Even if people didn’t care about what you say above (I agree they are minor annoyances) that doesn’t fundamentally change the theater experience to something that can compete with home theaters/netflix/on demand anything culture. Theater chains will have to find ways to bring people into the theater by altering the standard formula that bigger is always better which they use to justify their hugely expensive ticket prices. I can get 4 movies a month on my 8.99 a month Netflix plan which wouldn’t even cover the cost of one movie theater ticket. To get me back in the theater one of two things have to happen: it has to be an amazing movie that I am willing to put up with the crap experience to see it on a big screen or the theater has to offer up something that compels me to go beyond just the big screen itself. Thats where the rub lies, with theaters losing their monopoly on big screens because of home theater equipment they will have focus on that second reason to get me to the theater.

I hear Portland offers great movie experiences along these lines.

Damn, you guys make cinemas in the US sound like movie hell on earth. Yellowed, torn screens? Where do you guys go see movies? My screens are white and shiny! You can check some of the stuff I said about price above, but here are a couple of other points: back here, people don’t talk on phones during the movie, indeed the cinemas have things which block phone reception. And as Alan said, if the food at theater is too expensive, sneak in some of your own. While the ads are playing, either come in a few mins late, or read something/listen to music/play a game on your phone… And yes, go to the toilet before the movie, can’t you wait a couple of hours between leaks?

WAKE UP!! There is no ‘theater experience’ I want to watch it at home for 1/5th the cost. I want to watch it when its convenient for me, not when they are showing it.

Well I might have to plan an excurstion to Portland then. I just wish that model was offered more in other locations. I don’t find it at all in Southern Indiana.

For the general discussion:

The real problem here is those vested in the current model of theater business not wanting to adapt to changing times for fear of the bottom line while all the while that line is falling out from underneath them.

Oh and gimmicks like 3D while interesting and fun (at least for awhile) are not what is going to save theaters. More professionalism and respect for customers will.

If you’re complaining about the price of concessions then you can do one of two things
1. Don’t buy so much, (your body will thank you)
2. Get a bottle of coke or whatever and a couple of chocolate bars at your local shop before going to the cinema and get the popcorn at the theatre

If you don’t want to sit through 15 mins of ads at the start just show up 15 mins after the scheduled time of the movie

If you don’t want to be in a crowded theatre with kids screaming at the back of your head then either go to a late showing on a night that you don’t have to work the next day ( preferrably a school night) or wait a week before going to see a particular movie.

Go to the bathroom before the movie starts.If you can’t wait 1.5-2 hours between bathroom breaks i think you need to take a serious look at your diet.

If you’re complaining about customer service in your local cinema then do some reasearch on other cinemas around your area and see if they provide any better service at, possibly, more reasonable prices.

One last thing:
Jimmy Weber said:
You can’t take a girl to your computer screen for a first date.
Excellent point!

However, provide me with a theater that is smaller, where I can eat dinner before going into the movie, will serve me a beer, and maybe even brings back intermission to get that beer (and take a bathroom break) and I will gladly pay a premium and enjoy every minute of the experience. The whole theater experience needs to be redesigned and rethought.

As for the lines … who in the hell actually enjoys standing in a line for hours? People do it for the exclusiveness of what is at the end of the line and no other reason. The experience of standing in the line the “party” feel was a necessity of standing in the line in the first place because lets face it, you can have that “party” experience anywhere.

Technology didn’t do any of that.

Technology replaced the movie experience by offering me something better than the movie experience.

I’d rather watch a movie at home on my big screen with my surround sound eating my own food and doing it cheap (or free), with my own friends instead of strangers, and without having to deal with *ANY* of the above hassles.

So no, the movie theater is dead. I’ve not been to a movie theater in years, and with any luck, I never will have to go again. When you can fix the problems at the theater, then we have something to talk about. But I’m not going to wax nostalgic about things that frankly piss me off and should have pissed you off too.

I mean, really, waiting in line? You’re happy about WAITING? If this is truly the case, then we come from separate worlds. Sorry, but I have a social life, I can go to a bar or a friends place and wait there just as easily, only more comfortably, and with beer. Waiting in a public place is not something I could consider to be “fun”.

You know why the ‘movie experience’ is dying? Because it costs $20 to go see a movie that is rarely focused well, the sound sucks, there are 100 15 year-olds in the audience on their damn phones the whole time, laser pointers, the sticky floor, broken, smelly seats, that weird guy sitting next to me, no pause button, $7 popcorn, people talking too much at the wrong time, 30 goddamned-minutes of commercials before the movie (THAT I PAID TO SEE!). Plus you sometimes have to pay for and find parking.

I’ll stay at home with my girlfriend on the couch, drinking beers and only paying $5 for the ‘experience’ of watching a movie, thank you.

Something else, at most theatres in LA they now have gawdawful “music” before the movies they call movietunes (good gawd!). Again, this “music” isn’t comprised of “hits”, as they refer to them, but thinly-disguised commercials for music you wouldn’t hear–much less choose to listen to–anywhere else.

When will they get it that the old, intrusive, “push” model of mass advertising, mass production and mass ignorance is dead. We see right through them, and we vote with our (digital) dollars.

You can keep the ‘theatrical experience’, thank you.