Is the curtain closing?

Hmm, swap out TV and swap in read and it sounds like how I spent January, February, March and April 2009...LOL. The key is to get all those free Kindle books -=- Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes, Anne of Green Gables, Little House.

 

AMC is pissed more so because they took on a bunch of debt stupidly and things aren't so great now. $0 revenue versus "market projections". They are a $200m company with $10.5 BILLION of debt. They have lost 2%-3% in the "good times". Compare that to Cinemark which is a $1.4B company with $5B in debt but making 5% to 6% profit. AMC will likely not re-open the same company if they open at all.

But movie theatres aren't going anywhere. They haven't been about watching movies for well over a decade, probably since the early 2000's. It's about a fun experience. The movie itself is a bonus. I visit the Cinemark theatres nearby to watch my blockbuster films. It's usually $60 for the tickets, $20 for the popcorn and corn syrup water. Warner Brothers or Disney or whoever usually takes that entire ticket price. Cinemark gets the snack profit to pay for everything and everyone else. I also go to the local small theatre for the independent and foreign films the big chains won't show increasingly because it conflicts with screen time contracts for the big production houses. This is why a terrible movie might be played on 5 screens that nobody is seeing because it bombed but they can't play the actual hot movie. If they did, they'd have to pay Disney a small fortune and no amount of butts-in-seats for the other movie would recoup that.

You can see the experience aspect of film especially when they play the "classics". Last year I saw Singing in the Rain along with numerous other films from that period and the theatre was absolutely packed. Everyone had popcorn and drinks and candy and not a single empty seat. Same when I went and watched Jurassic Park (the original) remastered for IMAX. It was a 20+ year old movie and they charged full $28 per person ticket prices for the IMAX. My showing was very crowded and they ran it for well over a week. Not only do I own that movie on VHS, DVD, and BluRay, but I have it on my PLEX server and I can watch it anytime I want from anywhere. Yet I spent money to watch it in the theatre because it is fun.

 

I go to the movie cinema once or twice a year when the movie is a "must see" on the big screen. I wait 3 weeks after a movie opens, and go in the middle of the week in the afternoon, because most people aren't there, its $20 dollars cheaper per ticket and there are no loud kids, loud adults, etc. But even then, when my family go and we sit in the back, another family who probably couldn't spell the word "polite" comes in and sits next to us I know I am in trouble. The family usually act like they are at a baseball game. Getting up, farting, talking loudly texting on their phones "hey, its on silent" they usually tell us, and just being a pain. I told my family I was done with going out, till my family insisted I go one more time.

What a difference!!! The theater changed the seats. Each seat has your own separate arm rests (both sides!). There is more space side to side between chairs and they come with large holders for beverages and yes.....popcorn buckets. The seats recline! The space in front of you is wide enough so those of us over 6 feet tall don't have to keep getting up when someone needs to get by. I loved it! So, I may be going back................of course, when the Covid-19 situation allows us.

 

that's what they are all like around here. some even have servers and pub food. you can reserve seats, but you can't pick your neighbors.
most of our experiences have been pretty good though, concerning the patrons.

 

Same here. For a blockbuster film that is always sold out, I just buy the two seats next to us. Puts a buffer between us because the people that work the front like to group the people in the theatre whereas I want to be alone. They do it for good reason. If everyone sits in 2 rows instead of spread out over 6, they can clean and prepare the theatre for the next screening much faster.

 

I would clarify that I am a millennial. And when I hang out with my younger cousins, they love the theatre too.

The movies are regressing to how they used to be before how they used to be. Even just 20 years ago, "the movies" used to be a fun experience for all ages and socioeconomic ranges. I would pay $5 for a ticket with friends and another $5 for popcorn and drinks. The theaters were disgustingly dirty, packed shoulder to shoulder. It could devolve into shouting matches when new groups yelled at others to move down a seat or switch so a different sized group could sit there.

