Gettin' people into cinemas again

A friend sent me this interesting piece today, about cinemas trying to come up with ways to get people in the empty seats.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/five-ideas-to-lure-moviegoers-back-to-theaters.html

There's a lot of really interesting stuff in there. It was #3 which really caught my eye:

Multiplexes programmed by you — and your many Facebook pals.

In February, Nicolas Gonda co-founded Tugg, a new venture that bills itself as “a collective action web-platform,” but is really just a simple way to see the movies you want at your local movie theater with a bunch of fellow fans.

(...)

Since launching in February, hundreds of screenings have occurred in over 30 cities, eliminating empty seats in underutilized time slots. “For the content owners, this isn’t speculating,” says Gonda. “This is those people saying, ‘We want to see this.’ So, for studios, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.”

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Could have great potential for the indie filmmaker with savvy social networking skills... or it could reaffirm the choices studios make. Who knows.

At any rate, some good reading.

Interesting ideas Zen Steve, especially number 3 as you say. Although I don't bother with facebook much I certainly would use it to vote to see really good movies that, under normal circumstances, would no longer be shown. Love to see Blade Runner again on the big screen.

You can get to see films cheaper if you go in the morning or early afternoon. After that it is the usual £ 6-9 per adult though, a bit more if it is 3d.


A lot of the comments from the people on that link are true though, high prices for tickets and food put people off. Regarding the comments about people texting all the time, I don't think it is bad over in the UK as I`ve not noticed anyone do that when I`ve been. However that may change.

I hardly bother with the cinema food or drinks, due to the price, and usually bring my own as the cinema chains cannot stop you doing that.

Buy one get one free may work for some people but for me there aren't enough films that I really want to see.

In these days of high quality tv and surround sound systems in a lot of homes the cinemas have their work cut out competing with that. It`ll be interesting to see what they come up with.

Great link, Zen!

Of course... I had to go hunting a little farther into what CinemaCon was all about.
http://www.cinemacon.com/schedule/2012-events/

An online search gives a whole lotta articles for the pablum gobbling general audience, which you know ain't my... eh-hem... caliber of fluff reading material.
So, I went digging for some more pithy nutsNbolts industry material.


If you just keep to the grey-boxed quotes and avoid the ranting drivel of the article's author there's a potential frightening-enlightening approach which does not bode well for many of those which had adverse things to say about cell phone usage or texting in theaters.
http://movieline.com/2012/04/25/are...-industry-heads-advocate-texting-in-theaters/
A link from that article provides the following:
http://movieline.com/2011/06/06/lis...icemail-rant-for-theater-that-kicked-her-out/
... which includes this hilarious video the theater owner's themselves actually put on their YT site:
LMAO!
2,523,629 views!


More snoopin&poopin coming... !

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-sterling/going-to-the-movies-the-t_b_843819.html
"The other big issue for theater owners is the plan announced by Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers and Fox to distribute product through a DirectTV video on-demand (VOD) service called Home Premiere. The service will make movies that have been in theaters for 60 days available for home viewing at a cost of $30 each.

Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover 2, at CinemaCon to promote the film said, "If I wanted to make movies for TV, I'd be a TV director." His remark was greeted with great applause."
60 days / 7 = 8.6 weeks.
Yep. right about at the time when most films burn out and theaters drop 'em anyway.


Okay, that was about all there was available online.

Cattle prods. Sure, that's my answer for everything, but it works, damnit!

Seriously though, I find I'm going to the movies more these days. Cheap seats early on a Saturday morning. It's becoming my new routine. Still gives me a full day to work away from my day job too. All around good!

But addressing the article's statements about "going to a movie rather than a bar". They're totally different experiences, and movies really aren't as social. "do you want to hang out on friday? how about spend a couple hours where we can't talk to each other?" I like seeing movies with friends, but I can completely understand why those who would rather go to a bar instead.

