On Super Bowl Sunday, former Forbes movie "expert" Scott Mendelson posted this Substack headline:
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My first reaction was: why the hell is it my job to save movie theaters? I don't even like going to movie theaters for big movies like the MCU/DC superhero ones or other big popcorn movie franchises, let alone small movies like Lisa Frankenstein, which to me just looked like a remake of an 80s Tim Burton movie like Edward Scissorhands. Nor do I really want to watch a poorly-reviewed movie like Argylle.
Again, like I said pre-pandemic: movie theaters kinda suck. Tickets are expensive, you have to be there at a certain time, you can't pause if you want to use the can or buy snacks (which are also expensive), and you have to sit in an assigned seat with probably annoying strangers on phones and stuff. Where is the advantage over streaming for small movies? Then you throw in the pandemic and the risk of getting a serious illness and it's only worse.
And in part thanks to the pandemic and strikes, movie studios have had to delay movies and are stretching those they have to cover the important times like "summer." That's left some holes in the fall and winter schedules so for weekends like Super Bowl Sunday you really have nothing people would want to go see.
But, hey, it's MY fault as the consumer, right? Because I don't want to go out on Super Bowl weekend to plop down $15 for a ticket for a movie I don't care about, plus money for concessions, at a time and place that's totally inconvenient. Yup, it's MY fault. Not Hollywood's fault for only releasing shitty movies because they tried to screw actors and writers. Not theaters for having an increasingly unworkable business model that to me is just a step above the hassle of going to concerts (which I stopped going to years before the pandemic even), going to the doctor/dentist, and flying somewhere.
Like I said on BlueSky, for the price of watching one mediocre movie in a movie theater, I could buy at least one whole month of a streaming service. Throw in concessions and it might be two or even three months of a lower-priced service. Can we really blame people, especially in these times of "inflation," for making the smart financial choice for themselves instead of for the movie theater industry?
When someone says consumers need to prop up a business, it brings to mind other failing industries like department stores and newspapers. Chiding people or begging them to subsidize those industries is not a viable strategy. Because in the end, why the hell should I? What's in it for me? Nothing much. If theaters want my business then they have to do something to earn it. Provide a competitive advantage over streaming. For some people that's a bigger screen and better speakers for a popcorn movie, but as I said years ago there's not much advantage for small movies.
People like Mendelson keep beating this dead horse in the same way that when we talk about eBooks, people will blather about how physical books are better because they like the feel or smell or some dumb shit like that. Some people might like shelling out a bunch of extra money to sit in the dark with a bunch of strangers at an inconvenient time, but I think we're seeing that most people do not unless it is something big that they feel is worth their time and money.
And yet theaters--and their supporters--still refuse to accept the reality and change to find a way forward. In which case they're likely to end up out of business like all those department store chains.
As an aside, something I thought about is in a way movie theaters are like malls. In the 80s and 90s they started to move away from the smaller 1-4 screen theaters and open up these huge multiplexes with 20-30 screens. Like the expansion of malls in that time it seemed like a good idea, but only a generation (or generation-and-a-half) later these huge commercial complexes have become dinosaurs because of online shopping and now streaming services.
If anything, the handwriting was more on the wall for multiplexes than malls. I mean by the early 90s there was already home video while there wasn't really online shopping, so you can forgive the builders of malls for not being able to see right away that these things would be an anachronism in 20 years. But with multiplexes it really should have been more obvious that home video was going to get better, allowing people to stay home more to watch movies.
If you think about it, multiplexes have tried to adapt by making their theaters more like stadiums. And that's largely how audiences are treating them by mostly going when there's a big game, ie some big popcorn movie franchise. But people don't need stadium seats, 3D, Dolby whatever sound, etc. to watch Lisa Frankenstein or Drive Away Dolls or some would-be Oscar contender. It'd be like paying Super Bowl ticket prices to watch your local senior center shuffleboard teams compete at the rec center. Very few people are going to do that.
3 comments:
I'll admit, my wife and I go see a lot of movies in the theater. But as you said, only the big ones. (Like Dune: Part Two tonight.) We only do the matinee and rarely get any popcorn though. (And if we do, we sneak in a water bottle so we don't have to buy an expensive drink.) But movie theaters are on the slide and the pandemic really sped up that process. I don't blame the theaters for the prices - the studios take ninety percent or more of the profit, so not much left over for the theater. But they do need to make the experience better or they'll go the way of Blockbuster.
And I've only been to a theater with assigned seats once. That really sucked. Because yes, the people next to us were loud, drunk idiots. We did get up and move.
And after seeing Dune this evening (completely awesome) I can tell you another way theaters are killing themselves - commercials. The film was to start at 4:00. We got eleven minutes of commercials. Followed by the theater's long promo. Then just one preview followed by another commercial. It was 4:15 before the movie began. What the heck, people? I am tired of this. I go to the movies to avoid commercials and expecting them to start on time!
I have been thinking about seeing Dune 2 at a theater only for the big screen and audio. Other than that, I haven't been to a movie theater in a long time. Also, I would expect ticket sales to be low during the super bowl. That is only normal.
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