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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?
.Sometimes I wonder why I even try to keep my theatre clean with a good presentation. Once you drive the customer away they won't come back.
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.
Anyway the point here is this, once you met your house expense and the film rental... EVERYTHING from there on was profit.
It therefore benefited the exhibitor to use some good old fashioned showmanship to sell his picture. The ballyhoo that was often a part of selling the show paid big dividens as all the extra income stayed with the theatre owner.
quote:
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.
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.
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William Hooper
Junk drawer: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/3622
Theatre Empire: http://members.xoom.com/saenger.1
You forgot "complain at least 3 times during the movie about focus, sound or some other defect in the presentation".
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.
Sure the TV at home as a MUCH smaller screen, but hey, its in focus, in frame, and *I* conrtol the sound.
Mid 50's - multiply with 20, which gives a good average in payment rises... but due to increased taxes it will be a little lower.
So 75 c wasn't really a "low end" price.
quote:
You forgot "complain at least 3 times during the movie about focus, sound or some other defect in the presentation".
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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William Hooper
Junk drawer: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/3622
Theatre Empire: http://members.xoom.com/saenger.1
I'm too young to answer this personally since I was born in the late 50's. Maybe some more recent Film-Techers can share their recollections of 50's theaters.
Here is a website from Queensland Australia that has the original notations on royalties paid per movie from the 1930s onwards from many theatres that had the representatives from many movie studios calling on them..you may have to search through a few to find the information, interesting to note the local Bank Manager was employed by the studios to check the number of people in attendance.
http://www.gu.edu.au/centre/qsc/qldpic/qmthome.htm
I talked to one man who sat in the same seat for almost sixty years. He and his wife met in grade school. They and all their friends from Greathouse Elementary walked to the Vogue every Saturday afternoon. THe place was then run by the Allen Bros., who had a strict sense of discipline. Women were afraid of incurring their wratch, but the boys considered being kicked out of the Vogue a rite of passage.
"The Robe" opened in NY and only two months later the Vogue installed a wide screen. We suspect that they installed the two Simplex X/Ls at the same time (the theatre had originally been equipped with Motiographs.). Note: it ran changeovers until it closed in 1998.
One feature no one can figure out is the pair of glass windows from the inner lobby (concession area) to the auditorium. We thought they must be for parents with crying children who wanted to watch the film without disturbing other patrons, but I'm told that they were usually covered with red velvet curtains. There WAS a speaker box in the inner lobby, but surely they wouldn't go to the trouble and expense of installing all that glass just so the concessionnaire could check on the film.
As if the big-box theatres and film-done-wrong aren't killing the exhibition industry quickly enough, I read the other day that engineers are working on true 3-d sound (controlling azimuth, elevation & depth) using computers for home theatre applications. If some of the technology that's out there now gets cheaper and more widely available, there won't be any reason for most people to go to the movies.
Off-topic: I haven't worked in a theatre in a few years, but I need some extra income. You can be sure I'll be devouring every tip to do film (or concessions, for that matter) right--especially considering some of the awful presentation I've encountered here locally.
PS--Would I get fired from the multiplex if, when a patron who'd stood in the concession line for 20 minutes couldn't make up his mind, I gently said, "The Milk Duds are especially good this evening, sir."?
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Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
The answer is "Film Done Right" -- a properly presented modern 35mm scope print with digital sound will far exceed the quality of those early CinemaScope prints.
I agree with John Walsh, shooting 65mm negative and showing 70mm prints with digital sound would be the ultimate in quality. Kodak makes the 65mm/70mm films, some labs specialize in 65mm/70mm, DTS has the sound format, hundreds of theatres have the projectors and sound systems... but today's movie industry seems to lack the passion for Showmanship. Where are Michael Todd, Darryl Zanuck or Lowell Thomas when you need them most?:
Cinerama
CinemaScope
70mm Todd-AO
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
My very first memory of going to the movies was in the early 60's when my mother took me to see Walt Disney's "Bambi" at the small 1920's vintage single screen theatre in my home town. I was only about four years old but I swear I can remember the plush red carpet on the steps in front of me as we ascended the stairs to our seats in the balcony. I can also vaguely remember the movie on the screen (yes, I did cry when Bambi's ma got shot, in case you were wondering). The magic of seeing that film at such a young age, in that tiny single screen movie house, really sparked a flame with me that has lasted to this day.
