Why Movie Theatres Are Losing Money
And I'm not talking about DVD rentals, although they definitely make it easier for them to lose money.
1. They are no longer date friendly. The monstrous, chaotic, warehouse-like 20-plex not only bears more resemblance to a San Francisco rave than the old friendly neighbourhood movie theatre, but maintaining physical or even eye contact through the bustling mobs of people at the ticket and food lines is about as easy as meditating in the Beijing subway.
2. You're more likely to win the lottery than to be able to watch a movie on a weekend without a reservation. I'm not sure how this works — perhaps something like the way that airlines run the absolute minimum number of flights for a route — but Friday and Saturday movies, even for the bad films, are almost inevitably sold out an hour in advance.
3. Weekday showtimes are . . . ridiculous. Even if you want to dodge the weekend rush and see a movie after work, your typical choices are something like 6:45 and 10:20. In other words, starve to death and race like hell from the office to the theatre, or stay up half the night on a worknight. Whatever happened to 8pm or 9pm shows?
And lastly,
4. The movies themselves are just Not That Good. This week seems to be a bit of an exception (Ratatouille, Harry Potter, etc), but otherwise, your choices are to undergo a lot of hassle to watch something bad, or wait for a film festival (or the inevitable DVD rental) to watch something worthwhile.
Don't know if anyone's listening, but yeah, there it is. Just sayin'.
1. They are no longer date friendly. The monstrous, chaotic, warehouse-like 20-plex not only bears more resemblance to a San Francisco rave than the old friendly neighbourhood movie theatre, but maintaining physical or even eye contact through the bustling mobs of people at the ticket and food lines is about as easy as meditating in the Beijing subway.
2. You're more likely to win the lottery than to be able to watch a movie on a weekend without a reservation. I'm not sure how this works — perhaps something like the way that airlines run the absolute minimum number of flights for a route — but Friday and Saturday movies, even for the bad films, are almost inevitably sold out an hour in advance.
3. Weekday showtimes are . . . ridiculous. Even if you want to dodge the weekend rush and see a movie after work, your typical choices are something like 6:45 and 10:20. In other words, starve to death and race like hell from the office to the theatre, or stay up half the night on a worknight. Whatever happened to 8pm or 9pm shows?
And lastly,
4. The movies themselves are just Not That Good. This week seems to be a bit of an exception (Ratatouille, Harry Potter, etc), but otherwise, your choices are to undergo a lot of hassle to watch something bad, or wait for a film festival (or the inevitable DVD rental) to watch something worthwhile.
Don't know if anyone's listening, but yeah, there it is. Just sayin'.