you're betting that you can lose money slow enough to make a fun go of things.
- narrator 5y ago
  The phenomenon of "The Room" being one of the most popular cult movies ever needs to be examined. I think the thing that makes "The Room" work is its raw authenticity. It totally, unashamedly owns its weirdness. Badly written novels and screenplays often have the feeling of watching a cheap puppet show where the author is clearly visible puppeteering all the other characters because they act unrealistically and in accordance with the author's poor understanding of the world and people. In "The Room", the painfully eccentric author is not only puppeteering, but he's acting and directing it, and not in a hypothetical way. It goes so totally over the top with that that it's epic in an unexpected way because the writing intends to be serious.
  - oceanghost 5y ago
    The Room, like all great comedies is lightning in a bottle. It's a key that fits a lock nobody knew about, and I'm not sure what you'd learn by studying it. If I could rephrase your statement slightly, what is funny is the delta between what was intended and what ended up happening. I am going to say something unkind, even though I am literally sitting next to a framed and signed Tommy Wiseau head shot and generally adore the guy. It is very obvious that the room springs largely from what appears to me to be some sort of brain damage.
jbay808 5y ago
In my area the local cinema used to do put on old Studio Ghibli movies. They always completely sold out.
kristianc 5y ago
> There are theaters that are dedicated to playing older movies, and they apparently turn enough profit to subsist in some locations. I think that makes this a top comment on HN with a profitable use case complaining that there's not enough around. Great. Now every movie theatre starts doing that. What happens to profit margins?
- kbenson 5y ago
  > Great. Now every movie theatre starts doing that. What happens to profit margins? Why would every movie theater need to do that? That seems like an absurd proposition. Do I really need to watch older movies in some newer giant theater designed with a special sounds system that the entire theater needs to be certified for if I'm watching a movie that wasn't scored to take advantage of it? > What happens to profit margins? I dunno. Why don't you ask the theaters that run old/indie movies either exclusively or during designated time slots once a week or so? They seem to think it's profitable, since they do it.
  - kristianc 5y ago
    The OP is saying that movie theatres are economically unviable. GP said that the problem with the industry was that they limited themselves to showing latest releases. If a few can turn a profit by showing old timey films, that’s great for them and anyone who lives near them but hardly a solution to the sustainability of the movie industry as a whole.
    - kbenson 5y ago
      Whatever the article linked is about, the top level comment (and thus this thread of discussion) is about how we should shift the ratio of what movie theaters play from 99% new releases to something a bit less unbalanced. As to whether the industry is actually doomed, it's far too early to call that, IMO. I literally asked my wife last night what she thought about movie theaters now, as I was trying to decide whether taking the kids to one this weekend was worth considering. We both sorta decided "not yet" (and my own personal experience working at a movie theater when I was younger does not make me think they're the cleanest of places). Additionally, there's going to be slim pickings for good movies soon as I think the pipeline of stuff that was in production or delayed the release to now is used up, and the lack of much new production that happened for a year hits us for a year or so. Does that mean the industry is dead? Maybe if they can't hold on that long or find other revenue streams (and don't get a bailout), but I think it's a bit premature to be all that confident in any assessment.
buu700 5y ago
I'll go further than this, and say that this is practically the only use case I would have for a movie theater. As-is, movies air in theaters for only a couple months, and then they're gone. Like, what the hell. Every time in recent memory that I've ever suggested to someone that we go see a movie, I've had to find out that the movie was no longer in theaters, or was even already available for streaming. That's basically a non-starter for people with jobs. Not that I haven't also gone to a theater with no particular movie in mind and just watched whatever was playing, but if anything that seems way more niche to me. The last times I went to the movies were March 2019 and October 2017, and both of those were special cases (the latest installments in a series I was heavily invested in, Fate/stay night, each with a limited one-day release and a long expected wait before it would be available for illegal download via Blu-Ray rip). I haven't been to the movies with any kind of regularity since I was a teenager. Anyway, point being, I think movie theaters would actually be more compelling for more people if they included a revolving door of well regarded classics, rather than only whatever films happen to be the latest releases. I'm unlikely to wander into a theater with no idea what's playing or whether any of it is worth watching*, but if I could rely on them also having one or two that were known great and/or on my bucket list (Citizen Kane, Fight Club, Matrix trilogy, Dark Knight trilogy, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List, Shawshank Redemption, etc.) then I might just take the gamble that something playing will be worth the time. *: I suspect that this is also a generational gap in play. Older folks who primarily watch traditional TV with ads probably have a much better idea of current and upcoming movies.
basementcat 5y ago
Not all of these theaters are profitable. Many of them have special arrangements with municipal government (government secured loans or $1 rent) on the theory that these institutions serve some public good not unlike parks and playgrounds.
- kbenson 5y ago
  While I did specify theaters sort of like I expected a whole theater complex to be devoted to it, the more common example (at least around me) is for theaters to devote a portion of some theaters (as in "screens", the "theater" terminology is long past the point of being savable as referring to one distinct thing) to running specialty programs. For example, a weekly horror series where a couple showings a couple nights a week are Hellraiser this week, and Nightmare on Elm Street next week, and there's posters on the wall advertising the schedule and there have been fliers out for months outlining the schedule. Theaters do that not just because they have arrangements with local governments, but because it's profitable. The way the theater industry works (or at least did when I worked in it at the entry level twenty years ago and had it explained to me) is that new releases have about 80% or more of their ticket sale cost go to the distributor/producer, and the rest the theater, and that percentage goes farther in the theater's favor every week after release (making movies that draw crowds for a long time much more lucrative). That's why concession purchases are so expensive, it's where they make a lion's share of the profit. Older movies are likely much less costly to get and run, and could also possibly be offered to patrons for cheaper admittance. Concessions, of course, cost as they always do, and they still make that money. I suspect in a lot of cases, theaters might turn a better profit offering tickets at half price for older movies, making more money per ticket and for concession sales for each admittance, as long as they can fill the seats. Things like that are what appeared to be going on in my area prior to the pandemic, where they would do a cult film series and have the 7 PM and 9 PM showings on Thursdays devoted to the cult film of the week (not sure if they ran one or two screens for it, possibly depended on attendance and how good the other movies where doing on the 14 screens it has).
  - kritiko 5y ago
    There was a story about Disney stopping repertory showings of Fox movies after acquiring them: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vulture.com/amp/2019/10/disney-is-quietly-placing-classic-fox-movies-into-its-vault.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vulture.com/amp/2019/10/dis... I suspect as the streaming services continue to expand, we’ll see more limited access to back catalogs.

