Is it any wonder cinema is dying.

Yeah I have a feeling that within the next couple years theaters are going to start finding a different way to make seats cheaper. The new idea that if a theater is not close to full, seats become cheaper is interesting to me. I hope it happens because it has just gotten ridiculous with almost having to take out a loan to have a good time at the theater.

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It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

Most of the movie theaters around here are advertising "reclining" and/or "luxury" seating.

There is an Odeon by mine that does something called the gallery now. You pay £22 a ticket and you get taken up to a bar area that sells drinks. You then get a double seated sofa and as much soft drinks, popcorn, and Nachos as you like. Its very cool.

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Pretty sure they're making more money than ever at the box office. Cinema is clearly not dying.

In the UK we have a 2-for-1 cinema ticket deal through the market comparison site comparethemeerkat.com called 'Meerkat Movies'. You do have to buy insurance first through their site but many have found either a deliberate or accidental loophole where you can buy the cheapest one day insurance possible and get 2-for-1 cinema tickets for an entire year.

You should buy tickets before two or three weeks and do a little research for offers. There are number of online sites selling tickets with great offers.

I stream movies at home The last movie I went to see was Malifiicent. After that the movie theater in our town was torn down to make way for a shopping center. We are a good sized college town too. The only part that stinks is the movies that are in the cinema are usually low quality cams for a while. Then closer to their release on DVD we get good copies.

Prices at my local cinema have just gone up again. To take my kids to the cinema to watch one movie, not getting drinks or sweets or anything else was going to cost £40. I could buy five dvds or get five months of Netflix for the same price.

In my area, the nearest theater is about $8.99 per ticket on a weekend. However, I usually attend matinee showings on weekdays because it better correlates with the days I work. For those tickets, I usually pay $4.99 apiece for mine and my girlfriends.

As for cinema dying, that isn't really an accurate statement. Cinema is in a very healthy state with a wider abundance than ever. Whether the "quality" is the same is subject to opinion, but the signs of life are very clear.

I just want a GOOD movie.... I went to an old San Francisco theater last year, saw three movies, with plenty of people on their phones, beeping, ringing, chatting away... No thanks... I'll watch at home where I can actually WATCH it!

yeah, you would think with as much as you're paying they would have better ushers watching over the theaters for chatty/rude people.

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letterboxd

I understand that. I once had a woman and her husband who brought their infant daughters (plural!) to see The Giver. The reason I single out the woman in-particular is because she tried to sing a lullaby to them DURING the film. It wasn't until about five minutes later that she went ahead and left, telling her husband to just "Watch his stupid movie."

On the bright-side though, on my end, most my theater going experiences are quite pleasant, with only a handful of bad experiences. Then again, I have not seen a single film opening night this year, and most times, it's actually like a week after the film came out, so, usually, the theater is damn-near empty. I've had at least four or five times where my girlfriend and I were the only ones in the theater.

The cinema is like HEAVY METAL.
People say they've been dying since the 1990s.

I think the 80s started the downfall of movies, music, etc...

In what way, matt? I'm not a huge fan of contemporary music so haven't noticed, but I can't say I've noticed cinema going falling off (here anyway, nd it's a lot more expensive than over there) and when I was in NYC the times we went to the cinema it was a full house. Or do you mean quality of movies?

Music is doing great in terms of underground bands like the Finnish symphonic black viking metal band Wintersun.

Film is doing great but it's mostly underground stuff and TV shows (which are getting more cinematic and hence superior to most movies). I should point out that film is ultimately any type of media you watch on a screen, which includes TV and even Youtube videos.

While animation in particular is in its golden age right now with masterpieces like Kobayashi's Dragon Maid and Space Brothers.

It's true the movie theater is down but that's expected since going to a place to watch a screen is technologically obsolete, we just insist on doing it due to cultural inertia. After several decades all movies will be made for Netflix release.

I think you're right, Guapo. I certainly had a shift from movies to golden years of tv.

Quality.

Ahh right. I decided you meant that when Guapo mentioned tv outshining movies at the moment. Thanks for clarifying.

I think I'm just lucky that I get to go to cinemas that are really cheap and don't have unruly audiences - the only real catch being a matter of traveling distance and also the fact that, while I can see the big releases and select small ones for cheap, most of the foreign/indie/arthouse ones are at more expensive cinemas (if they screen in nearby cinemas at all). My main concern has always been with the range of distribution and accessibility more so than the cost, though cost is definitely a factor if it's a toss-up between a max of $15 for a movie ticket and paying $20-$30 to buy a DVD (especially since video stores are dying out and being replaced with these vending machines that, like the cinemas, carry the big releases and little else aside from that). Such is the way of things.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0