Movie Theaters Are Dying Because the Future Is Better
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
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#videoessay #commentary #moviebusiness #movietheatres
I worry that we are losing the ability to share common public spaces. Even many old people have forgotten how to be quiet in a theater. School board meetings and city council meetings have become shouting contests. The bookstore I work at encourages people to hang out for hours, but now it has become common for people to sprawl all over the floor, blocking access to the books and making aisles impassable.
My feeling as well. Hell even watching a TV show that was being broadcast in real time. I remember watching the finale of mash and knowing that millions of other people are watching it at the same time. We had a shared experience that we could talk about even years later.
When I saw Avengers endgame in the theater, when Captain America wielded Mjolnir, the theater erupted in cheers. You don't get that at home.
If people are sprawled out on the floor blocking aisles that sounds like a design issue for the store. The store isn’t providing appropriate reading spaces for their patrons.
Theater's still exist, instead of going to see recorded media it may be more common to go see a live show at a local theater
People weren’t always quiet as church mice in theaters. The Globe famously was raucous. Note that football still packs stadiums because there is a shared communal experience and participation is encouraged.
I am happy to say that I have experienced very little bad behavior in movie theaters, but I do recognize that my experience may not be typical. But to the extent that "Hell is other people," being able to exert some control over who you see a movie with is, I think, a big part of the reason home video (going all the way back to the days of VHS when I first came across this "movies are dying!" lament) has been replacing movie theaters. Steaming is just another step in this same process.
I very much miss the bookstore browse. Picking up a book, feeling it's heft, flipping through it's entirety to glance at a few random passages throughout before deciding whether to add it to my ever-growing stack of to-be-purchased books; Amazon will NEVER be able to replicate that. Sometimes you don't know you want a book until you've seen it in person, felt it. I miss the gargantuan magazine selection, too for similar reasons.
Try your public library. After all, you're probably paying for it. You can even use University libraries at public universities such as here in California. I go to the UCLA libraries.
Yeah there was something so exciting about seeing all those magazines and choosing one.
I feel like an important aspect of movie theaters, music stores, bookstores, etc. is that sense of community. Going to a physical space with other people and interacting with them. It's part of why church is so important to some people. I still go to book stores because there are people that work there that love books that can make recommendations that an algorithm never could. You can also get that with libraries and not have to worry about the cost.
Movie theaters specifically can have an energy that you can't get at home. I remember going to the midnight premiere of the Simpsons movie and evryone laughing together. I remember going to see Avengers Endgame and everyone cheering when Cap has Mjolnir and when everyone shows up in the portals. It's a magical, electrifying experience.
Getting everything delivered directly to your house is convienent, and necessary for people with mobility issues, but it contributes to our general alienation and growing sense of loneliness. We need more reasons for people to go out, interact, and make friends with eachother, not less. Ideally they shouldn't require money for people to enjoy them, but that's a separate problem.
"On your left."
Something being more convenient doesn't mean it's inherently better
I want to point out that it's not just mobility issues...I have sensory issues that make going to the big blockbuster movies kind of a nightmare. Going to a quieter movie in a small indie place is usually okay. The sensory bombardment involved makes it nearly impossible to feel any sense of community with people from being in a theater with them.
@@amw6846 You only speak for minority of people like yourself or who are autistic. Of course the expience is different for you. But the majority of people enjoy the experience.
I had those same movie going experiences! My personal favorite was during the Godzilla (2016) movie, all through the movie our scaly boi is hinted at and barely shown fighting then when we get to hear his first ROAR we the audience cheered!
As a huge computer nerd … i still prefer to own stuff. I don’t want my art to be files on a hard disk, especially if its one I don’t even own. I prefer books and records because they have literal weight.
"Computer...download one sandwich"
While I agree with you, physical over streaming, that wasn't really Steve's argument, you never owned the film after watching it at the cinema either.
@@bluemujika You didn't go to the theatre to own a copy of the movie, you went there to see it on a larger screen, in better quality and with far better sound than you could get at home. And so you could see it without having to wait 12-18 months for it to come out on home video.
But the gap in those things has shrunk. Granted, nobody can really fit a 60'x40' projection screen in their home if they're anything like a normal person, but a good 60" 4k flatscreen is cheaper than going to the theatre every week for a year (not including travel or snacks), and that's certainly about as large a screen as is practical for home use. A Dolby Atmos system is reasonably affordable, too.
Which is why the only times I've been to the cinema in the last 10 years have been to see the Dune movies on an IMAX screen. That, at least, genuinely offers an experience I can't recreate at a "good enough" standard at home.
I think the best option is ripping dvd's onto a network attached storage. DVD's can go bad sitting in storage, but if you have a backed up NAS you're more guaranteed to at least keep what you paid for. You just have to replace the hard drives as they go bad as opposed to your entire dvd collection (including ones out of print)
@@bluemujika Yeah but there's a physical experience. And at the end he says he owns a kindle and streams music. While I do both as well, they just don't compare. Reading an actual book is very different from reading a kindle.
I remember when movie tickets didn't cost more than DVDs but here we are.
You mean such a time existed?
DVDs, do you understand how technology works? Of course they’re going to charge more for movie tickets because who TF is buying DVDs in 2024? It’s not even sarcasm, it’s a serious question. How many people are buying DVDs nowadays? Even CDs are very unpopular now, let alone a whole DVD. This ain’t the 90s. DVDs and CDs are useless for the most part now. When you have everything digitalized, why would people be paying more for a physical copy of something they probably don’t even have something to play it in? It’s not the companies being greedy per say, it’s time changing.
@@al.s.3277
It’s because you don’t own the digital copy. Physical disks can’t be taken from you because, “they don’t have the license anymore”
When I was a kid, my grandma would take us to the 2nd run movie theater-they played movies after they were out of theaters but before they came to rental or tv
She called it “The Dollar Fifty” because a full price adult ticket was $1.50
Tickets here are still like 7 or 8 euros. Pretty good i think.
The thing about "buying" things for streaming is you never know when it will go away. A service shuts down, rights go away etc, so I never consider "buying" something from a streaming service "owning it" and will never pay above rental prices for it.
That's what StreamFab is for.
That is exactly why I have never trusted streaming services since the beginning and I have gone the lengths to find physical copies of films.
That's the thing, buying media as part of some service means that it's only available as long as the service provider is okay or is allowed to maintain it.
Is this method of consumption more convenient? For the most part, but there's always a cost or trade-off.
