Roger Ebert lays out why Movie (theaters) suck

We all know that going to the movies can be a hit or miss experience but going to the theater still is an overall better experience then watching them at home.

In response to the specific points Ebert makes:

What Major League sports or concerts is Ebert going to? I can't think of any Major League sporting event or concert that has ticket prices that are close in price to a movie ticket.

Inconsiderate movie goers are unfortunately nothing new but on a positive note I have noticed a decrease in Cell Phone and Texting usage so perhaps things are getting better on that front.

Who is dumb enough to actually buy refreshments at the movie theater? If you are that dumb you deserve to get taken.

I can see a Kansas City Royals game cheaper then the theater for the most part.  I've had no trouble getting $6 General Admissions tickets.   I can't get that at a theater, outside of matinee.

Last time I went to a movie, I walked in with a bag of Taco Bell and a 16oz can of Miller lite. I bought my ticket and no one said anything.

Movie ticket prices are highly dependent on location. Here in Albany, an IMAX screening is $17.50, a RealD screening is $15.00, an adult general admission ticket is between $11 and $11.50, and a matinée is $8.50. Other parts of the country will be as much as three bucks cheaper at every tier.

I just took my son to see the IMAX showing of MI: Ghost Protocol this weekend (in Albany).  It would have cost $35 for the two of us...plus another $20 for two sodas and popcorn.

 

Luckily, though, we each had a $10 Movie Cash discount from buying the Blu-rays of MI: 2 and MI:3. 

 

I commented that no matter how wonderful I thought the 3-D IMAX showing of HP & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was...$35 for two movie tickets is way too much. 

 

Yeah, I don't really bitch about ticket prices (though I'm not taking a wife and 2 or 3 kids either) but I paid $17.50 for an IMAX matinee of Mission: Impossible and that's a frigging crazy price to charge for a ticket especially in the suburbs. Generally a matinee is $9 so I figured it would be $13 since it was IMAX and as I stood in line hearing many people in front of me saying "$17.50 for one ticket?", I realized that it was more than I thought. I dug the movie so I wasn't that bothered but had I known it was $17.50, I wouldn't have taken the chance. I doubt I'll be seeing any IMAX movies any time soon when I'm paying $17.50 or, god help you, $21.50 if it's 3-D and hoping it's good.

Not that it's a surprise but the theater chains didn't learn from 3-D's rapid decline that people get pissed by having to pay higher prices for lousy movies. Once the general public starts seeing bad movies and they're paying about $20 a ticket, they're going to stop going to theater and then the theater chains will start crying about how ticket sales are down and act like they can't understand why sales are down.

As for the other complaints, I have no problem telling someone to shut their trap so that's not really a problem for me (if you hear about some dope getting shot for telling people in a movie theater to shut up and I suddenly dissapear from HTF, I might be the guy who got shot). And I'd starve before I'd pay the money for concessions.

Ticket prices are too high.
Many people can't afford to go to the movies anymore.
A large portion of the ticket-buying audience for movies has been lost to the high prices.

I never buy junk food from the concessions, but I never buy from the concessions period.
I don't go to the movies to eat and drink.

Talking and cell phone activity is a serious problem.
All theaters everywhere should do what the Arclight in Hollywood does: before the film starts, send an employee to stand in front of the screen and firmly but politely inform the crowd that talking and phoning during a movie is rude and not allowed here. That works.

Roger Ebert is getting so crotchety he's morphing into Walter Brennan in Rio Bravo.

You can go to some baseball games here for 10 bucks a ticket.

I agree with him about the cell phones and the like. Good lord people put them down for two hours and enjoy. Unless the movie is something we both really want to see we wait. We also tell ourselves, for the price of the movie we could own the blu-ray in three months and have extra cash left over to grab a bite to eat!!

I haven't seen mentioned the main reason I rarely go to a movie theater: I can buy a DVD--even a blu-ray--for less than the cost of two tickets. Yes, I have to wait a few months, but for most films I'm willing to do that. My 72 inch hi-def Mitsubishi DLP gives me a far superior experience than the dim bulbs and out of focus images I often get at my local theaters.

We have a really stupid law at movie theaters in Maryland: red "Exit" signs must remain illuminated at all times during the film. These lights are at the front of the theater, to the right and left of the screen. They throw light on the screen and are a horrible eyesore all throughout a film. It's incredibly stupid. Those lights should be OFF during a film, and it's easy enough to reconfigure them so they go on automatically during an emergency.

The behavior of most movie-goers is not nearly as bad as it used to be. There was far more talking in years past. I rarely see kids using their phones or texting, but when I do I tell them to please stop and they do.