The idea of a social-media-poll old film night is kinda neat, though I imagine a bear to organize. Around here there are a bunch of small theaters that run old films, and they usually have a "suggestion box". But if I want to see, say, Legend in the theater, and get a facebook poll running to show it on Tuesday, how many people who click "yeah, I'll go!" will actually go? Will that work any better than a theater saying "we're going to show Legend ONCE on this date. Plan accordingly"?

But the idea of one room in the multiplex showing classic films? Not a bad idea at all!

But addressing the article's statements about "going to a movie rather than a bar". They're totally different experiences, and movies really aren't as social. "do you want to hang out on friday? how about spend a couple hours where we can't talk to each other?" I like seeing movies with friends, but I can completely understand why those who would rather go to a bar instead.

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DEFINITELY different experiences. And I do agree that going to see a film, while yes it could be said it is a social event because you're surrounded by other people, it is not the time to socialize with friends and/or family.

What happens, I think, with marketing movies as a social event leads to the very thing that frustrates the hell out of us audience members who actually go the a movie and want to WATCH it, instead of texting, chatting with friends sitting next to you or just getting bored and anxious because you can't tweet on your cell phone or update your Facebook status. "@ Avengers! LOL awesome!"

I am in the category of: sit down, be quiet and courteous, and become immersed in the film world until the credits roll. And if it's a comedy, sure, laugh your ass off, but please don't yammer on through the whole film. Which, for better or worse, is why I do like watching films on the home plasma screen.

* I should add that it's not always the younger set that can be annoying. When we went to see The Hunger Games on Monday there was an old couple sitting across the aisle from us. The guy must have been stone deaf or dumb as a rock because his wife would repeat every other line and recap what happened on screen. Uuuuugggghhhh.

But if people can get folks to turn out at the theater, hats off to them I say!

No 3... Tuggs... Wow. I can think of so many movies id like to see in the theater again. And yes, thinking about it from an indie pov is interesting as well.

This!

Ceolwulf said:

high prices for tickets and food put people off.

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People like to go out. My family loves to go out. But it costs about $80 for our family of 5. (One large drink costs $4.75!) We would go to the movies every week, but can only afford to once every month or two. 3-D prices have only made this worse.

How can I justify a $70 or $80 theater outing versus a dollar at Redbox. I can't. That means that if the movie isn't THE AVENGERS, PROMETHEUS or DARK KNIGHT RISING, we will wait for it to come out on DVD.

Now back when I was single and childless, I saw ROBOCOP 10 times at the theater, STARSHIP TROOPERS 6 times, EVIL DEAD 2 - 5 times for a one week release. I'll want to see PROMETHEUS and the others multiple times. It's not that I'm getting old - I loooooove watching movies over and over, but rather it is the fact that theater prices are ridiculous and rentals are dirt cheap. Theaters are ditching expensive film prints and projectors for cheaper video technology, yet prices don't come down.

Scoopicman said:

This!



People like to go out. My family loves to go out. But it costs about $80 for our family of 5. (One large drink costs $4.75!) We would go to the movies every week, but can only afford to once every month or two. 3-D prices have only made this worse.

How can I justify a $70 or $80 theater outing versus a dollar at Redbox. I can't. That means that if the movie isn't THE AVENGERS, PROMETHEUS or DARK KNIGHT RISING, we will wait for it to come out on DVD.

Now back when I was single and childless, I saw ROBOCOP 10 times at the theater, STARSHIP TROOPERS 6 times, EVIL DEAD 2 - 5 times for a one week release. I'll want to see PROMETHEUS and the others multiple times. It's not that I'm getting old - I loooooove watching movies over and over, but rather it is the fact that theater prices are ridiculous and rentals are dirt cheap. Theaters are ditching expensive film prints and projectors for cheaper video technology, yet prices don't come down.

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Bingo!

You are absolutely correct.

I think PROMETHEUS and maybe the HOBBIT I'll see at the theater, otherwise I'll sit on my little hands and wait for subtitles on DVD.
(God, I'm going to miss DVDs someday.)