CJ CGV and the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) are teaming up to offer a new way to enjoy baseball by watching games in theaters, just in time for the upcoming era of 10 million spectators in professional baseball.
Would this ever be a thing in America? Maybe I’m missing something here, but I figure if I can’t attend the game in person, I’ll watch it either on television or online. going to the theater seems a bit odd. But it’s really harkening back to the original days of filmed sports, isn’t it?
AEW occasionally runs their wrestling PPVs live in theaters and I’ve gone a few times, and I also went to see a concert movie in the theater last week. It’s a more immersive experience than watching at home, bigger screen, better sound, and it’s probably going to become more of a thing if the price of live events continues to skyrocket thanks to Ticketmaster focusing on the whales.
I can see that, but isn’t part of the fun for many people, the refreshments, including beer, at the game? It’s been over 20 years since I drank and I don’t recall if cinemas in the US sell beer.
Your typical AMC or Regal doesn’t, but there are “upscale” movie theaters in many places now that serve alcohol or have a full menu. Alamo Drafthouse is one of the better known ones, and in Seattle there’s SIFF Downtown (formerly Seattle Cinerama and still known to locals by that name, since it’s one of only two theaters in the world still capable of playing Cinerama films).
If airing baseball in theaters became a thing I could easily see the big chains deciding to apply for liquor licenses. People don’t go to the movies the way they did 10-20 years ago and theaters these days have a lot of empty seats that need filling, so that might be one way to do it.
I can understand going to a sports bar and being among fellow fans. What I don’t get are fans who gather outside the arena or stadium where the game is being played. Or even not being played. The Edmonton Oilers are a perfect recent example. Even though games were played in Florida, fans still packed the “Ice District” in downtown Edmonton. Oh, they get the game on large TV screens there, but standing for three hours, squeezed in, does not sound like any fun to me.
Part of the issue for baseball in the U.S. is that there are so many games: each team plays 162 regular-season games, meaning that there are a total of 2,430 regular-season games over the course of the season. And, frankly, most regular-season games aren’t going to be interesting enough to entice fans to pay $10 or more to see them in a theater, versus seeing them for free in a bar, or at home.
Playoff games would be a different story, as far as interest level, but (at least for now) all MLB playoff games are carried on broadcast or cable networks, versus pay-per-view or subscription-only streaming services. So, again, you’d be asking fans to pay to watch a game in a theater, that they can watch elsewhere for free (or as part of a streaming package they’ve already bought).
I saw The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies there. I thought it was very nice, very big screen and nice audio even though I was in a less-than-desireable seat due to waiting until the last minute to buy my ticket. I didn’t partake of the chocolate popcorn or the draft beer they had available, though. At the time, there were several pieces of movie memorabilia from Paul Allen’s collection on display in the lobby, including Obi-Wan’s robe from A New Hope and George Clooney’s Bat-suit from Batman Forever.
For a few years one of the theaters here played the Monday night football games on their psuedo-IMAX screen. Very high quality experience. They didn’t charge for it either - I’ve never heard of the NFL being watched this way so I suspect whatever they were doing was maybe not above-board but charging for it would’ve made it super duper not okay. They did sell food and refreshments and stuff.
I thought it was pretty cool. You got the collective experience of watching an event together in high quality recliners with a pretty good concession stand/bar. In the past, movie theaters were limited to running actual reels of film - but now you can really just hook them up to whatever you want, so why not try to work in more live events that people would want to experience together?
In general, media consumption has become more personalized, more on-demand, and more fragmented and less communal. Most of the upsides of that were bigger than what we lost, but I’d still like the chance to get that communal experience sometimes.
Not just sporting events and stuff like concerts but even maybe big episodes of very popular TV/streaming for that matter. Theater chains could partner up with networks/streaming services to host simulcasts of the biggets shows. Why not?