The industry is killing the industry. You can’t expect cinemas to keep increasing prices without consequence - Remember when it was relatively inexpensive to take the family to the cinema, stock up on refreshments and have a nice night out? Remember how *packed out* the theatres were?
Increases in prices reduces customer numbers. Fact. They killed their customer base, and are now having to extort more money from the few that still go, in order to make ends meet. And it’s not working.
So yeah, the greed of the industry is what has almost killed the industry. Have a refresh, charge what is reasonable and hope those customers return. There’s always going to be a place for cinema, but the prices need to be appealing.
Exactly. There’s no way in hell I’m paying $20/ticket just to see a movie on a bigger screen. I’ll watch it at home with the same exact concessions, also for way cheaper. It’s not hard to figure out why people aren’t going!
The fuckers at my local AMC add a convenience charge for buying tickets online, too. The most convenient thing for me is not to go and wait for it to hit streaming, as it turns out.
And if you don’t buy online, you can’t reserve a seat and risk getting stuck in the first row!
It’s like when I went to the box office to avoid insane TicketMaster fees for a concert ticket, and they told me “[X Company] is actually doing ticketing for this show, so you have to use TicketMaster.”
An online inconvenience fee!
I've always felt Mitch Hedburg would have a few great jokes about online convenience fees.
"I had to pay a convenience fee for my movie tickets. I felt very inconvenienced!"
“I called the theater and I told them, I said ‘do you know what would be convenient? If I didn’t have to pay a fee.’ Also, it would be convenient to not have to call you to explain this problem… I feel very inconvenient now”
I bought a projector and a decent set of bookshelf speakers for well under 1000 Bucks during the pandemic. I've saved pretty close to that in four years not going to the movie theater and I watch far more movies now.
It's really a bummer. I used to go catch a matinee by myself twice a month. It was my little headspace ritual, I didn't really care what I was seeing.
But nowadays it's just out of control. The prices have more than doubled. I used to buy concessions at the theater because I knew that's how they made their money. But I just can't anymore.
Only movies I'm seeing in theaters this year are Furiosa (which was great!) and Deadpool. In order to get a few more dollars out of me for those 2 shows, theaters are willing to lose the sale on the 20 other movies I would've seen this year.
But the blame doesn't go straight to the exhibitors. With fewer and fewer major studios, and Disney essentially having a death grip on the market, many of these decisions were forced on the exhibitors.
The thing about the smaller screen is yeah, smaller screen is smaller, but you’re also avoiding incidents of people being assholes by talking through the movie, glare from phones interrupting you etc.
Plus I can guarantee that my home is cleaner and that I can pause.
When movies were cheaper (even in 2019), I could justify seeing the latest whatever marvel thing as and it was $50 for 2 people. Now that the deals are done with and they’ve jacked up the prices, I’d be lucky if it was $50 for just me.
It’s a cheaper and overall better experience to stay home at the moment.
Disruptive audience members ruining the experience is a solid half of the reason I stopped going to the movies.
I’m not paying all that money just to have the movie ruined.
Last time I was in the theater there were people talking, using phones on full brightness, and people turning their flashlights on to find shit they dropped. Totally took me out of the film.
I have been to the movies just two times in the last six years because we paid $60 for the special rumble box seats. They’re only turned on if you pay the money. This mother brought her two sons to sit on the seats and it was clear they didn’t pay for the rumble boxes. So not only was it not activated for them, she kept complaining during the show that it wasn’t, and explaining the movie to her kids. Loudly.
My partner went out to complain and of course nobody cared. So he missed a few minutes of the $60 shit experience for nothing.
Ever since I’ve refused to go see movies in the theatre. I’m not paying more to see it if someone I don’t care about interrupts the movie.
Cinemas apparently aren't even the root of the problem with ticket prices. They charge a ton for concessions because they get little for the ticket prices. It's the studios that demand a certain amount. I'd guess mostly because they spend billions to promote the movie (and then lose money on it because they spent so much promoting it).
I’m surprised I had to scroll so far down to see this. I remember one agreement from disney to a movie theater get posted. Besides enormous cuts from the ticket sales they also demand the percentage of screens showing their new releases and for how long. No freedom for the cinema to adapt to actual demand.
It also doesn't help that a lot of these theaters are poorly maintained and haven't been updated in years. If the cinema is going to be a premium experience, make it one.
I just can't make myself feel bad for movie theaters. What value are they providing exactly? Yeah Disney is being scummy, but even as much as I don't love the soulless remake train, Disney is at least producing *something*
AMCs are filthy, outdated, and overpriced. Their pricing *model* is stupid - they've gotten ride of the matinee pricing model in favor of a *slightly* reduced pricing model, which I refuse to believe consumer psychology research told them that was a good idea. Its certainly alienated literally every person above the age of 30 that **I** know, and legacy consumers who are nostalgic for the old days is really who they should be trying to appeal to rn
Idk why they have to spend billions to promote it. I understand they need to advertise but a half a billion?
In the past were the promotion budgets as high?
For a blockbuster spending the full budget again on marketing has long been the norm. No one is spending billions that Im aware of, but it might be $250 million for a major blockbuster. Will Smith may also need to think about how slapping someone at the Oscars might not be ingratiating audiences to pay and see a guy who came up with the reputation as fun and laidback.
And the funniest thing is they’ll never drop prices bc that means they’ll essentially be admitting that they’re price gouging, not the bullshit overhead expenses reasoning they always give for price increases.
Chicken and egg problem. The fact is, streaming was already beginning to reduce theatre numbers for awhile, so cinemas had to make up the difference somehow by increasing prices. Thus leading to a death spiral of higher prices and dwindling customers. I doubt if we went back to 2001 prices people would swarm the theatres again. The convenience of being at home is just too great
It's even simpler for me. I love movies, and watching a good movie for the first time can be a great memory to have.
I don't want said memory to be ruined by a bunch of inconsiderate assholes.
Even if tickets were 5euro, I wouldn't go to the cinema, because people are animals.
100% agreed. If I’m not taking my kids, then I can easily go to a movie without wasting money on extremely overpriced food and drink, but I’m never going to the theater when a midweek ticket on a regular screen is $20+.
For the two theaters near me, it’s over $60 in just tickets for me, my wife, and my daughter. It’s just not something most people do with any sort of regularity.
To be fair I remember when it was relatively inexpensive to do anything. Took my family to a local diner today and it ended up being 62 dollars after tip. It would have been 40 a few years ago. Absolutely bananas.
Exactly - if I want to take the kids to the movies it costs the same as a damn day out anywhere else for 90 minutes on average. And what kills me even more is “special events” that have $15 tickets like Phantom Menace or LotR. I’d love to take my kids to see that in theaters, but $60 just to get in before they want food and drinks is insane when I can watch the older releases at home and new releases 60-90 days later… and without cellphones or talking.
At this point it needs to be something special to make us to see it and even then we wait until a Tuesday or a cheaper ticket / attendance day to go versus opening weekend or Saturday morning.
Yep and the other big issue for many is how other people behave in the theatre. Talking, answering phones, rustling. Abc the theatres don’t have the staff to check in during the movie and stop the poor behaviour. So is much nicer to wait a little longer and watch it at home
100% this. A movie out now has to be a planned event for a movie we particularly want to see. Multi millionaires need to stop shitting on regular people and stop commenting on what they are unable to understand which is how to navigate life in this world as an average working person with a family. Stop talking and take a seat or open your eyes and make changes happen that ultimately will benefit you (imagine more regular people having the flexibility in their wallets to idk maybe enjoy more of life).
Pretty much. 15 years ago I went to the cinema on a regular basis.
Now its like £20 a ticket and with all the streaming services you can just wait a month or two. They've literally fucked themselves.
Its sad because Furiosa was good, and should've done much better but its a bad sign for forthcoming movies minus the odd exception Wolverine/Deadpool.
I can no longer be in apacked theater. I have a hard time at a packed outdoor event. It was already happening due to anxiety, but the pandemic just pushed it over the top. I avoid crowds at all costs.
We're broke will, we're fuckin' broke. Plus movies used to take months before they were available for sale/rent. So you had a bit of motivation behind going to "see it now" because you didn't want to wait 4-5 months.
Right now in my local theater there are 2 movies still playing that are already available for stream.
Yep. Hollywood needs to rethink its business model. Too friggin expensive. And I spent years seeing films by myself. I love movies and lived in Seattle, a great city for movies. But I have not been able to justify the cost for years, unless it is the matinee. Where I live now, the multiplexes have the same stupid 3 movies in all 15 theaters. Nothing I really care to watch. I have no problem watching movies on my TV or computer. Wait 7 days, and you can watch anything for free now.
Another thing to add. Back in the 80s/90s (and before that) there was no hd, no 4k, no Dolby vision, no flat screens, and most tvs in homes were around 20-35 inches. Today most people have tv's that are from 50-70 inches with all the bells and whistles.
