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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Regal Theatre's RPX "Regal Premium Experience" (Page 4)

 
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Author Topic: Regal Theatre's RPX "Regal Premium Experience"
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 05-06-2010 10:51 AM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mike Olpin
Time for the pendulum to swing away from the chains and back to the independents.
It looks like even some of the best independent outfits are going to be getting in on the act of charging extra for a 2K digital image thrown onto a giant sized screen.

I don't know the screen dimensions, but I'm pretty sure Warren Theatres has the two largest indoor movie theater screens in the Oklahoma City area, the 2 biggest auditoriums at the Moore Warren 14. Those screens are reportedly 80' in width. Dolby Digital Cinema is used and the auditoriums are THX certified. Customers don't have to pay anything extra to see a movie in either of the big auditoriums. They only pay a surcharge to sit up in the balcony or if a movie is being shown in Dolby 3D.

Warren Theatres now has plans of remodeling one of its theaters in Wichita, KS and will install IMAX Digital in one of the auditoriums. I really see no point in this other than to get the extra surcharge dollars from customers for an image that is essentially no different than what they could see in another adjacent auditorium (or in another theater in town with a similar sized but not IMAX-branded screen).

Back in the mid 1990s when the stadium seated theater building binge was in full swing more than a few theaters were built featuring giant-sized screens. I don't think any of those giant screened theaters had any sort of surcharge. The issue of 35mm rarely, if ever, being able to properly light those screens made it a good thing no surcharge was involved. They really should have been using 5-perf 70mm. I might have been willing to pay a surcharge for that especially if the movie was filmed on 65mm negatives. I'm certainly willing to pay a premium fee to see 15/65mm originated content projected in 15/70mm.

I think chains like AMC, Regal and Cinemark are really pushing their luck with this kind of giant screen con job. The customers are not really getting any added value for the surcharge. Standard evening ticket prices in many cities have passed the $10 level. Add in that no value added $5 surcharge and the price for just one ticket for what is really an ordinary presentation gets pretty close to the cost of a new release DVD. The backlash against IMAX Digital is just the beginning.

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Jonathan Althaus
Master Film Handler

Posts: 435
From: Bedford, TX
Registered: Dec 2008

- posted 05-06-2010 11:15 AM      Profile for Jonathan Althaus   Email Jonathan Althaus   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What they should do is lower prices for films that have been out longer and in crappier, smaller auditoriums. Drop the price $0.25 for every week the film is out.

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Dominic Espinosa
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1172
From: California, U.S.A.
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- posted 05-06-2010 11:20 AM      Profile for Dominic Espinosa   Email Dominic Espinosa   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
The funny thing about these Regal/AMC Sony installs is that they won't be able to use the Sony projectors. They are not capable of lighting up screens that large.
The R320's can.

quote: Lyle Romer
Does the Sony 3D solution use the whole width of the chip and do an anamporphic squeeze or do they just use a small rectangle for each eye that leaves 1/2 the horizontal pixels unused.
The "chip" is split in half and the 2K right & left eye images are stacked on top of one another. Convergence is managed by the dual lens assembly.
Nothing is "wasted" per-se since the 3D content is often slightly smaller than 2K resolution (2048x1080).
Whatever the ratio of the image is, that's how much of the chip is used. Think of it as common height.

Lastly it doesn't matter if the content is 4K, although it does help on larger screens. 2K up sampled on the 4K SONY looks better than 2K on a 2K DLP.

There are plenty of positives and negatives to each side and as someone who has been adamantly against digital for most of my cinema life I have to say, I can sit through a film projected on a 4K and be ok.
I can't say the same for 2K. I just can't.

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Manny Montes
Master Film Handler

Posts: 270
From: United States
Registered: Feb 2010

- posted 05-06-2010 01:05 PM      Profile for Manny Montes   Email Manny Montes   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I can't imagine how expensive an RPX show will be, the local regal theater that is "better" than mine got a digital IMAX installed, $17.50 for an adult ticket. How is that possible when I can drive downtown and see Iron Man 2 in REAL IMAX for only $11

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Kevin Fairchild
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 125
From: Kennewick, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2008

- posted 05-06-2010 01:17 PM      Profile for Kevin Fairchild   Email Kevin Fairchild   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
RPX opens at midnight with Iron Man 2 at Regal E-Walk Stadium 13 New York, NY

Normal Adult Ticket $13.00
RPX Adult Ticket $18.50
$5.50 upcharge! Granted this theater has a $4.50 upcharge for RealD.

