|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Movie-Theater Chains Take On IMAX
|
|
|
|
|
Jason McMillan
Film Handler
Posts: 68
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Dec 2009
|
posted 12-18-2013 11:31 PM
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
All seats at a Santikos AVX location are higher than all seats at a non AVX location. So they kind of roll it into all of the ticket prices at the AVX location?
Santikos Silverado Tomball, $10 (all except the IMAX screen, including the two AVX auditoriums). Next closest competing theatre, AMC Willowbrook 24, $10. No Imax or ETX.
Santikos Palladium West Houston, $10 (all AVX complex with 6 AVX max auditoriums). Next closest competing theatres, Cinemark 19 Katy $9.25 (and $12 for their XD screen), AMC Katy Mills 20, $9.75 (no IMAX, no ETX), AMC First Colony 24 $10, and $12.50 for their IMAX screen.
Santikos is average price in this market for their Houston theatres. For example Cinemark in Texas City is $4.50 (yes, $4.50) for first run, and Cinemark in Webster just 10 miles away which is $10... You know as well as I do that market drives cost, and honestly, when seeing a movie on a larger screen at AMC or Cinemark is typically $2 to $4 (evening) more than Santikos evening price all the time... (which again, is average for the Houston market) ... I think your statement is a little unfair.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012
|
posted 12-19-2013 12:04 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
Terry, you just can't pass up any opportunity to piss on Dolby Atmos can you? I'll bet you would be a huge Atmos fan if your beloved IMAX dumped its conventional sound format and adopted Atmos.
Bobby, I am very skeptical that Dolby Atmos will do much to bring in audiences, can we just leave it at that? Can you accept that I just don't see audiences going crazy for it long term.
My theatre couldn't even get the Dolby trailer right for the opening night of the Hobbit 2. They ran the 7.1 Dolby Surround trailer but in the past they have run the correct promo trailer, so this is just the start of my local theatre pissing off customers who wanted to see it in Atmos.
I also think the marketing sucks for Atmos. "Sound Revolutionized" on a orange oval cardboard decal leaves a lot to be desired.
And "Hear the whole picture" achieves exactly what? Those who were there on opening night and were expecting Atmos got a dose of 7.1 Surround, or did they in fact get Atmos.
The one thing I do like about Atmos is that it does sound different than IMAX, it has good quality sound to it. I like that it is different from IMAX, while I could care less about the roof mounted speakers I do like how there are supposed to be more speakers behind the screen.
In contrast to IMAX, every DMR movie for some reason or another sounds the same as every other IMAX movie. IMAX must modify their mix to make it sound similar. I don't have any problem with the rear speaker lay out in an IMAX theatre but not having any extra speakers behind the screen is not good.
Bobby, you might not like IMAX, I have no problem with it, the sound from the Niagara 15/70 theatre was pretty freaking awesome. The digital IMAX systems are pretty consistent however some of the conversions are using the older 15/70 speakers and not the new digital speakers they use for new installations.
quote: Bobby Henderson
What the mixers did with Gravity in Dolby Atmos is simply impossible with conventional 7.1 surround. The only way an Atmos-equipped theater's presentation of Gravity would be on par with conventional 5.1 or 7.1 audio is if the theater tried to do Atmos on the cheap (not separately amplifying enough speakers) and/or their sound system had operational problems. I've heard 7.1 surround done very well but the Atmos mix of Gravity was on an entirely different plateau above that.
Like I said, Gravity sounded good in Atmos, but it also sounded good in other formats as well. Gravity sounded good because it was a good mix to begin with, not because it played for you in Atmos.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 12-19-2013 03:23 PM
quote: Jason McMillan
While I agree with you there, in my opinion, it's better than this weird floating screen thing that Edwards did at West Oaks Mall Stadium 14.. see Scott Neff's photos here to see what I mean
Those theater screen photos remind me of that Philips HDTV screen that had the colored LEDs on its ends. It was supposed to reflect colors from whatever video was being played on the wall behind the TV set. AFAIK they don't sell those TV sets anymore.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
Bobby, I am very skeptical that Dolby Atmos will do much to bring in audiences, can we just leave it at that?
The problem is you refuse to leave it at that. You keep passing off your pessimistic opinion of Dolby Atmos as fact. You keep making ignorant statements like "no one cares about Atmos" when you have no business speaking for anyone else but yourself. If you don't like me calling you on that bullshit then stop doing it.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
My theatre couldn't even get the Dolby trailer right for the opening night of the Hobbit 2.
