An afternoon or evening at a movie house has always been a great treat for most folks. The custom is threatened, but fortunately it has survived, at least for a time.
Universal Pictures announced in early October that its new comedy “Tower Heist” would be made available for home viewing on their video-on-demand service at $59.99 per showing, just three weeks after it opened in theaters on Nov. 4.
If you get stirred up at a charge of practically $60 a pop for a single movie, think of the cries of outrage from theater owners. It was only a test offer, limited to Atlanta and Portland, Ore., but the cinema industry reacted angrily at this action to shrink the traditional window of 90 days between the time a movie debuts in theaters and when it’s available for home viewing. There came a week of irate phone calls from the theater owners. Several cinema chains threatened to refuse to show the film at all if Universal went ahead with the test. Universal scrapped the test and our last-minute rescue was like the that of the old-time actress who was tied to railroad tracks and saved just as a train bore down on her.
Such old movies and old movie houses held a special magic. They were sometimes called palaces of pleasure, with their ornate decor, big gooey bags of popcorn and “selected short subjects” such as brief comedies starring Mickey Mouse, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd or, sometimes, a live vaudeville act.
Watching a movie at home, as through a Netflix subscription, can be fun, but it means interruptions by telephone or doorbell and the temptation to interrupt with a comment on a film, distracting others in the room.
At the movies, such comment would bring a whispered “hush up.” The draw of going to the movies is still the experience of letting someone else decide when the show will start and relaxing with folks we don’t know while the projectionist does the work.
The New Yorker’s film reviewer, Anthony Lane, put it best: “We are strangers in communion, and, once the pact of the intimate and the populous is snapped, the charm is gone. Our revels are ended.”
Of course, in this digital age, everything changes. The National Association of Theatre Owners, after winning this temporary victory, said that it “recognizes that studios need to find new models and opportunities in the home market and looks forward to distributors and exhibitors working together for their mutual benefit.”
Still, as long as the movie houses still operate, even if they are cut-rate cineplexes, we can keep enjoying them.
I only go under great duress. It cost’s too much for the movie, it cost’s too much for popcorn or something to drink, it cost’s too much to drive there in the first place, and on top of all that you have to put up with all the rude clientele who are sitting around you. Your feet stick to the floor, the seats haven’t been cleaned in who knows how long, people talk, bump your seat, your armrest has a tacky feel to it (unless your neighbor takes the armrest first), the room smells like cheap butter, someones phone rings, and you have to watch 20 minutes worth of advertising at the beginning. Screw it, it just isn’t worth it anymore!
Your movie-going experience depends on the theater, of course. Independent theaters like the Grand in Ellsworth and Reel Pizza in Bar Harbor are clean, comfortable and reasonably-priced, offering state-of-the-art equipment and showing mainstream and off-beat films.
Part of the fun, I think, is waiting with baited breath after each trailer to see whether the movie I’ve been waiting for will begin!
And quite often the trailers are more entertaining than the movies they promote.
well said!
Just what is “baited breath” any how?
Probably how my breath smells after eating a meal before the movie, if I were looking to lure some kind of fish.
“Bated” is, of course, what I meant to say! ;-)
Gee whiz, you mentioned Mickey Mouse, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, which is fine, but how did you happen to overlook Charlie Chaplin, the world’s first international film superstar and one of the most successful and prolific actor/directors in film history? From Wikipedia:
“In 2008, Martin Sieff, in a review of the book Chaplin: A Life, wrote: “Chaplin was not just ‘big’, he was gigantic. In 1915, he burst onto a war-torn world bringing it the gift of comedy, laughter and relief while it was tearing itself apart through World War I. Over the next 25 years, through the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf Hitler, he stayed on the job. … It is doubtful any individual has ever given more entertainment, pleasure and relief to so many human beings when they needed it the most”.
“At the movies, such comment would bring a whispered ‘hush up.'”
The only movies I see in the theater are James Bond films and the “Star Wars” films. My experiences with the last two Bond films during “prime time” were horrible, as kids spent most of the movie talking and texting to each other.
People don’t know how to behave appropriately at the movies anymore.
Last month, I went to a movie in theatre for the first time in 2 yrs and it was the adults, about my age (late 40’s or early 50s) that felt the need to do a play by play commentary on the movie. They were seated together but with an empty chair between them, (empty to hold the big bag of popcorn!) so they had to raise their voices across the empty space. I guess leaning over to whisper in each other’s ears is another romantic movie tradition gone by the wayside!
I find it funny that the author talks about interruptions at home.
Theaters make no attempt at stopping people from talking on their phones, texting with bright lights or just being plain old rude, so they deserve to go out of business and have no sympathy from me.
Independent theaters deserve to survive, and they will.
I’ve enjoyed the Grand when I’ve gone, and I absolutely love Reel Pizza (great food, great beer, and great variety of film!)Chain cinemas, on the other hand… I’d rather watch the movie at home. Expensive movies, expensive food, and too many COMMERCIALS (not just trailers) before the film.