Is it any wonder cinema is dying.

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Cinemas are a business though so they need to make a profit to carry on. They obviously make huge profits on the snacks and drinks side of the business but honestly they are optional. Probably they don't make profit much on ticket sales when you consider the overheads on a huge multiplex : heating, lighting , rent, rates, staff costs.

In fact in the UK cinema isn't dying. It obviously isn't going to match the heyday of the 40s and 50s when there was no tv and also cinema was the only way to see the newsreels, but it's picked up tremendously since the lows of the early 80s. Since the year 2000 attendances every year have been twice what they were in the early and mid 80s. Take a look

http://www.cinemauk.org.uk/facts-and...ons-1935-2013/



The last theater I went to was at my local Institute of Arts where they play really good non-commercial movies. $5, and that's the only expense. I don't even think eating or drinking is allowed.
Sounds like paradise.
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Gangster Rap is Shakespeare for the Future
Well, Histoire(s) du cinéma - 2A: Seul le cinéma contains vintage porn projected on images of death camp prisoners with sounds of flushing the toilet. After seeing it, one may think he really has hard time dealing with Holocaust.

"The great difficulty for filmmakers is precisely not to show things. Ideally, nothing should be shown, but that's impossible.” - Robert Bresson
Histoire(s) along with many other of Godard's films are mostly concerned with the Holocaust, it's what makes claims of his anti-semetism ridiculous. While we're tossing quotes back and forth I'll provide another in a similar vein:

"A work of art doesn't exist outside the perception of the audience." -Abbas Kiarostami
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The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
I have a special discount, everytime I buy a ticket (5€) they offer the second one, so I just split the price of the first one with my gf... However, I have so many great old movies to see, it feels like I'm losing time watching most of the crap that comes out every week!



I guess, being just almost eighteen, I never worried about the prices in theaters. In my memory, they've pretty much always been this expensive. The prices you all talk about is like a fantasy to me. But I do like to see movies every once in a while if there's actually something worth seeing; the experience just isn't the same with home media.

I once read an interview where Orson Welles said that TV is what cinema used to be, and it made me quite sad. He described how, back in the day, you could get into a movie for almost nothing, and go in and out of different movies as you please. It does make me sad to think that the cinema itself is where it's at now, versus what I hear it can be and should be.



It's just not cinema prices, sports tickets are insanely priced too....as in many pay for view events. There's a huge discrepancy between the relatively few rich and the poor masses. It's the feudal system, 21st century style.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
It's just not cinema prices, sports tickets are insanely priced too....as in many pay for view events. There's a huge discrepancy between the relatively few rich and the poor masses. It's the feudal system, 21st century style.
Preach. I got three upper level tickets for the hornets opener and paid the price of lower level club seats in the early 2000's. That will be the only time I can see myself doing that.

We can all look forward to flex pricing at the theatre in the future.



Gooble gobble, one of us!
Histoire(s) along with many other of Godard's films are mostly concerned with the Holocaust, it's what makes claims of his anti-semetism ridiculous. While we're tossing quotes back and forth I'll provide another in a similar vein:

"A work of art doesn't exist outside the perception of the audience." -Abbas Kiarostami

I'll throw in a quote as well.

"What if intelligence makes us slaves, admirers of all that is ugly? It's a disturbing question. When we look at ancient Etruscan pottery, it's all beautiful. Why is it that when technique is primitive, everything is beautiful, and when technique is perfected, almost everything is ugly" - Jean Renoir

It is true! Painting realistically is not beautiful anymore, but look at the renaissance, some of the greatest paintings are realistic portraits. The hunger for techincal advancement will eventually lead to the death of cinema. Like Renoir says, everything will be ugly. Unless the artist can overcome this problem.



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This has been an on-going talking point for years.


Ticket prices and food prices are just stupid these days. Sure they sometimes put deals on at certain times of the day and on certain days, but it's still too much money.


My local, and I've said this before on here, is a total dump and costs anything from Ł15 to Ł20 for a ticket.
I went to the cinema last to see Days Of Future Past and I had a Ł30 gift card to use...


The gift card covered food. Just food. Two people, tub of popcorn each and a drink each... came to Ł28.


That's Ł14 for a watered-down Pepsi and some fried corn husks.


In the past 10 years I've gone to the cinema maybe 4 times.
Part of the rising food prices probably has to do with the decline in cinema though - with more people watching movies online or through Netflix, they're having to raise food prices just to pull a profit

So it's kind of a catch 22 - people stop going to movies, so food prices rise to make a profit... so people stop going to movies... etc



with more people watching movies online or through Netflix, they're having to raise food prices just to pull a profit
The're having?...Who are they?