Exactly. If I REALLY like a movie, I'll buy the disc! Then I can watch it whenever, even when the internet goes down. Plus - bonus content!
Yep, I learned this the hard way. I bought a few TV shows on iTunes about 15 years ago, figuring that Apple will never go out of business, so I should be safe. I have kept the video files, through several hard drive deaths.
Apple will no longer allow me to download iTunes on my PC with Windows 11. The video files won’t play on the Apple TV app or any other app I’ve tried. I have not even been tempted to…go privateering, let’s say, since I was a kid, but this made me angry enough to consider it.
As someone who has been on-board with a lot of the new ways since their early introductions: The new ways leave a hole in our hearts. When an audience is engrossed in a comedy, being a part of that audience makes the movie genuinely a lot funnier. A scary movie is a lot scarier. It's a way to connect with other people you don't even know, to share an experience with strangers, a little glimmer of communal synchronicity. (This phenomenon can also be used for evil; but when used for good can help improve community cohesion and heal wounds.)
As you touched on, digital media also has such an inevitable air of impermanence. Physical books still feel much better. It still feels best to hold a CD in your hand and say "this is mine", and it also encourages listening to albums as experiences instead of just flitting about all over the place. Video games have also undergone a similar shift with digital sales being the only available option in PC gaming these days and the consoles rapidly headed that way.
I may be a curmudgeon, but I am not a luddite. I know the numerous advantages of the new ways, and I use them. I just worry that maybe we traded away too much.
Well said.
The Social Experience is what sets a theater apart; going to a movie on opening night (such as Infinity War) and getting that pure 1st time viewing experience with hundreds of other people, hearing the gasps/cheers/gasps coming from yourself and so many other people, talking with friends and random strangers as you leave the theater- you're not gonna get that at home.
The other downside to the loss of book stores and movie theaters is the loss of them as a third place for people to come together outside the home. Additionally with on demand streaming and endless programming choices society continues to isolate itself into their own silos instead of discussing the weekly TV episode every one was waiting to see the next day at work or school. Bowlin Alone, Robert Putnam, is a great read on this subject. Are we sacrificing the wee bit of collectiveness we had as a country for convenience?
As a counterpoint, in person is not the only way to discuss these things. Fan forums and message boards (or their more modern equivalent, social media fan pages) are a thing. Which is great, because those let you connect with people who share your interests who you'd never have an opportunity to meet otherwise.
@@TheFinalFanboy It's true that we could connect with a fan of the same thing as us from the other side of the world, which is neat. But we are more and more not even considering that our next door neighbor might also be a fan with which we could discuss things.
@@TheFinalFanboy But you're still technically alone when you're on social media. You're not interacting with others in person. We're dealing with an epidemic of isolation, and social media is not the answer to that.
If we value those things we should build spaces for them. Why wait around for profit driven businesses to create everything for us … then charge us for access while simultaneously using them as a platform to manipulate & advertise to us? I use library space to meet people fairly regularly. Mostly to facilitate/coordinate volunteer work, but if we invested in these places they could easily become attractive locations for social interaction. It isn't trivial of course (nothing ever is), but it also isn't a massive gulf between the existing book clubs & movie nights to becoming a genuine alternative to cinema or coffee shops for the community.
It isn't clear to me thst we actually do value public meeting spaces; but if we do we should get busy making them for ourselves not impotently lament that existing businesses aren't necessarily going to continue doing it for us.
@thing_under_the_stairs Admittedly, my perspective on this might be skewed because I'm an introvert, so the comparative lack of face-to-face interaction isn't an issue for me. I do have basic human empathy, though, so I can see how it probably is for others.
Having said that, I did just go see Inside Out 2 with my nephews and niece, and the theater was absolutely packed. And when I went to see Furiosa, plenty of younger people were at the theater. A group of them even asked me to take their picture in front of a standee.
Admittedly, those are both anecdotal cases, so they don't completely speak to the larger issue, but they do suggest that this doesn't necessarily have to be the doomsday scenario that it's being made out to be. People clearly still want to go to theaters. Maybe the theaters just need to make it worth their while.
There's a fundamental distinction that you seem to miss in your comparison: changes to books, music, and TV are just changing the distribution method; none of them are changing the experience significantly beyond the convenience factor and losing your ownership or the content you consume, as well as the communal/social aspect for those who enjoy that. Movie theatres offer a vastly different experience than watching a movie at home: a larger screen, generally better audio, and that group experience. Some people may not care about those distinctions, but they are distinctions nonetheless, making it an unfair comparison.
There's also a flaw in your reasoning: if theatres become niche, they probably won't survive. Theatres are businesses with massive overhead: distribution companies take about 90% of ticket revenue for the first few weeks a movie is playing, then it drops to 80% later, and it's only after several weeks that cinemas saw any significant profit from ticket sales, and now that has been taken away because distribution companies release their movies on streaming within a month or even weeks after theatrical release, further decreasing cinemas' ability to make their investment back. This is why concessions are so expensive: because it's the only way they can pay the massive bills for power and rent. If cinemas become more niche, they'll lose even more of that potential to break even, not making them viable to continue. So, yes, I will continue to fight for the vastly superior cinema experience.
I'd encourage you to check out Patrick H Willems recent series on this very issue. It's very good, and goes into much more nuance about the cause of the decline of theatres.
thank you, you've eloquently put what i think he's missing in his argument. watching the dark knight for the first time in a packed IMAX theater was amazing. maybe some people hate the audience gasping during some parts of the movie but i love those moments (within reason). i doubt i would feel the same about that movie had my first experience with it was streaming
I thought the 90% number was just Disney. Nevertheless, your point is correct.
What I miss most about the slow death of bookstores, video stores and even movie theaters is the loss of browsing sans algorithm. Streaming imitates the process of walking through the aisles and plucking something random off the shelves, but it's just that, an imitation. After a few weeks of streaming, any given service will be spoon-feeding me exactly what it thinks I want, mixed with whatever their marketing dept is pushing that week. Being grabbed by a book cover or movie box cover, and discovering either a hidden gem or a piece of schlock so bad that it serves as the basis for a story you and your friends tell each other for years, is dying as a practice.
And yes, there's a loss of community that's part of the bigger move too online life in general.
Don't bring your baby to the theater, people.
A few chains like the Alamo Drafthouse do "crybaby matinees" _engineered specifically_ for parents of very young kids. My little nugget saw several of the Marvel films before I did. It's a great experience and a great mechanism to break free of the binary of "Either afford a babysitter or don't experience cinema for the foreseeable future."