How is this Dolby's fault? This sounds like an issue of a theater manager or booth operator not giving enough of a damn about details to do his job right.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
I also think the marketing sucks for Atmos.
I can agree with you to some degree on that. Dolby's Unfold and Amaze Atmos trailers are great. However the advertising for Atmos outside of the theater, such as movie marketing materials is downright dismal.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
And "Hear the whole picture" achieves exactly what? Those who were there on opening night and were expecting Atmos got a dose of 7.1 Surround, or did they in fact get Atmos.
Again, that sounds like a problem with the specific movie theater and the people running it. Not Dolby or its Atmos format.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
Like I said, Gravity sounded good in Atmos, but it also sounded good in other formats as well. Gravity sounded good because it was a good mix to begin with, not because it played for you in Atmos.
I have doubts you even saw Gravity in a theater playing it in Atmos. Because if you did, and were honest about the experience, you would admit there was a lot of sound placement and panning effects in the Atmos mix that would be simply impossible to do in a conventional 7.1 mix. The 7.1 mix of Gravity is not equal at all to its Atmos mixed counterpart.
If you did indeed see Gravity in Atmos maybe there's a slim chance the theater where you saw it cut corners and did as little as they could in terms of separately amplifying surround speakers. Considering the overall cost for Atmos it wouldn't make much sense for a theater to spend all that money for a Dolby CP850 (and the installation services from Dolby) to only cheap out on the back end with amplifiers.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 12-20-2013 11:53 AM
Mike, Dolby's web site has a map showing Atmos installations. I don't know how often they update it, but it looks like the Grand Theater in Bismarck, ND is the nearest place to you with at least one Atmos-equipped screen. Boise, ID has one Atmos theater as well: the Village at Meridian Cinema 15.
One thing I don't like about Dolby's Atmos map is it doesn't list how many screens in a multiplex are equipped. For instance, the Santikos Palladium AVX theater West of Houston has at least 4 Atmos equipped screens. Look Cinemas in Dallas has 2 Atmos screens.
I think one of the biggest things hurting Dolby's marketing efforts is the decline of the newspaper -particularly the "stack ads" and theater directories where the Dolby name would appear so often during the 1980's and 1990's. Then again, they also appeared to be making a bigger marketing effort during that time as well.
There is no Internet equivalent of the newspaper stack ad -where various theaters in a region can be measured against each other in at least some kind of basic way to see how each is showing a certain movie. There is a lot of sound & projection variables in digital cinema that aren't being clearly disclosed to the movie-going public.
If the movie has a 4K DCP which theaters are showing it in 4K? It's almost impossible to find out that specific detail in advance. You literally have to know what projection gear is in the booth. Which theaters are showing the movie in 7.1 surround as opposed to 5.1? Again, that isn't easy to tell before visiting the theater. If the movie is in 3D, which process is being used? I have to visit Dolby's web site to see which upcoming movies are mixed in Atmos and then look at Dolby's map to see which theaters have Atmos.
quote: Mike Blakesley
Dolby has good marketing materials, but in deployment they outright suck.
Dolby needs to make a better effort of distributing marketing materials to theaters and getting those theaters to use the materials properly. If a theater goes to the trouble of installing Dolby Atmos they ought to at least have some posters for one-sheet cases. As much as Atmos costs a stand-ee might be appropriate. I've seen a few Atmos movies at the Harkins Bricktown 16 theater in Oklahoma City, but I can't recall ever seeing any Dolby posters, such as ones promoting Atmos, in any poster cases.
It shouldn't be a problem for Dolby to let theaters download trailers that support their specific cinema process, be it DD Cinema, Surround 7.1, D3D or Atmos. The movie theaters ought to be using those trailers too. I roll my eyes when I hear of an Atmos-equipped theater not playing an Atmos trailer before the show. With 35mm, I could understand a theater not bothering to put a Dolby Digital snipe on the print; they had to remember to remove it before moving it to a non-DD house. There is no excuse with d-cinema. It's EASY to put the trailer in the play list or remove it. I wonder if Dolby's new "Dolby Connect" service would allow Dolby to do that remotely.
I don't know what Dolby can do to get its name more prominently displayed on movie poster one sheets, TV commercials, etc. other than paying the movie studios to do so. Obviously IMAX and RealD must be doing that. At least some theater chains are displaying the Atmos brand more prominently on their web sites. That's a start.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 17 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 15 16 17
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Topic Closed
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic