4 ms·

There is a movie theatre near us that hosts birthday parties - you get a party room for an hour or two and then the whole group gets a theatre all to themselves

There is a movie theatre near us that hosts birthday parties - you get a party room for an hour or two and then the whole group gets a theatre all to themselves to watch a current-run movie that the organizer has chosen. We called them up not too long ago to ask about booking a party. Nope, they said that they didn't expect to have anything kid-appropriate available to them during our requested weekend (next month).

germinalphrase 4y ago
This has been the primary business model of the theater in my small town for at least 30 years. Tables, not rows - and they sold pizza in addition to normal movie snacks. It was pretty awesome as a kid.
afavour 4y ago
That's interesting. As a parent of young kids myself I have noticed an absolute dearth of kids movies in the theatres (it's cold outside and we need something to do!). The only one has been the Puss in Boots movie but it's definitely for older kids (part of the plot is Puss literally being pursued by Death) so we haven't been. I'm surprised the theatre couldn't just put on an older movie but maybe the deal with their distributor forbids them from doing so?
- jandrese 4y ago
  My daughter was just invited to a movie party. They watched The Amazing Maruice and the girls loved it.
  - afavour 4y ago
    Oh nice, looks like that was released in the US a few days ago. Rainy day activity added to the list. Thanks!
- TomK32 4y ago
  Puss in Boots was a fantastic movie for my 7-yr-old, in my eyes it's more like a hispano-western and the artwork is super interesting for me 40-yr-old. Watching it on a small screen where I constantly do breaks would be a shame. We have a small movie theater in Linz, Austria, where they do do put up older movies, just a few months ago I was the only of two dressed as expected for Reservoir Dogs. And then they skip movies altogether and I have to the big one outside the city center. I wish they'd digitalize the movie-wishlist so I could enjoy older movies with friends that we actually want to see.
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    Puss in Boots will be gone from the theatres soon (at least in our corner of the US)
- forinti 4y ago
  > I'm surprised the theatre couldn't just put on an older movie I've been thinking about that too. I've really wanted to get the kids out of the house lately, but there was nothing new to watch in the cinema. I wouldn't mind taking them to see an old film.
  - MiddleEndian 4y ago
    Are there any Second Run Theaters in your area?
- amanaplanacanal 4y ago
  When I worked at a movie theater (many decades ago) the theater did not have prints of random movies laying around. The only prints we had were the movies we were currently showing, and those were decided weeks in advance.
jimbob45 4y ago
We did this for a relative with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade a few years back. Ended up being a really great time.
98codes 4y ago
I'm somewhat shocked that they aren't set up to play whatever movie that someone might bring in over their system, so long as it was a closed theater for just the guests... shame.
- jsnell 4y ago
  Bring-your-own-movie seems iffy from a licensing perspective.
- Mountain_Skies 4y ago
  That's almost certainly a rights issue. Even if legal, movie studios probably wouldn't be happy about not getting a cut of the action and would stop releasing movies to that theater. Which is too bad because it seems like there could be a system where you can select from a studio's library of past releases and pay a fee for viewing. Just like their opposition to VCRs which ended up greatly improving their bottom line instead of killing them off like "the Boston Strangler", Hollywood can be very myopic about current versus new revenue streams.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    > there could be a system where you can select from a studio's library of past releases and pay a fee for viewing. People have had this system at home for 15+ years. The question is does watching it in a movie theater provide sufficient utility for the cost compared to watching it at home.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
TomK32 4y ago
They are probably more afraid about kids leaving a mess.
SteveGerencser 4y ago
A few local theaters here will let you rent out a whole Theater for about $150 and let you bring your own Blue Ray movie to play. Friend of mine did it to propose to his now wife. Took her to a great dinner, rented the entire theater, showed her favorite movie and proposed. they were the only 2 people in the room.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  They should give a remote control to someone in the group so they can pause and rewind the movie. That's the best part about watching movies at home.
jgoewert 4y ago
This is due to contracts. When we get a movie booked for our 1 screen theater, we are stuck with that movie and only that movie for the time we run it. 1 screen = 1 movie. We aren't allowed to show anything else during that usual 2 to 3 week timeframe. With one sort of gotcha being the inbetween week going from a release to a release, since we aren't technically showing any movies from the Monday to Thursday. Advertising for special events in those times are even more trickier as we aren't allowed to post some of them on our website or facebook because of these terms. The movie producers and distributors are very much at fault for this set up. It would be super great to be able to run a kids/family movie on Fri + Sat Morning then do a more adult movie on Sat night/ Sunday, but it just isn't allowed. The people killing movies in a theater is the movie companies, not the theaters.

germinalphrase 4y ago

This has been the primary business model of the theater in my small town for at least 30 years. Tables, not rows - and they sold pizza in addition to normal movie snacks. It was pretty awesome as a kid.

afavour 4y ago

That's interesting. As a parent of young kids myself I have noticed an absolute dearth of kids movies in the theatres (it's cold outside and we need something to do!). The only one has been the Puss in Boots movie but it's definitely for older kids (part of the plot is Puss literally being pursued by Death) so we haven't been. I'm surprised the theatre couldn't just put on an older movie but maybe the deal with their distributor forbids them from doing so?

jandrese 4y ago
My daughter was just invited to a movie party. They watched The Amazing Maruice and the girls loved it.
- afavour 4y ago
  Oh nice, looks like that was released in the US a few days ago. Rainy day activity added to the list. Thanks!
TomK32 4y ago
Puss in Boots was a fantastic movie for my 7-yr-old, in my eyes it's more like a hispano-western and the artwork is super interesting for me 40-yr-old. Watching it on a small screen where I constantly do breaks would be a shame. We have a small movie theater in Linz, Austria, where they do do put up older movies, just a few months ago I was the only of two dressed as expected for Reservoir Dogs. And then they skip movies altogether and I have to the big one outside the city center. I wish they'd digitalize the movie-wishlist so I could enjoy older movies with friends that we actually want to see.
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  Puss in Boots will be gone from the theatres soon (at least in our corner of the US)
forinti 4y ago
> I'm surprised the theatre couldn't just put on an older movie I've been thinking about that too. I've really wanted to get the kids out of the house lately, but there was nothing new to watch in the cinema. I wouldn't mind taking them to see an old film.
- MiddleEndian 4y ago
  Are there any Second Run Theaters in your area?
amanaplanacanal 4y ago
When I worked at a movie theater (many decades ago) the theater did not have prints of random movies laying around. The only prints we had were the movies we were currently showing, and those were decided weeks in advance.

jimbob45 4y ago

We did this for a relative with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade a few years back. Ended up being a really great time.

98codes 4y ago

I'm somewhat shocked that they aren't set up to play whatever movie that someone might bring in over their system, so long as it was a closed theater for just the guests... shame.

jsnell 4y ago
Bring-your-own-movie seems iffy from a licensing perspective.
Mountain_Skies 4y ago
That's almost certainly a rights issue. Even if legal, movie studios probably wouldn't be happy about not getting a cut of the action and would stop releasing movies to that theater. Which is too bad because it seems like there could be a system where you can select from a studio's library of past releases and pay a fee for viewing. Just like their opposition to VCRs which ended up greatly improving their bottom line instead of killing them off like "the Boston Strangler", Hollywood can be very myopic about current versus new revenue streams.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  > there could be a system where you can select from a studio's library of past releases and pay a fee for viewing. People have had this system at home for 15+ years. The question is does watching it in a movie theater provide sufficient utility for the cost compared to watching it at home.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

TomK32 4y ago

They are probably more afraid about kids leaving a mess.

SteveGerencser 4y ago

A few local theaters here will let you rent out a whole Theater for about $150 and let you bring your own Blue Ray movie to play. Friend of mine did it to propose to his now wife. Took her to a great dinner, rented the entire theater, showed her favorite movie and proposed. they were the only 2 people in the room.

midoridensha 4y ago
They should give a remote control to someone in the group so they can pause and rewind the movie. That's the best part about watching movies at home.

jgoewert 4y ago

This is due to contracts. When we get a movie booked for our 1 screen theater, we are stuck with that movie and only that movie for the time we run it. 1 screen = 1 movie. We aren't allowed to show anything else during that usual 2 to 3 week timeframe. With one sort of gotcha being the inbetween week going from a release to a release, since we aren't technically showing any movies from the Monday to Thursday. Advertising for special events in those times are even more trickier as we aren't allowed to post some of them on our website or facebook because of these terms. The movie producers and distributors are very much at fault for this set up. It would be super great to be able to run a kids/family movie on Fri + Sat Morning then do a more adult movie on Sat night/ Sunday, but it just isn't allowed. The people killing movies in a theater is the movie companies, not the theaters.