Especially during an R rated horror movie.
@@joeblaster8770Eh... I was 7 when my dad took me to A Nightmare on Elm St. Glad he did.
yep, this and other disruption is one reason why I don't actually miss movie theaters.
There is a theater in my city that has "sensory showings." These are specially for special needs people and people with small children. The lights aren't down quite as much. The volume is still loud, but turned down a little. People are also allowed to pace in the side isles if needed.
The problem with the new stuff (and I mean the last 30-40 years or so) is that many of the downsides they have were actually put there by design. Books, movies and music... they can take them away from you even if you 'bought' it. Social media sites? They suck up all your data and build up a personality profile to sell you stuff you didn't know you wanted or to manipulate you in a certain way. It's not about making money anymore. It's asking the question "how do we make more money?".
And they'll keep asking that question until everything breaks.
Truth.
So far as I know there is no actual way to buy movies electronically. Best I have found is buy the blu ray and then store it on my personal server. That way I actually own it.
I almost forgot games which need connection to a server to play. Suddenly one day ... poof they're gone too.
If buying isn't owning, than pirating it isn't theft.
@@Immudzen ...you can "buy" movies on streaming services to keep in your online "library"...as long as you are a member of the service...
Indy bookstores are actually increasing, in my experience. There are a handful of stores within a short distance of me. Two opened just last year. Bookstores are my happy place and have been for as long as I can remember. My family visits the local small book stores in any town we visit.
I miss theatres but the experience isn’t the same as it once was. I seldom watch movies even at home.
I'm sad that neither you, Steve, or any of the commentors I've read thinks of the Public Library as an alternative for accessing media. The Public Library is a font free materials, no paid subscription required, all you need is your library card. Libraries provide those desperately needed 3rd Places that do not require any kind of upfront financial outlay from a patron, and visitors can stay as long as they like.
Everyone should make certain they have an active library card. Libraries are under threat from those who would censor access to particular materials, and by corporations who see the loaning-to-everyone-free principle of Public Libraries as a threat to their profit margins.
GO, USE YOUR PUBLIC LIBRARY, BEFORE IT TOO DISAPPEARS!!!
Streaming services are already dystopian with their exclusivity segmentation, their tiered pricing, the double-dipping by subscription AND showing you ads.
The fact that streaming services keep launching the movies so soon after the big screen is what is killing movie theaters, but it is also killing the idea of the blockbuster. Everything being part of your subscription means no ticket sales, and now your movie has to claw back its investment from a significantly smaller pool that it shares with thousands of other movies and shows.
The death of cinema is the death of big budget movies. If you're the kind of guy who goes to independent film festivals and watches that stuff, good for you, but it's not good for anyone else.
Godzilla MinusOne was great and didn't cost 250 million to make.
When big budget films fall into obscurity, indie film makers will be presented with a huge pool of talent looking for work.
It might be the end of big budget films, but the beginning of indie films getting incredible talent and effects that never would have been possible before.
The capitalists in charge are trying to bring back the cable model.
Considering how many big budget movies are just ads for the military, could be a good thing.
Pfft, fuck bid budget movies. Most (not all) of them are mindless drivel selling to the least common denominator. The Bayverse Transformers or Fast and the Furious 9000 shite. Or the incredibly formulaic Marvel movies. Much of the budget is inflated with key actors price tags, keeping licenses, etc.
Hollywood is creatively bankrupt and, like the AAA Video Game industry, is an ageing and corrupt dinosaur that will hopefully be supplanted.
That said, yes, the capitalistic balkanization from the steaming services is awful. That is because they are becoming JUST LIKE CABLE used to be as the big beasts chomp up pieces and hid shite behind a paywall.
The local theater here hasn’t been open for months. It’s not reopening. I’m not in a rural area, but a small city.
There just isn’t an audience anymore.
My local hometown Movie Theater (opened in 1929) was struggling for years before finally closing like 10+ years ago (a larger Multi-Screen opened in 1994). It eventually got "Restored" to its almost original condition (was a single Screen, then a 2 Screen (until the late 80's when it became 3). Unfortunately, its Grand Reopening was March 2020. Have been meaning to Visit. They've seemed to gravitate to Live Performances (Music) and far less Movies recently... Suppose I "must" get around to trying it out or it will eventually "die" again... And I'll be one of the causes...
Capitalism killed the theatre kids
Without a comma, there are several ways to interpret this sentence, and I think all of them are accurate and salient.
@@GSBarlevlol
Theatres are also about capitalism, too.
Blaming everything on capitalism it's kind of lazy particularly in this instance.
@@SiriusMined Capitalism tends to kill strands of itself. I'm not sure if you're naive, or disingenuous - either way, what I'm sure you believe is a pretty 'deep' statement, is roundly unintelligent.
Huh, in my area, community theater is thriving. Kids are participating. They’re still sending money to the same corporations in order to get rights to perform popular shows. But they’re not disappearing.
This weekend my fridge broke. Sunday night I ordered a new one, it would be delivered wednesday. They called me this (monday) morning if it was okay if they’ld come this afternoon? “Yes please!” This store used to be store front only. The internet came and they adepted and they are still a shop you can visit but in my case thatwould have been really inconvenient. I love that things are this easy nowadays.
The one area where you and I may diverge on the subject of "the death of the movie theater" is where independent and foreign films are concerned. As someone who has been attending local independent film festivals, to me, theaters are still essential to non-studio films. Many films simply won't be seen by the viewing public if they have to rely on streaming services to get eyes on them, and those that do may never make their money back because the corporations that control these streaming services won't pay the creators any more than they absolutely need to and the services' algorithms completely bury anything that doesn't fit their AI programming. Documentaries and foreign films whose studios don't already have deals with US studios suffer the same fate. For every Cannes, Sundance, and SXSW festival - which might as well be considered studio festivals - there are dozens of smaller, regional fests that show amazing indie and foreign films/documentaries that deserve the eyes and hearts of the viewing audience. During the two quarantine COVID years, I attended the Nightstream film festival, which combined five smaller fests under a single virtual umbrella. It was a welcome way to support them and see some great films, but technological limitations were noticeable and I'm sure virtual festivals can be cost-prohibitive for these smaller fests.