Prices via Fandango.

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

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From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

- posted 05-06-2010 06:24 PM      Profile for Carsten Kurz   Email Carsten Kurz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
This is Sonys 3D panel mapping scheme. It quotes 2*1080 vertically. Hard to believe they manage to map these through optics an mirrors with 0-pixel loss/overlap. I'm sure they just crop some pixel out. I doubt, however, this is a visible degradation compared to conventional sequential 2k 3D as far as resolution goes. The simultaneous display certainly is a big plus.

-

Note they actually upscale for CS. Which gives a higher pixel density than on ordinary 2k 3D. Not a higher resolution, of course, but lower pixel visibility for close-screeners.

- Carsten

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Manny Montes
Master Film Handler

Posts: 270
From: United States
Registered: Feb 2010

- posted 06-01-2010 01:50 AM      Profile for Manny Montes   Email Manny Montes   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I actually went to see an RPX today, at kendall village 16 in Florida. Wasn't that bad, decent quality, great sound, good seats.

All in all not a bad experience

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

- posted 06-01-2010 12:29 PM      Profile for Scott Jentsch   Author's Homepage   Email Scott Jentsch   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I wrote up a story about the RPX opening at the Regal Kendall Village Stadium 16 in Miami, and forgot to mention the opening here:

http://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?id=1903
quote:
Regal Entertainment Group announced this week that their newest RPX "Regal Premium ExperienceSM" will debut at the Regal Kendall Village Stadium 16 in Miami, Florida on Friday, May 28, 2010. The first show will be at 12:01am tonight of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Regal's first RPX installation was at the Regal E-Walk 13 in New York City, which debuted in time for Iron Man 2 three weeks ago. Read the Journal article for the announcement for more information about that installation. Apparently, Regal is happy with the results they are seeing there:

"Regal Entertainment Group’s first RPX location on 42nd Street in New York exceeded our expectations and impressed moviegoers in Times Square," stated Greg Dunn, President and Chief Operating Officer for Regal Entertainment Group. "Regal is proud to continue the rollout of RPX at our Kendall theatre which is already an extremely popular location for moviegoers in the Miami market."

According to the press release, the RPX installation at the Kendall Village Stadium 16 is custom-designed for that location and is able to project 2D and RealD 3D images with its dual digital cinema projection equipment onto its 52-foot wide screen. The sound system boats 20,000 watts of power through 80 speaker components, including twenty 18-inch subwoofers.

Regal is marking their RPX shows in the notes field in their showtimes, so you will be able to determine which shows are in the RPX auditorium. A look at their ticket prices today shows that they will be charging between $5-$7 more for RPX shows:

Regular RPX Upcharge
Matinee $8.50 / $7.50 $15.50 / $12.50

$7 (82%) / $5 (67%)
Evening $10.50 / $7.50 $15.50 / $12.50 $5 (48% / 67%)

It's no wonder that Regal is pleased with the results that RPX is getting them, considering the upcharges that they're expecting customers to pay! The New York City location is charging a 42% upcharge, and they've increased it here, presumably because they think the market will handle it.

How does that compare to the nearest big-screen alternative, the IMAX at the AMC Sunset Place 24 in South Miami, just 7 miles away? For a non-3D show, their ticket prices are $16.50/$13.50/$14.50 for adult/child/senior evening tickets, which reflects the $6 IMAX upcharge. 3D shows are an extra $1 on top of that. That means that they are in the same ballpark, and since the Sunset Place IMAX is a mutiplex design, its screen is only slightly larger than the RPX screen at 60-feet wide.

While we welcome additional options for moviegoers to have the best possible experiences they can at movie theaters, we wonder how long audiences will accept the high upcharges that go with them? Perhaps the higher prices will act as a double-edged sword, and cause patrons to demand nothing but the best for their money. For $15.50, the experience better blow me away and leave me with nothing but positive feelings about having spent that kind of money!

Is It Better Than IMAX?

The size of the screen for this RPX installation and the ticket upcharge that comes with it compares so closely to the nearby IMAX screen, one has to wonder what RPX has to offer over IMAX? If IMAX got into so much hot water last summer over their relatively small screens (see Journal Article), isn't this more of the same, but without the IMAX brand?