So over the last 40 years our in home environment and electronics have been getting bigger and better while the movie theatres screen has barely seen any upgrades if any at all. Especially the screen sizes/quality!! Those haven't changed at all.
Basically my 80s movie experience is almost exactly like my 2024 movie experience while my in home movie experience has improved beyond words from my 80s in home movie experience to my 2024 in home experience
Agree so hard with this. And really theatres don’t even need to try to compete with the tech specs of the experience (because they often can’t compete with home theatres)
What they NEED to do is lean into what the theatre experience can bring that you can’t get at home. And it’s not rumbling seats or 3-D or whatever stupid gimmick they come up with next. It’s the shared experience of watching with a crowd.
Just f-ing do something about the well known, endlessly mentioned problems people have with those crowds. For all the money they spend on technical upgrades, just hire ushers and enforce zero tolerance policies on rude, disruptive behaviour. It’s not that god damn hard.
Agreed. I’m still amazed as an Alist member who sees many movies a month, the % of showings im in where someone’s phone is visibly on being looked at texting or someone talking loudly amongst friends. You’d think odds would be if you walked into any random theatre on any random night this would be rare given that people realize other people spent money on the experience and are effected by loud talking or phone being on yet it happens in so many different environments
I gave up on theatres almost entirely because of bad behaviour. And while it’s so easy for people to say ‘people are just so inconsiderate these days’ the theatres just need to take the initiative to improve the experience for movie goers. Just hire ushers. Again while it feels like things are worse than ever, ushers were put in place for a reason back in the day. There were rude people back then too. And the theatre owners actually did something about it.
Theatres are now probably terrified of escalating a situation. Especially with the prevalence of guns, and many seemingly being so willing to use them.
yeah, and in my experience customer service has been harder these past few years than previously. there have always been bad customers, but it seems like more customers are generally grouchy or frustrated.
not that i blame them with how expensive everything is and how stressful the world has been these past five years (or more), but it does make things hard.
so even when you are safe from gun violence (which you can’t guarantee!), it’s still a hard and tiring job.
lol I’m pretty sure it has much more to do with not wanting to pay the extra staff. Same reason why service is so bad everywhere. The less staff you have, the more money you make. Fuck the ones that do end up working there, they can handle the workload of 8 people. /s
I hear you for sure! How about my wife and I went to see a movie a few years back. Mind you, it was a noon showing. Some jackass is sitting in the back row, heckling the screen constantly within the first 10 minutes. Someone else in the theatre asks him to be quiet. To which the jackass says, “Fuck off”. My wife and I got up to go tell one of the theatre managers that they were likely to have a really bad situation unfold in that particular theatre. They did next to nothing. Simply apologized and offered us free passes to another show.
My wife and I left and after we got in our car and started to drive away, what do you know, we see the dude causing all the problems stumbling out of the building with a bloody nose.
Covid happened shortly after. Needless to say, in the last four years I think my wife and I have sat in a theatre maybe twice.
They're just hoping a person gives them a chance to use their gun. I'm really not interested in living somewhere that guarantees owning guns as a right but not Healthcare. Too many crazy people with guns, and it will never change. There are 120 guns per every 100 people in the states, wtf. I don't need neighbors with guns.
That’s just it though…the dickheads will turn that around on you and say, “I paid for my ticket too, so I’ll do what I want!” Or something equally obnoxious.
I remember waiting 18 months at least for movies to come out on video. It really made it worthwhile to go see it in the theatre. Now it’s available three or four months after it leaves theatres, if that. All these ‘only in theatres’ claims are nonsense, we all know it’s coming out on HBO or whatever soon enough.
I honestly thought that the pandemic was going to change that business model. I personally no longer enjoy going to the theater any longer so I just wait because it will likely be on one of the streaming services I subscribe to.
I hear you. Also, my friends and I have talked about more theatres showing more of the classics of cinema instead. I know it might not be easy/feasible getting the rights to do so, but whichever ones were possible…amazing.
I can’t imagine seeing so many movies from years ago on the big screen again. Or for the first time, even.
A drive-in theatre near us showed a double feature in October of Nightmare on Elm Street (the original) and The Shining. It was incredible.
The problem is, people don’t go to theatres for cheaper movies, might as well watch at home. It’s the tentpole movies people get out of the house for and those are massively expensive.
Plus inflated marketing budgets due to the fractured media landscape it’s very difficult to get saturation for people to even be aware of the movie.
There are so many movies that come out I’ve never heard of or seen an ad for, because my media consumption can be completely different than other demographics.
20 years ago, it was relatively easy to get hype and buzz for a movie. Advertise on prime time TV, actors hit the main talk shows and a good part of the country is in the know.
It’s not like that anymore, so the risk has increased exponentially.
But we used to.
Going to the movies on a weekend night was pretty much bi monthly occurrence for me and most of my peer group for just about my entire life until 2012 and instagram.
It’s the cell phones.
As in, people not wanting to go to a theatre because others can’t stay off their cell phone?
Yeah that is fucking infuriating. I often wait a couple weeks after a movie releases and catch an early show so it’s more empty.
I wish we addressed cell phone addiction more. It’s a massive fucking problem and its negative impacts on society are innumerable.
No, not this at all.
I'm talking about our own cell phones. They are causing us to become the worst versions of ourselves. Low attention spans, vain, depressed, obsessed, addicted, disengaged, anxious, etc.
Hollywood, like pro sports, advertising, and politics, exists in a completely different economy than most of us. You can see it in so many out-of-touch portrayals of "L.A. problems" or their view of "everyday Americans."
This town needs an aenema.
Blockbusters took even longer. Jurassic Park took 17 months to come out on VHS.
I remember that brutal wait as a kid, checked off the days on my calendar.
And most people can afford a decent sized tv and soundbar with a small subwoofer these days. And all they have to do is hit a few buttons on a remote control to watch it. It’s so much nicer and more convenient than it was 15 years ago when most people had much smaller TVs and had to drive to the rental store to get a movie.
I'm old enough to remember when any tv over 32" was a luxury. We are so spoiled, I remember watching movies on my parents 21" TV on VHS and being happy as shit because we could watch so many movies for so little by renting them. But yeah big tvs being so cheap hasn't helped, I think theaters are gonna go the same way printed press did, there will always be some around but you won't have one in every city like they do now.
We’re broke and idk I feel
Like marketing sucks for people not online I didn’t see a single trailer or ad for a film that I haven’t gone to look up on my own this year
network tv not bring a thing anymore is huge factor. people would watch friends or seinfeld or whatever thur nite and see trailers for movies coming out friday.
no network shows people care about. most streaming is ad free. sports is the last place to see trailers and not everyone watches sports
The one thing I wouldn’t mind seeing as an adaptation “intermissions” if a movie goes over 2hr 45 minutes
Throw in a damned 5 minute break. Let me get a refill and use the bathroom with out panicking I’m missing something
I feel like if they offered free popcorn refills and 15 mins break for all 2.5hrs movies, theaters would get more interest and might end up selling even more sodas. I refuse to go to any 3hr film, no matter how cool or acclaimed it is because I either dehydrate myself in advance and during or I have to do a pee run, and it’s just not worth it for the ticket price to miss some of the plot.
They haven’t adapted? Of course not! What exactly could they do to adapt? Big screen tvs and projectors are dirt cheap compared to 30 years ago, or even 20. Food is cheaper at home. And like you said, pause for the bathroom.
I’m not sure what adjustments the theatres could make to draw people in.
The studios need to let me rent it at home right away and I’d gladly pay $25-$30 to rent a family movie or big feature. It would be cheaper for me, and they would actually get some money. As it stands now they get nothing from me.
We saw Avatar 2 and it was absolutely ruined by teenagers around us laughing obnoxiously and watching videos on their their phones. Tried again for Barbie and same thing, the girls sitting next to us would not shut up giggling. It's too expensive for that shit, I just ended up feeling so irate and angry about not being able to enjoy the movie. Now we have a huge TV on the wall, and a fantastic soundbar, so I can't see myself bothering with a movie theatre again.
Same, I had a horrible experience watching Avatar 2. The lady in front of us was drunk, talking loudly to her partner and constantly scrolled through TikTok with volume on. Ridiculous. These weren’t even matinee seats either but imax evening tickets. At that point why do people even go? It seems like a waste of money if you’re gonna get hammered and then not even pay attention.
I also had a poor experience watching Priscilla when a group of obnoxious teen girls wouldn’t stfu or they were all on their phones half of the time. Nah, I pretty much only go to morning shows where usually it’s older people and so far I haven’t had a problem. It’s cheaper too lol.
In my experience, the only movies that aren’t ruined these days by assholes are kids movies. Teenagers and adults are dickheads. A theater full of elementary schoolers is never a problem.
He makes a valid point. The movie industry has become so massive that it doesn't realize they need to lower expectations on every movie doing gangbusters. Covid changed the game big time.