While streaming services such as Shudder and Kanopy do great work in their limited capacities, and boutique physical media distributors (Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow, Radiance, Third Window, etc...and Cthulhu bless DiabolikDVD.com!) pick up a lot of the slack, they aren't the complete answer. I agree with your conclusion that, for studio offerings, the game has irrevocably changed and multiplexes may soon be a thing of the past. But I pray that revival houses (repertory cinema) will continue to live and thrive. I don't want to live in a world where the Brattle Theater, the Coolidge Corner Theater, the New Beverly Theater, and others don't exist...
Yeah, I understand what you’re saying… I actually cried when the UC Theater in Berkeley closed years ago. My friends, kids and I damn near *lived* at that place, and the variety of film festivals I attended there was vast.
But… it’s worth keeping in mind that to get that benefit, one has to live within reach of places like that. Festivals, indie films, rep theaters, etc are often not available in many places. Generally you have to live in at least a small city. There are streaming options (e.g. Curiosity Stream) that can allow you to see tiny films that you would otherwise never encounter. Plus, of course, those of us whose disabilities make going to a theater event prohibitive even if one is available. Even back in my olden days (and yeah, I’m old enough to say that!) a number of the annual film festivals we were lucky to have access to in our major metropolitan area would run many of those films on the local PBS station after the festival was over. I still have VHS tapes of several of them! Removing obstacles to sharing stories is more important than arguing about which avenue is “better.” I’ve experienced lots of different ways of accessing media, and honestly…they’re all better. It just depends on what your needs and options are at any given time.
2:26 I also love book stores - specifically used bookstores but I don't visit book stores as much as I visit movie theaters because when I go to a movie theater I don't bring anything that takes up space into my tiny apartment.
Piracy, it's the moral thing to do.
Ahoy, matey!
xkcd 488
The fragmentation of media is really encouraging it. When your friend tells you about a new Apple TV show, but you have Max and Netflix, it gets frustrating fast. If you or a friend have a good, full Plex server then things get easier.
There was a window in the early 2010s where it looked like Netflix and iTunes were beating piracy. For $10/month and a buck a song, you could do anything - faster and easier than "sailing the high seas." Not as much today.
One thing we should all remember, is that physical media has a shelf life too, ever try watching a VHS tape on a dusty VCR, that hasn't been plugged in for years? Or how about trying to listen to audio cassettes on a old tape player, or watching a vintage film on a overhead projector, or trying to play an old video game cartridge on an 16 bit console. Surely, we have all experienced the moment, we might have to throw away all of this old media, because it's too old and too corrupted to be enjoyed like it was in the past, I have thrown away dozens of CDs, CD-ROMS, VHS and even DVDs, after they degraded and were taking up storage space, although it is sad to see them expire, I had to learn to let go, so this is my advice - enjoy whatever media while you can, and don't be upset that they are gone, but be happy that such things existed.
Well, I do understand the late Roger Ebert's love for the theater experience. You can watch Star Wars at home, but you don't get the effect of watching it on a ginormous screen that made space look like space. You can't watch 2001 on your laptop and get the same effect as the Cinerama experience. Thing is, I still remember what it was like taking the bus downtown to see Disney, The Three Stooges, or Forbidden Planet. Yes, I'm an old lady.
You can supposedly get it with VR, but a good setup for that costs a small fortune, and that's assuming you already have a good computer to run it.
Without theaters, where would Lauren Bobert give her constituents a helping hand?
😂😂😂
I have to argue with you here. It's not the WAY that I consume these things that bothers me; it IS absolutely better than it used to be.
What I miss is the SOCIAL aspect of going to a theater with family, or going to a book shop with friends and browsing, or just trying to find a movie at the video store and having that discussion. I miss those things for myself, of course, but I feel more upset that kids today won't ever have those experiences.
Again, I will admit that it's easier and those aspects can be better now, but getting together and going places is just so much more fun than going to someone's house and sitting on the couch or chatting online.
Anyway, thanks for posting.
I'm your opposite. Being able to opt out of the social aspects when I need/want to is the best part for me. However, your concern about young people does make me wonder if the removal of that aspect of daily life will be detrimental to them learning how to get along in such situations at all, and thus make it difficult for them to opt in when they need or want to. Where folks like me feel they are gaining choices about when to be social, will a later generation grow up without the skill set to feel they have a choice?
What I like is inviting some friends over, cooking dinner together, and watching a movie. That is much better than any theater experience I have ever had.
I like the privacy of being able to be in the safe environment of home, and picking the people I want to spend time with regardless of if they're online or not. Being forced into public spaces by my family to go see or do something I don't enjoy, is not an experience I ever want to have again.
I should have realized that the dissonance of you praising streaming in front of your wall of physical media was _extremely intentional_ and was going to pay off.
As the kids say: I should know by now to _let you cook._ 👏
it took me a while to wrap my head around it, but just like with the rest of the English language, context is important to know what's being implied/inferred.
I worked in a video store back in the day, so I got into the "bad" habit of only seeing "spectacle" movies in the theatre, and waited to everything else (for free), especially comedies and dramas. That habit never ended. But I've stopped seeing even the spectacle movies, because I can't stand the sensory experience anymore. The movies are just too loud for my autistic ears. I can't do it. If the volume went back down to turn of the century levels, I'd go back... but, unfortunately, because of the small fortune it costs at this point, it might only be a single movie a year. 😐
That, and, to me, every loud effect seems to be the same mashing-the-keys sound.
The death of the movie theatre is another loss of communal space, streaming is great until you realize that that you haven't seen your friends in months because most communal activies are expensive or non-existent and that because of car centric urbanism and the housing market they all live an hour or more from where you live.
I no longer go to movie theaters. I hate the customer experience. They say the movie starts at 7:00 but I have to sit through countless stupid commercial ads, and maybe the movie begins at 8:15. No cartoons, special features or trailers, just the same commercials that I would see at home on TV. Screw that! $20 for popcorn also turns me off.
No way your theatre makes you wait over an hour for the movie to start!?!
@@SpiritRoot
And, yet, that was the norm in the '70s
The main feature was the second reel, after the fifteen minute intermission
The first reel was a mix of trailers, cartoons and PSAs
@@SpiritRootit's hyperbole
the theaters I go to show you 20 minutes of trailers and intro sequences.
And then at 8:17, someone rushes into the theater REEKING of cigarettes and crams in right next to you.
The big thing for me is the growing realization is when I go to a movie theatre with digital projection, I am just seeing an expensive version of of digital projection TV in a big dark room, nothing essentially different from my TV at home. At least when it was filmstock, it was a different experience on that fundamental level.