That issue is explored in a new Journal article - IMAX Getting Competition from Many Directions - But Are the Alternatives Really Better?

What Do You Think?

Have you seen a movie at an RPX screen? Does it compare to watching a movie at the nearby IMAX? We'd love to hear your comments, so please leave your comments below!

Sources: Regal Entertainment Group Press Release, IMAX Corporation web site

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Chris Slycord
Film God

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From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

- posted 06-01-2010 12:44 PM      Profile for Chris Slycord   Email Chris Slycord   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
If it costs the same and is equivalent to it, what's the big deal if it isn't better?

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 06-01-2010 01:00 PM      Profile for Scott Norwood   Author's Homepage   Email Scott Norwood   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I'm confused. I've been in regular theatres running 35mm on screens that are larger than 52' wide. What is new that is being offered here?

Number of loudspeakers isn't (or shouldn't) be much of an issue. The system either meets the Dolby spec for maximum SPL or it doesn't. Whether or not it sounds good is an unrelated issue.

I don't get it.

At least digital Imax (which I have not seen) supposedly has some sort of proprietary image processing and calibration hardware and/or software. The Regal thing sounds like a bunch of off-the-shelf equipment with a fancy name and higher price tag attached.

I'm all for improving image and sound quality, but I don't believe that audiences should have to pay a surcharge to sit in an auditorium that meets the relevant specifications. If the regular Regal houses do this, then what is the point of this thing? If they don't, then aren't patrons of existing theatres being ripped off?

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Manny Montes
Master Film Handler

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From: United States
Registered: Feb 2010

- posted 06-01-2010 05:26 PM      Profile for Manny Montes   Email Manny Montes   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Does anyone know if they only use the dual projection for 3D movies? When I looked into booth there was only 1 running for the 2D prince of persia, I'm going to email their GM tonight and see if I can get an answer.

Other than that, it was only $15.50, so a $5.00 upcharge for it, which is cheaper than the IMAXs nearby (I think that's how regal wants it).

It's no better than IMAX, but its certainly comparable and pretty much equal (to the digital LIE-MAX) at least, and because its cheaper its something i'd be more willing to pay for (if I were a paying customer). In fact, as I was leaving I was overhearing other customers saying how comfortable the seats were, how awesome the sound was, etc....

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 06-01-2010 06:59 PM      Profile for Scott Norwood   Author's Homepage   Email Scott Norwood   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
So patrons should have to pay extra for comfortable seats and awesome sound?

I find this whole industry trend toward adding surcharges for everything to be pretty distasteful. At least something like THX (and, presumably, digital Imax) has actual standards and some mechanism for ensuring that cinemas that feature those brand names are actually upholding those standards. And I have never seen a "THX surcharge" before. [Mad]

If Regal wanted to convert all of its auditoria to this type of setup and raise all ticket prices and sell itself as a "premium chain" or something like that, with a guarantee that every auditorium would meet or exceed SMPTE, Dolby, and THX specs, I would not have so much of a problem with it. As it is, however, they are implying that there is something substandard about their normal screens (is there?) and that customers who want to have a quality experience need to pay extra for same.

I can see the day coming when a theatre has a price schedule that looks like this:

tickets: $0.00
picture surcharge: $5.00
sound surcharge: $5.00
seat surcharge: $2.00

Is this what we want for the industry?

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Manny Montes
Master Film Handler

Posts: 270
From: United States
Registered: Feb 2010

- posted 06-02-2010 01:23 AM      Profile for Manny Montes   Email Manny Montes   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
"I disagree, its like going to a baseball game. You can sit in a regular seat for 30$ or for 50$ you can get club level inside seats, with cushy chairs and air conditioning. There's nothing wrong with any other auditorium, its just that this setup is "premium" with a better sound system, picture and seats."

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

- posted 06-02-2010 04:48 AM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
By that logic, each seat in any given auditorium should be priced differently.

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Manny Montes
Master Film Handler

Posts: 270
From: United States
Registered: Feb 2010

- posted 06-02-2010 11:55 AM      Profile for Manny Montes   Email Manny Montes   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
not really, because each seat in every other auditorium (at least in most new multiplexes) are moderatly similar, to the point where you are getting the same experience no matter what theater (sound, picture, etc). However with RPX you are getting premium new leather (fake?) seats that are actually really comfortable, dual digital projection and a better sound system, as well as a much larger screen.

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