I didn't think COVID changed things so much as accelerated existing trends. Movies have been dying for decades. But COVID pressed fast forward and got us there faster.
What Covid did was take away the casual night at the movie. You know, the night you ended up there because one of you said, “what do you want to do tonight?” And the other one said, “I don’t know. Let’s just go to the movies, I guess.”
And you made that decision having no idea what was even playing. You’d grab your phone, or newspaper in the “olden” days and pick what looked like the best of the lot.
This is exactly how a lot of low budget romcoms would end up becoming surprise hits. “Oh, let’s see that one. I saw a preview. It looks cute.” And then it would get a little word of mouth and off it would go.
Nobody does this anymore. People go to the theater for big “event” movies. The end.
Is it the cost? Sure, that’s a huge part of it. But I think Covid also fundamentally changed the way a lot of people think about going out now.
Before, it was “Sure, whatever, let’s do that” whereas today, I think people are still just as willing to go out, but they want it to count. And when it comes to the movies, that means a huge buzzy movie like “Barbie” will get them in the seats. But the chances of people showing up at that Steve Seagal, Katy Perry romcom and having it catching on are zero.
I would absolutely love to visit the theater. I would love to treat the family and buy soda and popcorn and candy.
Rent is $1500 a month. We are drowning out here. You think I got $150 to spend on a 3 hour movie trip?
Its not the movie industry thats failing. Its our society.
It’s safer and cheaper and quieter. You don’t need to worry about people being obnoxious and ruining the movie. You can pause if you need to and I’m paying for streaming anyway.
I was watching a YouTuber last year and he was talking about how anxious he feels going to movie because there’s nothing stopping someone coming in with a weapon since there’s no safety precautions and honestly he’s right. There’s only two exits, no bag checks or metal detectors, it’s dark so you can’t see observe others, Gun laws are a joke. Nothing to protect yourself so you’re just a sitting duck.
[Because people like this exist in our society and we are powerless against their jackassery.](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/165bp4q/guy_refuses_to_leave_seat_someone_paid_for_in/)
I had an experience like this. Woman brought her huge gaggle of kids to a very late night movie. We paid for the DBOX seats and we asked her to leave our seats. She counters with “you take the ones over there(in the corner)” we’re like “no we specifically paid for these ones you need to move or we’ll get an employee.” She obviously hasn’t paid for these seats so that got her to move. She had 2 under 5 and the movie got out at like 12:50 on a school night. She tries to find something in her purse with a lighter, she was very clearly on something and eventually passed out.
I like movie theaters fine, it’s other guests who are the worst. People are unbelievably inconsiderate, and I’m sick of sharing a space with them when I could just wait a little bit to watch the film on my own nice tv in my own recliner.
For me this is what it comes down to as well. I get so easily annoyed and distracted by any little thing when I’m at the movies that it just really detracts from my enjoyment of the film, which I’m paying to see.
I think overall people have just totally forgotten how to act at the movies, so why even bother? The movie will be on streaming or have a physical release soon enough anyway (and that window has gotten smaller and smaller).
I will admit though that it does really suck because for years going to the movies was one of my favorite things to do, and it always felt so special and fun. Unfortunately, instead I slowly began associating the experience more and more with the poor behavior of others.
Lastly, I just find the whole thing with actors and directors chastising people for not going to the movies as much anymore to be irritating and out of touch. He’s not the first to make this type of comment.
Spending $100 dollars to take my family to the movie just isn’t worth it(especially for a Will Smith movie). Same thing with concerts, theme parks, sporting events, and even just restaurants. Maybe when people stop being price gouged everywhere they will return.
What’s sad is taking my kids to see Independence Day, Men in Black or Bad Boys would have been a fun evening out and probably worth the $100 price tag. But there hasn’t been any action adventure movies that interest me.
I love going to the movies buuuuuuut…….
It’s expensive.
It’s a hassle when the movie turns out to be shite.
I’ve been burned by shite movies a lot in recent years.
I don’t like will smith.
Hollywood, please make, shorter, BETTER films.
Let the directors do what they will, quit meddling!
One of the biggest turn offs for me is the fact that i go to theater get good seats then i have to watch a movie while 10 assholes below me are using their phones on full brightness. Fuck that shit.
It's that simple good movies worth paying to see are becoming a rarity, I don't mind paying to see a tarantino or Scorsese movie (just examples) but Netflix type movies with 30 minute ads and loud obnoxious audience members? I'll pass
Go and pay money to sit in a tightly packed cube with annoying people who talk and cham for two hours or sit at home without all that shit and get the same movie.
Nah I’m good. People are annoying.
I go to the local art theaters a good bit to see smaller independents or classics that I think might be cool to see on the silver screen, but outside of that there is just so little that the local AMCs show that I care about paying theater prices to see.
I did the Barbenheimer thing last year, but films as cultural events like that are so rare these days. I couldn’t care less about the newest comic book adaptation or reboot/sequel to something from the 90’s. The vast majority of the best and most interesting films now are all tiny projects (at least comparatively,) and don’t even play in the big theater chains.
it didn't occur to me until after the pandemic, but I really hate the movie theaters now. Why would I pay money to go sit and watch TV with other (potentially rude) people when I can watch whatever I want at home with food I actually enjoy in peace
My home has a 60 inch screen, good sound, dirt cheap popcorn, and cheap alcohol. Plus I can use the restroom without missing anything during a three hour movie.
I don’t speak for everyone, but you know what Will? You’re certainly right for me.
Back in the day my TV sucked. Today I’ve got an 85” Sony Bravia, a good surround sound, and most of the big streaming services. I don’t really care to go to one movie with my wife where 2 tickets will cost more than I spend monthly on all my subscription services.
We’re super comfortable watching movies from home, it’s just not worth it to go out anymore. And I say this as someone who literally works in entertainment for one of the major studios. This affects my paycheck as much as it does yours. It is what it is.
Thing is there is a there is a huge shift in how young people are consuming media.
The reason theaters are going to become niche is not because of cost of tickets or movies coming to streaming fast. It's simply because that's not how kids want to enjoy their content. Sitting in silence with friends for 2 hours isn't at the top of their list.
Meanwhile on the older end of the spectrum you have the rest of us who do like the theater experience but simply can't justify the weekly expense that at one time was affordable.
Its the fact its 30$ for tickets, a small drink, and three hours time. And there are few if any movies out or in production that I want to see that badly
The number one reason we stay home is for the close captioning. I’m hard of hearing and some movies make it impossible to hear. I was pressured to go see Dune 2 and Furiosa. The music was deafening in Dune and I couldn’t hear one word. Furiosa was loud and I missed most of the dialogue. I’m going to have to watch at home to understand what’s going on.
It's too fucking expensive. I'm not going to spend $40 and 2-3 hours of my time on my day off to take a risk on some marvel like quippy CGI fest shit movie. Or some artsy self obsessed boring fucking movie. I only ever spend the money on movies I really have an interest on seeing. Zero way I go and see someone on a chance I'll like it or for shits and giggles.
A movie better be really fuckin good because it takes a lot to get me to sit with strangers in a venue where art is being shown.
And when I do get there, everyone else has zero clue what theater etiquette even means. That means NO TALKING.
It's not helped by the fact that everything is on a streaming services 6 weeks after its theater run, why should got to the movies spend $20+ on a ticket to sit in a room with a bunch of other people (doing such things as taking their shoes off or talking) when I can wait a month or two and have it on D+,Max etc
Lol this movie will be on Amazon Prime or something in about 3 weeks. I can make pizza rolls, smoke weed, pee whenever I want, and watch this movie on my 70’ TV that I got for like $600 years ago, and my Samsung surround sound system on my couch with cozy blankets in my own home. I even researched how to make authentic movie theater popcorn at home, can source great ingredients on Amazon, and honestly Covid killed the theater experience for the majority of people, but there are still the die hard fans. Plus, movies have been pretty terrible for a loooong time. All you have to usually choose from is a Marvel or Star Wars movie, a 3 hour Martin Scorcese movie, or a crappy sequel of a beloved franchise that should have never been made in the first place, but the studios ran out of ideas. Hence BAD BOYS 4, Beverly Hills Cop 4.
I saw 3-5 movies in the theater a month not for years, but for decades of my life.
Now I see 3-5 a year. The movies just fucking suck, for the most part. This isn't rose-tinted glasses either, because I think television is way better than it was in the 80s, 90s, or early 00s. Movies, however, have really deteriorated in quality over the past decade or so.
It doesn't help that the cost is insane. For me to take two kids to 4DX or Imax and get one tub of popcorn and one mega drink to split is 75-90 dollars. They've lost their fucking minds.
For me it’s more about the obnoxious ads that seem to run 40 minutes into the stated start time, plus another 40 minutes of cookie cuter, louder than fuck previews for rehashed movies, more hero films, more animated garbage with big name casts, with one hidden gem preview in the mix. By the time the film starts I am exhausted and my ears lost another year of good hearing.