Sounds like we need to call in this guy.



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The're having?...Who are they?

Sounds like we need to call in this guy.
I don't understand - I was just venturing a guess that theater chains are jacking up the cost of junk food to make up for the profit loss that's been occuring since the advent of Redbox, Netflix, etc - don't see what's such a "conspiracy" about that



"Cinema begins with Griffith and ends with Kiarostami" - JLG
His notion of what cinema is is very restricted.

For Godard, cinema is a 20th century art. I think for him, video is the art of the 21st century.
Both are essentially the same I think. A videogame cinematic, a music video, a movie, or a TV series are all the same thing, essentially.

He also sees film as a failure, due to its inability to properly deal with the Holocaust, which explains your quote from him, and my quote from him
That's a very silly thing to say.



I'll throw in a quote as well.

"What if intelligence makes us slaves, admirers of all that is ugly? It's a disturbing question. When we look at ancient Etruscan pottery, it's all beautiful. Why is it that when technique is primitive, everything is beautiful, and when technique is perfected, almost everything is ugly" - Jean Renoir

It is true! Painting realistically is not beautiful anymore, but look at the renaissance, some of the greatest paintings are realistic portraits. The hunger for techincal advancement will eventually lead to the death of cinema. Like Renoir says, everything will be ugly. Unless the artist can overcome this problem.
I think that's more of the reflection of the person who said that than of the stuff he is criticizing: something ugly now might be considered a work of art if the same thing made thousands of years ago, not because it's actually beautiful but because it's thousands of years old. There is no problem today with realistic painting, it's not like the same painting would look ulgy if it were painted at different points in time, though it's just something nobody is doing because it's much easier to take a photograph, in fact I guess photography has substituted photorealistic painting.

And don't worry about technical advancements in film, because there haven't been any revolutionary technical advancements in the last 50 years in terms of live action film. It's not like it's possible to improve cameras much more. If you are thinking about special effects/CGI them that's something different, related to animation instead.

IMO the biggest technical problem with animation these days is the excessive use of CGI, which doesn't fit with hand drawn animation.



Ancient "art":


Modern "trash":


If somebody dug those mugs 2,000 years in the future they would regard it as an important archaeological piece of art. Ancient Greek pottery was mass produced in workshops with dozens of workers, we care about them now because they are relatively rare stuff that is 25 centuries old, not because they are artistic accomplishment, ancient greeks just used these things to store stuff. The drawings they made on many of them were even made using stamps for mass production.

In the year 4,000 both the Greek vases and the Sailor Moon merchandise would be considered artistic archaeological treasures.



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They might scratch their heads when they see logos and name brands, compared to something happening, or symbols or metaphors. Miss Kitty doesn't have much social relevance, and they might think we worshiped cats?



A system of cells interlinked
He also sees film as a failure, due to its inability to properly deal with the Holocaust, which explains your quote from him, and my quote from him
How does one "deal with the Holocaust" properly? What does that even mean? Process it? Forget it? Remember it? Change the perception of it? Diminish it? Empower it? Why does art have to be informed by, or inextricably linked to any event?

His comments don't deal with The Holocaust properly, so I will go ahead and deem his comments a failure. Turnabout is fair play, after all.
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I'm not sure if I understand what you guys are saying about the Holocaust and film.

I will say, that the most powerful, gut wrenching Holcaust scene I've ever watched, was in the end of the mini series War and Remembrance (1988). I've posted about that before. Nothing has ever made me feel the real Human horror of the Holocaust more than that last scene. Words can't explain it. I know it's a long mini series, but if anyone cares I really suggest watching it.



Cinemas are a business though so they need to make a profit to carry on. They obviously make huge profits on the snacks and drinks side of the business but honestly they are optional. Probably they don't make profit much on ticket sales when you consider the overheads on a huge multiplex : heating, lighting , rent, rates, staff costs.

In fact in the UK cinema isn't dying. It obviously isn't going to match the heyday of the 40s and 50s when there was no tv and also cinema was the only way to see the newsreels, but it's picked up tremendously since the lows of the early 80s. Since the year 2000 attendances every year have been twice what they were in the early and mid 80s. Take a look

http://www.cinemauk.org.uk/facts-and...ons-1935-2013/
I'm happy with those numbers. I highly doubt we'll ever return to the numbers in the late 40s, in case Britain enters a post apocalyptic world.

I bet Thatcher played a part in the cinema lows of the 80s. That and the lack of funding British film had at the time.

I think if ticket prices were low, as were the food/drink prices, then there might be a small surge and more people would be happy to go to the cinema again. Maybe boost up the prices when big films hit the screens such as Star Wars 7, Bond 24, Avengers 2, etc.