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Further down they mention that a dominant factor here seems to be the shifting of many activities, including spending time with family and friends, to a home se

Further down they mention that a dominant factor here seems to be the shifting of many activities, including spending time with family and friends, to a home setting. This certainly reflects my experience. Nowadays watching a movie doesn't mean going to a movie theater; it means watching a movie at a friend's house. Similar for gaming &c. Lately I've seen a lot of lamenting the lack of third spaces, but I haven't personally felt too sad about this? When I was younger my friends and I would regularly meet for coffee and pie at a diner that was open late, or shoot darts at a cozy neighborhood bar. Nowadays those kinds of places seem to be all but gone. They've been replaced by Dining and Entertainment Concepts™ that cost too much to frequent with any regularity, and crank the music way too loud to permit real socialization. So we just get together to play Mario Kart instead.

MattGaiser 2y ago
Even if the cost were lower, home options have improved to make being at a location less worth it. The gap between 1980s movie viewing and a theatre and 2024 movie viewing and a theatre has narrowed tremendously. The selection at home is far superior to the movie theatre now. Food delivery options have expanded well beyond Chinese and pizza. Sports viewing captures a better view than most seats.
- charlie0 2y ago
  Not to mention most people are going to shell out $$$ for a nice large TV. At that point, might as well spend a few extra $$ and buy a surround sound. Maybe it's just me, but a lot of theaters set their volumes to LOUD. I've found it better to just watch movies at home (save for that rare movie you HAVE to watch in theaters, like Mad Max) and spend the remaining $ on building out my HT.
  - bunderbunder 2y ago
    I was recently reflecting on how I love seeing live theater productions, but hate going to movie theaters to see movies. In principle it seems like they should be relatively comparable? LOUD was definitely one of the first things I thought of. I don't feel like I need to bring ear plugs to make watching a play comfortable. Intermissions are another. It's nice to have an opportunity to stand up and stretch my legs, maybe take a bathroom break, chat with my partner about the story so far, all without missing anything or bothering other people. I think, though, that concessions are the other big one. Stage theaters don't have sticky floors, they don't reek of popcorn, you don't have the person behind you chewing with their mouth open so loudly you can somehow hear it above the aforementioned exceptionally loud volume, etc.
    - everforward 2y ago
      There are some “luxury” theaters that offer a better experience that really does rival watching movies at home, for different reasons. Tickets aren’t much more than normal ($15 I believe). They have actual powered recliners so you can lean back most of the way to horizontal. They have trays that rotate over your waist to hold drinks and snacks (like an airplane, but bigger). The nicest part is full food service. They have a full menu of cooked food, snacks, they run their own brewery so you can buy their beer, etc. They have an online food ordering system, and waiters bring it to your seat. They push people hard to order during the commercials so they’re mostly out of the theater during the movie. No sticky floors, no stale popcorn smell, no 40 year old seats that smell like farts. It is still dramatically too loud, especially that THQ intro that I can only describe as “a dick measuring contest with Klipsch”. I hate that with a passion; I’m already aware the speakers can get super loud, there’s really no reason to show me every damn time the movie starts.
      - charlie0 2y ago
        Yeah, I can see this being something to splurge on once in a while. It's nice to trade dollars for convenience. OTHO, everything you've mentioned can still be closely replicated at home, just start your movie after food gets delivered to your house and buy the snacks ahead of time. I have a recliner at home and the middle arm-drawer is full of snacks.
brnaftr361 2y ago
Yeah, but you've already got your friend circle, right? With the socioeconomic-geographic mobility situation - people moving to get good jobs, better lifestyles, and increased quality of life may not. And there are of course regressive movers too, and probably people pursuing greener grass. They aren't going to have friends locally, workplace socializing is... Suboptimal. But in a society that increasingly verbalizes distaste for cold approach, and lacks — as you said a quiet socializing atmosphere (or even competition in such a sphere) there's little left. At least that's my experience.
- bunderbunder 2y ago
  As someone who moved a lot when they were younger, I'm not convinced that the problem there is access to spaces. It's that the Internet killed it. It reduced the quality of options through over-centralization. And even for the things the Internet didn't destroy, people no longer know how to find things without the help of Google, which then became useless for finding anything that isn't SEO-optimized content farm dreck. A couple concrete examples: In 2005-ish, it was relatively easy to find monthly vegan potlucks in decently-sized towns. Larger ones might have many of them, with sort of a neighborhood focus. But after Meetup came out you saw a lot of consolidation where everyone would just sort of gravitate toward one of them, and the rest would die off. Chicago consolidated on one group that was organized by some friends of mine, and eventually got so big that it sort of collapsed under its own weight. Chicago also used to have a bunch of smaller social groups for people learning various languages. That whole space eventually got absorbed by the Chicago Language Cafe, which then became so big that the venue needed to change from a reasonably-sized neighborhood pub to a large taproom in a converted industrial space. It was big, noisy, kind of inaccessible, and generally just a terrible place to get to know people - again due to Internet-fueled centralization. By contrast, the knitting community tends to have groups organized by local yarn stores instead of through a massive centralized site like Facebook or Meetup. There are two within walking distance of my house. One of them played an essential role in rebuilding my social life when I moved to this neighborhood a few years back. The other I haven't really been to, per se, but they meet outside when the weather's nice and I'll stop and say hi if I happen to be passing by. There are also numerous book clubs that meet at local book stores and libraries. There are probably at least ten within walking distance of my house, meeting at 3 or 4 different venues. (edit: Unstated major premise here is that the diners and bars I was talking about in the previous post aren't actually good places to meet people in the first place, anyway. I view them more as places to spend time with friends you already have.)
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

