re: Most theater execs believe the moviegoing experience will be dead in 20 years...

Of the course the shared movie experience is a thing ... no misspelled what needed.

The movie/TV industry is not dying, but the way films and TV are distributed is changing. The big, giant box store style theater chains will need to adapt and scale back like their actual box store brethren.

Their are at least six smaller, independent theaters here in Pittsburgh that function quite fine as compliments to the cineplexes. The big city markets in the US and all markets in Europe will continue to exist. Not everyone wants to sit at home all the time.

And no, people are not going to be satisfied with AI driven content. At least in the next 50 years. That's ridiculous.

well its a combo of being expensive, having really nice tvs speakers etc has become so cheap its no longer just the wealthy that have these things to enhance your home viewing experience, annnnnd the knowledge that whatever is out in theatres currently will be on one of the streaming services they're already paying for in a few months so why not just wait?

The only true reason to go now is if the movie if significantly enhanced by seeing it in theatre or you just don't want it spoiled for you.

I think they all under estimated that during the streaming wars and probably can't put the tooth paste back in the tube because habits have now changed

quote:

---

There are theaters far nicer than your description. Watching at home, even with the best “home theater” equipment,
can not match the actual theater experience.
Even the historic Prytania Theater has
Upgraded its sound system and projection equipment considerably. There’s no substitute for going to the movies”. It’s something loved since the age of nine or ten(or earlier with my parents).
I do not get nearly as engaged with a film when I watch at home…

---

This is true. Big screen with big sound. Yeah, you can get overthetop sound systems at home, but being in a theater with a big screen is different. Just sucks there are so few movies I want to see these days.

There’s already been too many movies made

I could never see a new movie again the rest of my life and be happy watching movies that have already been made that I’ve seen or haven’t yet seen

quote:

---

Real talk - the moviegoing experience has simply become too expensive for families. A family of 4 can easily drop $100 to go see a film (with concessions) and that isn't particularly new.

The death spiral has been: Hollywood only wants a sure thing, so they make 5 different films over and over and over again, just repackaging and incorporating the same stories in different IPs. This is the pop music model. That used to work much more consistently than it does now.

They can't/won't make smaller and more niche films (that might blow up into something) because of the insane barrier to entry and limited upside.

So, they double/triple down - Fast and Furious 63, yet another Superman origin story, a remake of a remake of a remake of an animated film, etc.

At a certain point, the audience has had enough, again, particularly with the cost.

---

Matt Damon explained it extremely well on the hot wing challenge thing. He said back in the day you didn't need to make all your money at the box office because you had the DVD behind it, which basically amounted to a 2nd opening of sorts. He said now that tech and streaming has made that obsolete, studios need to hit the home run at release. Say you have a 50 million dollar movie to produce. You then need to do another 50 mil to promote it so you're in it for 100 mil. You split everything with the theaters 50/50 so realistically, you need to make 200 mil to break even on a 50 million dollar movie. He said this risk has all but eliminated the studios making movies like Good Will Hunting, thus you get re-packaged super hero movies over and over because it's all the studios will risk making anymore.

Hollywood's "go woke", resulted in innocent theater owners "going broke"

That is really sad

Just like the NFL

To me, a lot of this falls on the studios and distributors.

Studios are pursuing a lot of formulaic content and paying metric fricktons for known talent (writers, directors, stars). They (and their distributors) generally take anywhere from 70%-90% of ticket sales for the first week or two, leaving the local theater with anywhere from 10%-30% (depending on numerous things). Over the following weeks, the share the local theater gets climbs slowly so that by maybe a month later they are getting 50%-80%.

But how many movies are staying in theaters for a month these days? And of those, how many are drawing even half-full auditoriums for any of their screenings by that time?

So theaters end up having to charge out the arse for concessions, making what was once an economical yet fun outing for you and your date now costing about like a night at Ruth's Chris.

To add to this, the behavior level of your average audience member has declined. Loud talking, asshats looking on their brightly glowing phones, young children being allowed to run rampant (which is especially annoying in a movie they have no business being in, like a Deadpool or Saw movie). This isn't something which can be controlled by the studios, but needs to be policed better by the theater... but with what money would they pay such folks?

It's no wonder a declining number of people want to be overcharged for a lesser experience.

quote:

---

every studio has a streaming service and as soon as the profit margins shift they drop the movie on their streaming service and cut the legs out of the theatre

with few exceptions

---

Yep, they are like a wolf pack overhunting an area to the point where they begin to starve out.

What's likely to happen is we'll see the slow erosion of theaters until it becomes more profitable for studios to just release their blockbusters direct to streaming.

Being a Boomer, there was a time when you could go to a lot of movies because they were cheap enough that you could role the dice to see if it was any good. If it was a stinker you didn't feel too put out aside from waist time. Because of the insane movie prices/conssessions I never go until I hear the word of mouth mainly from this board because it's a bunch of straight shooters.

I still love seeing a quality movie in a theater but am very selective. The last think I went to the theater and watched was Deadpool and Wolverine and was not disaapointed. I'll probably go see Superman and definitely the Fantstic Four and it was my childhood favorite comic.

Here's a comparision from 1975 when Jaws came out and now:

Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.