Poll: Most Prefer to Watch Movies @ Home

[AlecWest]

Here's a good way to guage just how popular theaters are. Out of the following "coming attractions," how many of them will you actually go to a theater to see?

http://www.fandango.com/Movies.aspx?tab=ComingSoon&pn=All

My list is short:

War Of The Worlds
Fantastic Four
Bond 21
Underworld: Evolution
Superman Returns

The rest on that list (the ones I'm interested in) will have to wait until the DVD comes out.

[Redd]

My biggest gripe with theaters...Commercials, especially auto commercials. These are the same stupid auto commercials on the tube at home. I'm not shelling my hard earned money to watch commercials. Screw em.

[BJ_M]

if you pay for cable -- why are there 70% infomercial crap on at night ?

that really bugs me ... almost as much as TBS ads to put new siding on my house if i have the right zip code -- and only the first 50 people .. ... they have been running this ad for 15 years ...


of course TBS doesnt have much in the way of content anyway - so it doesnt really mater ..

[MOVIEGEEK]

^500 channels and nothing to watch.

[guns1inger]

None of those would tempt me to the cinema any more.

My expectation are as follows

War of the World - big, noisy, slick and somehow too clean. Spielberg can't do grit. Even Minority Report felt somehow clean and slick, regardless of how hard everyone worked to make it seem otherwise.

Fantastic Four - Somewhere between Hulk and Thunderbirds The Movie. It felt threatened enough by the Incredibles to reshoot scenes. Nuff said.

Bond 21 - The best bits will be in the trailer anyways.

Underworld:Evolution - the first one should have been called Underworld:Underwelming.

Superman Returns - not a huge fan of the man of steel movies to date. I can't imagine it will come close to Batman Begins. I admit that's a big call given I'm waiting on the DVD Release to see that one.

The major factor here isn't just the quality of projection, the quality of the film, or the outrageously high cost of tickets. War of Worlds and Bond 21 will probably end up in my collection anyway (unless they are complete crap). I will get a high quality audio/video experience, with all the associated extras (which I, for one, love). And I can get both of these for less than the price of seeing one at the cinema. The value proposition, all else being equal, no longer makes sense. DVD, as a bang for buck experience, now leaves the cinema for dead.

[waheed]

My biggest gripe with theaters...Commercials, especially auto commercials. These are the same stupid auto commercials on the tube at home. I'm not shelling my hard earned money to watch commercials. Screw em.

I was told that commercials help to keep ticket prices down....yeah right

I hate commercials too. Why cant theatres specify an exact time for the movie to start and show commercials before that time, so people who dont want to watch the crap dont have to.

It really takes the p**s where they last for 30 mnutes. Usually, I just show up 20-30 minutes after the start time.

[adam]

Some states have actually passed laws making theatres do exactly that, ie: make sure the movie starts at the advertised time.

Showing commercials won't lower the ticket prices, those are basically controlled, indirectly, by the film studios but it will lower the price of concessions. After all, that is the only thing that theatres make a profit off of.

Commercials are annoying but you really can't blame them. Theatres are doing horrible these years and they've got to do whatever they can to stay in business.

Now commercials on my DVDs, that pisses the hell out of me.

[waheed]

Now commercials on my DVDs, that pisses the hell out of me.

Which is why we have tools like vobblanker and titlesetblanker

[shelbyGT]

Theatre's would make more money on concessions if they lowered them a bit... I'll break out my supply vs demand graph here in a bit for them if I need to. I don't think they are pricing their product right now at P*.

[sholmes202]

The problem is that Movie theaters are no longer THEATERS...there was ambiance and a feeling that you were doing something special...that you could not do at home...now most movie houses are multiplexes and each theater is merely an overgrown living room...of course I still go to the movies but only for "BIG" films...films with scope that cry our for a bigger screen, like Master and Commander or more recently Batman Begins...but for anything "smaller" like Million Dollar Baby (which was wonderful) I tend to wait for home release.

