How do you decide what new movies you go to the theater to see? There are so many films released each year and so many other entertainment options available and, let’s face it, life is short.
There is the marketing campaign which includes; the trailers in the theaters, online and on television; posters and billboards; newspaper and magazine ads; appearances by cast and crew on radio and television and websites promoting the film. There is word-of-mouth which can be family, friends, people in web forums or someone in the media. There are hundreds of film critics in magazines, newspapers, radio, television and online whose opinions can be weighed. Maybe there is even skywriting in your city!
I’ll go first. I love movies and because I have such a large collection of films I haven’t seen at home and there is so much product in theaters, I need a way to limit myself to only the best that cinema has to offer. I use the Tomatometer rating at rottentomatoes.com. For those of you who don’t know, Rotten Tomatoes takes the consensus of all available film reviews to come up with the “Tomatometer” rating. A movie with, say, 100 reviews of which 75 are positive reviews and 25 are negative reviews would get a Tomatometer rating of 75%. And 75% is generally my cut off point barring any other factors that might compel me to take a chance on a film with a lower rating. While I accept that this rule may have caused me to miss something I might have enjoyed, I rarely end up watching something that disappoints me.
I realize that your answer may be a combination of influences depending on different circumstances, but generally, do you have any one guiding principle that puts your butt in the seat?
I’m the antithesis of theater-goer. Of the last 100 movies I have seen, I would break them down roughly this way (just guessing – not an actual sampling):
Cable movie channels without commercials – 50
Cable/network channels with commercials – 20
Netflix – 25
Theater – 5
The combination of the prices, the hassle, the distractions caused by the audience and just plain laziness, I avoid the theater. Each time I go I swear I won’t do it again, but my wife will manage to persuade me we must see thus-and-such for the big screen effect as soon as it comes out, and I will relent. It’s been almost a year since that last one.
My first standard after “Does this even interest me?” is “Will this be a spectacular which I will regret not seeing on the big screen?” I regret that I never got the time to go out to see 300 on the big screen. I have made sure to see SPIDER-MAN 3, and I will make sure to see PIRATES 3 & SHREK 3.
Next thing- “Do I want to encourage more movie-making like this by giving it good box office?” On that basis, I made sure to see THE NATIVITY and AMAZING GRACE
(I was impressed by the latter on all counts, I appreciated the effort on the former but wasn’t thrilled by the result).
I go based on what looks like it’ll be fun to see on the big screen (to get the full effects) and if the story interests me/is something I have heard of before (eg ones based on books I enjoyed and the trailer looks good, like Harry Potter, Stardust and Golden Compass later this year I all plan to go to).
I read reviews by people who I’m familiar with. I have to want to see the movie. And it needs to be showing at a theatre that I like - specifically one where people behave appropriately.
I don’t see a lot of movies in theatres any more - the vast majority just seem to suck mightily, people act like they are in their living room at home (cell phones, talking, bringing screaming babies into late-night horror films, etc), and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film that was worth my $10 and 2-3 hours of my time. I saw “28 Weeks Later” last night at the little independent Cerrito Theatre, $5, it’s a clean place, good movie audience, you can get pizza and a beer and relax in a sofa. That’s worth it. Full price at the multiplex to see something iffy like Pirates 3? Meh. I’ll wait for video (which is pretty fast these days anyhow). A mediocre movie on the big screen is like a bad book in large print.
I pretty much wait until the film has been seen by Dopers and it’s been discussed. I’ve seen quite a few movies that I otherwise would have skipped over, such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I’m intrigued by the Rotten Tomatoes plug and I’ll have to investigate.
There was a time I went to see any old POS that came out that week. These days, theres one large factor that makes my decisions; Running Time. Example? POTC:AWT would eat at least three hours of my life; during this time, I could have watched a small, 90 minute comedy, maybe even two. Even the best reviewed movie will struggle to get my arse on a seat if it runs over two hours, two and a half, tops.
I see piles of movies in theaters and how I chose which ones to see, quite frankly, is a bit of a mystery to me but I’ll give it my best shot.
Cast and Crew - If an actor I really respect or a director I love is it it, I’ll see it. This is a pretty big one. I can be put off by a low tomatometer rating.
Recommendations of a few well chosen reviewers. If A.O. Scott loves a movie there is a very good chance that I will as well. I made my yearly top 10 up about a week before he did and my list was almost identical - I think we differed on 1, maybe 2, spots.
