So when's the movie finished?

[Joker]

It sucks, but if it keeps the price of the tickets down, I'll live with it. That said, we pay around £7 for a ticket, which probably converts to roughly $10-12, with no cheap matinee or late night options.

The thing is, my experience has been that the 'arthouse' theaters which show little or no commercials and sometimes a trailer or two are almost two euro's cheaper than the large cineplexes.
I went to see Hero in three different cinema's:

Large Cineplex: 9 euro's, about 8 commercials and 4 trailers

The Movies (arthouse): 8 euro's, one "commercial" which shows that that theater supports European made movies and one trailer.

Filmmuseum Cinerama (arthouse): 7,20 euro's, one bacardi commercials, no trailers.

And all three of them have large screens and excellent sound.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Really? Why?!

Icelandic moviegoers have been fighting to get rid of them for years.

Well, except on kiddie flicks. Those kids need to pee.

As do older people
And don't forget the smokers. And the fact that movies tend to get much longer lately.

But personally I'm glad that intermissions are a thing of the past...

 

[DonTadow]

the most upsetting thing is that there are more commercials, and longer commercials, but the ticketprices have not gone down a single bit. The big push to get commercials into the movie theaters was that it would "drive" down the cost of movie tickets. Not only are movie tickets 10 or 11 dollars (which is leading to inflated numbers when movies talk about how much they made), I have to sit through 10 minutes of commercials and 10 minutes of previews before i can watch my movie.

The day where theyll release movies into home theathers and digital boxes will be here soon at this rate.

 

[Desdichado]

The day where theyll release movies into home theathers and digital boxes will be here soon at this rate.

It'll be here soon anyway. I think that's part of the reason ticket prices are high; movie attendence has been low for years now, and they can't cover their costs otherwise. The theater industry is all doom and gloom, while the DVD industry is full steam ahead.

 

[DonTadow]

It'll be here soon anyway. I think that's part of the reason ticket prices are high; movie attendence has been low for years now, and they can't cover their costs otherwise. The theater industry is all doom and gloom, while the DVD industry is full steam ahead.

This reminds me of a thread a year ago where the question was will home theaters replace the movie theater. A year ago I didn't think so, now i'm the opposite. I don't think movie houses will disappear entirely, but I see them becoming more private, smaller and intimate with extra perks such as dinners and bars. The current style theaters will be the cheap movie theaters that won't be upkept and where the kids go.

 

[ddvmor]

Don't forget that George and Steve are getting their heads together to find ways to get audiences back into the cinemas. If anyone can, they can.

 

[Adeodatus]

I work in a movie theatre so let me add some insight.
Ticket prices are so high because most of that goes to the movie studios. The theatre makes its money from concessions. Comercials and pre-show entertainment also add some revenue for the movie house. Ads, at least at Rave, are assigned by rating and all movies have the same amount of ads for their rating. Trailers are assigned by corporate and differ with each copy of each movie. The 'amazing' idea to save theatres is Digital movies. They look ok, but the Digital 3d Chicken Little was just as lame as the 2d Chicken Little. The theatre put so much of its hopes on Digital 3d, and the stupid Digital Projector cost a pretty penny, raised the ticket prices to the 3d Digital movies. Movie Theatres are scared to death of dvds and home theatres. The less people go to the movies the higher tickets and concession will go. Theatres make very little money even when they do well. The studios make millions of dollars off a movie but the theatre make very little.
Anyway, movie theatre employees from usher to executive work hard everyday to bring you a special experience do so because they love movies and not because they make a dime off of it. Ironically, the people who work in movies to make money are the ones who make the movies generally. That seems to explain why movies suck.

Rant over.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

At one of my favorite theatres in Virginia, they used to play the Hershey's caramel Kisses commercial... not once, but twice before a movie began.

The first time I saw it, I thought it was an accident or something... but, as time passed, it happened at EVERY movie. I don't *mind* the commercials, but having to endure the same commercial twice in 3 minutes is HIGHLY annoying.

 

[Taelorn76]

At the local theaters around Hartford, they play the trivia and name scrambles before the movie. When the lights dim they show two or three comercials that can be seen on TV, then they shows X number of trailers, then the turn off cellphones, buy gift certificates, rent our theaters for birthday parties, then the movie comes on. I went to a 9:40pm showing of Potter last Firday, The actual movie didn't start until just after 10pm. I think that a bit much.

 

[nakia]

I work in a movie theatre so let me add some insight.
Ticket prices are so high because most of that goes to the movie studios. The theatre makes its money from concessions. Comercials and pre-show entertainment also add some revenue for the movie house. Ads, at least at Rave, are assigned by rating and all movies have the same amount of ads for their rating. Trailers are assigned by corporate and differ with each copy of each movie. The 'amazing' idea to save theatres is Digital movies. They look ok, but the Digital 3d Chicken Little was just as lame as the 2d Chicken Little. The theatre put so much of its hopes on Digital 3d, and the stupid Digital Projector cost a pretty penny, raised the ticket prices to the 3d Digital movies. Movie Theatres are scared to death of dvds and home theatres. The less people go to the movies the higher tickets and concession will go. Theatres make very little money even when they do well. The studios make millions of dollars off a movie but the theatre make very little.
Anyway, movie theatre employees from usher to executive work hard everyday to bring you a special experience do so because they love movies and not because they make a dime off of it. Ironically, the people who work in movies to make money are the ones who make the movies generally. That seems to explain why movies suck.

Rant over.

Thanks for the insight. It reinforces what I thought was the case.

Although, a lot of the theatre employees I have seen are not "working hard to bring me a special experience." They are "taking a smoke break while I wait to buy my ticket" or "telling me the only thing they have to drink is Sprite". Present company excluded, of course.

IMHO, for movie theatres to survive, they are going to have to change significantly. They have to make "going to the theatre" itself an experience people will pay to do, with seeing the movie only part of that experience. Unfortunately, theatres are only vendors now, with no control over the quality of their primary product -- the films.

Mark Cuban has some interesting ideas about theatres -- simultaneously releasing movies on DVD, in the theatre, and on HDTV. His blog is at www.blogmaverick.com, along with links to Landmark Theatres and HDTV.