Holmes

[normcar]

Yeah, overgrown living rooms with sticky floors and uncomfortable seats. I can't wait to go to the movies again.

Every weekend, the movie companies are reporting lower ticket sales. Perhaps they should rethink their products and prices. (Duh!) Very few companies get along with rising prices for low quality goods without going out of business. Why do you think they are having a fit about copying DVDs? DVD sales are now more important than the ticket sales. Very few movies are even breaking even at the theater. The DVD sales (at really high prices) are the only thing keeping the idiots at the major movie companies in their jobs.

[adam]

This is true, but its also not really a fair summation. Only about 4% of movies actually make a profit at the box office, and most of these suprise even the studio (Old School is like one of the most successful dollar for dollar ever). This is pretty much how its been ever since the creation of the additional windows of profit. First there was syndicated tv, then vhs and LD, and now DVD is the real cashcows. Studios no longer had to limit their production cost and marketing to the amount they thought they could get at the theatre. Now they can spend more...much much more on production and marketing and then regain back their investment over many years. It does make sense and its really the only way to do it. A big budget wont save a shitty movie, but a small budget can ruin a good one and nowadays people do demand a very high production value from the blockbuster movies.

I also just have to bite my tongue whenever anyone claims DVDs are too expensive. You can buy lunch at McDonalds for your family or you can buy a DVD. That is not overpriced. In other countries it may be very different, but in America, a DVD is probably the most reasonably priced piece of entertainment you can buy. I would gladly pay more.

[normcar]

Adam, I will gladly charge you double for the DVDs you purchase. Please contact me ASAP.

[waheed]

In the UK, dvds are overpriced.

[TheFamilyMan]

How common is this model for movie going nowadays?

Is this a film I want to see?
--Yes: Is the film better off with a big screen and big sound system?
----Yes: I'll see it in the theater
----No: I'll see it at my home on DVD
--No: What else can I waste my free time on...

Obviously, if you're dating, this model is useless. Otherwise, how many films fit the all yes path? In my estimation, not nearly as many that fit the yes/no path. I live in area that has several excellent theathers close by, though none are THX certified. I have no problem plunking down my hard earned cash to see a film at any of them. The problem is the films being offered to see, i.e. the yes/yes path.

[shelbyGT]

I'd say that since many many dvd's can be had for 9.99 - 15.99 price tages, that doesn't seem unreasonable to me. You can buy used for even less. New releases average 20, but you can find them on sale when they are newly released.

[normcar]

The problem is that most are not even worth the 7.99 or 6.99 or less that many are lowered to because they can't be sold for more. I would rather purchase another copy, which includes additional scenes of Stripes, than any DVD released recently.

In the past, very few films got knocked out of the theaters in the first week or so. Now about 1/2 of the films do not reach the 3rd or 4th week. They just go directly to DVD. People know crap when they see it, and many of the recent movies seem to be produced in the barnyard.

[shelbyGT]

Well, I happen to own over 200 DVD's that I feel are worth what I paid for them, so it is all in the eye of the beholder, ey?

[filmshooter]

I will never forget one particular experience I had watching Godzilla at the cinema. About half way during the film, this guy went out of his seat and relocated in the seat directly behind me. Why he chose me I have no idea. He was a bit of a loud breather...I could hear his breathing very clearly behind me. He was also making a lot of noise scrunching and unwrapping some paper wrapping on a food item. Eventually, I had enough of this and moved to a different seat well over the left. This guy suddenly stood right up - quite a sight as he was quite tall. He then bent down and got on the floor in front of his seat in a horizontal position and lit a cigarette. He remained there, lying between the rows of seats smoking a cigarette, for the rest of the movie. When the credits started to roll at the end, he got up.

[soloredd]

I used to go to the theater to see movies just to see them but the past 3 years or so I've become more and more picky about what I see. This year I've only seen about 4 movies at the theater, and one of those I saw twice (Star Wars). The others were Madagascar, Robots and Crash. Personally, the majority of released movies suck and aren't worth the $9.50/ticket to watch when I get watch it on DVD using Netflix a few months later. I've actually found myself renting older, independent films and enjoying those ALOT more.