But really it's a combination of the poor projection of the films and the low cost of buying a DVD or blu-ray that makes it so much easier to make the decision not to go to a movie theater.

Many theaters haven't done film right in ages, but most of them are switching to digital projection now, which is harder to mess up. The thing about that though is I've seen a screen door effect on 2 movies I've seen in DLP- I don't know if that's inherent in the technology as a whole, but if every movie ends up looking like that I WILL call it quits for that alone. Prices are WAY out of line- if tickets would go down to $5, they'd get more than enough additional customers to offset the lower prices. There's no excuse for charging extra for 3D either- they didn't charge extra for it in the 50s or 80s, so I'm not going to pay extra for it now. I would've gone to EVERY 3D movie that's been out in the past few years if they weren't charging extra for them, but since they are I've been to no more than 3.

I believe that nationwide fire laws in place for decades require lit exit signs in public places like a theatre. Turning them off is just unheard of except for one landmark Broadway musical that got a rare exception from the fire dept. to turn them off for a seven second blackout at the beginning of the show, and that was only if many other conditions were met. Such signs have been a part of the moviegoing experience for ages, what's new is that the lights in the projectors are now dim enough for the exit signs to be a bigger contrast. It is up to the exhibitors to ensure no stray light hits the screen, but here in LA we even have exit signs attached to screens, so your situation could be much worse.

You're quite lucky there because here in LA even at the ArcLight (where they don't really patrol the place as much as make a show of hanging out a minute or two until the feature starts) people still talk, text, make noise, etc...

Very true there.

Actually, I had one of my worst film experiences in YEARS at the AMC30 in Olathe recently.. they have these "Cinema Suites" which should be awesome; reclinable barco-loungers, food on order, etc.

 

But, in the theater -I- was in, between the back row (where I was) and the row below me was A WALL.  I am not kidding, A WALL.   That stood about 3 ft., and as a result, the bottom of the screen - about a foot and a half of the visible screen all the way across was chopped - you couldn't see it.    So, what happened?   Everyone near me in the back row ended up putting their legs under themselves in the barcoloungers just so we could be "higher then the wall" and see the damn film.

 

It was, frankly, one of the worst theater experiences I have ever had, and I paid $15 for it.   Completely infuriating.   It appears to me as though in a rush to offer a premium product, they did a pretty horrible job of managing sight lines.   And how do you do that in a theater?!?!

Stage productions of Wait Until Dark also get away with cutting every light in the theater for a minute or so at a certain critical point in the play.

The last time I saw a film was Green l. in 3d when the feature started the masking did not open! They had to stop the projector to fix it. The person I went with told me that was the way they are all the time @ this theatre.
A major problem with theatres now is there are no projectionists. I was one and I tryed to make every performance a reel show. Projectors need daily cleaning, oil, hrs. on bulb checked , port holes cleaned, etc. As a manager I tried to fix things like the curtins not working, rats! lights on the Marquee out for years,etc.
And the exit lights in Maryland by law should be green not red as someone said red means stop? Any way they should not be bright enought to fade the picture.They need to put in lower watt bulbs. Also when "Wait Until Dark " played back in the sixties you could put all the lights out durning a certain part. The note
came in the film can on when to do this.

If I read another article about theater owners crying about a lack of customers (or poverty) I'm gonna puke. People ARE going to the movies, in droves. Even those AMC morning showings are mostly filled to capacity. I, OTOH, have dramatically DECREASED trips to the theater because of rude people and ridiculous prices but the main reason I have stopped attending is the bombardment of commercials before the movie. I'm talking about some of the most annoying, network-TV type of ads in rapid succession ON A HUGE SCREEN for 20+ minutes. Sitting through all that clutter and noise BEFORE the movie actually lessens my enjoyment of the film. Add to that people crinkling bags, a--holes checking their e-mails every 8 minutes and the prick sitting behind you kicking your chair and you've got a recipe fir disaster. What I envision happening is a repeat of the situation in the 50's when theaters were losing audiences to television and they had to come up with ways to entice people out of their homes and back into the movie palaces. Who is going to want to schlep to a theater when you have a 70-inch screen and 7.1 sound in your home and no one to kick your seat? Theater chains are making more money than ever through attendance, inflated prices and selling advertisement but nothing has been done to increase the ENJOYMENT of the experience so they're actually going backwards in my opinion.

The much overhyped Arclight didn't bother to close the masking from the 1.85 of the trailers to the 1.33 shape of The Artist until about 20-30 minutes into the picture. So much for their usher kids standing there to ensure pic and sound were correct... all the end titles were out of focus as well.