Today it is becoming a fun activity only for the higher end of the socioeconomic spectrum like when Daddy Warbucks went to the movies. Part of it is inevitable. When you remove all those stadium seats and put in recliners you reduce the capacity by well over a half. I only really follow Cinemark but I believe I read something like a 62% reduction in seating capacity switching to the new style recliners. So the tickets need to be 1.6x more expensive just to break even not including the capital expense of the new seats. Some of the ones here even have the motion simulators for even more extra, but only 4 SEATS for the entire row!!!! And the ticket prices match, they are about 2.5x more expensive than the 1.6x more expensive seats already were.

You're not going to grow a whole generation of movie goers if they can't afford to go to the movies. But the theatres have changed. Instead of going after everyone, they're going after those that can afford it and afford it so much that they can charge $13 for popcorn while they're at it. The ones in my generation that can afford to go, seem to enjoy it. Fewer people in total, but more revenue per butt.

Personally I'd pay even more for more spacing between people and better food. Like when we go to the met for opera, you show up early and have appetizers, soups, and entrees over drinks. Then during intermission they have your pre-ordered desserts on your table with champagne and you can enjoy there and then go back in.

 

sports are becoming the same way.
but we're having two different discussions which aren't mutually exclusive, but should be discussed both separately and together.
how were movie theaters doing before covid, and how will covid affect them in the long term.

toaster put some interesting numbers in his first post, and i suppose it would be useful to look at last years analysis of each theaters stock, if they are a public company.

how were the demographics changing over the years, if at all?

and how will they recover from being closed, to maintaining social distancing?

of course, we don't know the answer to the second question, but the first one should be easy.

the same questions can be asked about many industries. we could go completely back to normal, or things may never be the same again.
some companies in each vulnerable industry will probably fail. and government will have something to say about it as well.

 

apparently, different parts of the country are having different levels of success. not sure why. even in lower income areas around here, they were all very busy.

massive new complexes have been built in the past few decades with 12, 18, 24 theaters in one building.
a variety of seating options, as well as food and drink, to meet everyones needs.

maybe that's where the massive debt came in.

looking at amc stock, it wasn't doing so hot before the virus.

 

I think this one reason is why drive-ins are out. They take up so much space the theater can't show 10 movies at the same time and pack in as many people.

Maybe they can tear down the abandoned shopping malls and put up a hexagonal drive in. 6 monster-sized screens facing out from the center, lots of parking area around them, and they can have Micky D's, Booger Kings, ChickFillets, candy and popcorn etc in the outlots.

On the other side of the coin, personally, I don't want to be dropping popcorn and spilling soda pop in my car. And my prius seats are very uncomfortable.

I'd rather just watch at home on my TV.

 

I'm aged out of the whole theater thing.
When I first read this thread I actually stopped to try and remember the last movie I saw in one (2016 - The Light Between Oceans.)
Couldn't begin to remember the one before that one.

If there's a movie that I absolutely have to see, I'll wait for it to come out online for all of the obvious: reasons
* Ability to pause for biological necessaries.
* No shoes, No Shirt.....No problem.
* Noise free environment.
* Refreshments at a fraction of the price.
* Ability to rewind - or even watch again within a certain period to catch Easter eggs.

Cinemas are like Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogs - last printed in 1993 - probably a decade or more after people regularly used them.
Some people are nostalgic for those too.

 

Another plus to home viewing: I often have the option to turn on sub titles, even for my native language. I'm not really hard of hearing (my wife will contest that) but comprehending dialogue seems to be getting tougher.

 

Subtitles......much preferred over voice-overs, because: Emoting.
You can even remember a phrase to two if you pay close enough attention.

As noted earlier......also a great mitigation for tinnitus.

 

i don't deny that things can and do change. but i also think you can't sit in your living room streaming, thinking everyone else must be doing the same thing.

i do agree that if first run movies go direct to stream, theaters are threatened, a certail element are there for the night out, and an element to be the first to see something.

but who knows what the production companies are thinking. one movie does not make a trend, especially with theaters closed and living rooms open.