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Topic: What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about? (part 2)
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-06-2014 02:46 PM
Movies need to be shown in a traditional enough environment as possible. IMHO, that also means having stuff like curtains that open/close and masking around the screen. Too many new multiplex auditoriums make me feel more like I'm at Home Depot or something rather than inside a movie theater. There needs to be some class in the atmosphere.
I don't understand the motive behind making an auditorium feel like some kind of living room lounge. I can understand using big, plush recliners and putting other luxury features into a age 21+ luxury screening room concept.
Some theaters have had success with putting the restaurant inside the movie theater, although that's not something I want in every auditorium.
One thing I haven't seen tried yet: a theater auditorium as a sports bar. I think it could work. You have a few rows of bar tops with stool style chairs positioned in front of a huge screen, good for watching the NBA Finals, Super Bowl or other big events. If I was going to build a sports bar I would want a central, focused area pointing toward a main feature screen. The main screen would have a high powered traditional 5.1 channel sound system. That area would be flanked on the left and right by other seats, big screen HDTV sets, etc. I have a pretty cool image in my head of how it would look. Just need a bunch of start-up capital to make it real.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 06-07-2014 10:38 AM
quote: Mike Blakesley
This industry shouldn't be about satisfying people's expectations; it should be about EXCEEDING them. That makes people want to come back again.
I couldn't agree more. A screen that shows the image meets the people's expectations. A screen that is covered by curtains that open as the lights dim exceeds those expectations and like Steve said, it's a clear signal that the show is about to begin and the audience should transition from the pre-show experience (getting situated, turning off the cell phone, quieting down) to the movie-watching experience. It's that little bit of showmanship that will impress people.
So, say you can't afford the curtain route because you're allergic to velvet. How about a video that starts with the image that Steve posted of the closed curtains, and then the back curtain pulls back to reveal a message or the policy trailer or something, and then the outside curtains slowly pull out of the frame as well, revealing the full screen, just as if you had real curtains and the stage hands to yank the ropes?
A quick look through YouTube shows quite a few examples of this, as well as some companies selling After Effects packages that look like they could be used to integrate into a pre-show video.
I might be overestimating its effect on audiences, but doing things like this might help keep a theater from showing up in this thread.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-08-2014 11:37 AM
Fake curtains is to a movie theatre as plastic flowers are to a funeral home. A naked movie screen staring at an audience is to "class" as a table with no table cloth in a 5 star restaurant is to "eeeuw." Sure, you might be able to can get away with it (well, maybe not plastic flowers in a funeral home), if all you want to do is, well, get away with it.
Brad once said that all the accouterments of theatre operation mean nothing unless the presentation is top notch. And of course that is correct. But once you've got great image and sound, what you surround it with will determine the audiences perception of the ENTIRE experience (as over-used as that word has become, thank you IMAX). Great picture and sound is not all that's involved with the package that the ticket buys.
A 5 star restaurant certainly needs to have a top notch chef and exquisitely prepared food, but if the surroundings are shabby, the waiter service is for crap and food presentation lacking it just isn't going to be an experience that customers will walk away from feeling good about. Just watch Kitchen Nightmares - Chef Ramsey.
In the end it IS the ENTIRE experience -- from when the patron walks in the building -- the decor, the cleanliness, the attitude of the staff, the fact that auditoria are patrolled or not and bad behavior is crush, or not, ASAP. As Scott says, eventually they will get the message. Let it go unabated, and you are doomed and all the policy trailers won't save you.
I was in an IMAX-D theatre last night and while the presentation was as good as I have seen, the two aholes who were texting and laughing during the movie. The disturbance was enough to mare that whole "experience" they tout as being so special. An usher or security patrolling the rooms and then either silencing them or throwing them out would have saved that show for me. I walked out of the show an angry customer; great picture and sound notwithstanding; angry because after they got my $19, they didn't give a rat's ass about me or my "IMAX Experience" once I was in the bowels of the complex.
Never once in two hours did an usher or any staff even stick their heads in the room to check on anything, not picture, not sound, not the two thugs annoying everyone.
Are screen curtains the alpha and omega of it all, of course not. But it's just one of those little touches that dress up the best presentation. Do you NEED candles and a rose on the table in a restaurant? No to that as well, but you will find them there for a reason -- it says, "Hey, buddy...congratulations, you and your date are not eating at McDonnalds."
As for... quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
I am not sure it really matters to the younger groups who have never seen a movie or were not brought up with curtains.
Young people aren't neanderthals -- they appreciate class and attentiveness to detail and know the difference between something that is aesthetically pleasing and something that is pedestrian. You just need to let them experience it. Young or old is irrelevant -- people recognize and appreciate the difference between a theatre that is unique and beautifully designed and also know when one that is utilitarian, bare bones, assembly-line stark. They just need to see the contrast.
What amazes me is that in most of these big multiplex, the lobbys are huge, with expansive, sparkling chrome and glass concessions counters that can run the length of the building. They sport the latest automated menu displays, beautiful neon lighting effects and it is obvious that lots of design thought went that lobby. Then you walk into these small, unattractive, hole-in-the-wall rooms where the movies are shown. It seems immediately apparent what the emphasis is here.
As for exhibitors being "allergic to velour" -- it sure seems like they are, at least for the screen -- they don't seem to be allergic when they use it to cover all the other walls of the theatre as a cheap way of not needing to do any other kind of more expensive design treatment. Allergic to velour -- use satin like we do for our curtain; it picks up the light much more dramatically than velour, it's 2/3rds lighter and requires a much smaller/lighter track and motor. Problem solved.
Naw, there's no excuse other than they just don't give a damn.
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