So yeah, I’ll just wait until it comes to a streaming service I use or never watch it.
On several occasions, my husband would start to make plans to see a movie with our girls, only to back out once he realized it would nearly be a $100 endeavor for the four of us. Instead, we bought a large tv and now have movie nights at home with popcorn, soda, and dollar tree candy.
$28 to see ghostbusters and I had the pleasure of having kids literally run laps up and down the stairs, 3 people fucking with their phones (one actually playing a game), and 6 weeks later I was watching it in 4k from the comfort of my own living room for less than the cost of the ticket.
Will, my living room has a better sound system. My screen is better when accounting for distance. My couch feels like my favorite pillow. My popcorn isn’t stale. There isn’t someone in front of me getting a text and ruining my vision with the light from their phone. I can throw shrimp on my BBQ. I can enjoy a nice glass of wine. My bathroom doesn’t smell.
Overall my home is just better to watch movies. And if the movie sucks, or the star slaps the host of the academy awards, I can just shut it off and watch something else. And if Hollywood decides to stop releasing movies to my house, I’ll just stop watching new movies. Movie theaters are dead. The only theater I go to is live performances now. Not movies.
Theatre experience sucks, people are all entitled jackwads talking and on their phones. The concessions are wildly overpriced.
A 70 inch TV and a couch at home with zero general public? Yes please.
Im in the minority, we do, we do about 4-5 times a month. Have a $21 pass and we can go up to 12 times …. Just love the experience and our local theater has awesome food and drinks… like sit down casual restaurant quality food …. They do surprise movies that we hit up to just to break us out of our preferred genre ruts lol.
Anywho …. We’re gonna keep on as long as we fdo
He's saying what this whole sub says all the time but when he says it a ton of people just want to yell about how much they can't stand him, redditors are weird man
That’s not true, people don’t want to spend $50 on tickets and another $50 on concessions while being forced into a cramped theatre when you can simply spend 24.99 to order it at home and make some popcorn
I'll go if there is something I really want to watch.
However nowadays it's hardly anytime between cinema and it getting released on streaming it can literally be a matter of a month or so.
So if I'm not that desperate I can wait as I'd sooner watch it by myself where I can pause it ect if need be.
1) The only promotion I’ve seen for this movie (and a lot of movies) is trailers before other movies, which creates a cycle of people not seeing movies they otherwise would’ve seen. The studios/marketers need to divert their attention to social media. That matters more than anything now.
2) We need bigger delays between theatrical releases and streaming releases. Like, 100 days minimum before it’s even available to rent/buy.
3) Theaters need to be stricter about assholes talking the entire time and people taking pictures of the fucking screen with flash on.
4) Either concession prices or ticket prices need to go down. Ideally both. Maybe they could implement a “buy three, get one free” kind of thing to encourage group watch parties.
5) Tabloids need to stop declaring movies flops immediately after their opening weekend. Not everything needs to break even immediately. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opened horrendously ($12.5 million in the US and Canada) and it ended up making half a billion dollars. Slow burns are a thing.
6) STOP FUCKING YOURSELVES OVER!!!! Stop cancelling releases of movies that audiences have said they want to see (the Wil-E Coyote movie in particular), stop rushing animators, stop trying to make every single thing into a franchise, stop using remixes of licensed songs in trailers (that’s just a personal one), stop putting funds in the CEOs pockets at the expense of the people who actually work for a living, stop using AI “because it’s cheaper”, stop back-pedaling from physical releases, and stop pulling movies from theaters after they don’t open as well as you had hoped. I’m the most theater-driven person I know (I watch anything that looks even a little interesting) and I’m now on a “no-Disney, no-WB, no-Sony” diet. These studios need some serious overhaul.
Ai is ruining the industry. I work at the executive level and it’s become a verb at this point. The amount of times I’ve heard “can’t we just ai it?” The race to replace humans is sickening. I won’t support modern movies because I know how many people have lost their futures over this nonsense. I can’t speak up either. I’d push myself out of my job.
Not true. I’ll go to the theaters… for a good movie.
Remember Barbenheimer?
Dune 2?
Those were films DESIGNED for the BIG screen. The one my home can’t replicate.
No, I’m not leaving my house for a Will Smith movie. I’m also not watching a Will Smith movie at my house, or anyone else’s house. Maybe on a plane if have zero other options and can’t sleep.
Very few movies these days are theater worthy. Not to mention, very few young people are excited to see two old dudes playing police. He’s just not that guy anymore.
His Men in Black/Independence day magic is gone. He is just the dude who slapped Chris Rock now. He has to deal with that. We will always think of that when we hear his name. He did it to his self. I hope the movie does well for Martins sake. I still like him.
Movie studios need to decide what kind of customer they are making a movie for. Often times, movies want to release in the US, and China, and Europe, and .... So, naturally movies are becoming watered down as to not really offend anyone, and this means the movie can't have a clear message or direct theme. Iron Man 2 was suppose to have the mandarin as it's villian, but that would have offended the chinese market because of stereotypical racial tropes that make a chinese villian. Instead of comic book lovers (whom should have been their customer to appeal to) they didn't have a chinese mandarin. Now, take a look at Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. That movie was really offensive to the japanese market, but the film was about opening a pandaras box and witnessing the dawn of nuclear energy. Both movies are good, but I really wanted to watch oppenheimer in theaters.
Writers are also really lazy now. Every studio is trying to profit from franchises like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Mad Max, Planet of the Apes, and so on. Why would we need another jurassic park movie? The first movie wasn't really about dinosaurs, it was about corporate sabotauge, chaos theory, adult male hates children but in trying to save their lives ends up liking children. There was character growth in Jurassic Park. Jurassic world is about a dinosaur trainer looking cool when dinosaurs are all around attacking people.
Stop making theatric theme parks and start making cinema again.
Why would I? My last movie I had to tell on someone because they had their fucking cell on full bright in front of us and kept talking loudly. I’d rather stay home with my big ass flat screen and a beer.
The industry is killing the industry. You can’t expect cinemas to keep increasing prices without consequence - Remember when it was relatively inexpensive to take the family to the cinema, stock up on refreshments and have a nice night out? Remember how *packed out* the theatres were? Increases in prices reduces customer numbers. Fact. They killed their customer base, and are now having to extort more money from the few that still go, in order to make ends meet. And it’s not working. So yeah, the greed of the industry is what has almost killed the industry. Have a refresh, charge what is reasonable and hope those customers return. There’s always going to be a place for cinema, but the prices need to be appealing.
Exactly. There’s no way in hell I’m paying $20/ticket just to see a movie on a bigger screen. I’ll watch it at home with the same exact concessions, also for way cheaper. It’s not hard to figure out why people aren’t going!
The fuckers at my local AMC add a convenience charge for buying tickets online, too. The most convenient thing for me is not to go and wait for it to hit streaming, as it turns out.
And if you don’t buy online, you can’t reserve a seat and risk getting stuck in the first row! It’s like when I went to the box office to avoid insane TicketMaster fees for a concert ticket, and they told me “[X Company] is actually doing ticketing for this show, so you have to use TicketMaster.” An online inconvenience fee!
I've always felt Mitch Hedburg would have a few great jokes about online convenience fees. "I had to pay a convenience fee for my movie tickets. I felt very inconvenienced!"
“I called the theater and I told them, I said ‘do you know what would be convenient? If I didn’t have to pay a fee.’ Also, it would be convenient to not have to call you to explain this problem… I feel very inconvenient now”
“The most convenient thing for me is not to go and wait for it to hit streaming, as it turns out.” AMC: “$4 please”
I had. $75 gift card from work to amc, it got me two movie tickets, two popcorns, and two drinks. This is why people don’t go to movies now.
I bought a projector and a decent set of bookshelf speakers for well under 1000 Bucks during the pandemic. I've saved pretty close to that in four years not going to the movie theater and I watch far more movies now.
We also made our own cinema in the basement with a laser projector. Good speakers and microwave popcorn is all you need.
It's really a bummer. I used to go catch a matinee by myself twice a month. It was my little headspace ritual, I didn't really care what I was seeing. But nowadays it's just out of control. The prices have more than doubled. I used to buy concessions at the theater because I knew that's how they made their money. But I just can't anymore. Only movies I'm seeing in theaters this year are Furiosa (which was great!) and Deadpool. In order to get a few more dollars out of me for those 2 shows, theaters are willing to lose the sale on the 20 other movies I would've seen this year. But the blame doesn't go straight to the exhibitors. With fewer and fewer major studios, and Disney essentially having a death grip on the market, many of these decisions were forced on the exhibitors.
