Yeah catching the matinee at Tinseltown on 290 has become my habit. I used to go to willowbrook but not anymore.
Edwards still has student discounts. I sometimes bust out my 5 year old student id and get a discount. You guys should join their free moviewatcher club. Every Wednesday you get free popcorn, and you accumulate points for every movie you see. After a while you earn things like a free soda, free candy or even a free movie. They have these moviewatcher clubs at AMC and Edwards I know for sure.
The special effects movies you are talking about are not 150 million, they are more like 220 million. The average hollywood film is over 100 million dollars. This includes marketing costs which are 20+ with most big films. Movies are really really expensive and not every movie has a 20,15,10 or 5 million dollar star. That 11 buck ticket is also split roughly 3 ways between the theater, distributer and producer of the movie. The guys who actually make the movie only make 1/3 of the total box office of the pic. If I had to choose what we have now with what we had 15 years ago, I would take the stadium seating and dolby sound. getting stuck in a seat behind a tall guy ruined the movie.
No. We had a long discussion about it awhile back. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=140092&highlight=movie i'm still shocked they torn down the Tinseltown at the beltway and Richmond. Anyone know what they are going to put there?
When you have a bit more experience in life, you'll realize that most seniors are on fixed incomes (not me!) and have a very limited amount to spend on things like going to the movies. Not only that... they don't look forward to their income rising when they get out of school and don't have parents, like many students do, who can be hit up for extra bucks for things like going to the movies. Those seniors are looking at their fixed incomes declining in real terms, if anything, due to inflation (like the price of a movie ticket rising, gas rising, utilities rising, food costs rising, and their fixed income remaining fixed), so your argument doesn't hold water. A better argument is the stupidity of the movie chains raising prices for seniors and students with limited means. They'll simply lose a lot of business. Not too smart, if you ask me. BTW.. I get a senior discount, have two students at home, and take advantage of every break I can get so we can spend more on popcorn! My wife is the only one paying full price and she brings a large purse we stuff with Cokes and candy. Popcorn is the only thing we get at the concession stand.
eh, it's fun, though. i love taking my kids to a movie...and love going on a date with my wife to the movies.
This summer looks like it is going to really suck for movies. I'm looking forward to the new Batman but other than that, I can't think of anything else that I'm real excited to see. We went and saw Indy last night and it was ok. It had some good parts and it had some not so good parts. It was a very solid 3 stars. Everything else seems to be about that good too. edit: Ironman was pretty good though but too early to be considered the summer.
I was too, but there was just something wrong with that place. It was the first of the stadium seating megaplexes in Houston I think, but they never took care of it. The place was always dirty in the last few years and there were broken seats in every theater. I guess it made more sense to tear it down than to renovate it. I like going to Loews at the Fountains because it seems like it's overlooked and it doesn't get too full, but now that it's AMC the prices have gone up. I think I'm going to stick with Cinemark at Memorial City Mall now, but damn, everytime I've gone there have been to many annoying teens, might have to try the matinee on weekends thing.
No. Why would it be? The two things aren't connected in any meaningful way. Ticket prices are set at a level that attempts to maximize revenue for the theater chain. Whether movies cost $10 million or $1 billion, the ticket prices will always be set at what the market will bear. And regardless of how much the movie cost, the revenue to the theater chain (the entity that sets the price) is the same. The costs to the theater also don't change based on the film. Let's say there are two films - one a traditional summer Hollywood blockbuster that cost $200 million to the studio that produced it. The other is a breakout indie hit that only cost $5 million to the entity that produced it. Both gross $200 million at the box office. In the first case, the theater chain earns roughly $90 million on the film. Out of that, they pay their costs, which include the people who work at the theater, utilities for the theater, supplies, etc. In the second case, the theater chain earns roughly $90 million on the film. But the costs didn't change. The people who run the projector or who serve popcorn or who clean up after the show are still paid the same. The cost to run electricity through the projector is the same regardless of how much the actors on the film got paid. So, the costs that the theater must pay remain the same whether the film cost the studio $5 million or $200 million. So why would ticket prices be lower if the film cost less? The cost structure didn't change for the theater. Could be (though the market for art house fare is also considerably smaller). This could also be a factor in ticket prices at the big chains. As the theater chains have consolidated, there has become less competition. Looking at my neighborhood in Plano, there used to be an AMC, a Lowes, a UA and a Cinemark all within a couple of miles of each other showing first-run movies. Now, there's one big Cinemark (and an Angelika, but it's an art house). When that one Cinemark is setting prices, it doesn't have to worry about the AMC or the UA or the Lowes undercutting their price and taking their business because that competition is gone. Lack of competition is often a factor in driving up prices.
Are they rebuilding it or using the land for other businesses? I used to live close to there and bought a year pass that let me see unlimited movies throughout the year. They discontinued it the next year. You are right, the place was not taken care of.
Oh yeah, let me sit in a line full of obnoxious teenagers surrounded by wanna-be gangsters dropped off by mom three hours earlier. That'd be awesome. Let's pay an assinine price for the movie, and then go into the theater still surrounded by the same bevy of idiots, most of whom seem more interested in being at the theater, instead of watching the movie. You know, because nothing says "I'm cool" to fellow high school students like dressing up to hang out at AMC. In two years these people will mercifully move on to 18 and up clubs so that the bouncers can deal with their utterly aimless pursuit of preconcieved social acceptance. Moving on, let's just ignore the concessions stand as only a wasteful moron would ever buy popcorn at a quarter per kernel. Hey, let's sit down and watch the movie - oh wait, some jerks are making noise. Yuck, some chick next to me smells like her perfume exploded in her hands, at which point she decided to just bathe in it just in case she missed one square inch of available perfume applying area. Hold on, it's starting now and its.... commercials!! awesome. Just what I paid for. Ok, now the movie is starting I think - oh wait PREVIEWS! kickass. More advertising - this is money well spent. This is why I am so pleased I spent the money to watch a movie, so that I can be forced to watch commercials and previews first. Great. Ok, the movie is now actually starting. But wait, some douchebags in front are talking on cell phones. The guy three seats down from me is texting on his ludicrously bright screen "YEAH DUDE IM IN THE THEATER"... Somebody behind me brought their 9 month old. This is a rated R movie, with lots of violence and disturbing imagery. Great parenting, and I can now experience crying and "shhhhhh" in SURROUND SOUND! Yay, this is the BEST! Now the movie is over. Let's wander out to our car, which is parked about a half mile away, and try not to get killed by 40,000 16yr olds and/or soccer moms swerving to the exits. Gag. I have a TV at home. It plays movies. I have a popcorn machine too. I have this amazing ability to avoid wasting my money while being simultaneously surrounded by the most irritating group of people imaginable. In conclusion deckard, I disagree.
It's probably that way on a Friday or Saturday, but my wife and I go to a lot of movies on Mondays at the AMC 30 on Dunvale and have never run into the idiots you encounter.
Good lord, rhad. What a life you've had! Damn, I'm really sorry. Clearly, my experiences have been different from yours. I grew up going to the movies. We went at least 3 times a week. Probably twice to a drive-in and at least once to a movie house, frequently the old vaudeville palaces downtown in Houston. Chili dogs after at the original James Coney Island, sitting on those old wooden school desks that they had. Best chili dogs ever! Sure, we don't have drive-ins anymore and the awesome Art-Deco movie palaces have been demolished, but I still love going to the movies. To avoid your experiences, I research the flicks that are out.They have this gizmo called the internets... these tubes going around the world in which information allegedly flows. Good resource. You should try it! As for the people you complain about in the theatre? Try telling them politely to shut the **** up. It usually works. Really, you should get out more!