MattGaiser 2y ago

Even if the cost were lower, home options have improved to make being at a location less worth it. The gap between 1980s movie viewing and a theatre and 2024 movie viewing and a theatre has narrowed tremendously. The selection at home is far superior to the movie theatre now. Food delivery options have expanded well beyond Chinese and pizza. Sports viewing captures a better view than most seats.

charlie0 2y ago
Not to mention most people are going to shell out $$$ for a nice large TV. At that point, might as well spend a few extra $$ and buy a surround sound. Maybe it's just me, but a lot of theaters set their volumes to LOUD. I've found it better to just watch movies at home (save for that rare movie you HAVE to watch in theaters, like Mad Max) and spend the remaining $ on building out my HT.
- bunderbunder 2y ago
  I was recently reflecting on how I love seeing live theater productions, but hate going to movie theaters to see movies. In principle it seems like they should be relatively comparable? LOUD was definitely one of the first things I thought of. I don't feel like I need to bring ear plugs to make watching a play comfortable. Intermissions are another. It's nice to have an opportunity to stand up and stretch my legs, maybe take a bathroom break, chat with my partner about the story so far, all without missing anything or bothering other people. I think, though, that concessions are the other big one. Stage theaters don't have sticky floors, they don't reek of popcorn, you don't have the person behind you chewing with their mouth open so loudly you can somehow hear it above the aforementioned exceptionally loud volume, etc.
  - everforward 2y ago
    There are some “luxury” theaters that offer a better experience that really does rival watching movies at home, for different reasons. Tickets aren’t much more than normal ($15 I believe). They have actual powered recliners so you can lean back most of the way to horizontal. They have trays that rotate over your waist to hold drinks and snacks (like an airplane, but bigger). The nicest part is full food service. They have a full menu of cooked food, snacks, they run their own brewery so you can buy their beer, etc. They have an online food ordering system, and waiters bring it to your seat. They push people hard to order during the commercials so they’re mostly out of the theater during the movie. No sticky floors, no stale popcorn smell, no 40 year old seats that smell like farts. It is still dramatically too loud, especially that THQ intro that I can only describe as “a dick measuring contest with Klipsch”. I hate that with a passion; I’m already aware the speakers can get super loud, there’s really no reason to show me every damn time the movie starts.
    - charlie0 2y ago
      Yeah, I can see this being something to splurge on once in a while. It's nice to trade dollars for convenience. OTHO, everything you've mentioned can still be closely replicated at home, just start your movie after food gets delivered to your house and buy the snacks ahead of time. I have a recliner at home and the middle arm-drawer is full of snacks.

brnaftr361 2y ago

Yeah, but you've already got your friend circle, right? With the socioeconomic-geographic mobility situation - people moving to get good jobs, better lifestyles, and increased quality of life may not. And there are of course regressive movers too, and probably people pursuing greener grass. They aren't going to have friends locally, workplace socializing is... Suboptimal. But in a society that increasingly verbalizes distaste for cold approach, and lacks — as you said a quiet socializing atmosphere (or even competition in such a sphere) there's little left. At least that's my experience.

bunderbunder 2y ago
As someone who moved a lot when they were younger, I'm not convinced that the problem there is access to spaces. It's that the Internet killed it. It reduced the quality of options through over-centralization. And even for the things the Internet didn't destroy, people no longer know how to find things without the help of Google, which then became useless for finding anything that isn't SEO-optimized content farm dreck. A couple concrete examples: In 2005-ish, it was relatively easy to find monthly vegan potlucks in decently-sized towns. Larger ones might have many of them, with sort of a neighborhood focus. But after Meetup came out you saw a lot of consolidation where everyone would just sort of gravitate toward one of them, and the rest would die off. Chicago consolidated on one group that was organized by some friends of mine, and eventually got so big that it sort of collapsed under its own weight. Chicago also used to have a bunch of smaller social groups for people learning various languages. That whole space eventually got absorbed by the Chicago Language Cafe, which then became so big that the venue needed to change from a reasonably-sized neighborhood pub to a large taproom in a converted industrial space. It was big, noisy, kind of inaccessible, and generally just a terrible place to get to know people - again due to Internet-fueled centralization. By contrast, the knitting community tends to have groups organized by local yarn stores instead of through a massive centralized site like Facebook or Meetup. There are two within walking distance of my house. One of them played an essential role in rebuilding my social life when I moved to this neighborhood a few years back. The other I haven't really been to, per se, but they meet outside when the weather's nice and I'll stop and say hi if I happen to be passing by. There are also numerous book clubs that meet at local book stores and libraries. There are probably at least ten within walking distance of my house, meeting at 3 or 4 different venues. (edit: Unstated major premise here is that the diners and bars I was talking about in the previous post aren't actually good places to meet people in the first place, anyway. I view them more as places to spend time with friends you already have.)

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]