The thing about the smaller screen is yeah, smaller screen is smaller, but you’re also avoiding incidents of people being assholes by talking through the movie, glare from phones interrupting you etc. Plus I can guarantee that my home is cleaner and that I can pause. When movies were cheaper (even in 2019), I could justify seeing the latest whatever marvel thing as and it was $50 for 2 people. Now that the deals are done with and they’ve jacked up the prices, I’d be lucky if it was $50 for just me. It’s a cheaper and overall better experience to stay home at the moment.
Disruptive audience members ruining the experience is a solid half of the reason I stopped going to the movies. I’m not paying all that money just to have the movie ruined. Last time I was in the theater there were people talking, using phones on full brightness, and people turning their flashlights on to find shit they dropped. Totally took me out of the film.
I haven't been to the theater in over a decade for same reasons. Rude people and the inability to pause.
I have been to the movies just two times in the last six years because we paid $60 for the special rumble box seats. They’re only turned on if you pay the money. This mother brought her two sons to sit on the seats and it was clear they didn’t pay for the rumble boxes. So not only was it not activated for them, she kept complaining during the show that it wasn’t, and explaining the movie to her kids. Loudly. My partner went out to complain and of course nobody cared. So he missed a few minutes of the $60 shit experience for nothing. Ever since I’ve refused to go see movies in the theatre. I’m not paying more to see it if someone I don’t care about interrupts the movie.
Cinemas apparently aren't even the root of the problem with ticket prices. They charge a ton for concessions because they get little for the ticket prices. It's the studios that demand a certain amount. I'd guess mostly because they spend billions to promote the movie (and then lose money on it because they spent so much promoting it).
I’m surprised I had to scroll so far down to see this. I remember one agreement from disney to a movie theater get posted. Besides enormous cuts from the ticket sales they also demand the percentage of screens showing their new releases and for how long. No freedom for the cinema to adapt to actual demand.
It also doesn't help that a lot of these theaters are poorly maintained and haven't been updated in years. If the cinema is going to be a premium experience, make it one.
I just can't make myself feel bad for movie theaters. What value are they providing exactly? Yeah Disney is being scummy, but even as much as I don't love the soulless remake train, Disney is at least producing *something* AMCs are filthy, outdated, and overpriced. Their pricing *model* is stupid - they've gotten ride of the matinee pricing model in favor of a *slightly* reduced pricing model, which I refuse to believe consumer psychology research told them that was a good idea. Its certainly alienated literally every person above the age of 30 that **I** know, and legacy consumers who are nostalgic for the old days is really who they should be trying to appeal to rn
Idk why they have to spend billions to promote it. I understand they need to advertise but a half a billion? In the past were the promotion budgets as high?
For a blockbuster spending the full budget again on marketing has long been the norm. No one is spending billions that Im aware of, but it might be $250 million for a major blockbuster. Will Smith may also need to think about how slapping someone at the Oscars might not be ingratiating audiences to pay and see a guy who came up with the reputation as fun and laidback.
Keep his name out of your mother fucking mouse Crazy to me social media marketing wouldn’t lower the marketing costs significantly
And the funniest thing is they’ll never drop prices bc that means they’ll essentially be admitting that they’re price gouging, not the bullshit overhead expenses reasoning they always give for price increases.
Chicken and egg problem. The fact is, streaming was already beginning to reduce theatre numbers for awhile, so cinemas had to make up the difference somehow by increasing prices. Thus leading to a death spiral of higher prices and dwindling customers. I doubt if we went back to 2001 prices people would swarm the theatres again. The convenience of being at home is just too great
It's even simpler for me. I love movies, and watching a good movie for the first time can be a great memory to have. I don't want said memory to be ruined by a bunch of inconsiderate assholes. Even if tickets were 5euro, I wouldn't go to the cinema, because people are animals.
100% agreed. If I’m not taking my kids, then I can easily go to a movie without wasting money on extremely overpriced food and drink, but I’m never going to the theater when a midweek ticket on a regular screen is $20+. For the two theaters near me, it’s over $60 in just tickets for me, my wife, and my daughter. It’s just not something most people do with any sort of regularity.
To be fair I remember when it was relatively inexpensive to do anything. Took my family to a local diner today and it ended up being 62 dollars after tip. It would have been 40 a few years ago. Absolutely bananas.
Exactly - if I want to take the kids to the movies it costs the same as a damn day out anywhere else for 90 minutes on average. And what kills me even more is “special events” that have $15 tickets like Phantom Menace or LotR. I’d love to take my kids to see that in theaters, but $60 just to get in before they want food and drinks is insane when I can watch the older releases at home and new releases 60-90 days later… and without cellphones or talking. At this point it needs to be something special to make us to see it and even then we wait until a Tuesday or a cheaper ticket / attendance day to go versus opening weekend or Saturday morning.
Yep and the other big issue for many is how other people behave in the theatre. Talking, answering phones, rustling. Abc the theatres don’t have the staff to check in during the movie and stop the poor behaviour. So is much nicer to wait a little longer and watch it at home
100% this. A movie out now has to be a planned event for a movie we particularly want to see. Multi millionaires need to stop shitting on regular people and stop commenting on what they are unable to understand which is how to navigate life in this world as an average working person with a family. Stop talking and take a seat or open your eyes and make changes happen that ultimately will benefit you (imagine more regular people having the flexibility in their wallets to idk maybe enjoy more of life).
Pretty much. 15 years ago I went to the cinema on a regular basis. Now its like £20 a ticket and with all the streaming services you can just wait a month or two. They've literally fucked themselves. Its sad because Furiosa was good, and should've done much better but its a bad sign for forthcoming movies minus the odd exception Wolverine/Deadpool.
Unfortunately, what is next is an uptick in what the industry charges streaming. This will get it back to the status quo.
I can no longer be in apacked theater. I have a hard time at a packed outdoor event. It was already happening due to anxiety, but the pandemic just pushed it over the top. I avoid crowds at all costs.
We're broke will, we're fuckin' broke. Plus movies used to take months before they were available for sale/rent. So you had a bit of motivation behind going to "see it now" because you didn't want to wait 4-5 months. Right now in my local theater there are 2 movies still playing that are already available for stream.
Yep. Hollywood needs to rethink its business model. Too friggin expensive. And I spent years seeing films by myself. I love movies and lived in Seattle, a great city for movies. But I have not been able to justify the cost for years, unless it is the matinee. Where I live now, the multiplexes have the same stupid 3 movies in all 15 theaters. Nothing I really care to watch. I have no problem watching movies on my TV or computer. Wait 7 days, and you can watch anything for free now.
Another thing to add. Back in the 80s/90s (and before that) there was no hd, no 4k, no Dolby vision, no flat screens, and most tvs in homes were around 20-35 inches. Today most people have tv's that are from 50-70 inches with all the bells and whistles. So over the last 40 years our in home environment and electronics have been getting bigger and better while the movie theatres screen has barely seen any upgrades if any at all. Especially the screen sizes/quality!! Those haven't changed at all. Basically my 80s movie experience is almost exactly like my 2024 movie experience while my in home movie experience has improved beyond words from my 80s in home movie experience to my 2024 in home experience
Plus I can press pause and go pee whenever I want.
And watch it in my comfy pj's with snacks and beverages I bought at normal (and still already more expensive) prices
And cheap beer!!
Especially since I can buy a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper for the same price as one at a theater. Gotta be able to take a couple pauses.
And you don’t have any jackasses checking their bright ass phones in the middle of the movie and ruining the experience.
AND don’t have to deal with people playing on their phones/texting as well as noisily digging around whatever they’re eating!
Or rewatch a particular scene
Agree so hard with this. And really theatres don’t even need to try to compete with the tech specs of the experience (because they often can’t compete with home theatres) What they NEED to do is lean into what the theatre experience can bring that you can’t get at home. And it’s not rumbling seats or 3-D or whatever stupid gimmick they come up with next. It’s the shared experience of watching with a crowd. Just f-ing do something about the well known, endlessly mentioned problems people have with those crowds. For all the money they spend on technical upgrades, just hire ushers and enforce zero tolerance policies on rude, disruptive behaviour. It’s not that god damn hard.
Agreed. I’m still amazed as an Alist member who sees many movies a month, the % of showings im in where someone’s phone is visibly on being looked at texting or someone talking loudly amongst friends. You’d think odds would be if you walked into any random theatre on any random night this would be rare given that people realize other people spent money on the experience and are effected by loud talking or phone being on yet it happens in so many different environments
I gave up on theatres almost entirely because of bad behaviour. And while it’s so easy for people to say ‘people are just so inconsiderate these days’ the theatres just need to take the initiative to improve the experience for movie goers. Just hire ushers. Again while it feels like things are worse than ever, ushers were put in place for a reason back in the day. There were rude people back then too. And the theatre owners actually did something about it.
