Future Events Such as These Will Affect YOU in the Future: The Death of Theaters (1 Viewer)

[Chris Farmer]

I agree with the common consensus here. There's something about going to the theater that can't be matched by even the best HT. Going to Fellowship of the Ring opening day, as the lights go dim, see the words The Lord of the Rings appear on screen, and realizing that I, along with however many hundred people are seeing a movie we've been waiting years to see is an experience that can't be matched. Hearing the entire theater break into applause when Aragorn cuts of Lurtz' head wouldn't happen in an HT. There's also something about the movie theater environment that encourages laughing out loud. I rarely laugh verbally at a movie I watch at home unless I'm with a group of friends, and the bigger the crowd the louder and more often I laugh. No HT, no matter how good, can replicate this, especially when you couple it with the fact that even the smallest theater screen is far bigger then the biggest HT.

As for the other end, you can offer VoD, but I ain't buying. My DVD collection is permanent. If [insert name of studio here] was to go broke tomorrow, my DVDs of [insert name of movie done by said studio here] will still be here, even years from now. In VoD, if the company goes broke, the server goes down, with it the content. Plus I don't want to pay for something everytime I use it. I buy my movies once on DVD, and I own them forever, and I'm not willing to give that up, period. In addition, there's an intangible sense of getting home a copy of a movie you loved in theaters, taking off the shrink wrap, reading the liner notes (if it's not Disney or Universal that is), that pushing a button on a remote control can't match. Or scanning through my collection on the shelves looking to see what jumps out at me. It's the same reason that I don't use the iTunes Music Store, even though Apple lets you buy your music, not rent. There's something about owning a real, physical copy on physical medium that pure digital can't emulate.

Replace video rental stores? Highly highly likely, but movie theaters are safe as long as I have any say, and the same goes for my DVD collection.

 

[Jason_Els]

Theaters, to compete with VOD & DVD rentals, are set up with a propriatary network where they can download high resolution digital quality films and show them via a DLP projection system (or some more advanced technology). No film is used.

That is already being done. The first film to use this method was 2000's Bounce. See:

First movie distributed via satellite opens in New York

 

[Pete Lee]

The ability to cook in or get food delivered to your home has not eliminated restaurants. Why would VOD or home theatre do the same to the movie theatre? People understand each offer different and distinct experiences and one is not a straight shot substitute for the other.

 

[Gary Smith]

It's an interesting point that my girlfriend certainly agrees with, but then she asks why I'm going to the pub when there's beer in the fridge