The problem I have with theaters is that the time and money sink is a terrible value these days. For my wife and I it’s always somehow shy of $70 and takes up most the night.
The money is bad, yes, but the deal breaker for me is…other movie-goers.
For 90 minutes, modern movie-goers simply:
can’t keep their bright phones in their pockets
can’t stop talking to each other above an occasional whisper
can’t consistently keep their food and drink off other movie-goers
can’t level their infants or small children at home during non-family movies
can’t quietly not do any of the above when someone challenges them on it
Paying for a movie is expensive, but when its regularly ruined by others in the theater it simply stops being worth trying to go anymore. I’ll watch it at home when it comes there.
edit: After checking on responses overnight I see I have 3 downvotes. I can only assume that these are the movie-goers I’m talking about in my list above. To those folks, why are you upset with my post? You won. You have the whole theater to yourself because I’m certainly not going to be in the same room watching a movie with you. Enjoy your theaters. I hope there are enough of you and you don’t annoy each other enough to drive each other off that movie theaters don’t go out of business.
This. Its like people have no sense of decorum anymore. There was a couple chit chatting through every other scene in a movie I watched a while back like they had the whole cinema to themselves. Super distracting.
I went to see Venom and there was a group of people in the row in front of me - almost 10 people, all adults. They brought a toddler that screamed any time a symbiote was on screen. Which was a lot.
I’ve gotten parents kicked out of movies for that before. I’ve got a kid of my own so I get it, but goddamn, pay for a fuckin sitter like the rest of us.
I paid for the movie too, so I either get to enjoy it in (relative) peace, or I get my money back.
I’m lucky enough to have an Alamo Drafthouse theater nearby. Those issues aren’t a problem. Plus, the clarified butter for popcorn makes it the best I’ve ever had at the movies.
Other than the bright screens, all of the other points have been true since I was a kid in the 80s. We just didn’t have the affordable giant screens at home as an option back then.
The money is bad, yes, but the deal breaker for me is…other movie-goers.
For 90 minutes, modern movie-goers simply:
Paying for a movie is expensive, but when its regularly ruined by others in the theater it simply stops being worth trying to go anymore. I’ll watch it at home when it comes there.
edit: After checking on responses overnight I see I have 3 downvotes. I can only assume that these are the movie-goers I’m talking about in my list above. To those folks, why are you upset with my post? You won. You have the whole theater to yourself because I’m certainly not going to be in the same room watching a movie with you. Enjoy your theaters. I hope there are enough of you and you don’t annoy each other enough to drive each other off that movie theaters don’t go out of business.
This. Its like people have no sense of decorum anymore. There was a couple chit chatting through every other scene in a movie I watched a while back like they had the whole cinema to themselves. Super distracting.
I went to see Venom and there was a group of people in the row in front of me - almost 10 people, all adults. They brought a toddler that screamed any time a symbiote was on screen. Which was a lot.
I’ve gotten parents kicked out of movies for that before. I’ve got a kid of my own so I get it, but goddamn, pay for a fuckin sitter like the rest of us.
I paid for the movie too, so I either get to enjoy it in (relative) peace, or I get my money back.
I’m lucky enough to have an Alamo Drafthouse theater nearby. Those issues aren’t a problem. Plus, the clarified butter for popcorn makes it the best I’ve ever had at the movies.
Other than the bright screens, all of the other points have been true since I was a kid in the 80s. We just didn’t have the affordable giant screens at home as an option back then.