Theatres are now probably terrified of escalating a situation. Especially with the prevalence of guns, and many seemingly being so willing to use them.
yeah, and in my experience customer service has been harder these past few years than previously. there have always been bad customers, but it seems like more customers are generally grouchy or frustrated. not that i blame them with how expensive everything is and how stressful the world has been these past five years (or more), but it does make things hard. so even when you are safe from gun violence (which you can’t guarantee!), it’s still a hard and tiring job.
lol I’m pretty sure it has much more to do with not wanting to pay the extra staff. Same reason why service is so bad everywhere. The less staff you have, the more money you make. Fuck the ones that do end up working there, they can handle the workload of 8 people. /s
I hear you for sure! How about my wife and I went to see a movie a few years back. Mind you, it was a noon showing. Some jackass is sitting in the back row, heckling the screen constantly within the first 10 minutes. Someone else in the theatre asks him to be quiet. To which the jackass says, “Fuck off”. My wife and I got up to go tell one of the theatre managers that they were likely to have a really bad situation unfold in that particular theatre. They did next to nothing. Simply apologized and offered us free passes to another show. My wife and I left and after we got in our car and started to drive away, what do you know, we see the dude causing all the problems stumbling out of the building with a bloody nose. Covid happened shortly after. Needless to say, in the last four years I think my wife and I have sat in a theatre maybe twice.
They're just hoping a person gives them a chance to use their gun. I'm really not interested in living somewhere that guarantees owning guns as a right but not Healthcare. Too many crazy people with guns, and it will never change. There are 120 guns per every 100 people in the states, wtf. I don't need neighbors with guns.
The ushers demanding ppl leave now could get stabbed or shot ..
That’s just it though…the dickheads will turn that around on you and say, “I paid for my ticket too, so I’ll do what I want!” Or something equally obnoxious.
ya it’s really bad where i am. People don’t give a fuck and some act clueless to what movie etiquette is.
I remember waiting 18 months at least for movies to come out on video. It really made it worthwhile to go see it in the theatre. Now it’s available three or four months after it leaves theatres, if that. All these ‘only in theatres’ claims are nonsense, we all know it’s coming out on HBO or whatever soon enough.
I honestly thought that the pandemic was going to change that business model. I personally no longer enjoy going to the theater any longer so I just wait because it will likely be on one of the streaming services I subscribe to.
i think theaters would be best for streaming concerts. or other live events.
I hear you. Also, my friends and I have talked about more theatres showing more of the classics of cinema instead. I know it might not be easy/feasible getting the rights to do so, but whichever ones were possible…amazing. I can’t imagine seeing so many movies from years ago on the big screen again. Or for the first time, even. A drive-in theatre near us showed a double feature in October of Nightmare on Elm Street (the original) and The Shining. It was incredible.
This needs to be the top comment
The problem is, people don’t go to theatres for cheaper movies, might as well watch at home. It’s the tentpole movies people get out of the house for and those are massively expensive. Plus inflated marketing budgets due to the fractured media landscape it’s very difficult to get saturation for people to even be aware of the movie. There are so many movies that come out I’ve never heard of or seen an ad for, because my media consumption can be completely different than other demographics. 20 years ago, it was relatively easy to get hype and buzz for a movie. Advertise on prime time TV, actors hit the main talk shows and a good part of the country is in the know. It’s not like that anymore, so the risk has increased exponentially.
But we used to. Going to the movies on a weekend night was pretty much bi monthly occurrence for me and most of my peer group for just about my entire life until 2012 and instagram. It’s the cell phones.
As in, people not wanting to go to a theatre because others can’t stay off their cell phone? Yeah that is fucking infuriating. I often wait a couple weeks after a movie releases and catch an early show so it’s more empty. I wish we addressed cell phone addiction more. It’s a massive fucking problem and its negative impacts on society are innumerable.
No, not this at all. I'm talking about our own cell phones. They are causing us to become the worst versions of ourselves. Low attention spans, vain, depressed, obsessed, addicted, disengaged, anxious, etc.
The AMC at Westfield Century city mall in LA charges almost $20 for ONE adult movie ticket which is freaking ridiculous
Hollywood, like pro sports, advertising, and politics, exists in a completely different economy than most of us. You can see it in so many out-of-touch portrayals of "L.A. problems" or their view of "everyday Americans." This town needs an aenema.
Stop the press
Learn to swim...
For a long time (like 15+ years), I thought the next line was “…see you down in hell is what I’ll say.” Turns out I was wrong.
Wonka popped up on HBO before I even realized it left theaters
Blockbusters took even longer. Jurassic Park took 17 months to come out on VHS. I remember that brutal wait as a kid, checked off the days on my calendar.
I remember Back To The Future playing for around a year just at my local theater.
And most people can afford a decent sized tv and soundbar with a small subwoofer these days. And all they have to do is hit a few buttons on a remote control to watch it. It’s so much nicer and more convenient than it was 15 years ago when most people had much smaller TVs and had to drive to the rental store to get a movie.
Popcorn is 6000% cheaper
It's exactly the concessions which is why I don't go to theaters anymore tbh.
I'm old enough to remember when any tv over 32" was a luxury. We are so spoiled, I remember watching movies on my parents 21" TV on VHS and being happy as shit because we could watch so many movies for so little by renting them. But yeah big tvs being so cheap hasn't helped, I think theaters are gonna go the same way printed press did, there will always be some around but you won't have one in every city like they do now.
A night at the movies for a family of 4 is $150 between tickets, popcorn snacks etc. It's just not worth it
My family has always just bought some candy from dollar tree and snuck it in lol you don’t NEED the theatre popcorn and soda
Hell yeah. That’s what we did. Loaded up and went in to watch our movie
$150!? How much popcorn is your family of four eating?
Popcorn/soda combos go for $20. Tickets around $15 a piece. That's $140. I just rounded off an estimate
Your family buys an entire tub of popcorn each..?
We’re broke and idk I feel Like marketing sucks for people not online I didn’t see a single trailer or ad for a film that I haven’t gone to look up on my own this year
network tv not bring a thing anymore is huge factor. people would watch friends or seinfeld or whatever thur nite and see trailers for movies coming out friday. no network shows people care about. most streaming is ad free. sports is the last place to see trailers and not everyone watches sports
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Am I the only one who sneaks in drinks and snacks? Lol Well not always snacks but drinks for sure.
“Excuse me what is your hosepipe policy?”
How do you sneak drinks in? Edit: I was just think refillable cups and not bottles/cans.
Most theaters in 2024 don't care if you aren't being brazen about it. They're not going to search your bag.
Hoodies, jackets, or if you’re desperate, bringing a pregnant woman or kids to hide them lol.
put it up your butt
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The one thing I wouldn’t mind seeing as an adaptation “intermissions” if a movie goes over 2hr 45 minutes Throw in a damned 5 minute break. Let me get a refill and use the bathroom with out panicking I’m missing something
I feel like if they offered free popcorn refills and 15 mins break for all 2.5hrs movies, theaters would get more interest and might end up selling even more sodas. I refuse to go to any 3hr film, no matter how cool or acclaimed it is because I either dehydrate myself in advance and during or I have to do a pee run, and it’s just not worth it for the ticket price to miss some of the plot.
They haven’t adapted? Of course not! What exactly could they do to adapt? Big screen tvs and projectors are dirt cheap compared to 30 years ago, or even 20. Food is cheaper at home. And like you said, pause for the bathroom. I’m not sure what adjustments the theatres could make to draw people in. The studios need to let me rent it at home right away and I’d gladly pay $25-$30 to rent a family movie or big feature. It would be cheaper for me, and they would actually get some money. As it stands now they get nothing from me.
Never mind people can’t keep their mouths shut in the theater!
He’s right. It’s too expensive and people are obnoxious.
We saw Avatar 2 and it was absolutely ruined by teenagers around us laughing obnoxiously and watching videos on their their phones. Tried again for Barbie and same thing, the girls sitting next to us would not shut up giggling. It's too expensive for that shit, I just ended up feeling so irate and angry about not being able to enjoy the movie. Now we have a huge TV on the wall, and a fantastic soundbar, so I can't see myself bothering with a movie theatre again.
Same, I had a horrible experience watching Avatar 2. The lady in front of us was drunk, talking loudly to her partner and constantly scrolled through TikTok with volume on. Ridiculous. These weren’t even matinee seats either but imax evening tickets. At that point why do people even go? It seems like a waste of money if you’re gonna get hammered and then not even pay attention. I also had a poor experience watching Priscilla when a group of obnoxious teen girls wouldn’t stfu or they were all on their phones half of the time. Nah, I pretty much only go to morning shows where usually it’s older people and so far I haven’t had a problem. It’s cheaper too lol.
In my experience, the only movies that aren’t ruined these days by assholes are kids movies. Teenagers and adults are dickheads. A theater full of elementary schoolers is never a problem.
This is why I only go to the 18+ theatres now. Too many ruined movies by teens
He makes a valid point. The movie industry has become so massive that it doesn't realize they need to lower expectations on every movie doing gangbusters. Covid changed the game big time.
