In my opinion, here in the UK, the cinema/theatre business killed itself. Cinemas are horrible places to visit:
- they smell bad (stale junk food)
- they have oppressive lighting (mostly extremely dark but with garish turquoise and pink dazzle, accentuating the most confusing aspects of their architecture)
- the sound systems are thunderously loud (I'll be taking earplugs the next time I go to one)
- most of them are expensive
- most of them only programme big, loud, contemporary Hollywood offerings (which are simiarly horrible high contrast junk food only out to assault the audience); there's little appreciation for the art of cinema
They're like nightclubs, but without the dancing, social interaction, or resistance (a nebulous concept I'm not going into here).
You can say "this is what the market wants", but I wont't believe you. Such an argument is like saying social media (surveilled attention management) is what the market wants. The truth is much closer to "this is what the market can bear before it breaks".
There are lots of great theaters where I lived (Austin, TX) that are well maintained and have great food and drink.
My problem is other people. People can’t make it more than about 15 minutes before they check their phone and start scrolling. Or if they aren’t checking their phone they are still using the screen like a flashlight to see the menu or their food. Or they eat like a noisy animal. The worst is people with glasses of ice they chew on. Every time they raise their cup it’s basically an ice maraca followed by the sounds of them crushing ice cubes in their mouth.
Even in theaters where phones are banned (Alamo Drafthouse) they generally don’t do anything about it.
The one model I can maybe see working is one where you have a bunch of mini-theaters that seat maybe 10-20 people max. Each group gets their own theater showing what they want, timed perfectly to where they enter.
Basically renting a really kick ass home theater that happens to access to the latest releases.
Mostly agree, but I have a different complaint about the lighting... The movie theaters I go in the US don't FULLY turn the main lights off, which drives me crazy. It's 95% off, but not 100%. In addition, there's always a bit of light entering through the door, killing immersion. The only lights I accept inside a movie theater are the step lights on stairways (and certainly not cell phone screens!)
I’ve mostly had pleasant experiences at my local theatre, even some memorable encounters with strangers, and find the notion of a home theatre rather depressing.
There's certainly something to be said for the social aspect. I just wish theaters would catch up with the tech.
Only something like 20-40% of theaters are 4k, and less than 1% do HDR. 4k is really important when the image is that large, and the missing HDR changes the entire vibe of some films.
I've generally preferred these over the mainstream chains. The nearest Picturehouse to me closed down recently, which was a real loss as it was in a great building. I feel they didn't lean into their art house background hard enough: half the programme seemed to be the afforementioned addiction-cinema.
I feel that these spaces should be celebrating cinema: specials, all-nighters, film discussion groups/clubs in their cafes, some kind of access for local film-makers... like to actually be a part of film-as-art, rather than a part of film-for-business. Some of this goes on (I've been to a few such events), but I have a hunch that there's appetite for much more. It's just a hunch though.
