I tend to watch movies on cable TV.
I don't normally to go to a theater to watch a first run movie, as my parents generation did when they were young, because the movie experience tends to suck and so do the movies.
It is not so much a matter of price as a matter of suckage.
Maybe because payments on a massive home theater system including a reclining couch are cheaper than movie tickets?
Perhaps it is because they are doing everything possible to discourage attending movies at the theater.
For the last decade, I have found that unless you are willing to brave opening weekend crowds for a popular movie, the audience SUCKS. They are apparantly there to text, talk, listen to their children scream, or pretty much anything but watch the movie. On top of that, for a big release opening night, you stand a decent chance that they will actually turn on the surround sound audio and try to have the projector work.
Then there's the frontloading 800 films into 12 weekends. Even if I want to drop money on your films, I'm just not going to the movie theaters that much in that timespan. Odds are none of them are great films, so at best, you might get the ticket money out of me for some fun mindless genre fare. Except you have all the competition opening on one weekend.
Then there's 3d. Please stop it until you find some way to present it that isn't cardboard cutouts or a really expensive CGI interpretation of someone handing scissiors to the camera. And take the damn 3d lens off the projector if it isn't a 3d show.
Maybe you might want to make the audio work too.
On top of that, who thought deep fried foods in a place with carpets and upholstry was a good idea? The place smells like rancid grease.
This is pretty much a transcription of my last voluntary trip to a theater.
trailer starts it's out of focus, I don't worry about it because these aare not the attached trailers and are on a different projector.
idiot 14 year old: *CLICK CLICK CLICKITY CLICK CLICK CLICK*
me: Would you mind not texting, it is loud and annoying.
i14yo: "sorry"
i14yo: *CLICK CLICK CLICKITY CLICK CLICK CLICK*
me: would you please be quiet.
i14you: I was being quiet.
me: If I can hear you, you weren't being quiet, now were you?
i14yo: uh.. no.
about 5 minutes pass
i14yo: *CLICK CLICK CLICKITY CLICK CLICK CLICK*
me: If you conversation is so impoortant take out of the fucking theater right now, or I WILL take that phone and hurt you with it badly. This is the end of me being polite. You can shut up, leave, or I will take that phone and do something to you taht will MAKE you want to leave, but not before I get my $20 for tickets back from you. Do you understand me?
i14yo: dude, chill out.
me: no.
i14yo leaves.
We finally get to the attached trailer.. it's still out of focus. So are the intor credits.
I go out and tell them it is out of focus. They tell me.. no, no, the movie's intro is stylized. I ask them if the attached trailer is stylized too. They go.. uh no, but continue to argue with me and tell me the projectionis checked. At this point someone else comes out and complains about the same thing and they really call the projectionist and rally fix the focus.
Get about 10 minutes into the film and there's a big subwoofer effect. Whoops.. the subwoofer is blown, and now it sounds like a robot farting every time they use the sub effects channel.
I tell my GF to let me know when we can leave.
I took about 4 more outtings and finally admitting she needs her glasses most of the time before she decided that she too could easily wiat the 30-60 days to see it at home.
Wow you must have worst place ever... Got five places to choice from within a reasonable distance, but I use the mall that has a low population number a lot.
We have a mess of theaters to choose from, they just all suck badly. Heck, one of them is very often the top grossing theater in the nation. It smells like rancid fryer grease, but they sell a lot of tickets.
fropfreak
It's hard to justify $100 to watch the crap they put out this year. But i agree with his point on showing more indie stuff. I also think theatres should rerun older stuff, I would pay to see a remastered Taxi Driver or Clockwork Orange on the big screen.