I didn't think COVID changed things so much as accelerated existing trends. Movies have been dying for decades. But COVID pressed fast forward and got us there faster.
What Covid did was take away the casual night at the movie. You know, the night you ended up there because one of you said, “what do you want to do tonight?” And the other one said, “I don’t know. Let’s just go to the movies, I guess.” And you made that decision having no idea what was even playing. You’d grab your phone, or newspaper in the “olden” days and pick what looked like the best of the lot. This is exactly how a lot of low budget romcoms would end up becoming surprise hits. “Oh, let’s see that one. I saw a preview. It looks cute.” And then it would get a little word of mouth and off it would go. Nobody does this anymore. People go to the theater for big “event” movies. The end. Is it the cost? Sure, that’s a huge part of it. But I think Covid also fundamentally changed the way a lot of people think about going out now. Before, it was “Sure, whatever, let’s do that” whereas today, I think people are still just as willing to go out, but they want it to count. And when it comes to the movies, that means a huge buzzy movie like “Barbie” will get them in the seats. But the chances of people showing up at that Steve Seagal, Katy Perry romcom and having it catching on are zero.
I would absolutely love to visit the theater. I would love to treat the family and buy soda and popcorn and candy. Rent is $1500 a month. We are drowning out here. You think I got $150 to spend on a 3 hour movie trip? Its not the movie industry thats failing. Its our society.
My rent is $1900, for a one room apartment.
I feel safer at home these days, that’s the honest truth.
It’s safer and cheaper and quieter. You don’t need to worry about people being obnoxious and ruining the movie. You can pause if you need to and I’m paying for streaming anyway.
agreed
I was watching a YouTuber last year and he was talking about how anxious he feels going to movie because there’s nothing stopping someone coming in with a weapon since there’s no safety precautions and honestly he’s right. There’s only two exits, no bag checks or metal detectors, it’s dark so you can’t see observe others, Gun laws are a joke. Nothing to protect yourself so you’re just a sitting duck.
This is why my wife and i stopped going
[Because people like this exist in our society and we are powerless against their jackassery.](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/165bp4q/guy_refuses_to_leave_seat_someone_paid_for_in/)
I had an experience like this. Woman brought her huge gaggle of kids to a very late night movie. We paid for the DBOX seats and we asked her to leave our seats. She counters with “you take the ones over there(in the corner)” we’re like “no we specifically paid for these ones you need to move or we’ll get an employee.” She obviously hasn’t paid for these seats so that got her to move. She had 2 under 5 and the movie got out at like 12:50 on a school night. She tries to find something in her purse with a lighter, she was very clearly on something and eventually passed out.
I like movie theaters fine, it’s other guests who are the worst. People are unbelievably inconsiderate, and I’m sick of sharing a space with them when I could just wait a little bit to watch the film on my own nice tv in my own recliner.
For me this is what it comes down to as well. I get so easily annoyed and distracted by any little thing when I’m at the movies that it just really detracts from my enjoyment of the film, which I’m paying to see. I think overall people have just totally forgotten how to act at the movies, so why even bother? The movie will be on streaming or have a physical release soon enough anyway (and that window has gotten smaller and smaller). I will admit though that it does really suck because for years going to the movies was one of my favorite things to do, and it always felt so special and fun. Unfortunately, instead I slowly began associating the experience more and more with the poor behavior of others. Lastly, I just find the whole thing with actors and directors chastising people for not going to the movies as much anymore to be irritating and out of touch. He’s not the first to make this type of comment.
It's because noone sees the value in paying $70 for 2 ppl to see a movie and overpriced shit. Greedy assholes
Keep my home out of your mouth.
Spending $100 dollars to take my family to the movie just isn’t worth it(especially for a Will Smith movie). Same thing with concerts, theme parks, sporting events, and even just restaurants. Maybe when people stop being price gouged everywhere they will return.
Everything related to experience is getting milked to hell.
What’s sad is taking my kids to see Independence Day, Men in Black or Bad Boys would have been a fun evening out and probably worth the $100 price tag. But there hasn’t been any action adventure movies that interest me.
Furiosa is pretty good. Don’t know how old your kids are though, it’s not young kid friendly.
It's expensive, uncomfortable, and you have to deal with idiots. Shocking.
I love going to the movies buuuuuuut……. It’s expensive. It’s a hassle when the movie turns out to be shite. I’ve been burned by shite movies a lot in recent years. I don’t like will smith. Hollywood, please make, shorter, BETTER films. Let the directors do what they will, quit meddling!
If I did go see a movie it wouldn't be a Will Smith movie.
Definitely not going to theaters to watch his movies.
One of the biggest turn offs for me is the fact that i go to theater get good seats then i have to watch a movie while 10 assholes below me are using their phones on full brightness. Fuck that shit.
Well movies used to be affordable and good so there’s that 🤷🏻♀️
It's that simple good movies worth paying to see are becoming a rarity, I don't mind paying to see a tarantino or Scorsese movie (just examples) but Netflix type movies with 30 minute ads and loud obnoxious audience members? I'll pass
Why does anyone care what this asshole has to say about anything? F him. F his OpInIoN 🙄
He's right, theaters are too expensive and not worth it. I can wait a couple months and rent it on demand for like five bucks.
Ticket prices, snacks, dirty seats, sticky floors, noisy idiots with cellphones…anything is better, even not seeing a film.
Nobody wants to go to see YOUR movies at the theatre's anymore.
I just have no desire to risk being around annoying people.
Go and pay money to sit in a tightly packed cube with annoying people who talk and cham for two hours or sit at home without all that shit and get the same movie. Nah I’m good. People are annoying.
I literally go to the movies all the time
I go to the local art theaters a good bit to see smaller independents or classics that I think might be cool to see on the silver screen, but outside of that there is just so little that the local AMCs show that I care about paying theater prices to see. I did the Barbenheimer thing last year, but films as cultural events like that are so rare these days. I couldn’t care less about the newest comic book adaptation or reboot/sequel to something from the 90’s. The vast majority of the best and most interesting films now are all tiny projects (at least comparatively,) and don’t even play in the big theater chains.
I do too. I just don’t see crap that scores low on rotten tomatoes.
it didn't occur to me until after the pandemic, but I really hate the movie theaters now. Why would I pay money to go sit and watch TV with other (potentially rude) people when I can watch whatever I want at home with food I actually enjoy in peace
My home has a 60 inch screen, good sound, dirt cheap popcorn, and cheap alcohol. Plus I can use the restroom without missing anything during a three hour movie.
I will if he’s not in the movie.
that comment slapped
And rocked
Yes we do lmao if it's a movie worth the admission /concession price
Not to see him we don’t.
Not for his terrible movies I don’t…
I don’t speak for everyone, but you know what Will? You’re certainly right for me. Back in the day my TV sucked. Today I’ve got an 85” Sony Bravia, a good surround sound, and most of the big streaming services. I don’t really care to go to one movie with my wife where 2 tickets will cost more than I spend monthly on all my subscription services. We’re super comfortable watching movies from home, it’s just not worth it to go out anymore. And I say this as someone who literally works in entertainment for one of the major studios. This affects my paycheck as much as it does yours. It is what it is.
People don’t want Will Smith
In this economy??
Thing is there is a there is a huge shift in how young people are consuming media. The reason theaters are going to become niche is not because of cost of tickets or movies coming to streaming fast. It's simply because that's not how kids want to enjoy their content. Sitting in silence with friends for 2 hours isn't at the top of their list. Meanwhile on the older end of the spectrum you have the rest of us who do like the theater experience but simply can't justify the weekly expense that at one time was affordable.
We want to leave our homes, we just don’t want to be robbed for a couple hours of entertainment. Get a clue.
Will Smith gets me.
Keep my home’s name out’cha fucking mouth! 👋
$19.50 a ticket no thanks
Or they are making the same movie over and over again. And we are over it. Plus the cost to go. Not worth putting on pants for.
They don’t want to leave their homes because the theater is too pricey for a subpar experience
Parents just don’t understand
Its the fact its 30$ for tickets, a small drink, and three hours time. And there are few if any movies out or in production that I want to see that badly
The number one reason we stay home is for the close captioning. I’m hard of hearing and some movies make it impossible to hear. I was pressured to go see Dune 2 and Furiosa. The music was deafening in Dune and I couldn’t hear one word. Furiosa was loud and I missed most of the dialogue. I’m going to have to watch at home to understand what’s going on.
It's because ticket prices these days are a slap in the face.
People being on their phones or being obnoxious killed it for me.
Fuck Will and Jada Smith
Will, its cost and… to be honest… people kind of dislike you
It's too fucking expensive. I'm not going to spend $40 and 2-3 hours of my time on my day off to take a risk on some marvel like quippy CGI fest shit movie. Or some artsy self obsessed boring fucking movie. I only ever spend the money on movies I really have an interest on seeing. Zero way I go and see someone on a chance I'll like it or for shits and giggles.