I'm not aware of any regulations of what color exit signs should be. Red is probably the most common I have seen, don't think I've ever seen them green. Red and green do not always mean stop and go. As for Wait Until Dark again that would be an EXCEPTION for an actively supervised very limited period. I wouldn't be surprised if theatres needed to get permission. And you could never get away with that today's stricter Accesbility OSHA regulations, etc. You have no idea how much trouble the fire department can give you if they want to. From not allowing Cathy Rigby to fly over the audience (she was forced to redo the rigging over an aisle!) to ripping out and covering up huge sections of the multimillion dollar set for Starlight Express, you don't mess with them. Cinemas have much less political clout than a big broadway production...

And yeah, professional projectionists who know how to run a show, not to expose the bare screen, etc, were one of the first things exhibitors wanted to get rid of, and the experience is all the poorer for it.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/its_called_showmanship

I used to be a big defender of going to the theater for the best movie-going experience. I still think that a great theater setup is the way to go, but I'm not seeing much of such a setup any more. Sharpness seems unexceptional, and black levels are VERY weak. I keep thinking it's a byproduct of dim projector bulbs and the fact that everything is digital, coupled with VERY bright step lights in the place. I remember going to the theater as a kid, and the theater was VERY dark. My home setup has fantastic black levels--you can't see your hand in front of your face during a blackout scene. With respect to sound, no commercial theater is better than my room-corrected setup. I've been fortunate not to have any obnoxious phone users, etc., but the A/V aspect of commercial theaters is lacking. I must say I'm really disappointed in what people are saying about the Arclight--I thought they cared more than that.

ANY kind of projection has never had a total black level because the screen is ALWAYS white. With projection you have to look for a brown level, because when projection lamps are run in a dimmed mode, (try this with any dimmer at home) the light gets browner and there goes your white level, ruining every other color in the picture along with a dim depressing image. So the color to look for in projection is a true white where at home you want a full black.

Sure a well run and well equipped theatre can still provide a superior experience, BUT... since exhibitors have dumbed-down the experience (and themselves) for decades, that experience is very hard to find.

I've noticed that on 2K projection but not really on 4K projection; the only time I've seen aliasing with 4K projection is on the white lettering of the greenband screen at the beginning of trailers. The ironic thing is that virtually all of the screens at the local Regal here use 4K Sony projectors now, while the digital IMAX screen that charges such a premium still uses two overlapping 2K projectors to "fake" higher resolution.

One thing that has helped the theater experience too is the 3D craze. Most screens at the local multiplexes around here are really silver screens again instead of white matte screens. That's a necessity for 3D films, but it really improves the light for 2D films as well.

Happy New Year from Sydney, Australia to all HTF members!
Ticket prices in Sydney are now $AUS17 for adults for non 3D and $20 or so for 3D. Very expensive for a family outing. Popcorn etc way overpriced and why anyone would buy at the cinema is beyond me. IMAX close to $30. Seats are allocated or you can book online but there is small booking fee for this service. Projection varies - low light output, out of focus etc. Staff are mostly teenagers. Mobiles are a problem but if you want to complain about any issue it is almost impossible to find someone who gives a rats! No wonder I prefer to watch mostly at home these days - must be getting old!

stacking projectors is done more for brightness than resolution. And a silver screen doesn't have a great effect on brightness for 2D or 3D. That's not why silver is used. It's for the polarization.

I was at a theater in Louisville the day before Christmas Eve and noticed that all 8 movies playing there were leaving that day and being replaced by another 8. I know they love to rush movies into theaters but this type of thing here is just crazy and it's going to cost me and arm and leg trying to get caught up.

1. Ticket prices are certainly a joke and while I'm trying to go to the movies more, often times I have to really, really, REALLY talk myself into going. Dropping $10 knowing that I can rent 10 movies for that price is something I fight with. $17.50 for IMAX? Never.

2. Cell/Talking.....Like Travis, I have a pretty good feeling one day I'm going to get killed. I'm normally too shy to tell them to shut up but I have had lines crossed during screenings of BLUE VALENTINE and the latest Clooney/Payne movie. I know local theaters have three different ads telling people to stay off their phones but it seems some just don't care or perhaps they're too stupid. Or, most likely, they're just at the movie to kill some time and don't realize/understand that them talking can harm the experience for others.

I try to avoid others in the theater so I ait until the week I think a movie is going to be leaving the theater and I go to a late screening. I've probably seen at least ten movies by myself last year, which was nice. A woman I work with has a daughter who is a manager at a local AMC theater and she constantly tells me that the theater hates people who ruin the movie for others. Her daughter had her tell me not to refuse going to this theater. Instead, just walk out and tell them that someone is ruining the movie and they will have the person removed. I told her good idea until you consider that it would take 5-10 minutes to find someone and that's part of the movie you're missing.