One of my most treasured memories in a theater was when I caught the Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie when I happened to be in Kansas City when it was playing there. Watching MST3K in a theater packed with other MST fans is something I will never forget. I'll miss stuff like that, but as you say, things gotta progress.
Also, pouring one out for Borders. They were my hook-up for British comedy television on VHS back in the day. RIP you magnificent bastard.
MST3K...I never laughed so hard and publicly to anything. I will cherish that memory.
I will also cherish the memory of the audience laughing when Darth Vader said Nooooooo in Revenge of the Sith.
I was born in 2000. I grew up with this platform, this technological paradigm we call the internet. My youth was spent listening to people like you tell me it was the future. You can have it.
You'll always have your memories of going to theaters and bookstores. But what about us? The people who go outside hoping to find a temple of human connection and there's just... nothing. And you want us to just accept that?
I agree for the most part. Most of my desire to keep movie theaters around is personal. I love the feel of being there and all but the other reasons are a little bigger. My home movie viewing set up is relatively poor with not a ton of options to change it. The house is all windows so its down right impossible to not watch without a glare. The biggest problem, whoever, is my horrible attention span. At home, theres so many other things to screw with and do. Theaters force me to focus in a comfortable way I cant get at home. The alternative is better in mamy ways but ill definitely miss the old times.
For me, the quality of seeing a movie on the big screen with those massive surround sound speakers is currently impossible to recreate at home. For me, that makes all of the issues worth it…for the right movie
Jeah. We don't just casually go to movies anymore. Now I need a reason for it, and that's usually the music in the movie benefits from the sound system.
If you saved the money you paid for movie tickets to buy better home equipment, you could.
@@KaylakazeI know that going to the movies is expensive, but it's not that expensive. Maybe if one regularly goes often enough, that could be an accurate statement.
Being in my mid forties I have to agree. We went from "Be kind, rewind" to where we are now. I've got 2 kids, 9 and 6 and we sometimes go to the movies just for the kids to have an adventure, maybe twice a year. But we do have Movie Night every Saturday. Family gathers, getting Pizza delivered and eating popcorn from a cheap popcorn machine just works so damn well. Am I nostalgic for the olden times? Sometimes. Do I prefer how it's going today? 100%
4:41: and that's the problem. I can get it from the couch. For my physical and mental health, I need every excuse I can to get OFF that luxurious SEDUCTIVE thing.
I feel like that last line could be applied to just about everything in life "instead of giving in to the fear of change, let's embrace it and help to build a better future"
I can remember having a discussion back in 2005 about having a digital library that's easily accessible by typing in a web address and paying a small monthly fee. Little did I know that Netflix would come around not long after that. Now when I tell my 10-year-old daughter about these magical places called video stores where you can go rent a movie for a few days, she looks at me like I'm making this stuff up. A sign of the times I guess.
I don't think theater to bookstore is a good analogy. The bookstore doesn't change your experience of the book like a theater arguably does.
I for one will miss theaters for the cultural aspect of it. There is something about a group of strangers unspokenly agreeing to take in this experience together, to say nothing about scale or quality of presentation. (I know there are a million memes about crying babies or talking people, but these have been very rare in my personal experience.)
There are a ton of reasons to enjoy streaming for accessibility reasons alone. I love it. But I love the theater too and not just because "big screen, loud noise good" It's somewhat akin to a concert for me. Can I listen to this song in my car/home on my own time? Sure. But beyond the live aspect, there is something to the community of a concert.
I agree that the way we get music and movies is better. However, it makes me sick to my stomach that small businesses are being put out of business because of huge monopolies. I miss small specialty stores which are going extinct.
I am fearful of lost media, when all services no longer host a movie or song that I want, and sometimes have purchased
Well, the movie industry can't count on having Barbenheimer every year.
They might have to take an active hand in engineering that.
I love bookstores. I love checking out the covers, seeing their recommendations, picking a book. I knew it would kill my reading when I switched to iBooks and it did. I love movie theaters but I don’t want to spend all the money anymore. Buying online is wonderful, I love shopping at 3am when can’t sleep. I love funky shops but hate malls and the homogenization of stores. The bad outcome is the separation of people, physically and emotionally.
Movie theaters like video rentals stores, like Chuck E Cheese like Best Buy, Perkins, Dennys all zombie businesses they exist in some form but are dying.
Best Buy has been the poster child for increasing sales in an online-focused purchasing world for a decade. Might want to try and keep up.
Really? That is surprising. When I want to buy something, I buy it at Costco if they have it. Otherwise from anywhere but best buy. Their return policies are a deal breaker.
@@BlownMacTruckA website using the name recognition of a formerly famous brick and mortar brand isn't the same thing. You might want to try and keep up😂
This is very similar to a conversation that I had with a friend. When I got a job at a co-op grocery store, he said "That's stupid we should get rid of ma & pa stores. Everything should be Amazon". His reasoning was because he can get anything he wanted and nearly always next day. Seems to be convenience over community.
When I was a kid cartoons were a treat mostly reserved for one day a week. There were the one or two morsels the networks would feed me after school but every Saturday morning from 6 Am to noon it was an animation buffet. Nowadays the buffet is available 24/7 and while being an adult is certainly a factor in why I'm not as passionate about cartoons as I used to be I think an even bigger factor is that they're too readily available. Like candy if you can gorge on cartoons all day every day they cease to be a treat and therefore lose much of their appeal. At least for me.
Experiencing a movie with a crowd is sometimes the most fun part of going to the movies. And it’s really the only time my mother & I do anything together as well.
Same as it ever was. The delivery may change but it always was at the benefit of investors and shareholders. As soon as they demand more returns the experience will suffer. Streaming is already showing characteristics of the cable TV era.
I just went to see Robot Dreams (highly recommend) in the theater this weekend and guess what? It's the PERFECT TIME to go see movies in the theater because there's a decent chance there will only be a handful of people in it! No crowds! No lines! Woohoo!
I stopped going because half the time my local AMC can't bother to properly calibrate a screening. There was a greater than 50% chance the volume would be deafening and the picture would be so dim you could barely see the damn film, and I finally asked myself why I was paying $20 for that crappy experience.
it’s just kind of weird that the ways that things get “better” are always individualized and personal, and scale horribly inefficiently.