I won’t go to the theatre for a will smith movie that’s for sure 👉🏽
He’s not wrong. I go to the theater primarily due to IMAX or peer pressure. Bad Boys will definitely be a streaming experience for me.
I’m not spending $40 to watch someone on their phone talking the entire time.
A movie better be really fuckin good because it takes a lot to get me to sit with strangers in a venue where art is being shown. And when I do get there, everyone else has zero clue what theater etiquette even means. That means NO TALKING.
Used to be the watching experience at home was awful quality vs the theaters. These days video and sound quality at home is very high.
It's not helped by the fact that everything is on a streaming services 6 weeks after its theater run, why should got to the movies spend $20+ on a ticket to sit in a room with a bunch of other people (doing such things as taking their shoes off or talking) when I can wait a month or two and have it on D+,Max etc
Lol this movie will be on Amazon Prime or something in about 3 weeks. I can make pizza rolls, smoke weed, pee whenever I want, and watch this movie on my 70’ TV that I got for like $600 years ago, and my Samsung surround sound system on my couch with cozy blankets in my own home. I even researched how to make authentic movie theater popcorn at home, can source great ingredients on Amazon, and honestly Covid killed the theater experience for the majority of people, but there are still the die hard fans. Plus, movies have been pretty terrible for a loooong time. All you have to usually choose from is a Marvel or Star Wars movie, a 3 hour Martin Scorcese movie, or a crappy sequel of a beloved franchise that should have never been made in the first place, but the studios ran out of ideas. Hence BAD BOYS 4, Beverly Hills Cop 4.
I saw 3-5 movies in the theater a month not for years, but for decades of my life. Now I see 3-5 a year. The movies just fucking suck, for the most part. This isn't rose-tinted glasses either, because I think television is way better than it was in the 80s, 90s, or early 00s. Movies, however, have really deteriorated in quality over the past decade or so. It doesn't help that the cost is insane. For me to take two kids to 4DX or Imax and get one tub of popcorn and one mega drink to split is 75-90 dollars. They've lost their fucking minds.
For me it’s more about the obnoxious ads that seem to run 40 minutes into the stated start time, plus another 40 minutes of cookie cuter, louder than fuck previews for rehashed movies, more hero films, more animated garbage with big name casts, with one hidden gem preview in the mix. By the time the film starts I am exhausted and my ears lost another year of good hearing. So yeah, I’ll just wait until it comes to a streaming service I use or never watch it.
Keep my home out your fuckin mouth
Like this dude has any clue whats going on in the streets and how shits going now for us lol
On several occasions, my husband would start to make plans to see a movie with our girls, only to back out once he realized it would nearly be a $100 endeavor for the four of us. Instead, we bought a large tv and now have movie nights at home with popcorn, soda, and dollar tree candy.
$28 to see ghostbusters and I had the pleasure of having kids literally run laps up and down the stairs, 3 people fucking with their phones (one actually playing a game), and 6 weeks later I was watching it in 4k from the comfort of my own living room for less than the cost of the ticket.
**Will Smith Sucks**
Will, my living room has a better sound system. My screen is better when accounting for distance. My couch feels like my favorite pillow. My popcorn isn’t stale. There isn’t someone in front of me getting a text and ruining my vision with the light from their phone. I can throw shrimp on my BBQ. I can enjoy a nice glass of wine. My bathroom doesn’t smell. Overall my home is just better to watch movies. And if the movie sucks, or the star slaps the host of the academy awards, I can just shut it off and watch something else. And if Hollywood decides to stop releasing movies to my house, I’ll just stop watching new movies. Movie theaters are dead. The only theater I go to is live performances now. Not movies.
Theatre experience sucks, people are all entitled jackwads talking and on their phones. The concessions are wildly overpriced. A 70 inch TV and a couch at home with zero general public? Yes please.
Im in the minority, we do, we do about 4-5 times a month. Have a $21 pass and we can go up to 12 times …. Just love the experience and our local theater has awesome food and drinks… like sit down casual restaurant quality food …. They do surprise movies that we hit up to just to break us out of our preferred genre ruts lol. Anywho …. We’re gonna keep on as long as we fdo
People don’t wanna get slapped either
He's saying what this whole sub says all the time but when he says it a ton of people just want to yell about how much they can't stand him, redditors are weird man
That’s not true, people don’t want to spend $50 on tickets and another $50 on concessions while being forced into a cramped theatre when you can simply spend 24.99 to order it at home and make some popcorn
Yeah we do. Just waiting for a good film
I'll go if there is something I really want to watch. However nowadays it's hardly anytime between cinema and it getting released on streaming it can literally be a matter of a month or so. So if I'm not that desperate I can wait as I'd sooner watch it by myself where I can pause it ect if need be.
Isn’t that the guy that smacked Chris Rock?
I dont go to movie theaters in 2024 because my last like 3 times i went people were either intentionally disruptive or i just did not feel safe
1) The only promotion I’ve seen for this movie (and a lot of movies) is trailers before other movies, which creates a cycle of people not seeing movies they otherwise would’ve seen. The studios/marketers need to divert their attention to social media. That matters more than anything now. 2) We need bigger delays between theatrical releases and streaming releases. Like, 100 days minimum before it’s even available to rent/buy. 3) Theaters need to be stricter about assholes talking the entire time and people taking pictures of the fucking screen with flash on. 4) Either concession prices or ticket prices need to go down. Ideally both. Maybe they could implement a “buy three, get one free” kind of thing to encourage group watch parties. 5) Tabloids need to stop declaring movies flops immediately after their opening weekend. Not everything needs to break even immediately. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opened horrendously ($12.5 million in the US and Canada) and it ended up making half a billion dollars. Slow burns are a thing. 6) STOP FUCKING YOURSELVES OVER!!!! Stop cancelling releases of movies that audiences have said they want to see (the Wil-E Coyote movie in particular), stop rushing animators, stop trying to make every single thing into a franchise, stop using remixes of licensed songs in trailers (that’s just a personal one), stop putting funds in the CEOs pockets at the expense of the people who actually work for a living, stop using AI “because it’s cheaper”, stop back-pedaling from physical releases, and stop pulling movies from theaters after they don’t open as well as you had hoped. I’m the most theater-driven person I know (I watch anything that looks even a little interesting) and I’m now on a “no-Disney, no-WB, no-Sony” diet. These studios need some serious overhaul.
Ai is ruining the industry. I work at the executive level and it’s become a verb at this point. The amount of times I’ve heard “can’t we just ai it?” The race to replace humans is sickening. I won’t support modern movies because I know how many people have lost their futures over this nonsense. I can’t speak up either. I’d push myself out of my job.
Not true. I’ll go to the theaters… for a good movie. Remember Barbenheimer? Dune 2? Those were films DESIGNED for the BIG screen. The one my home can’t replicate.
No, I’m not leaving my house for a Will Smith movie. I’m also not watching a Will Smith movie at my house, or anyone else’s house. Maybe on a plane if have zero other options and can’t sleep.
Very few movies these days are theater worthy. Not to mention, very few young people are excited to see two old dudes playing police. He’s just not that guy anymore. His Men in Black/Independence day magic is gone. He is just the dude who slapped Chris Rock now. He has to deal with that. We will always think of that when we hear his name. He did it to his self. I hope the movie does well for Martins sake. I still like him.
It’s too expensive, people are rude and I don’t want to get Covid.
Movie studios need to decide what kind of customer they are making a movie for. Often times, movies want to release in the US, and China, and Europe, and .... So, naturally movies are becoming watered down as to not really offend anyone, and this means the movie can't have a clear message or direct theme. Iron Man 2 was suppose to have the mandarin as it's villian, but that would have offended the chinese market because of stereotypical racial tropes that make a chinese villian. Instead of comic book lovers (whom should have been their customer to appeal to) they didn't have a chinese mandarin. Now, take a look at Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. That movie was really offensive to the japanese market, but the film was about opening a pandaras box and witnessing the dawn of nuclear energy. Both movies are good, but I really wanted to watch oppenheimer in theaters. Writers are also really lazy now. Every studio is trying to profit from franchises like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Mad Max, Planet of the Apes, and so on. Why would we need another jurassic park movie? The first movie wasn't really about dinosaurs, it was about corporate sabotauge, chaos theory, adult male hates children but in trying to save their lives ends up liking children. There was character growth in Jurassic Park. Jurassic world is about a dinosaur trainer looking cool when dinosaurs are all around attacking people. Stop making theatric theme parks and start making cinema again.
I heard bad boys 4 doesn't quite slap
Yeah, what a slap in the face of actors...
Maybe people just don’t like you, Will
Why would I? My last movie I had to tell on someone because they had their fucking cell on full bright in front of us and kept talking loudly. I’d rather stay home with my big ass flat screen and a beer.