It seems that at
this day in age movie theaters are feeling the aches and pains of decreased
attendance, ticket sales, and therefore, lost revenue. The CBS Sunday Morning segment “The End of Movie Theaters?”, really paints us a broad picture on all of the possible reasons for this
slippery slope, of which every theater is dealing with.
One
seemingly major downer for the Theater companies is the current condition of
the American economy. There are plenty of people who are being very cautious of
their spending, and expensive movie tickets just don’t seem to be the smartest
way in getting the best value in cinematic entertainment. In fact, it is very
hard to believe that a large amount of the population would pay up to 11
dollars for a movie ticket when renting a movie is considerably healthier for
your wallet. A Red Box machine costs only 1 dollar per rental and can be found
on every corner with various different choices.
During
the “Pre-TV” days, movies were the only real available option when it came to
enjoying theatrical entertainment. CBS told us that around 60% of Americans
went to the theater EVERY WEEK! If you compare those numbers today the
difference is drastically less satisfying. One demographic that has truly lost
touch with the theater experience are the desired “eyeballs” of the young male
audience. It appears that multi-media is often the culprit for the recent
distractions from the world of cinema. Video games, Netflix, YouTube, and sites
like Facebook, are all things that have substituted such expensive
entertainment.
Looking
at sites like Netflix and Hulu, one thing becomes clear. People are simply
replacing the expensive trip to the movies with the more comfortable, cheaper
feel of “in-home entertainment”. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy a great movie in a
lazy boy as opposed to the cold and crowded theater? You would think that movie
theaters would pick up on this idea and try to incorporate this style of
comfort. Well it turns out that indeed some have!
Some theatres have
experimented with the home theater mood by bringing recliners, gourmet food,
and even waitresses into the mix. Not a bad strategy to try to incorporate the
people who like to be pampered into the theater. Peter Jackson’s new film “The Hobbit” has incorporated a new type of cutting-edge audio system to bring to
the cinematic universe. Peter stated that he intends “to
make movies that allow the audience to participate in the events onscreen,
rather than just watch them unfold. Wonderful technology is now available to
support this goal: high frame rates, 3D, and now the stunning Dolby Atmos
system,”. This new production could be the start of a new reform in theatrical
experience, and therefore bring in greater audiences to awe.
Many
individuals believe that in order to restore the decreased attendance in the
sticky seats, production studios must create more blockbusters in hopes of
packaging just about every demographic all into the same theater. Films like
‘Avatar’ did exactly that. Women, men, and children were all rushing to the
multiplex at the same time to generate the production a price range of just
over 300 million dollars. In 2011, there were astonishingly only 2 major
blockbusters.
The
more we observe these modern day problems of the struggling projectors, the
more we seem to find alternate and creative solutions for bringing in the
dough. However, in my opinion there is only one real solution that has proven
successful throughout the history of the lens. Quality content and entertaining
productions seem to be the best way to please the masses. It isn’t perfectly
clear what the master plan is for these troubled theaters. However, I believe
that somewhere there lies a mixture of these proposed solutions that just might
do the trick.
No comments:
Post a Comment