NYT,pg1: With Popcorn, DVD's and TiVo, Moviegoers Are Staying Home

[DeepModem Mom]

With Popcorn, DVD's and TiVo, Moviegoers Are Staying Home
By LAURA M. HOLSON
Published: May 27, 2005


....many Americans are changing how they watch movies - especially young people, the most avid moviegoers. For 13 weekends in a row, box-office receipts have been down compared with a year ago, despite the blockbuster opening of the final "Star Wars" movie. And movie executives are unsure whether the trend will end over the important Memorial Day weekend that officially begins the summer season.

Meanwhile, sales of DVD's and other types of new media continue to surge.

With box-office attendance sliding, so far, for the third consecutive year, many in the industry are starting to ask whether the slump is just part of a cyclical swing driven mostly by a crop of weak movies or whether it reflects a much bigger change in the way Americans look to be entertained - a change that will pose serious new challenges to Hollywood.

Studios have made more on DVD sales and licensing products than on theatrical releases for some time. Now, technologies like TiVo and video-on-demand are keeping even more people at home, as are advanced home entertainment centers, with their high-definition television images on large flat screens and multichannel sound systems.

"It is much more chilling if there is a cultural shift in people staying away from movies," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the Exhibitor Relations Company, a box-office tracking firm. "Quality is a fixable problem."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/business/media/27movie.html

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I think this was news like 3-4 years ago. Maybe back to the invention of

the VCR.

Probably doesn't help matters that movies are $10

[thebigidea]

2. with all the shit going down these days, this shift is hardly "chilling"

Besides, who cares about the multiplexes and the crap they shovel. The deserve to go out of business.

When faced with competition, adapt and expand. Make people want to go to the theater - don't whine and snivel about it. What do they want, government handouts?

These whiny fucks should take a page from the theater owners response to the rise of TV - the same bullshit was said decades ago, the theaters countered with widescreen and all kinds of gimmicks.

[jayfish]

3. Morans!

Chilling? Chilling? I'll tell ya what's chilling; paying $20 to get in the door, $15 for a tub of popcorn and glass of pop and then having to sit through 15 minutes of commercials before the movie starts. No f'ing thnx. I used to go to movies all of the time. Now maybe once a year. I might, just might, go see "War of The Worlds", but I doubt it.

Jay

[Benhurst]

4. I feel the same way. And I refuse to buy $15 popcorn and usually

smuggle in my own refreshments.

[jayfish]

7. I've Done That Myself,...

but it adds a bit of trension to seeing the movie.

Jay

[laheina]

5. Chilling?

$10 to get in and $5 for my sodie-pop, if I go by myself. Chances are the theater will be full of inconsiderate asses, at least one of which has brought their 6 month old. Everyone is packed in like chattel, and the movie may or may not suck.

What the hell does it matter if I'm inconvenienced, because the actor got their 2-20 mil, the theater, the chain, and the studio got their bite out of me...

Chilling...?

[trogdor]

6. Believe me, it's sucky movies.

I like going to the movies. I really do. I don't mind paying eight bucks for a really good one. I don't even mind paying five bucks for a matinee showing of a fairly decent one. The problem is, MOST OF THE SHIT THEY SHOW AT THE CINEMA ISN'T EVEN WORTH MY TIME IF IT WERE ON HBO, let alone my money and gas.

:rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:

[Coventina]

8. You pay a huge sum for the ticket, get raped for concessions

and then get treated to an audience with no manners at all (crying babies, bratty kids, surly teens, cell phone users, people kicking the back of your chair, etc.) and management shrugs if you complain.

Plus, there's hardly ever anything worth going to see.

Yeah, I hardly ever go to movies anymore. I used to enjoy it. But the joy has gone.

[cybildisobedience]

10. agree completely

most of the people in movie theaters these days are kids who told their parents that they were going to the movies, only decided to use the venue as a place for socializing. So instead of actually watching a movie, they sit there and talk like they're in a food court of something. No consideration for anyone around them, no parental supervision, and no management personnel who are willing to address the problem.
It almost makes going to the movies unbearable.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. That and if the film hass any special effects, they play it so loud

you have a threshhold shift in your hearing and ringing in your ears when you leave the theater.

[shrike]

9. We go to a small, independent theater near us that shows art films

That place continues to soldier on -- costs about 5 bucks to see the movie, a few bucks for popcorn. Plus, they have an intermission where they serve refreshments (cake and cookies!)

There's another place in Michigan that shows REALLY esoteric films -- the kind you'd probably only see in New York or L.A.

[thebigidea]

14. exactly - we should support those kinds of theaters.

thee will always be a market for niche theaters showing classic films and arthouse fare... but do we really need jillions of multiplexes playing the same 3 movies on 12 screens each?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. No..we need more Big Idea films :)

[thebigidea]

18. if only a single executive in LA thought so.

fuck em! Back on the east coast, back in the celluloid basement. At least its cozy there.

[M155Y_A1CH]

11. On a similar note...

The blacksmith trade continues to decline
since the invention of the family car.

[fortyfeetunder]

12. My values haven't changed...

I go to movies about once or twice a year, ever since I was young child. Today, it's something my spouse or my child wants to see. I think I see more cartoons and animations than the dramas, comedies, or more "adult fare".

The movies today are worse in quality and quantity, and they are still full of the cultural stereotypes and misconceptions we see every day in mainstream media. Diversity is lacking, you mean to tell me every heroine, no matter what role is some waif-like young blonde?

I don't buy into what Hollywood dishes out. For that money, I can go to the library get a few good books on a variety of subjects, and spend the movie money on a good meal.

[KansDem]

13. Yeah, and they always live in some huge house...

I'm constantly amazed at the lodgings for these people: Always as least two stories (with basement) and their kitchen is larger than my whole house! I ask myself, "What do these people do for a living?"

[lazarus]

17. I got sick of the crowd and the crap

The only time we'll go see a film anymore is the first showing on Sunday morning, when the theatre's nearly empty.

[Rex_Goodheart]

19. I don't go out to the movies any more...

Except on very rare occasions, to see cultural phenomena like "Return of the King."

Every time I go something unpleasant happens.

What made me swear off movies was when some guy kept kicking the back of my seat... this guy was in his 40's... I turned around to ask him to stop... and his reply was "Oh, I thought you were liking it." And his idiot wife thought he was so clever and funny.. she just let out this big belly laugh, instead of asking her husband to cut it out.

The time before that somebody kept smoking.. the manager came over to ask him to put it out... he did... but as soon as the manager left he lit another... So a few minutes later the manager came out again, and asked him to leave the theater. Of course a big argument ensued, while the movie was still running. What joy it is to be around people in crowds, eh?

Same thing for football games... Some jackass behind me decided he was going to scream cheers through his megaphone right behind my head between plays while everybody else was quiet. When I asked him to stop he got very hostile, then started hitting me in the back of the head with his program. I got security to come over and others around me confirmed that he was being an ass, so security escorted him out... But as he was being escorted out he yelled at me "I'm going to be waiting for you outside, m********er."

Who needs any of that? People are RUDE.

[jayfish]

20. Rex, As Hostile As This Might Sound,...

a tight right-hook can do wonders. You seem to be a magnet for spectator abuse.

Jay