Cinema's are dead

[Ihavewaffles]

U can't beat imax with ur...tv..

[Biomega]

U can't beat imax with ur...tv..

But staying home is cheaper.

That's like saying "idk why anyone would ever get a Honda, doesn't a Ferrari have better performance in like everything?". Yes, well, if you completely ignore PRICE, sure...

[Forogil]

But staying home is cheaper.

That's like saying "idk why anyone would ever get a Honda, doesn't a Ferrari have better performance in like everything?". Yes, well, if you completely ignore PRICE, sure...

Yes, that explains why cinemas aren't dead - even if people watch more movies on their TVs.

[Biomega]

Yes, that explains why cinemas aren't dead - even if people watch more movies on their TVs.

There's absolutely things a cinema can deliver that the home experience can't, and absolutely there's people willing to pay for it.

But let's not kid ourselves: the biggest reason to see it at the theater is that you can't see it at home for 2+ months after release.

[Ihavewaffles]

There's absolutely things a cinema can deliver that the home experience can't, and absolutely there's people willing to pay for it.

But let's not kid ourselves: the biggest reason to see it at the theater is that you can't see it at home for 2+ months after release.

I think the biggest issue is that the writing is so shit nowadays that people become reluctant to haul their ass to the cinema, pay for movie, parking, snacks, gas etc. n then get dissapointed n have to get home...
If ur at home, u can just change to something else to do. Less hassle


As for streaming, some movies are made cinema experience (Avengers, Blade Runner 2049, Dune, etc) so I would refuse to choose streaming before cinema if they came out at the same time..

[Fencers]

Why on Earth would anyone choose to go to a cinema and be surrounded by strangers for what they could see at home, I have no idea

They can't though. If the scale, sound, and community are not factors in your enjoyment of cinema then fundamentally you do not like cinema. I am sure you personally have liked films and enjoyed them, of course. But cinema? It is expressly the projected image in a communal setting.

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But staying home is cheaper.

Sure. Cooking at home is cheaper too. And drinking at home. And listening to music at home. Doing nothing is cheapest of all!

People go out because they are enjoying the experience of these things.

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I think the biggest issue is that the writing is so shit nowadays that people become reluctant to haul their ass to the cinema, pay for movie, parking, snacks, gas etc.

This is nonsense. Cinema Scores and audience polling is the highest and more positive it has ever been in the industry. So much so that even an audience giving a film a B- is rare in modern cinema.

[JDL49]

In all reality, what keeps the cinemas making money is their concessions with huge margins compared to movie tickets where they may get half that money. Getting a soft drink for $5-$7 that costs pennies to the cinema has a higher profit than they likely get from selling a single movie ticket. While ticket sales help, it's not where the real money is.

This is half-right on the facts but 100% right on the conclusion. Theaters get 50% only after 5-6 weeks on big films and much earlier on smaller films. Which means B.O. is even less of a contributer to income than you were suggesting. But that said concession prices are so high that that people have stopped buying if it all possible so that part is less per admission than I believe you than it is

When it comes to production companies, there's a huge shift to streaming because it's way more cost effective. Again, when it comes to everything that goes into making a movie and getting it shown on a screen, the production companies need to now make roughly two to three times as much as their movie budget in order to break even. When you see "X movie made $700mil in ticket sales!", in reality the production companies only made half of that. When you factor in other things like advertising (which is usually not put into the budget numbers you see publicly), losing out on money the cinemas cuts from their tickets is big.

To call streaming cost effective as of now is a joke. Netflix and D+ are the only streamers turning a profit and God only knows how long that will continue for Netflix as they continue to hemorrhage content. Unless they find a way to access some content with high episode counts long term they've got problems that Disney doesn't.

Cost Effective essentially means getting the most bang for the buck but since it is impossible to compare Box OffIce and Streamer Subscription revenues on a per show basis that is simply out of the question. However pvod is comparable and has been shown over the past two years to be inferior to theaters.

