Pop Culture Curmudgeon

Movie Theaters Are the Newest Addition to the Endangered Species List

Nikki Finke is reporting that studios want to bypass movie theaters and go direct to consumer with first-run movies.

Do you still go to the theater? Would you if you could watch movies at home on their initial release?

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Tags: movies

Uncategorized | Jennifer Roland | November 4, 2009 6:00 pm

3 Comments

By katie71483, November 4, 2009 @ 6:19 pm

There are some movies that just need to be seen on the big screen but with people having larger and larger tvs complete with surround sound in their homes, I’m not sure you need a theater anymore. I still go to the movie occasionally but am much more likely to wait for it to come out on netflix since the turn around to dvd is usually three or four months now. Of course, by the same token, if I was able to get a first run movie streamed directly to my living room, I’d be a lot more likely to see it.
I’ve been rambling… did I actually answer the question?

[Reply]
Jennifer Roland Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I know. It’s a tough choice to make. My home theater set-up at home is pretty sweet, and so the visual and aural components are no big deal to me.

But there is something special about sharing the experience of watching a movie opening night with a crowd of theater-goers. It’s getting to the point where we will have no reason to interact with people offline.

[Reply]
By Jean, November 5, 2009 @ 7:59 am

I agree, Katie, some movies simply demand to be seen in a large theater. LOTR, for instance, is just not the same on the small screen. And I, for one, enjoy the theater-going experience. OTOH, I’m becoming much more selective about which movies I spend time and money on to see in the theaters. I’m not going as much as I used to – three or four movies a weekend used to be the norm. Now I’m lucky if I see two a month! One problem is the lack of quality, another is the money. And there’s the time spent on a not-so-great movie, when I can rent it, take a couple of days to watch or watch as I’m doing something else or watch a few minutes and then say the heck with this. There are also the advantages of being at home when watching a movie. Overall, I think I’d be likely to take advantage of the streaming-at-home first-run movie deal. Of course, I’ll have to upgrade the computer setup and/or get a larger TV!

[Reply]