Like you have to have your own nice tv and sound system and interruption controls (like sounds of the outside world/passers by or light changes), set-up for food and drinks and sitting arrangements.
And this is a lot for just one or two people… but then if you want to do this activity socially, like with multiple people, at least one of you would need all of this that can conveniently accommodate your Sofia group and friends, who also have to be able to get to this place in a reasonably inexpensive and timely manner, with lives that do not place demands on their time that are so wildly different and inflexible.
37 yo. I'm old enough to have been to drive in movies. That's were i saw several jurassic parks and matrix movies. nobody brought their phones because the cords were not that long.
The main advantage to doing things old(er) school is interaction. If you wanted to see a movie with friends or family, you had to learn how to negotiate, how to plan ahead so that you had enough time and money, how to play the game so you knew when you were being ripped off and how to deal with the party doing it, how to mind your manners, and how to enjoy the experience in the moment. In other words, how to be human. You can’t learn that sitting on your couch staring at a screen. That’s just a simulation. You want the real thing, you have to get off your ass and do the work.
In the TNG episode "The Neutral Zone", it is revealed there is no "tee vee" in the 24th Century. Take that, Buck Rogers.
I mean.... they kinda have monitors that can stream all kinds of data trough interplanetary distances.... so what they have is probably just better netflix on steroids.
One thing I do wish theatres would encourage is on-site meetups after showings. My local theater has a bar area, which would be great to assign tables to folks who want to talk about a movie after coming out of it.
Well lets see:
- Inflation is high so the cost of living is high
- I take my senior father and myself, get 1 adult, 1 senior ticket, a medium drink and my dad large popcorn and a large pop deal, he uses his Scene card and with the deal and senior discount, it still is close to 50$= WTF.
- Streaming services get the movies within weeks of the movie coming out
- The seats at my theatre need more cushioning so they are super uncomfortable :P
I think the big problem with the death of physical stores is that browsing the internet doesn't show you stuff you weren't looking for but might actually like. Digital sale show you things intended to get you to buy them. Physical stores have inventory for everyone, so you might find something you weren't expecting.
51 year-old here, and I agree wholeheartedly. I get cranky just when vids take bit longer to buffer, let alone when connection drops entirely.
I honestly don’t want the theater experience to go away though. I haven’t been to too many theater viewings myself, but it’s such a cool, epic, collective experience and if theaters actually priced things fairly and reorganized into something fitting the modern day, things wouldn’t be as bad I think, still different but, not AS bad
Paper books have resisted quite well when compared to other forms of entertainment. There's just something about them that most people cannot let go of.
Television and streaming has just gotten so good that they really have to make a movie that people feel is worth leaving the house for
I go to the movies for the sound system. I'm thinking mad max fury road, for example.
there is only 2 or 3 shows I watch on services no reason to stay home and watch fucking garbage at home
Yeah, "prestige TV" has made me realize how limiting the 90-minute film is as an artistic format. Okay, so you have a compelling story, but one that only needs one sitting to tell?
Like, sure. Plays have always been a thing, but even as literature, they're fundamentally different (and usually, for me, less compelling and immerse) than novels. And I love the fact that novels get TV adaptations now instead of film condensations.
I saw Furiosa yesterday and seeing it in the theater with their sound system was awesome
@@MarkkuSFunny; one of the reasons I _avoid_ movie theaters because of the sound system. Way too loud.
Here's why my living room will always be better than a movie theater. 1-snacks are close by and already purchased for much cheaper. 2-the movie can be paused for bathroom breaks. 3-Volume is adjustable. 4-I can wear my jammies. 5-And most important to me...I have PTSD and experience sensory overload from a theater movie that is so fucking loud that I my startle reflex won't settle down for hours afterwards. Oh, and the people in the theater. No further explanation needed. The last movie I went to was pre-pandemic. I doubt I'll be back.
GREED killed the movie experience. Cost prohibited for many.
You do realize they don't really make any money from the studios. The refreshments and concession mark up is where they generate their income.
@@privateer236Yeah? So? It's still expensive. Maybe it's greed from the movie studios that's the problem, but the OP's comment still stands.
You had me almost in tears. The finality of it the things from our childhood will soon be gone forever. There's a part of us that can't help but be sad at that. But you are right. end it's for the better. The drawbacks just outweigh the benefits. But I will miss that communal feeling of watching a really good movie with a theater full of my fellow human beings.
"I'm only 44!"
Damnit Steve, I'll be 47 on Friday. You're making me feel old!
Quit yer whinging, whippersnappers! 🙄
- fellow commenter turning 63 on Saturday!
I’m struggling to recall the last time I was in a movie theater. The only benefit of the movie theater going experience which I do miss is being in the chilly dark room when it’s 105°+ outside. I don’t miss the cost, the germ Petri dish the places were, and it inevitably either being too loud or too hard to hear and/or having people talking through/over the movie, etc., etc.
I really like the convenience of the kindle, but I also really like the adventure and shared experience of a bookstore.
Cannot replace my memory of going in blind to see the first Final Destination, whole theater lost it with the bus.
And as a teacher... all of this is directly tied to depression in kids now.
So much of this mirrors the digital/physical copy issue with gaming. From the convenience issue, the preservation issue, and even the "oh, piracy is sometimes the only option" issue
A book ordered on the internet is the same book you'd get at the bookstore. A song streamed sounds the same as it would on a CD. Movie theaters however offer something I can't get at home. I have a very nice, very expensive 4k TV, but the picture and sound still don't compare to the theater. Watching Endgame on opening weekend was an experience. It was in the air. I still think movie theaters have something to offer, and I say that as someone who typically only goes a couple times a year.
I fundamentally disagree about movie theaters. I wouldn’t want to see the premiere of a movie if I wasn’t with a crowd of people. The thing I love about movies- heck, about stories- is that they literally bring people together. They are one of the last communal experiences we have. Standing in line to get that popcorn is part of that communal experience. It is one more exercise in social cohesion that we don’t get in the streaming world. We in 2024 have enough reasons to never leave our couches: to work, to interact with friends, or to be entertained. That is why I will always try to see movie premieres in theaters, and on the biggest screen possible.
See, what's mostly died out now for bookstores is the chains - here, Chapters and Indigo wiped out a LOT of indie bookstores in the '90s, but in turn, Chapters basically no longer exists, and its parent company Indigo limps on as a mainly online retailer. But what has sprung up in their absence? Indie bookstores - not a lot, mind you, but there are some. There are also indie video rental stores in some places, and more often, indie music stores selling mostly vinyl.
