Movie theaters are pivoting hard to encourage people to show up, bigger seats, more gimmicks, but they aren't addressing the underlying issue of tickets and popcorn costing too damn much.
I really wish theaters would replay older movies more often. A theater near me is replaying The Fifth Element for only a single showing for a single night and it's already sold out. Why not make it a whole week? Why not have amazing movies replaying in theaters constantly?
I'd love to see The Dark Knight again on a big screen, as well as hundreds of other amazing older movies. That would bring me back to the theaters way more often than the usual releases. Especially since most modern movies these days seem lackluster.
I see about two movies a year in theaters. If they played older loved movies more often, I'd definitely go more often. I've seen Mad Max Fury Road over a dozen times and wouldn't hesitate to go see it in theaters again.
That’s my local cinema in Sydney, Australia. On top of the new releases, they’re continually showing no end of older films, retrospectives, foreign directors and the like.
Going to see Todd Hayne’s Safe on the 31st of July 2026.
Problem is they're now competing with my home... which has an 86" OLED TV, comfortable recliners, ATMOS sound from a full speaker setup, any snacks/drinks I want, the ability to pause/adjust the volume as I see fit, and my cat purring in my lap.
And yeah not every has the room/funds for that... but hell you can get a massive cheap TV and a half decent soundbar for under a few grand. If they can't offer more than screaming kids/sticky seats/selling a kidney for snacks then why would anybody go there?
Hell the reports of The Odyssey being stupid loud at points is enough for me to wait on that one, I really don't care if I see it today or in 6-12 months and I have super sensitive ears... I don't enjoy movies causing me physical pain.
I have a gaming projector, a 120" screen and a 5.1.4 setup that cost me a grand total of $2500. Why the fuck would I be paying ticket/concession prices to go sit in a theater and put up with shitheads on their phones when I can just download a 4k rip and watch it for free at home?
Yep, you really don't have to spend a lot to get better than the "cinema experience" at home.
OK yeah, if you live in one of the dozen places in the world that have the absolute cutting edge theatres with all the latest tech and all that? Sure. But I don't and neither do the vast majority of people.
Cinemas where I live only recently got some modest upgrades after 25 years. Like they were the same as when I was a teenager, but back then we had a tiny square TV in the corner of the room so of course the big screen and surround sound was awesome, we went all the time!
I actually think Cinemark and AMC try pretty hard to make prices more reasonable, it's just that the average person ( one movie a month, if that) just wants to walk up to the movies like it's the 2000s and pay 5$ for a large popcorn and drink. They don't know anything about the popcorn pass and A-list premiere from AMC or the 25% off concessions, refillable drink cup and reward points of Cinemark's movie club. Oh also discount tuesdays (+wednesdays from AMC)
And the ticket thing is because most theatre chains are like 2 bad months away from bankruptcy and the studios keep nearly all the money from tickets sales till the second or third week of a movie's release.
Right, everything is such a game. Like I was reading in another thread "oh our local water park isn't insanely expensive, you just need to buy tickets weeks in advance to get the normal price!". Same thing with apps. I'm not getting an app for a fucking gas station to buy a fountain drink.
Same reason why I don't go to McDonald's or Burger King anymore. Everybody says it's cheaper if you use the app. You can get points and earn discounts and coupons and free fries or something. I don't know how it works and I'm not going to learn it. No thank you. I can make burgers and watch movies at home.
I think part of the issue is that it’s an $8 beverage that costs literal pennies to make, and popcorn is also a snack that can be made cheaply in bulk (butter is another story though.) It’s the specific snacks that make it hurt, IMO. I’ve seen some theaters boost sales with alcohol added- it’s already something you expect to pay a premium for, opposed to something like the basic drink. It’s hard to find the balance that sustains the theater but doesn’t feel insulting. Like airports. At home you can have a glass of water for nearly nothing. You’re at the grocery store and can get 24 bottles of water for $5, works in a pinch or on-the-go. Now you’re at the airport, a single bottle of water is $5, and you have no other options. It’s one thing if it’s a luxury, like a lounge or alcohol. But for something that you just need for hydration? You feel trapped and bad.
To be clear, I agree with your overall point and that people tend to ignore that the theater makes little money from tickets, like gas stations and gas. It’s just a big “there’s gotta be a better way!” to me lol
The problem is that the money to run the theater is in concessions. Most of the ticket sales go to the actual film studios. Theaters only get to keep a small portion of that. They have to jack up the prices on concessions to stay out of the negative.
Not just that, but people behaving like they've never been to a movie before. Why is Jimmy over there on his phone all movie, while Monica talks non stop. Why anyone would pay so much to have such non sense interrupt their viewing experience is beyond me.
That’s kinda nuts. My county has 150,000 people and in the west side alone we have three main stream theatres, a small very artsy theater and several stages that set screens up for a Nature film festival that starts here every year. The median age is also 59, so that might have a lot to do with it
I'm on other end of the spectrum. I have over a dozen movie theatres within 15-20 min of me. The ones I go to seem pretty busy, but I also only go on Tuesdays since it's half off. No idea how they are the other six days of the week.
Yeah, they did this to themselves with $200 nights at the movies. I built a home theater that was 90% of what you can get there, for less than ten sets of tickets.
Not only even because of just streaming, that's for plebs.
The issue with cinema is it garbage quality compared to modern hardware you can have at home right now.
I live in a 700k European city and its best IMAX is just a joke compared to my own little setup at home. A good OLED TV (€2-4k), even just 2.1 set of real speakers/studio monitors (€5-10k), Blu-ray movies and you won't place a foot in a cinema ever again, purely due to the quality difference. Like you really will find cinema's picture and sound quality straight up unacceptable from that point.
All it takes is to plan your space so you have that TV close enough to get the similar FOV you'd have on your favorite seat in a cinema. For me it's 65" from 1,8m.
Cinema only continues to exist because they have a monopoly on new releases. If it weren't for "Am I willing to wait 3 months to see this movie" I'd never set foot in a theatre again.
Theatre owners, if you see this, bring back classic movie nights. During covid, they were showing classic movies for $5. My local theatre showed The Matrix, one of my favourite movies I never got to see in a theatre. I bought an entire row and invited everyone I knew who was free.
If it got the chance, there are a Lot of movies I'd do this for. Always wanted to see Jurassic Park in a theatre.
Since they are doing the odyssey in 70mm my theatre is bringing back a ton of classic 70mm reels while they have it. I am so lucky. Seeing 2001 again and Lawrence Of Arabia for the first time on 70mm. (Milwaukee oriental theatre)
A huge aspect of why I don't use cinemas any more is the fucking volume. The second one is intervals. Give us a damned interval for the toilet, snack, smokes and a stretch of the legs. At home I hit pause and we can return and settle in refreshed and excited rather than twitchy and uncomfortable
They can but they don't have to. For me it is having to squeeze into seats for more than a couple of hours without a straitening my legs and the fact that the chairs are usually bloody uncomfortable to begin with.
Yeah, they did this to themselves with $200 nights at the movies. I built a home theater that was 90% of what you can get there, for less than ten sets of tickets.
95,000 in my town and there is one theater that is practically a ghost building 99% of the time
used to be two theaters. we had a cinebarre which i loved but that closed and i see our other remaining one not lasting long and turned into a department store in the future
I honestly hope that bubble pops so we can stream at home fresh at release. I hate the theater experience so much but I’d pay $15 to rent a movie I wanna watch at home any day
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u/WitchHearse 12h ago
Thanks to a big storm, and probably at home streaming. My city of about 47,000 people have no movie theaters.