Many of you reacted to the plight of theater owners like AMC with "good riddance." The experience of going to a theater to see a movie on the big screen has become somewhat of an ordeal. And theater chains have let it happen and in some respects contributed to it.
Readers cite high ticket prices, inflated concession prices, cutback on staff, endless trailers, and commercials as some reasons to avoid their local cineplex.
And then there is the behavior of the patrons. Texting, fiddling with their iPhones, thus shining distracting lights, talking to one another, talking on the phone, and basically having zero regard for anyone else in the auditorium. Other than Alamo Drafthouse, I don't know of another theater chain that enforces no cellphone use or talking. They'll throw people out. Everyone else does nothing or perhaps issues worthless warnings.
As one commenter stated, these chains have been getting away with this for years and the time of reckoning has come.
Maybe you have to be from a certain generation, but I've always had a reverence for movies and the need to see them as they were intended to be shown -- on the big screen in a theater. My sense is most people in the general public don't feel that way. Which is a shame but totally understandable given the circumstances. There's little or no allegiance to theater chains because they don't offer a pleasing experience. And instead of improving, the experience gets worse and worse over time.
And the irony of course, is that the audience that theaters are hoping to attract (young people EXCLUSIVELY) are the ones who cause most of the disruptions and the ones least likely to have any loyalty to the theater. They're the ones no longer interested in going unless it's a big mega-event, and even then that's a few times a year max. Gone are the Friday night "date night" movies.
Yes, giant conglomerates are killing the theater business. But theater owners better take a good hard look at how they contributed and what they can do in the future to get the audience back. It's certainly worse than I even thought. So just opening your doors won't do it.
from By Ken Levine
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