So, I think that's where movie theatres are headed - the cineplex, a Canadian invention (Historica Canada made a whole Heritage Minute to show that fact off, lol), is what is slowly dying off now. What will survive here and there are the niche indie theatres, most of them housed in older movie theatres, that eke by on public arts funding and ticket prices akin to that of a small theatre production, while acting as a venue for old favourites and newer art house films and, if they have a stage, theatre productions too.
I attended the one such theatre in my city twice this weekend - once with my father to see the Buster Keaton classic "Sherlock Jr." (which I'd seen but Dad hadn't) with a special accompaniment by our hockey team's organist, and then the next day with a friend to see "Serenity" - which we'd both seen before - as part of a fundraiser for the local Fringe festival. The first film was funnier than I'd remembered and was a real treat with the live organist. (I wish they would show more silent films, tbh). The second film was really nice to see on the big screen again - even if it meant being re-traumatized by the sudden death of a certain beloved character. It's also nice to see the film with a bunch of people in a darkened theatre space, for the same reason it's nicer to watch live theatre than to watch a theatre production on TV or streaming.
When I attend another film there is unknown - it might not be till the next film festival it hosts, and it hosts several throughout the year. And when I see a film again in a cineplex is even more cirumspect.
There was also another indie movie house that only recently closed down during the pandemic. I hope it can be resurrected, and its current owners hope for the same, but it faces problems that the theatre that's still open does not. It has two screens to upkeep (though they could scrap the basement screen and convert it to a live theatre-only space, or a bar); the place is a few decades older and was probably a little behind on maintenance when it closed; and it also sits on a busier and probably more heavily-taxed thoroughfare, with even less neighbourhood parking available - and it's also only one km or so away from the still-open theatre, so it's hard for it to compete in any meaningful way. It was also its own enterprise, with no gov't help. The indie theatre that's still open is run by a not-for-profit organization that can obtain gov't funding and sponsorships to keep going and keep ticket costs reasonable.
I wouldn’t say that capitalism killed the theater, it’s simply moved on. There are fewer ‘big box’ stores than the height of the ‘00’s and I’m okay with that. Do I miss Borders, Toys ‘R’ Us, ‘The Mall’? As a child of the ‘80s spoon fed consumerism, you bet your ass. As an adult who understands the poison of capitalism, I appreciate my FLGS, the small friendly bookstore, and the local restaurants that pump money back into my neighborhood. In my town we have two thriving, small theaters (one shows movies outside in the local park throughout summer and fall on the weekends).
I appreciate those curated, intimate experiences along with the ease of our digital world.
I think any type of movie theater or store that survives in the future will have to be small. The overhead will be low. There will have to be some sort of connection to technology. One or two screen movie theaters that have a food bar or lounge in the theater itself that show both the latest films and classics will most likely survive especially if people can get there on foot or drive a short distance.
I don't know what it costs in America but here in the UK going to the movies is crazy expensive now. I took my two kids to see a film a few months ago. With the cost of fuel, parking, movie tickets, popcorn and drinks it cost £65. Ridiculous. That's why we don't go anymore.
The biggest damage to movie theatre's is due more to poor quality of films being releases into theaters.
I’m 58 and a huge book worm. I was thrilled when electronic books came out. My experience of a book doesn’t change based on the format of the print. I’ve discovered so many great authors I never would have been exposed to through Kindle. I love electronic books. I love printed and bound books as well, but the delivery method for electronic books is vastly superior. Plus, I can change font size and lighting intensity to suit any environment. Now my husband can sleep peacefully while I lay next to him and read until the wee hours of the morning.
Borders😢😢
God, I miss Borders. The thing I hate most about _Barnes Ignoble_ is how much I *cling* to it now as the last of the big bookstores.
@@GSBarlev Borders with my wife was for us a weekly thing. Buy a pile of books and a brownie and a drink afterwards. It was our hangout spot 😅. Sadly there's nothing like it here anymore. At least not on that scale. Local places have popped up here there but on the west coast of the island there's none
The last movie I saw in a theater was John Wick 4 at the Richardson Texas Alamo Drafthouse. I noticed how understaffed the place was and how tired the servers were. It wasn’t like that half a decade earlier. I also realized that although the Alamo was great for their no-talking/no phones rule, they are crap for everything else: non-union staff, crap food (they removed all the items I liked), and the “upgraded” seating to the big “comfy” chairs that are very uncomfortable for me to sit in. (I’m not tall enough or fat enough to be comfortable in them.)
My husband and I used to go to the Alamo once, sometimes twice a week, but I can sit more comfortably at home with my own food and have the power to pause the film if necessary and choose whether or not to observe no talking Alamo rules. As a bonus: I don’t ever have to smell alcohol or hear bad food being eaten loudly around me. RIP Alamo Drafthouse. I’m glad for my memories of what you once were.
I love public libraries. When I recently began using the digital services through my library is when I truly began to feel like I live in the future. I have had a subscription to audiobooks for fifteen years on the platform you’re thinking (but they’re not paying me to tell you about them, so it’ll remain unnamed) but being able to check out almost any audiobook *for free*……seriously, I don’t even have to go to my nearest branch. The fact that you can stream movies through the library is just icing.
Also, we tend to trash RUclips and I hate the pearl-clutching, demonetization-censorship, but the fact that we can learn to make any dish, watch well made and well sourced paleo anthropology and volcanology and geography and at infinitum is just positively brilliant. I used to answer the “if you could visit any time” question a lot differently, but my current answer is, “now”. I don’t think I’ll ever be overly nostalgic for movie theaters.
Seeing a good movie in a theater will always be a better experience than streaming it at home.
Same with going to a library/book store/music store/etc.
Going there, chatting with other people, browsing the inventory, and such are all part of the experience.
You sound like the kind of guy who would love the latest Apple ad. ''Yay, this ipad is worth all the things that got crushed including the pianos and art supplies.''
It is better, more convenient, more choice and competition...is better.
Im 65. The amticipation of things was goid. Plus, when nothing was on tv, we'd go play in the woods.
And the sensory experience of browing crates in a used record store--smells of coffee, handling the album cover, the magic of the gem you find--is something I'm grateful to have experienced. A couple of those places are institutions still here 50 years later.
But that was then.
The joy of seeing a movie in public is the crowd around you.
And that's exactly why I never got in the habit of seeing movies in public. They scare me.
