Movies like Indiana Jones movies are doing just fine in the Theater:
1. Star Wars I, II, III
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. Harry Potter Movies
4. Batman Begins
5. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
6. Fantastic Four
7. The Lord of the Rings movies
8. Pirates of the Caribbean
9. Matrix
10. Terminator 2 and 3
11. Xmen Movies
12. Men in Black movies
13. Spider-Man 1 and 2

The problem is that they want us to spend $20 (Date with wife) to see a movie that is junk.

Give us a great product and a better price, then I will take my family of 4 to the movies more often.

The two theaters I go to I've only had one negative presentation experience, and that was just some dumbass pulled the firealarm so we had to leave for 20 minutes.

Fortunately they just resumed the movie were it left off AND gave everyone free passes (regardless of whether you stayed or left as you just had to present ticket stubs from that time period to get a free ticket in the future).

Otherwise, even the smaller auditourims are big enough and have good sound systems and I've never had problem with poor video or sound quality at either.

Occasionally you have a noisey audience, but again I minimize that by not going during peak times.

Right on the mark....movies that are worth seeing in the theater are still doing well. They need to adapt and quit whining.

They laugh all the way to the bank either way.

Your lucky then....Its hit or miss with me....I try to go to only good theaters, but sometimes I still get a bad experience.

I saw Batman Begins at one of my favorite theaters. 75 foot screen, but the sound was TERRIBLE!! It was muffled and you could hardly hear. Also, there was a tear in the screen. I havent been back to that one.

You also cant avoid the screaming kid every once in a while. At my house, I have a no kid policy. ;)

There is one component that the DVD Home experience cannot replace: just getting out of the house. Sometimes it is nice just to leave your house and go and see a movie.

I've seen movies in the theater and then not enjoyed them on home video. And home video has allowed me the opportunity to see a lot of films I would not have otherwise. So each venue has there postives and negatives.

I've read through most of the thread and will post my 2 cents, even though this topic has been discussed many, many times before.

The theatre to me is dead. Every time I've attempted to go to a movie in the past 3 years, I've had to deal with one or more nuisances (cell phones, kids, people talking, etc.). My wife and I even try to go to the earliest show we can and wait 2 to 3 weeks to see a movie, and we still run into the same problems.

I could give a crap about the "crowd" experience. There's absolutely no reason to cheer or yell when something cool happens. It'd be different if it was for a screening, and the director or cast was in attendence, but that's not the case 99.9% of the time.

Anyways, I'd rather see a movie projected off a mirror onto a cardboard box with sound coming out of a tin can, than go to the theater anymore. I don't have a kickass home theater here or anything, but my 36" HD CRT /w a 6.1 surround system is more than ample for my apartment living room.

Very true indeed....But, the positives on the theater side have dwindled somewhat. I think thats the point.

Hollywood needs to give us a reason to go to the theater. They sometimes act like its our duty to go see their latest crap piece.

Ala, Coupon: The Movie (for those of you who get the reference).

When my family and I lived in California, we used to go to the Old/Restored "Stanford Movie Theater to watch old movies:
1. Jimmy Stewart night movies
2. Gone with the Wind
3. Indiana Jones nights
etc

Loved the theater, it is clean and Classy - wish I could find one up in the Seattle area.

Was that a coupon for tube socks?

Philadelphia
 

I went to see this movie when it first came out. I haven't seen it since. The only thing I can remember about it was the lady who sat down next to us, and let her kid perform running summersaults down the aisle way next to the seats. I came out of the theater with my wife crying and me thinking, "I wish I'd strangled the mom and her kid". The essence of the film, good or bad, was totally lost to me.

All I remember TO THIS DAY was that little b*st*rd running and rolling down the aisles!

I'd bet thousands that the majority of academy members watched the nominated films (on DVD) in the comfort of their personal $250,000 plus home theaters...being served dinner and drinks in extraordinarily comfortable seating. I bet it was quiet there, crystal clear sound, excellent lighting, not a cell phone within earshot.

I mean come on...who really wants to go the the "theater" these days...unless it's the one you have downstairs...in the den, or set up in the guest room.


GA

Yeah.

I saw the shit out of it!

I saw The 40 Year Old Virgin, Two For the Money, Shopgirl, The Weather Man, The Ice Harvest, Syriana and Match Point this year and only Syriana had any problems w/ other audience members (it was an old lady yelling to her husband about plot points). It wasn't a huge loss and I still enjoyed the other times.

Admitedly, I don't see most movies in the theater, but that is due to economics more than poor movies. Movies are meant to be seen in a theater, that's just fact. If you consider your home theater to be a better theater, cool. Just don't blame the moviemakers for the inconsiderate people on their cell phones, blame the theater managers.

I still enjoy going to movies with my friends because it is a social experience. I also enjoy watching movies on my piddly 20" TV.

If you want to go the "ways of getting things cheaper" route, hell... just download the movie.

And believe it or not, some people have trouble squeezing in $10 a ticket into their budget, especially if they're trying to support a family and have to pay for more than one person. So yes, stop pretending everyone is in the same situation you are in.

As for "going down to Rite-Aid," believe it or not, theaters around here actively discourage bringing in food and drink from the outside, and are more likely to make you leave for that than for being a disruption.

I had a similar experience when Braveheart came out...the theater was crowded, hot and it definately affected my viewing (its a long movie ;))...I had to sit next to a fat guy who took up the arm of the chair and even some of my leg room....I didnt like Braveheart until I watched it on DVD.

