Originally posted by Mark Lane
Whenever I go to the movies I absolutely never go late. I'm always there at least a good 20 minutes before show time. I like having the extra time to relax and clear my head of any stress. I also prefer getting there early, that way I know I'm going to have my seat and there will be no chance for some jackass to take it. In the off chance someone is already sitting in my reserved seat I will ask him nicely -only once- to move. If he gives me some line like, "can't you sit somewhere else," I'll have no problem creating a loud, angry as hell scene. I'm not putting up with any seat hopper bullshit.
Originally posted by Mitchell Dvoskin
I'm wondering if some of the executives at AMC are even up to date at all with how watching movies at home has changed. Do they think we're still in the 1980's or 1990's, when movie theaters had real quality leverage over home viewing? 20+ years ago there was a real quality penalty to suffer by skipping a movie's theatrical release. The comparison was no contest between a 35mm (or 70mm) film print versus playing a VHS rental tape on a modest sized, square shaped CRT screen. We had mono and "hi fi" stereo sound. Back then watching at home might have involved a wait time of a year or even more after the movie debuted in cinemas. Even with DVD the movie theaters still had considerable leverage. We might have had better image quality and 5.1 surround sound, but many of us were still watching on modest sized, standard definition TV sets.
Today the home viewing experience is vastly different. Giant sized HDTV screens are very affordable. Big displays with entry level feature sets can be had for well under $1000. Big UHD displays with outstanding image quality can be had for under $3000. I still remember those hulking rear projection boxes in the 1980's and 1990's, with prices running over $5000 in some cases. Discrete digital surround sound has been available to the home since the mid 1990's. Today it's possible to configure a respectable Atmos-capable system in the living room.
Most movies are shot using digital cameras, post produced digitally and projected digitally -in what I consider a glorified version of TechniScope. There is very little perceptible difference between a letter-boxed digital image projected on a cinema screen versus the same digital image letter-boxed on a home HD/UHD panel. Today, I can skip a movie's theatrical release, watch it at home and not feel like I missed anything at all.
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