A good tomatometer reading. It helps if a movie has a good rating but where this factors in is when I have no idea who directed it, who’s starring in it, and I haven’t read A.O. Scott’s review of it yet. This is really used more for foreign films.
What is playing at the theater across from my gym. If I’m really bored and I have nothing to do, sometimes I’ll pop in and watch a movie after I’m done working out. I use this as an excuse for the crappy movies that I want to see but don’t want to put any special effort in to see. For instance I saw Wild Hogs this way. The reviews were terrible, it was released at a time when I knew it wouldn’t be good, but I just couldn’t help myself. That movie really, really, sucked.
I guess, when I think about it, a good t-meter rating is probably the big one (there are exceptions obviously but decisions made out of boredom shouldn’t count). If A.O. Scott likes something everyone else hates I might give it a chance. That hasn’t happened very often, if at all.
I tend to just see movies on a whim. I live in the suburbs, so I’m limited to those mainstream movies mostly.
I’m always thrilled when an indie film gets a wider release.
When I do go out to the movies, I like the movies that are very effects heavy. Or as I like to call them “Things blowed up real good.” Huge screen. Explosions.
Or sometimes I’ll do something stupid like go see 28 Weeks Later b/c I always enjoy Robert Carlyle’s work and forget that I don’t see scary movies because…they SCARE ME.
Assuming we’ve already got past the “I definitely want to see it” realization, my decisionmaking process includes the following:
How essential is it that I see it on the big screen?
Heavily dependent on effects and cinematography.
Is EVERY FREAKING BODY IN THE WORLD going to be talking about it (or are they already) before it makes it to video?
I can’t stand being the only person who hasn’t seen it, because then I have no idea what people are talking about when they talk about it, and the longer I wait, the greater the chance that somebody’s gonna spoil it for me.
How bored am I?
I’ve seen several movies in the theater for which I would normally wait for the DVD, just because I was bored, I wanted to see it anyway, and it was something to get me out of the house.
Me and my best friend have a movie night - we see a movie every week. And sometimes I’ll see another movie during the week with my Mom or another friend. Even at that rate, I rarely have trouble finding a movie I want to see. I can generally tell by the trailer whether or not I’ll want to see the movie. If I’m not sure and have to choose between two movies I haven’t heard enough about I’ll check the tomato reviews.
I guess mainly I like genre films (scifi, superhero, etc), mainstream/blockbuster/popcorn movies, and independanty films that pique my interest or have some sort of buzz (Brick, The Fountain, Fahreinheit 911, pan’s Labyrinth, etc).
I tend not to like war movies, gangster/mob movies, purely historical movies, rap movies, or western movies unless there is something other than the genre about the movie that interests me (Flyboys, I liked the biplane flying aspect for example). Horror movie I tend only to like if they have something genre-ish about them (Cube, Hellraiser) or redefine the category in some way (Blair Witch, Scream).
So in general the answer is 1) trailers + good self knowledge of what interests me along with 2) buzz + tomato reviews as a backup or alternative
I have a friend who has terrible taste in movies, so if he’s seen a particular movie and thinks it was great, I’m less inclined to pick that movie.
Otherwise, I’ll often go by other friends’ recommendations or by threads on the internet, and I’ll sometimes check on Rotten Tomatoes as well.
If I have several movies to choose from, I’ll almost always pick the movie with the shortest running time since it’s difficult for me to tolerate sitting in one spot for more than 2 hours.
I lack cable, but my ratio of rentals to theatre viewings is similar to yours. Movie audiences usually bug me so much that I can’t concentrate on the big screen film.
Another thing about audiences is that they imply no rewind! I have gotten so hooked on being able to back up and check out some dialog or something in the background or just to discuss the shot with others in the room that not having that feature in a theater, not to mention the lack of Closed Captions, that I actually get frustrated having to keep up in real time to a movie in a theater.
Imagine the frustration generated by Memento as an example. If any movie cries out for multiple viewings, preferably on DVD so you can switch scenes directly, it’s that one. I believe this movie was made with home viewing in mind. To expect a theater audience to relate to it in the first pass is almost unimaginable.
But I’ve gotten that way on all but the most trivial movies – which I wouldn’t deliberately go to the theater for in the first place. As for sound, I prefer home levels to the knock-you-out-of-the-seat variety most theaters use these days.
TiVo, DVD and DVR are making all but the big screen obsolete, IMHO.