Yeah, you get one everyonce in a while. Rarely in the early afternoon or late night weekday showings.

I'm also blessed at not being easily distracted. The screaming kid/crying baby distacts me, but whispering, rattling food, the occasional unanswered cell phone ringing doesn't bother me that as long as it's not right next to me and continuous throughout the show.

How? Do you have to pass through a candy detector? I've never seen any theater that asks you to empty your pockets, or open you backpack or purse.

I mean yeah if you have a burger king combo the usher might notice it and throw you out. But who the fuck eats whole meals during a movie anyway. They aren't going to notice if the skittles are from the concession or Rite-aid when your sitting in the dark and eating them.

I dont blame them for that. I just blame them for "Big Mommas House 2" and anything with Ashton Kutcher.

Point being, if a movie is worth seeing in the theater, ill go. Even if I have to put up with some snotty nosed teenagers (like at harry potter 4). After the movie, I REALLY liked it even though the stupid girl in front of us was a loud mouth.

:) Do they FRISK you when you go in? Do they not let you take bags? Is there a body cavity search? That's ridiculous.

Again, we weren't talking about entire families going to the movies. ANd it's not like movie ticket prices just massively jumped up. Were you same people bitching 3 years ago? Cause prices were the same then.

And I'm not talking about downloading the movie. I'm talking about doing the same things but doing them cheaper. My parents taught me that. You could even get one of the entertainment books. Movie tickets are $6 in there. Stop bitching. The pity party has left the building.

I find it interesting how different the experiences are at certain theaters. My hometown is a lot worse than the area in North Carolina where I go to college. In my hometown, event movies and the art-house are generally fine, but others are full of talking, phones, etc. Here, people are generally quiet and respectful. Let's take for example this past weekend when I saw 16 Blocks, which had some heavy dialogue and quiet scenes, perfect audience. I don't think that would have happened back home.

I've cut down on the theatre this year because I don't have that much time but I've had no problems seeing any of these.

1. Memoirs of a Geisha
2. Hostel
3. Final Destination 3
4. 16 Blocks
5. The Producers

Even with some courtesy problems, my excitement for the theater was reiterated last weekend. Part of me loves getting tickets and going to busy theater with an audience that wants to see the movie. I've gotten better about asking people to be quiet. I think the most pissed off I ever was after a movie was apres my first viewing of Kill Bill Vol. 1. Some stupid middle schoolers talked the whole time, with people telling them to shut up.

What can I say? That stuff makes money, some people see it :shrug:. It's not like there is magically now a worse signal to noise ratio in terms of good movies. If a movie is good, I'll see it. If it is borderline I may or may not.

Exactly.

And that's really sad. You should be able to enjoy it in the movies. That's were it was meant to be seen.

They already did The Godfather. Check out the schedule. It's in the "movies" forum.

Every Best Picture nomination I saw this year I would have preferred to see on my home theater.

The only movies I really wanted to see in a big theater were King Kong and Harry Potter. Harry Potter was viewed at a 60 seat adults only premium theater. Wonderful experience.
King Kong was on the giant screen at my local AMC. Thankfully the movie was loud enough that you couldn't hear any of the chuckleheads.

My midnight viewings of the Star Wars prequels and the LOTR trilogy were more than enough to remind me of my more pleasurable theater trips as a young one.

If the day comes that DVD releases come out the same day as theatrical release, that's the day I'll almost never go back to a theater again. If I wanted to watch commercials I'd turn on NBC and disconnect my DVR. If I wanted to watch a film with technical problems and bad sound, I'd kick my RPTV and pull out a couple of my speaker cables. If I wanted to watch a film with distractions all around, I'd invite my friends to bring all their kids over to play when I'm going to watch a DVD.

At this point I'm not even sure bringing the "classics" back to the theater will make me go. Why torture myself trying recapture the experience of seeing something like The Empire Strikes Back theatrically when the experience will almost certainly be ruined by the audience or technical conditions?

Plus, if more theaters do look into playing classic films to bring people back, I'd say that's a pretty succinct commentary on the quality of today's films.

Not at all. The main theater I go to was $8 for night showings a couple years ago (less than 3 for sure) and is up to $9.50.

I still go, and love going, but ticket prices have definitely been going up.

IMO, they have spent enough on (and made advances in) marketing to make something look good and it gets a lot of people to see it (for example, fake critic comments in the previews and so on).

I bet most of these crappy movies have a lot of people shrugging afterwards saying, "The preview looked better". That fact has somewhat also helped movie rentals and dvd sales.

Yep. Even the discount passes I get from the credit union were 5, now they're 5.50. A kid's/matinee ticket at the theatre is now 6, I think. Movie ticket prices have gone up in most places in the past couple years--how else can you reconcile "Attendance is down" with "Revenue is up"?

And yes, I'm sure people did bitch like this 3 years ago. For lots of the same reasons. The industry hasn't learned, and they're reaping their 'rewards' now.\

I do blame the theatre managers for loud, crappy theaters. But the theatre managers and the moviemakers are a team, in a way, and what each of them does affects the other.

"if a movie is worth seeing in the theater, ill go" Sure. And that 'worth' is relative to each person, and is dependent on lots of factors, many of which have been talked about in this thread. For me, very few movies are "worth" dealing with everything talked about, and the cost, when the alternative is waiting two months and renting/buying dvd. And certainly different people weight those scales differently, which is fine. Hence the disagreement/discussion.