Why streaming is their current move is due to their profit model shifting from ticket sales to subscriptions. With subscriptions, you're basically getting all the money (unless you cut deals with places for promotionals, but that's getting into the weeds). With how often people visit the movies right now, you'll make more money keeping someone subscribed to your streaming service over time versus the quick hits from movies being cinema releases. In some ways, it's akin to live service games vs one-shot games: constant investing in your live service game is proving to be way more profitable than a one-and-done sale of a game with no live service.

Actually the move to streaming has slowed down. I don't know what's going to be left of the HBO/WB service when Discovery is thru with them but it's not going to be pretty. Imo there will be only two (primarily) U.S. based subscription services that are sure to matter internationialy; Netflix and Disney.

What is gathering steam in that area is avod on a more local (US/Canada) footing. Avod is a different animal advertising wise. It does not yet have a dependable ad sales model that you can risk greenlighting most shows on and until it does it's going to grow slowly.

Obviously there's nuances to everything, but I foresee the cinemas suffering because production companies are shifting towards a new model. Where I think they'll hit a roadbump is that a lot of the content they're putting out is crap... but unfortunately a lot of people will devour mediocre content regardless because there's a drought in really outstanding content depending upon where you look. If you're looking at indie productions, times are great. However, the average normie is likely not looking beyond on the mainstream production companies, and these normies still make up the vast majority of their profits right now.

There is less shifting than you think. Partially because theater income has been shown to be superior but also because tbe movie unions and guilds are fighting over the details with the studios on the move to streaming. (keyword residuals) If they get their way streaming becomes less profitable and right now is not a good time to take a gamble.

I also think you are overlooking some of the lingering effecs of covid. Older audience have been slow to return to the theaters. The movie pipeline for non blockbusters was destroyed by the pandemic. Theaters, especially large cineplexes need much more content than is available, If I had to guess a lot of that content besides all of the WB slate either was put on hold or sold to a streamer last year.

Going out on a limb however I do think the business (theaters) may well contract a bit, I just don't see it's imminent demise.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I go to them when a quality movie hits. The problem is when I see the previews of the up and coming all I kind of do is sign and turn away. Probably down to about 1 a year now that I see and think.. you know what.. lets go see that. Almost everything else is just.. whelp.. I will wait an extra month or two and then see it at the house.

[enigma77]

I haven't been to a cinema in years.

They are overpriced and the other people are annoying.

[schwank05]

Bro if you're spending $200 to take 4 people to the movies, find a different theatre. There is no way that is accurate.

Yes their concessions are expensive, but say a ticket is $17.50 average. Usually tickets for children are cheaper, but lets just say they aren't for some reason: That's $70. You can easily lower this by getting some kind of membership.

Concessions are like $5 for a drink and then you can easily share 1-2 bags of popcorn which can't be more than $15

Seems to me like you guys are probably just gluttonous, there is no reason to order a bag of popcorn for everyone - but even if you did it might be like $35

So you're looking at less than $150 and thats buying way too much shit

Movies are definitely way too pricey but I've never spent even close to $100 at one. Usually my tab on my own is less than $30.

We get 2 drinks and 2 popcorns which is $60-80 depending on theatre and then you have to figure $18.00/ Ticket price so I rounded that to $20.00 and then you have the $40-50 in Gas it takes to get there so yeah $200.00 when I can just sit at home and enjoy everything and my Dog can join in as well.

[Fencers]

We get 2 drinks and 2 popcorns which is $60-80 depending on theatre and then you have to figure $18.00/ Ticket price so I rounded that to $20.00 and then you have the $40-50 in Gas it takes to get there so yeah $200.00 when I can just sit at home and enjoy everything and my Dog can join in as well.

2 adults and 2 children would be $$53.98 before tax at a matinee of the cheapest first-run theater in my area. Not counting snacks, parking, gas, and so on. $65 even for tickets alone if I was back on the East Coast for the same film at the same time and day.

Whole sha-bang. Without parking.




