Quote:
Originally Posted by Nautilus
Well I cannot speak for everybody of course, but for me personally, I do not even remember when it was the last time that I visited a movie theater because I was actually interested to see some particular new release. To me it is simply an event, a day off, it doesn't matter much what they're showing.
I'm still going to see movies about as often as I did 15 years ago, which is pretty rarely but this isn't the point. What matters is that they sell about the same amount of tickets to me that they did 15 years ago.
As to the new experience from better tech that should attract more people, that also doesn't sound too convincing to me. People usually do not know any better and cannot fathom there's the room for improvement technology wise. The main reasons why they're going to see movies must be the same that were decades ago - to have a day off, to vent, to spend quality time with family and friends. New tech might bring some short time gain in the amounts of movie goers (such as the Avatar did with their 3D thingy), but overall I think it doesn't affect movie going much. The same way HD didn't bring any increase in selling of porn memberships or downloads of clips.
And one more factor, could it be that home theaters that are becoming increasingly common nowadays also affected movie ticket sales, probably even more than piracy did? Unlike old fashioned sd tv which couldn't come even close to real cinema experience and viewing it couldn't match going to a cinema as real family event, home theaters in theory are alsmost as good and could be a replacement at least sometimes. What do you think?
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I would actually say they sell me fewer tickets now than they did 20 years ago. When I was a kid and lived at home or had roommates I went to the movies almost every weekend. Part of it was just to get away from everyone and get out of the house and part of it was that I was young and it was something to do with my friends. Now I am like you. I rarely go to the theater. I really have to want to see a movie otherwise I wait for DVD and watch it at home especially if it is a heavy drama. I don't want to sit in a theater with a group of people chewing on food and sounding like a heard of cattle while I'm trying to listen to the movie. If it is a big action flix, it is cool because it is loud enough you can't hear the other people.
I think there are likely many reasons that ticket sales are stagnant and home theaters as well as how quickly movies are released on DVD are likely part of it. I was just going off a few people I know. For example I know a guy who never goes to the theater and downloads anything he wants. He doesn't think there is anything wrong with it. This is a guy I have known my whole life and back when we were kids we all went to the movies a lot together. Now he still sees a lot of movies, he just downloads them all illegally and no matter what argument you make he has some kind of rational for what he is doing. I'm sure he is not the only one doing that. When you see a list
like this that shows the top ten most pirated movies this week there are a few movies on there that are still only in theaters. I would think that is having some affect on the box office sales.