One of my favorite movies ever is Swingers. I recently saw an interview with Doug Liman (the director, also did Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and he said Swingers had an extremely limited budget (I think it was around $200,000 but not for sure). His view is that movies that have really tight, inexpensive budgets are better because it requires more creativeness to make the movie good. I agree with him.

Anyways, I do prefer to watch movies at home.

[normcar]

Well, I happen to own over 200 DVD's that I feel are worth what I paid for them, so it is all in the eye of the beholder, ey?

Well I own more than 400 DVD titles (some titles such as TV shows have several DVDs), and about 20% of them were not worth the effort to reach over to the waste disposal unit to throw them away. There are also about another 100 or so I intend to purchase. Also you may have 200 DVDs, but how many of them are recent movies? Many of mine are older movies. Out of the 5000-10000 released DVDs, you only have 200. That would assume that you don't like most of the other DVDs released.

List of favorite things at a movie theater.

10. The loudest people get to sit directly behind you.
9. Little kids running around the theater while the movie is playing.
8. Getting to pay $10 for about .20 worth of popcorn.
7. Getting to pay $8.50 for the movie.
6. A .75 candy bar for 2.50.
5. Adding 6, 7 and 8 together to get a total price more than the DVD.
4. That artificial butter topping on the popcorn.
3. The really smart people who serve you, who can barely make change or work the cash register.
2. Really tiny screens, and sticky floors.
1. Commercials instead of cartoons.

[shelbyGT]

Most of my movies are new, and you can't assume that I don't want to buy most of the dvd's released, you should assume I don't have the money to do it.
There are many many more I'd like to buy, yet can't afford right now.

Stop assuming conclusions.

[satviewer2000]

The movies aren't bad, it's the company.

I'd rather watch a movie with my friends and/or family in the privacy of my home theatre, not in a room with screaming teens or other low lifes who are swearing and kicking on chairs.

There are so many movies now that it's just a matter of taste as to which are good and which are bad. The truth is, I have tried watching some of the so called "classics" but could not make it thru as they were just too boring. Be truthful, how many out there can sit thru an entire B&W "classic" movie?

[BJ_M]

Citizen Kane i can - and a quite a few others come to think of it ...

[hudsonf]

I enjoy watching the old b/w classics. I feel that over half the movies made today are junk. They still make some good movies but most are junk. Look how they're ruining television. If I want reality I'll go outside and see it in real time.

[BJ_M]

black and white photo is great ...

it turns prOn into art ...

[guns1inger]

Citizen Kane
Touch of Evil
Bride of Frankenstein
M
Metropolis
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Nosferatu
Freaks
Maltese Falcon
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Day the Earth Stood Still
High Noon
Gunfight at the OK Corral
Psycho

and so on and so on

[brushswinger]

I have seen many mentions of STICKY FLOORS in this post. I dont visit theatres very often, but have never noticed this problem. What are you guys up to that makes all the cinema floors in America sticky?

I too prefer to watch a dvd at home, with all the associated benefits of silence, good sound on theatre system, no ads, pause when needed, re-wind when needed, no kids, no ruffians etc etc. However! Only last night I was watching a movie at home, when suddenly, there was a loud banging on my window, followed by a girl screaming. It turned out that the house next door was being robbed, and the householders returned and caught them in the act. They were all fighting on the front lawn. I was engrossed in the movie, so I sent my wife out to sort it all out. Luckily, the police did not arrive until my movie was finished.

[BJ_M]

drinks spill on the floor = sticky

[guns1inger]

Not long after I purchased my AV amp and got it hooked up in all it's multi-channel, sub-woofered glory, I was watching Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior, for you Americans). Just as it got to the scene where the refinery explodes, as the fireball begins to leap into the sky, a smallish earth tremor rolled through our area, rocking the house in time with the on screen pyrotechnics. You don't get that at the cinema.