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Third Screen Feed
It rambles, meanders and tap-dances for the sake of tap-dancing. But a smart 7.9 article by the Detroit Metrotimes' Ashley Lindstrom does specifically grapple with a big exhibition fear -- i.e., that competition from the proverbial third screen (computers, Apple TV, iPhones, iPods) will hurt or kill big-screen venues. The answer, provided by NATO president John Fithian and a USC Digital Media Center report, is that this just isn't happening.
"It would seem counterintuitive that an attention-deficit generation of instant-gratification addicts still makes up the majority of frequent moviegoers," Lindstrom writes, "but Fithian recalls a 2007 study by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) which shows that individuals who own or subscribe to five or more technologies (DVR, satellite TV, MP3 players, etc.) actually see about four more movies per year than, er, neo-Luddites.
In short, "the old wisdom that techies are by their very nature antisocial creatures is being challenged. For instance, the University of Southern California Digital Media Center's 2008 report showed that internet users say they spend more face-to-face time with friends and family than nonusers.
"'For [young people], this is just one more form of being pervaded by media,' Fithian says, adding that many theaters are looking into rowdier, text-friendly auditoriums to serve their long-term welfare by meeting their youthful patrons' desires-- AMC's Star Theatre in Southfield, anyone? -- and additionally creating adult spaces for more challenging content. AMC offers its 'AMC Select' for, they tell us, 'special films for select tastes,' most of which are released regionally and occasionally screen in a Detroit-area AMC theater.
The result, says Fithian, is that theatres "are finally back on track after the 2005 slump, and that this year's take -- as of 6.13.08 -- is only slightly under last year's -- the year of 'threequels,' Fithian interjects -- and he fully expects to make up the difference in no time.
Fithian further points out that "the total number of U.S. screens actually increased in 2008, though the sum of theater locations has decreased, which he ascribes to older facilities being torn down and the erection of more modern multi-screened structures."
Wait..."rowder, text-friendly auditoriums"? As in darkened auditoriums where you're supposed to watch movies? Include me out.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 10, 2008 at 7:41 AM
comment #1
Edward
says ...
I'd be curious to know if people actually watch new movies on their hand-held devices or do they mostly watch favorite movies, scenes, music videos, TV shows?
Posted by Edward
at July 10, 2008 8:23 AM
comment #2
nemo
says ...
How do the ushers clean those new "rowdier, text-friendly auditoriums meeting their youthful patrons' desires?"
Hose 'em down between shows?
Posted by nemo
at July 10, 2008 8:43 AM
comment #3
nemo
says ...
I picture big hoses in the corners and a big drain in the middle of the floor.
Posted by nemo
at July 10, 2008 8:45 AM
comment #4
Amazing Larry
says ...
That is completely unacceptable. If a theatre is going to reserve a space for "rowdier, text-friendly auditoriums", then they are sending a message: "Hey kids! It's perfectly FINE for you tweens to talk constantly during the movies, text message your friends, and act like morons! It's MORE than fine, actually! Keep it up!"
And that means that those tweens are going to grow up thinking that's okay, their kids are going to grow up the same way, and so on and so forth, and that means that intelligent moviegoers WILL QUIT GOING TO THE MOVIES.
It continues to be true. Motion Picture Exhibitors: The Dumbest, Whiniest FuthaMuckas On The Planet.
And if you watch anything longer than 10 minutes on your cell screen, do me a favor. Kill yourself. Right now.
Posted by Amazing Larry
at July 10, 2008 8:50 AM
comment #5
Mgmax
says ...
Sounds to me like they're saying they're going to create what's been the de facto situation for the last 10 years.
The real news is that they're creating the higher-priced fancy dinner theaters for grownups who want to avoid all that. But that makes moviegoing into a twice-a-year experience; how often do I want to pay $40 to see what I can own for $20 and watch on my big screen at home?
Posted by Mgmax
at July 10, 2008 9:06 AM
comment #6
otakuhouse
says ...
Wells you wanna get really passionate about something that no one has taken up the mantle on even though it makes total fucking sense and angers me incessantly?
For all the prognosis of the future of cinema pounded by all these new displays and where the music industry headed, how about people in Hollywood stop for one fucking moment and realize that if they cannibalize the culture of watching a movie with a crowd they're done for.
How about movie theaters offer a cultural experience that's worth it like the Arclight does - an usher, junk food that's not made of nothing but chemicals but rather is actually worth the price you pay for it, and great projection standards?
Do the theater owners realize that if they actually enforced the idea of a shared public communal space by making sure people keep their cellphones off and don't talk AND ACTUALLY FORCE THE CHILDREN TO BEHAVE LIKE THEY SHOULD ANYWAY instead of catering to them and thus creating a segergated theatrical market where even more and more money will go to making movies that appeal to juvenile retards that they might actually make MORE MONEY?
Fuck it makes me so angry, it's right in everyone's faces, but the lowest common denomoniator truly truly applies to the idiocy with which movies are exhibited.
I worked in CG feature animation for 2 years. I go to see Wall-E on one of the largest screens in NY on opening day. The print is scratched to fuck and the projector is vibrating to such a degree that focus is all over the place. I am the third person to complain about the projection quality after the entire audience yells out focus repeatedly - hell I know some people who worked on the movie - and I get a dismissive lecture about how if the background is out of focus it's meant to be that way.
Theater owners generally treat audiences as if they're taking a cut rate Fung Wah bus instead of say, going to a concert, or fuck i dunno, watching a movie.
BTW here's one last thing - the simple fact is hardly anyone watches anything on tiny screens. There is no dominant young demographic watching movies on ipod or cellphone screens. It's pure b.s. I know because I worked on some entertainment projects in which this stuff was sold to us and I saw the numbers. It's a few thousand curiosity seekers or super stupid early adopters and that's it. Even the PSP's mooted video capabilites are well and dead.
Posted by otakuhouse
at July 10, 2008 9:13 AM
comment #7
Rich S.
says ...
What needs to happen (and never will) is for the FCC to approve licensing those cell phone jammers that are produced in Israel and used in some churches in Mexico. Authorize theaters to use them. Then the theater (or restaurant) can advertise "cell phone free shows;" not all of them, maybe two or three a day.
The rowdy kids will avoid those shows because they can't live without their phones. Nevertheless, I'd be willing to bet that phone-free showings would be packed.
Posted by Rich S.
at July 10, 2008 9:13 AM
comment #8
swordandpen
says ...
I find it amazing that exhibitors want to cater to people who don't actually watch the movie, but are there to text, talk, and behave like animals.
If they want to give these kinds of people a space to do this, why bother even projecting a movie on the screen?
Posted by swordandpen
at July 10, 2008 11:11 AM
comment #9
Rich S.
says ...
"If they want to give these kinds of people a space to do this, why bother even projecting a movie on the screen?"
The more important question is, why do these people pay $10-12 to go to the theater when they have no interest in seeing a movie? Why not just text and chat in the parking lot?
Posted by Rich S.
at July 10, 2008 11:16 AM
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