Like the time the cinema oversold for Xmas Day 2011, and the hallways were lined with randos sitting on the floor. This is not fun.
Uh, I'm 46 and I was able to watch shows when I wanted back in the '80s and '90s. It was called a VHS VCR. TV shows and movies were readily available to rent and watch; and you were able to record live tv. If I knew I was going to miss a show, I'd just set the timer on the VCR to record my show, and watch it later. I could easily fast-forward thru commercials too.
Unfortunately, the loss of movie theaters and bookstore are signs of the lost social interactions that we are barreling towards😢🤦🏿♂️
I don’t agree with your bookstore analogy. You don’t just go to a theater to “get” a movie, you go there to experience it. It is a qualitatively different process from watching one at home. When you read the actual book, it doesn’t make any difference whether you purchased it at a bookstore or online.
I think you nailed part of my problem with all this. We might be losing a communal experience as all these new services replace the old, but right now the bigger issue is who's controlling these services, and their motivations behind their business decisions. Because they're also slowly eating away at publishing companies that make the physical copies of movies and music, and especially books and magazines, and it won't be long before the only real option to watch, listen, or read something will be to pay a penance to some juggernaut of a streaming service whose decisions are being driven by what's most profitable, not what's best for the industry as a whole.
Coming atractions are my favorite part of the movies. I always make sure to be early enough to watch previews.
Being someone who prefers watching movies at home, there's still something magical, personal and everlasting about going to the movies. But as you mentioned, one of the biggest pains in the ass is just how expensive it's getting. Let's not talk about refreshments, the average movie ticket is getting astronomically expensive where I think people who used to go to a movie weekly are skipping just because of how outrageously expensive it is. That I think is one of the factors to theatrically released movies are failing and why most people wait for the stream.
Reserved Seating has probably done more harm than good. Imagine going to a theater knowing you're not going to get a good seat. If the good seats are already reserved, I don't even bother going. You used to get rewarded for showing up a half hour early and enjoying the movie trivia/preshow ads and all the people running late still buy tickets and realize, Oh we'll just have to make due with the bad seats because the concessions they probably already bought are non-refundable unless something is wrong with them.
Another thing I noticed, I used to work at a theater and when we had the cardboard standee ads in the lobby were arranged to guide people into the concession area our concession sales would be higher. Why? Because groups of teens are not sure who's leading who where. Everyone was just walking into the concession area assuming their friends wanted to buy concessions. They all get in line and almost always buy something because they assumed their friends wanted to do the same. I pointed this system out to the managers and they freaked out. Higher Concession sales (most of a theaters prophets) be dammed! They stopped arranging the standees that way so people would walk into our lobby and see the ticket man immediately and walk up to find the theater first before bothering with concessions. People still went to the concession stand but we lost most of the impulse buys. Anyone arriving late and seeing the trailers have already started playing usually wouldn't leave the theater again or would only send one person out to get what they can carry which might not be enough for the whole group or just the bare minimum.
The theater I worked at had a collectable Concession Bucket and Soda club where for ~$24 a year you could bring your plastic popcorn bucket and soda cup back for a discount refill. The thing is though, no one cared if you just held onto your lid and straw for the drink and filled it up with whatever you wanted to at home. That $24 was a huge investment for me. I'd buy it once at the start of the year and just fill it up with soda or whatever I from the supermarket instead of paying for that "discount" $4 refill. I at least did pay for the popcorn refill at the theater, but not once did anyone ask me why my drink was already filled. And this was after I worked there so these people were complete strangers to me.
I rarely know what's out these days. Trailers just aren't shown enough on the social media platforms I'm on. And when I do see them, they usually don't say when it's coming out. I know movies get delayed a lot but they should pick a date and stick with it long term so I can plan appropriately.
The last time I went to a theater was 2017. I won't be going to a theater again for the rest of my life. I don't do streaming services, I either get stuff on DVD or sail the high seas.
Theaters are dying in no small part due to greed. Studios take most of the ticket money for themselves, leaving the theaters no choice but to charge me $20 for a drink and a bucket of popcorn in order to stay afloat. As prices go up, attendance goes down. it's a death spiral.
I loved electronics stores and they are completely gone (because no, Best Buy simply does not compare to old school electronics stores like Fry's). And I miss them so much. And yes, my life is worse that I can't put my hands on a variety of amps, drives, and widgets when I need to scratch an electronics itch. Online shopping for electronics is a dismal experience. Sigh 😞
Your points are all correct and valid. That being said, there's one thing about the old ways that can't be replicated by the new ways is the feeling of community you get from the old ways. We're isolating ourselves more and more and I don't think that is an improvement to life.
I disagree here Steve. Movie theatres are one of the few remaining experiences that is fundamental to the human experience. Ever since we first cane down from the trees, people have been gathering together and telling stories. Every single culture on earth has some sort of history with a spiritual storyteller tradition whether as a form of religion or passing down our own history. This is besides the fact that we have empirical proof that humans experience greater forms of emotion in the company of others. You’re more likely to laugh or cry in a movie theatre than watching alone. When the whole point of an art form is an exercise in empathy, what do we lose by further isolating ourselves?
Who remembers the magic of the "Free Movie Channel Preview Weekend"? Where those scrambled movie channels would actually become clear and you'd be able to watch all the cinematic goodness on the screen of your own 20' Sony trinitron.
That weekend where, leading up to it, you went out and bought an arm load of blank VHS tapes, and, during it, your VCR's would continually record movie greats like Rambo First Blood, or Batteries Not Included. :)
Is it just me? ;)
"Hey, I can as a privileged American exploit local and distant working people, from stockers dying in an isle to truckers going off road while peeing in bottles, and have them ship it to my sweaty lil hands in 2 days, it's better!"
"By going to a movie theater and buying overpriced tickets, overpriced popcorn, and overpriced carbonated flavored water, I'm sticking it to capitalism!"
Movie theaters are too expensive, and the seats are supposedly covered in a ton of germs.
I'm 41 and there aren't a lot of movies that I feel the need to experience with a room full of strangers.
I think it's funny that advertisers have admitted that their commercials are punishment for not paying more money. It seems like it's also motivation to make commercials even worse to generate more revenue.
The Cinergy in our town started having stand up comics perform there every so often. We went to check it out this past weekend and OMG, the worst stand up comedy I've ever been to. This same theater chain has also started offering escape rooms, jungle gyms, bigger arcade and a full service bar since covid. I mean, at least they are trying.