3. Food....I go to baseball games and can't understand how someone can afford two $8 beers each inning. I also don't understand how people have the money to pay these prices. Maybe one out of ten times I'll buy a popcorn but I always sneak a drink in. I rarely open the drink unless my throat gets dry and I need it.

One more thing about talkers.

I remember several years ago going to a Bob Dylan concert and this couple behind my friends and I kept screaming for us to sit down. These types I usually just ignore since they're unaware that they're at a concert and not a chess match but after six or seven songs of them getting upset I finally turned around and promised to sit down as soon as Bob did. They shut up.

After a few talkers in the movies I really thought about doing something like this but instead of saying something to them I'd simply walk in the row in front of the talkers and just stand there blocking the screen from them. I would just stand there bothering them just as they were doing me with their mouths.

Of course, this might be where I get shot but so far I haven't built up the guts to do this.

Heh. I've pondered this too. Like standing in front on them and turning on my cell phone and shining it in their faces. Usually just a 'Turn that damn thing off!' does the trick. It's sometimes echoed by a 'fuck you' but they stop.

 

I rarely have problems at my theater. I have the good fortune to be able to go during the day while most people are at work. There's usually very few people in the theater with me. Even when it's packed I find most people in my area are respectful of others. There are times tho.

 

As for complaining about ads before the movie. I, personally, couldn't care less about what they show before the movie. I pay to see a movie and as long as it starts on time and there isn't any technical problems, I'm good. (however, my theater shows 30m promotainment programs so it's not too bad. it's not like they're showing pantine pro v commercials)

 

Also, to play devil's advocate, I think it's a little unfair to boast how much better your private home theater is compared to a cinema. You build yours to accommodate you and your family. A cinema is built to accommodate 7 screenings a day, 300 people a screening. You can achieve pitch blackness in your basement, but cinemas require lighted stairways and exit signs, for example.

My most extreme cell phone talker story:

 

A couple of years back, I went to a matinee of the latest Harry Potter.  A woman came into the theater while still chatting on her phone.  No biggie, I thought - it's just the pre-movie "entertainment" - not sure how someone can hear the other person on the line over those loud ads, but hey, it's not really intrusive yet.

 

The trailers come on - she keeps yapping.  Getting more annoying, but mindful of the "Seinfeld" where Elaine tries to shush people talking during previews, I let it go.

 

The "turn off your phone and shut up!" message comes on - no change.

 

The WARNER BROS. LOGO hits the screen - still talking!

 

There were about 10 of us in the theater, and someone else finally asks her to stop talking - I add "THE MOVIE HAS STARTED!!!"

 

This woman replies (incorrectly) that the movie hasn't started and throws in "fuck all of y'all - you don't know me!!!"  (The last comment prompted much future speculation among me and friends about what the heck that was supposed to mean in this context.)

 

I foresaw additional conflict and the need to drag an usher in to deal with her, but magically, the confrontation shut her up.  The phone went off and she behaved in a fully appropriate manner the rest of the way!

You people need Showcase Lux Level theaters. Pay an extra $10/ticket. Get $5 comp for food and drink. Park in special parking (they brush your car off if it snows), red carpet entrance, comfortable swivel chairs with lots of leg room, high above all the BS of cell phones, talkers, etc. You can even have a beer or a cocktail. Best movie experience ever, and the Showcase theaters around here sell out the Lux Level every night.

Yeah, but how do you keep cell phone crackheads from using their phones for even just one minute when they simply can't (or won't)? You just can't tear some people away from their precious gizmos no matter what you threaten them with..

The few times that I've had to say something, I told myself that they have no clue that I'm not a crazy person & they don't know that I'm actually a pussy and it worked fine. I know if I was a 'bystander' in the theater, I'd be convinced that the guy who told someone to shut up was a dangerous lunatic while the talker was just annoying.


On a related note, am I the only who notices that people who text during a movie can't seem to keep their phone in their lap but always seem to have to hold it straight in front of their face? At this point, I'm not even really annoyed by it as much as I'm fascinated that it seems to always happen. Young, old, black, white, male, female- EVERYONE seems to hold their phone directly at eye level.

Politely telling someone who is talking during the film to "Please stop talking, you're disturbing others" works in some neighborhoods and not in others.You have to be careful who you say it to. Sometimes it's a much better idea just to move to another seat. I always take socio-economic factors into account when deciding what movie theater to go to.