Yeah, but movies don’t stick around like they used to. I remember that Raiders of the Lost Ark played at my local cineplex the entire summer of 1981. Sure, Raiders is far from typical, but you must admit that movies have a much shorter shelf life than they used to. If the movies hasn’t had good coin in two weeks, it starts disappearing from theatres immediately.
To be fair, John Lasseter, top creative guy at Pixar, cites Tron as the big reason he got into computer animation in the first place, and will gladly talk about the movie in glowing (heh) terms. If anyone could be trusted to do a remake of Tron that’s better than the original(*), it’s him.
(* = And let’s admit it, aside from the special effects, Tron was a goofy movie. Not that it stopped me from getting the super-deluxe anniversary DVD boxed set…)
The embarassing this is that I did twice.
I hate half an hour of previews and commercials. But I really hate half an hour of previews and commercials when its a rated G kids movies. Do you know why kids movies are less than 90 minutes?..because that is about the attention span you can depend on from a kid. Add half an hour of previews and commercials plus getting to the movie ten minutes early so you aren’t trying to find a seat in a dark theatre with a three year old in tow, and you now have a recipe for a really bored kid. Bored kids means that the kid makes noise through the movie, kicks the seat of the person in front of them, and - absent parental dillegence - throws popcorn and squims enough to spill mom’s 32 oz diet coke down the back of the person in front of them. Plus, three year olds have little tiny bladders, so there are multiple trips to the bathroom. And three year olds - used to watching movies at home - have been known to scream - “PAUSE IT MOM! I NEED TO GO POTTY!”
None of this is pleasant when you are the parent. Its particularly unpleasant when you are a random adult subjected to someone elses squirmy kids - even if your own little angels (who never throw popcorn, but which does mean mom doesn’t actually watch the movie with kids because she is practicing parental dilligence) are along.
Yes but even today, as a general rule of thumb, when you hear that such and such movie made 100 million dollars the studio made about 55 million and the theatres kept about 45. Of course some theatre chains cut different deals and each hollywood studio is different but the 90% of the first week outrage is really over done.
Then there is the fact that movies don’t stay around for that long because the theatres built bigger complexes so they wouldn’t have sell outs. So that everyone in town that wants to see the movie on opening day can get in to see it. I’m willing to bet that summer of Raiders of the Lost Ark the show sold out and you either came back two hours later or next week. They didn’t have four prints of Raiders. They had one. I remember standing in a ticket line for hours and then in the ticket holders line for hours and we liked it!
You went to indro and you didn’t see the red lounge chair with a side table and a wine glass on it in the foyer of the cinemas? That’s what they have in gold class. I’m not sure if they have ads or not.
That’s what happens when we buy our tickets from the consession stand I guess… 
There’s a concession stand? Exactly which indro cinemas are you going to? Ok, think back, you go up the elevator, you turn left, left again, you’re now walking towards the library, but right before the library, is the chair. Right in front of the big sign that says GOLD CLASS. I’ve always just wanted to sit in it for a while and see if someone booted me off.
Yeah I know the chair you’re talking about now. I guess I’ve never just payed any attention to it!
Concession stand is probably the wrong word. You know the candy counter that pretty much goes from the stairs to the cinemas 1-8 line? That’s where we buy our tickets cause the line’s almost always shorter. I’m trying to remember BCC’s official name for it but I can’t remember the ad that says it (hah!). Candy bar?
The first time I saw a commercial during the previews I was horrified. It was a car commercial, I think. I can remember “This does NOT bode well” going through my head. The ad thing is getting way out of hand.
Please pardon the following dvd-related hijacks:
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The fact that some DVDs have previews that you don’t select to watch makes me froth with loathing. You can forward through them, but still. Peter Pan comes to mind. After the logo, there are two previews, and then the DVD menu. Car commercials are the next step, I know it.
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[hijack2]
What the FUCK is with practically half the movie being shown as an intro to the menu??? :::frothfroth:::
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[hijack3]
Do any of the dvd-rom options actually contain anything interesting??? I’ve tried PotC, LotR, Peter Pan (can’t get that to work), and a few others and it’s all just crap! At least the rest of the special features are good.
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My s.o. is a netflix whore. We get six movies a week, three at a time. We don’t bother going to the movies unless it’s something that MUST be seen on the bigscreen. (Harry Potter, Kill Bill1&2, LotR, etc)
Also, we live near an IMAX theatre. Mmmmm…
I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that. Fortunately my supervisor is kinda used to me bursting out in laughter for “no reason”, so this time he didn’t ask…