While it was not the Roxy by any stretch of the imagination, the theatre was still architectually interesting and intimate. As I went to movies there throughout my childhood and teen years, I'd often find myself forgetting about the films as I got caught up in studying the plush wall coverings, the light sconces that added a sense of warmth by splashing a dim golden light against the auditorium walls, the pattern of the pressed tin ceiling tiles, you name it. Of course I was also very curious about who was running what type of equipment behind those four little windows that I could see in the rear balcony wall. Sometimes I would walk to the stage (yes, a real stage!) before or after a show and stare up at those ports and wonder exactly what was in that room (Simplex Supers with RCA soundheads and Peerless arc lamps 
).
That old theatre became an old friend as I spent a significant part of my youth there escaping the realities of life and being transported to other places, times, and even worlds. Several other movie houses in a larger town about 35 miles away, including some actual movie palaces, joined my circle of friends when I got my driver's license and could explore beyond our town limits. All gave me the feeling that the experience of seeing a movie there was a very special experience.
Now as an adult I find that going to movies at a modern plex is a completely different experience. While I appreciate the modern architectural styles of todays cinemas, and I'm fascinated by the new projection and sound technology, today's movie theatres do not for me offer anywhere near the same special experience as the old houses did. They are not as intimate feeling and the experience of seeing a movie is not the same. The screen image and sound may be great but gone are the days of shorts and cartoons and (for the most part) ushers that walked the auditoriums with flashlights to make sure that the moviegoing experience was pleasant for all.
In my honest opinion, which seems to echo those of others on this thread, moviegoing at a lot of multi-plex theatres has become a lot like going to modern retail stores. They are big, boxy, and in many cases starkly decorated. They are also louder with their video arcades in or near the lobbies and in some theatres you can hear the sountrack of the movie in the auditorium next door. A few years ago my wife and I were going to see a movie at a new 13 plex that had just opened and we realized that the lobby was loud and busy and actually made us feel stressed. It didn't invite us to "leave our cares at the door" like a lot of the old houses did.
The movie experience itself is also often marred by people talking aloud as if the theatre is their living room and as if they are the only people there. Cell phones, of course, are also occasionally a distraction. I miss the days when ushers actually patrolled the premises, shined flashlights in the faces of offenders, and even tossed them out if necessary! Now days you usually have to try to find a theatre employee when something goes wrong.
I still find that I can get that special movie experience at some of the smaller theatres, usually vintage theatres, usually run by independants. Several years ago I went to a little family-run movie house in North Carolina and struck up a very nice conversation with the owner. I got a full tour and a chance to learn about the family's nearly 80 years in the business. Not long after I visited a chain-operated multi-plex that had just added 12 more screens and when I asked the manager a friendly question about how they added the additional screens, he gave me a quick answer and then muttered something about "not having time," before dashing off. A big difference! I know that this is like comparing apples to oranges. The plex manager was running 14 screens compared to the family-operated theatre's one. But still it left me with an unwelcome feeling.
I understand that the economics of the industry have changed and that to decorate cinemas as lavishly as they used to be decorated and to have one or two ushers dedicated to each auditorium is not possible. Still, I don't find large modern operations as much of an escape as I found the single screen palaces and neighborhood theatres. I wish this wasn't the case. We all need a place where we feel like we can get lost for awhile every now and then.
It was a special time maybe because I was a kid. Movies have always been magic to me. I am glad that I made exhibition a career..the magic continues.........
If and only if...
The prints are made properly (not contact printed at each phase), Most of the prints I come across nowadays are shaky blur fests, regardless of what the theatre does. They might do alright on smaller screens but don't cut it on the big screen.
I also find the sound of today's films rather unispiring as compared to yesteryear. Not all of them but enough that they all seem to be reading off the same cue sheet...dialog up front and center, music out of the Left/Right (and maybe surrounds) and too loud, surround usage today seems better and subwoofers are overused today...my opinions.
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"