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Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut

In the 1950s the average number of films attended by the populous of the United States each year was 26 films per year.

(This means that every man, woman and child in the United States went to the cinema once every two weeks.)

In the 1980s, the average number of films attended be the populous of the United States each year was 4 films per year.

(This means that every man, woman and child in the United States went to the cinema once every three months.)

In the 20 years since I heard this statistic, I am sure that it has gone down. I'll bet that the average attendance in the cinema is down to 2 films per year. There is a certain portion of the population that goes to the cinema a lot and there is a large portion of the population that has given up on the cinema entirely.

Movies and the studios are still doing well because there are more outlets for their work. There are cinemas and Pay per View (TV), and Cable (TV) and Videotape (TV) and DVD (TV).

Cinemas used to be an integral part of our society. They were in our neighborhoods. They presented newsreels. You could send your kids to the matinee without supervision or transportation.

Cinemas are now an ancillary part of society. They are in the outskirts of town. You must drive to them. They are no longer a part of our community. So sad. Are we the next bowling alleys of America?

Those theatres often changed films three times a week and paid $50 to $100 for the show. Even large city studio owned theatres usually paid a flat fee although it may have been several thousands of dollars per week. As an example, way back in 1930 the Fox Theatre in San Francisco was charged $4,000 per week by the Fox studios for each weeks feature attraction.

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Cinemas are now an ancillary part of society. They are in the outskirts of town. You must drive to them. They are no longer a part of our community.

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I also feel that contemporary theater design is sinking the exhibition industry.

I remember getting a weird moment of confusion last time driving to the multiplex that I was going to Home Depot.

They're very similar. The theater atriums are just the same, cheap big warehouse design, with just a couple of splats of chrome & neon here & there. We're not fooling anyone here. It reeks of cheap.

And with the increased number of auditoria, there's a reduced number of fellow-audience at any particular show. The reduced, restrained reactions really reduce the social reason for going out to a movie. Comedies in particular just die in rooms with only 12 people.

They've shut the local dollar movie house, which was the only place I'd go to see comedies & action movies - because of the audiences. It had a flat floor, fewer screens, & big, enjoyable audiences. I really wonder if the reason the big chains first shut their dollar houses was in hopes that these folks would just go to the full-price theaters.

Going to first-run movies *is* just like having to go to Home Depot or Wal-Mart now, things I associate with things only done when you *have* to do them.

1. Get in the car
2. Drive halfway to East Anus
3. Walk through the warehouse
4. Climb up the grandstand, sit through
the grating ads (obviously, they care
more about added revenue than customer
satisfaction), watch the scratchy movie
with the surrounds on one side popping in
& out, usually in a room that feels
mostly empty
5. Walk back out through the warehouse
6. Discuss the feeling of not having had
much fun, do you want to go do something
else at least while we're out?
7. Go drive from the theater in the
outskirts of Bohunksville to someplace
where something is happening.

You forgot "complain at least 3 times during the movie about focus, sound or some other defect in the presentation".

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Personally I dont' think that Pay Per View, DVD, Home theatres etc, are what's killing the theatres, They're killing themselves. Who wants to deal with hassels of going to the movies lines, scratched movies, out of frame, poor focues, too soft or too loud volume, etc. when they can watch them at home. I have to admit, since I don't work in the industry any more, I don't go to movies nearly as much.. I don't want to deal with those hassels. I could deal with the lines, if I knew the presentation would be decent, but a decent presentation is nearly extinct anymore these days.

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You forgot "complain at least 3 times during the movie about focus, sound or some other defect in the presentation".

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I'm afraid that I've joined the masses in just sitting there unless it's something really bad like an out-of-frame splice. We here are annoyed by poor presentation, but going out to the movies is still a social experience: Folks I go to movies with will notice & mutter about problems but will get distressed if I get up to have someone fix it & will seem to have the whole movie ruined from stewing through some sort of perceived social gaffe. So I've sat through many, many a fuzzy movie to keep others happy.

The last (but best) "get up & do something" was earlier this year at a new multiplex (it opened when that last Star Wars came out). Some of us went to see something, were pleasantly surprised to find no movie tunes or slides, & had a pleasant pre-movie social chatting experience in a comfortable theater. About 15 minutes after show time when no movie appeared & the lights didn't go down, I said I'd get up & try to find somebody.

Out to the concession stand, & tell the concession person that the movie in #x hasn't started. A long look of confusion, & then she cleared up & said: "It's SUPPOSED to be on!" Smiles, & she goes to fiddle with the soda machine. Okay, she's solved her problem.

I poke around & down one of the corridors find the likely door. Upstairs, to the nice corridors of new projectors & racks, & there's a guy down at one end threading a projector (seems like he was wearing something like a pharmacist's smock, but maybe it was just some uniform-y thing like a polo shirt & black trousers). I tell him "Hello! (Whatever movie) in number x hasn't started."

He's a friendly, easy-going guy, we walk down to the projector for that auditorium (first time I've seen these new Christie packages you guys are always talking about, I mostly bump into old Century's & Simplexes). He pokes & prods & scratches his head. So we fool around with the thing for a while, & I figure out how to start a movie in his theater. It cranks up, we're both happy, we share a laugh about how we were glad down there at first to not have Movie Tunes.

Go back down & join the peeps, sit down, start watching, & about 3 minutes later start getting this involuntary head shaking thing on. Sheesh!

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