Movie Theaters Worst Nightmare.

[Lord_Stewie]

Hey,

Came across this interesting article and thought its worth the discussion.

So we are talking about Movie Theatre business in General and how its struggling in todays economic condition, yet the problem existed way before the current conditions.

We are talking about the constant:

1. Box Office constant price increases. (The Company I worked for made it a habit to add .50 cent to the ticket price every memorial day).
2. Constant Concession Stand price increase plus just the costs (The average family of 3 would spend about 30 to 40 bucks on concession items)
3. Constant every now and then heckles in the auditorium (obnoxious people not respecting others).

And the list continues with many other problems, which in return leads to constant drop moviegoers.

Now the article I found adds another dilemma to the movie theaters industry, what if you have the ability now to gather 4 of your friend and order Iron Man 2 to watch at home and for a mere 20 bucks (5 bucks each).

Would you go to theaters if you had that privilege?

We've already crossed the line of being able to find movies in theaters and on TV simultaneously, with the video-on-demand programs spearheaded by indie distributors Magnolia and IFC. But theater owners and movie studios alike are largely still terrified of VOD moving up to include bigger movies, seeing a future in which you don't pay your $13 to see Iron Man 2 in theaters, but spend $20 to gather all your friends and watch it together at home.

This future, though, is pretty much inevitable, and today's Variety is arguing it may happen sooner than you think. Time Warner Cable is currently shopping around the idea of making a new release available on-demand 30 days after it hits theaters, for the steep price of $20 per view. Studios, on the other hand, argue that they'll never agree to such a short window, and have assured theater owners that the shortest theater-to-TV window they'd ever agree to would be 60 days.

You may remember a similar argument playing out right before the release of Alice in Wonderland, when theaters in the UK threatened to boycott the film when Disney wanted to put it on DVD just a few weeks after it hit theaters. Problem with that plan being that the DVD market isn't even all that profitable any more; on-demand is where the cash is, and the studios are going to find a way to make it eventually.

None of this will likely matter for tentpoles along the lines of Iron Man 2, which exist for the opening weekend fervor and will probably have no trouble bringing people in. But the parents shell-shocked by $20 tickets to see Shrek Forever After would be perfectly happy to avoid strapping the kids in car seats and save themselves some money by seeing Shrek at home a month later. Even if the studios aren't quite ready to embrace that future, it's only a matter of time.

Originally Posted by fatediesel

One thing I wanted to point out is that the article is incorrect about the Alice DVD timing. It states that a boycott was threatened in the UK because Alice in Wonderland was coming to DVD a few weeks after release. This is wrong. The DVD was scheduled 12 weeks after the theatrical release, 5 weeks less than the normal 17 week delay. The theaters owners threatened the boycott because they feared 12 weeks could become the norm, but Disney agreed to only shorten the window for 3 films in the next 2 years and the theaters showed the film.

Video.

What do you think?

Enjoy.