I didn’t want a poll so much as a discussion, but I guess a poll might be fun as well.
I have observed over the course of time I have read and participated in threads discussing the merits (or more often the lack of them) in movies, that about as often as not those very movies will be either on one of the cable channels or On Demand at the time. I could make a list but won’t.
Has this occured to you, too? Do you want to discuss some old doggie you just watched on cable as opposed to one you remember from years ago?
In other threads I have asked similar questions, but where do you get most of your movie watching done?
movie house
premium cable TV channel
basic cable TV channel
On Demand
Netflix or other rental outfit
purchased DVD
the one you actually use
Please feel free to do a poll if the answer intrigues you, but I’m mostly just curious.
When I worked at Suncoast in grad school, Scarface was out of print on DVD. We’d call each other to give warnings when we noticed it was on TV, because we’d get literally hundreds of “Hey, y’all got Scarface?” questions.
Depends on the movie. I used to see new films in the cinema or rent them, but my video stores are all gone. I haven’t joined Netflix yet (although I have used RedBox this week for the first time).
Movies I don’t want to go out of my way to see I usually see on Premium cable or, after a few years, basic cable.
And I have a HUGE collection of VHS tapes and DVDs with older stuff.
If I miss something in the theater, there’s a good chance I’ll never see it, even though I’ll probably buy the DVD. We have a home theater and over 1500 DVDs, but rarely watch movies at home anymore, because we’re always at the theater. The day will come when we’re not so theater-centric, and we’ll be ready. That day may not come for a couple of decades.
It makes sense to want to talk about something that’s fresh in your mind. I’d hesitate to open a thread about a movie I saw a long time ago. Most likely I’d remember it wrong, or just remember one or two standout scenes.
Watching movies on TV – it’ll be a DVD or something on TCM. If I watch a movie on a premium channel, it’ll be a movie I’ve already seen and liked and want to see again but I don’t have the DVD. The movies on premium channels are 90% crap.
Too true to be funny. Even thought they tend to “update” their offerings weekly, usually there may be one on all three of the premiums we have (HBO, Showtime, Encore) that’s worth the trouble. The “Free Movies” section will be even less reliable. If it weren’t for some of the series and specials on them we’d drop the premium channels.
For me, it’s mostly Netflix, with a few at the on-campus second-run theater, a few at movie parties at friends’ houses, and perhaps one a year at a regular first-run theater.
Me too, but my husband insists on having at least one channel where he can see boobies.
If I’m desperate for discussion about an old movie, I check out IMDB. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the sophomoric level of talk at IMDB, but I haven’t found that to be true for older movies.
I saw about 35 first-run movies in the theater last year; my wife and I use Netflix quite a lot, but mostly to watch TV shows that we didn’t see when they were first aired. We also use Netflix to a lesser extent to watch actual movies, but it’s mostly to see older motion pictures (we’re making our way through the Best Picture winners [and, in some cases, also-rans] from years past).
There has got to be a name for the phenomenon in which, when one doesn’t have HBO, Showtime, or Cinemax, all of the movies those channels are showing look great, and then when you do have them, the movies are all crap. I’ve experienced it a couple of times in my life. Granted, HBO and Showtime are responsible for some good non-movie programming, but its certainly not worth ponying up for the service just for that. Because I see most of the movies I want to see while they’re in theaters, I doubt I’ll ever pay for a premium movie channel again – Netflix and I are good pals.
I rent most of the movies I see. We have one really good rental place left in town. I buy some that I can’t find there or ones I feel are worthy of adding to my small library of films. I stopped going to theaters years ago due to increasing talking and cell phone use during the movies.
As far as the OP is concerned, I’ve noticed the same thing. You’ll see a movie on AMC (like the Forrest Gump marathon) and at times there will be a thread about it. Sometimes, the OP will say something along the line of… “I’ve been watching… on AMC, and…”
As for me, looking at threads I started, my movie threads usually began because my movie discussion group in Knoxville was discussing that film that month.
What I was trying to work out was if it had some “special” meaning (like a second-run type place) or not. It’s not a term I’ve heard used by anyone besides Mr. Burns, that’s all.
I’m not aware of a special meaning, a regional preference, or even a “common” usage of the term. I have heard it being used as a synonym for those places I mentioned and when I was making that list of sources for movie watching, I went against theater for no special reason and just thought movie house would convey the “specialized building away from home” kind of place. It might be a fun poll, for somebody else to set up and monitor, to see how common “movie house” would be among Dopers. If I had it to do over again, I might select several types of “movies houses” for the list. If I had done that, maybe that portion of the list would have read:
Theater
Cinema
Picture show
Drive-in
Art house
If it’s any consolation to those who were similarly confused, “movie house” is not among the entries in my hand-held Roget’s International Thesaurus, Third Edition, 1962 – 609.18 “motion-picture theater” – list of synonyms.
I do apologize for the disinformation.
Aside: I guess I don’t remember Mr. Burns. Not that I’m curious, just being open.
We used to go to the movie theater a fair amount, but now we have a son (three months old now) and can’t get out of the house so easily. So for the next few years most of our movie watching will be on DVDs.