Local theater within walking distance:

[Metekaikr]

yeah, home is cheaper and it's better when you have a big screen

[dextersmith]

Theatres means having to put pants on

Are kids and their parents freaking out again? lol

[Kokolums]

Keep in mind that if too many theaters go bust the system goes bust no matter how well the better ones are doing.

The problems as I see it are that;

1) the audiences for non blockbusters are coming back much more slowly. There will be exceptions of course but as a whole they are lagging and lagging badly. Now these flicks don't sell as many tickets as the Spidermans et al but the business model as it currently exists depends on them, at least in part. If they knew these flicks weren't going to bring in audiences when they were starting up there be far fewer screens in the first place and some cinemas would never have been built,

Fewer showings decreases foot traffic to the malls many of these things are attached to and guess what, that is figured in to their rents. Take that away and rents go up.

2) The revenue system that exists now is screwy. On big revenue pics the studios hog the revenues, partly due to the fact that 3-4 flops of say John Carter porportions will wreck a studio because of the costs involved so the risks are scary and deals stink. Also note that lately the blockbusters are getting more screens in the first 2-3 weeks than before. The revenue sharing in week 4 of a big hit is much better than in week 2. But if you are adding extra screens and times your week 4 revenue and thereafter is, for most hits, going to be noticeably less.
(Maverick type runs are f'ing rare, theaters made more on that than three Thor 3's which did half the B.O. of TG2 )

i really liked john carter.

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Why on Earth would anyone choose to go to a cinema and be surrounded by strangers for what they could see at home, I have no idea. The size and scale are barely positives for me, and vastly outweighed by the cost and discomfort. It's just not that important to my experience that I see it on the scope of the cinema, and more often than not I find the volume annoyingly loud anyway.

Obviously everyone is different, as we can see in this thread some people like going to the cinema, but I can't see myself ever going again without being cajoled by someone else.

a lot of people are extroverted where just sitting in a crowd is electrifying and opting to watch a film at home is a colossal waste.

[Jastall]

Theatre brings an experience you can't beat unless you spend a truly huge amount of money on home cinema. I don't go there super often but I do for the big budget stuff that are worth it.

[JDL49]

Theatre brings an experience you can't beat unless you spend a truly huge amount of money on home cinema. I don't go there super often but I do for the big budget stuff that are worth it.

The sound is usually awful, if you need sub-titles odds are they are unavailable, you can't pause the movie, the snacks are grossly over-priced, you have to drive there and back, half the audience can't put up their cell phones, and it's a germ pit. The shared highs aren't worth it anymore for many of us.

[Biomega]

The shared highs aren't worth it anymore for many of us.

Definitely how I feel about it.

I don't think I've been to a theater since... Endgame? And I only saw that in theater because I had to, as it was relevant to work I was doing. Now I just wait until it's streamable and watch it at home. Having to wait a few months doesn't bother me at all, though of course it'd be nice not to have to (and for some you don't).

I get what people see in the theater experience, I just don't happen to value it that much. I structure social activities differently, and it really hasn't made me look back. At all.

[Allicie]

I like to go to the cinema, but only to those films that I really want to see in a special setting, so that I can celebrate by going to the cinema. Otherwise, I like watching movies at home for several reasons. I can choose the movie that I want. I can stop watching a movie for any reason and resume when it suits me. At home I have a very cozy place to watch a movie that I made for myself. In general, going to the cinema is good, but not often.

[craigw]

6 bucks a ticket where i live ($4 for children under 12). god you areas cost of living is just stupid. take 2 kids, my gir,l and i to theatere for 20 bucks. add in refreshmsnets takes it to around 40. which i find completely fair to pay. roughly 10 bucks per person is fine.

[JDL49]

Cinemas is an industry I wish would go the way of Blockbuster sooner rather than later.

You just dialed it up to 11 on the clueless meter. If the admissions for theaters dies
then there won't be any more more big movies with awe-inspiring vfx because
streamers can't carry that kind of weight, now or for the foreseeable future.