Dan

^ that Christian film, of all the possible films playing at my local AMC... that is the film currently playing on their only Dolby Cinema screen.
Why it's not Onward or literally anything else, I don't know.

GoldenJCJ

Without getting political, I could hazard a guess as to why a certain group of people who would be interested in a religious movie might also think the coronavirus is a hoax and nothing to worry about and would therefore have no issues with venturing out to a movie theater.

Trevor

Semi related, but my local Regal has suspended their free refill policy because of safety concerns. I guess I see employees handling used containers puts them at risk, but why not just give paying customers a new cup/bag? Can’t cost them more than a few cents. Heck, charge people a quarter or whatever for a refill. I rarely get food at the theater, only with some coupon or freebie deal, but the free refills on the way out were key to making it worth the cost imho.

Jay G.

I suspect that the issue is the handling of the used container, even if they ultimately toss it out and give you a new one. They'd have to wash their hands between taking your old container, and filling up a new one. Plus the back of the counter would now be filling up with old containers, which would need to be disposed of a lot more often.

If they rely on the customer disposing of the container before they come back up for a "refill" new container, how do they know the person bought something in the first place? Customer would have to keep receipts and present them, which would require handwashing if the employees have to take them to review them. Also, without an empty container as proof, how would they know you actually finished the last one? If a person comes back after 10 minutes requesting another drink, did they actually finish the last one, or are they "stocking up" before the movie starts, or distributing the extra cups to their family/fiends that they came with? Refilling an existing empty container they already ate/drank out of removes this possibility of duplication (or at least reduces, presuming they didn't bring in any empty containers to split their popcorn & soda).

Even making the customer "present" an empty container at the counter, which the employee never touches, could be ripe for exploitation. If I knew that I was getting all new containers, I might be inclined to grab empty containers of popcorn and soda resting on the top of a trash bin, "present" these to the cashier, have my wife take the new popcorn and soda containers, and go throw out the used containers and wash my hands before I go join her in the theater. The next person coming along could then take the exact same empty containers I had place on top of the trash, and do the same thing. In fact, even if the cashiers take the empty containers from me, there's still likely plenty of trash readily available to exploit. Previously, people weren't likely to get a refill of an empty container they found in the trash, because they knew they'd then have to eat/drink out of the same container some stranger already had. If they give you a new container each time, that psychological impediment is removed.

RichC2

I posted this in the Box Office thread, but you can definitely see COVID's influence:

Lowest Box Office in 22 years (til next weekend at least) at roughly $55m.

DJariya

I would be nervous if I was a part-time employee at a movie theatre. Chances are your hours are going to slashed big time.

Artman

The movie was nearly #1 at the box office, and most likely was in certain parts of the country...which is why any business would move the most in demand product to their premium locations.

What a bloodbath. This is going to get pretty ugly for theaters for the next six wks...best case scenario is Black Widow keeps it's release date and some semblance of normalcy returns at that time.

OldBoy

I guess Ben Affleck gets his acting Oscar. No competition so it’s a lock!

Dan

Alamo has implemented a Social Distancing feature in the app. After you select your seats, the ones next to you on both sides are un-selectable for anyone else. It's kinda neat.

​​​​​​Example:
grey = sold seats
black = seats removed from sale
white = available seats

I like it. It's more dynamic than "every other row" or hard-coding gaps between every two seats before they're sold.

DJariya

https://deadline.com/2020/03/mayor-b...us-1202884054/

New York is closing all movie theatres.

This will likely become nationwide if I had to guess.

TomOpus

Nice!

DJariya

Twitter

Movie theatres in Los Angeles shut down

Watch the box office crash even more.

dex14

DJariya

Wow, Olga is sick as well. Fuck.

Noonan

Idris Elba just posted that he tested positive.

ViewAskewbian

First Thanos, now this.

Bob_Bobbson

Due to the Coronavirus, Universal is releasing The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Emma to digital platforms this Friday. These movies are still in their theatrical run.
Trolls World Tour will be released digitally day-and-date with Theaters on April 10.

The movies will cost $19.99 for a 48 hr rental.

L Everett Scott

I sincerely hope that some of that is going to the theaters. 'Cause the cost of transporting bulky film reels isn't a consideration anymore.

DJariya

Regal and AMC are going to get absolutely killed. If more studios break the window, the theatres are going to lose millions and millions.

Bob_Bobbson

I just read another article that went more in depth, it's $20 for a rental. I was under the impression that it was for sale, since that's usually what digital movie purchases cost. That's a little steep, I can't see too many people going for it.
I'll amend my post above.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/u...us-1203535541/

DJariya

For the studios sake, I hope they add some kind of copyright encryption. Otherwise this could have some ramifications with movie pirates.

dex14

Huge news.

And that price is expected for the bigger movies. They need to account for people who will watch with more than one person. None those films are worth biting for at that rental price. But this is a major turn for the industry.

I don’t agree with the price for things like Emma or The Hunt.

DJariya

The cheap bastards who populate these movie forums and message boards are very likely going to be hesitant to pay $20 for a 48 hour rental when they can own it 6 months later for $10.

Mike86

If it was straight up just for sale I’d maybe consider buying digital releases of some movies I was planning on seeing like The Invisible Man. At $20 for a rental though, I guess I’m the cheap bastard () who won’t bother. I get the studios are looking for a way to make money during this time, but there aren’t that many movies I desperately want to watch on demand. Paying more at a theater is one thing because it’s a different experience.

fujishig

There's no way they would do day and date of release full ownership for 20 bucks, that would completely kill theaters (if this virus doesn't already). That said, part of the moviegoing experience (instead of waiting for home release) is social and that is completely dead, even if the theaters around here were open.