frainfreeze 5y ago

Don't confuse profitable with making millions based on hype.

joe_the_user 5y ago

GP isn't planing a business, they're wishing for a different reality. That reality could be realized in a number of ways - a nonprofit sponsoring art films is one example. The Pacific Film Archive[1] is example of such a non-profit. With sufficient interest we could have considerably more of these things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Art_Museum_and_Pacific_Film_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Art_Museum_and_Pacifi...

renewiltord 5y ago

Interestingly, SF's Fort Mason Drive-in during the pandemic was all old movies https://www.eventbrite.com/o/fort-mason-center-for-arts-amp-culture-20246696685 https://www.eventbrite.com/o/fort-mason-center-for-arts-amp-... I think I watched like Monsters Inc there. That's two decades old haha!

smcl 5y ago

The case this person has suggested is something that exists where I am - classic films are reshown in two cinemas in my city. One (before covid, I’d need to check if they restarted) also did a cool event each month where you’d show up with no idea what you were about to see, you’d pay what you like on the way out, no charge if you leave within 15 minutes. It was only ever an older film whenever I went

a5seo 5y ago

The problem is content owners still think of theaters as part of their fiefdom. They’ll let you, the consumer, watch TGTB&TU in your house for next to $0 but if a theater wants to show it, there’s a $200 minimum fee (or 60% of ticket sales whichever is higher) plus another $150 to ship a hard drive with the content and one-time key. You either have to find a lot of people who want to watch TGTB&TU at the same time and location or the studio needs to lower the costs of back catalog content to exhibitors and quit with the whole driving shipping bullshit.

matthewmcg 5y ago

Or someone with a “novel” idea for a business that already exists, e.g. revival or reparatory cinemas.

quickthrower2 5y ago

The way to make this work first off is the cinema on a quiet day offers the chance to rent a smaller theatre and play one of a preselected back catalog of movies. Then people will do it as a party experience kind of thing. They could just ask for a minimum of 10 customers, which might be a better turn out than the quiet days. Then extend it by offering a “ride share” where you let the cinema sell more tickets to strangers and as they sell you might get vouchers towards foods and drink thrown in. Why would anyone do this? Pick YOUR film and maybe get free drinks sounds great. Democratising the film festival ;-)

bjt 5y ago
The Cinemarks near me did this during COVID. For $100 last summer I was able to rent out a theater and see the original Jurassic Park with my extended family. Rather than a minimum number of people they had a max of 20 (because COVID). Looks like they're still doing it. https://www.cinemark.com/misc/private-watch-party/private-watch-party-info-page https://www.cinemark.com/misc/private-watch-party/private-wa...
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  Looks like that link has made cloudflare think our hug of love is a DDOS

TOGoS 5y ago

Maybe because many of the nice things we would like to have are not profitable, and the insistence that profit is all that matters[1] is the reason we can't have nice things. [1] to be clear: I'm referring to the insistence by those who have the gobs of money/stocks to decide what we can have, not by the average HN commenter.

quickthrower2 5y ago
The gobs of money people will do what they think will make them more money, and based on tragedy of the commons, that’s something that appeals to individual self interest. That’s why Facebook hand Google are free to use, but they mine data for profit. That’s why we have shit films for the most part, and mediocre restaurants. There are rare bubbles of quality where there is consumer demand and habits around that. Coffee where I live is pricey and good. But in other places it can be cheap and crap if that’s more profitable. Get millions of fussy people to spend thousands on the movies and you could conjure up some great experiences!

ecdavis 5y ago

Every premium cinema near me makes plenty of money showing old movies. Here's one example: https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/events/cult-classics https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/events/cult-classics