Regal Cinemas to check bags. Seriously?

[Monk Of Reason]

Hmmmmm.......I expect that all of the various cultures would oppose a ban.
I expect that many non-gun owners would oppose it too.

I said gun culture. Not gun owners. The issue with the "culture" usage of the word is that it spans past people who are avid gun owners or admirers. Its this concept that we should always be able to have a gun that is highly prevalent in our society. And the fact that we can make such sweeping statements about their stance on gun control was my whole point.

 

[Brickjectivity]

The problem with movie theaters is that they are overpriced and charge exorbitant rates for snacks. More people would go if they'd be a little more reasonable. Now they're going to check bags? That's not going to work. Still their popcorn sales will not go up. Nobody buys 5$ popcorn and thinks "Wow this is such a great deal!"

 

[psychoslice]

If your someone who has been shot like myself, then its a good idea, I would certainly feel safer.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Putting aside the motivation of the cinemas, I think that movie theaters must change in several ways.

They must offer a lottery that allows the winner to pick a movie to show out of...say 3 possibilities. Call it 'Surprise movie lottery'.

Theaters must have some better food. Cardboard nachos aren't worth 7$. At the same time the high price helps keep the theater clean. I have no idea what the better food could be, but cardboard nachos and plastic cheese both taste like 10 cents. I know...what about hot rolls? They're cheap, and you can make them from inexpensive wheat. Order them from Golden Corral! You could sell Doughnuts 3.50$ for two. Now that's tempting.

Theaters must become more social somehow. You know what they should contact groups on meetups.com and try to come up with some kind of deal for groups. 'Meet me at the movies'. Better yet, let movie theaters build social web sites.

Theaters should have flea markets. People love flea markets.

 

[Revoltingest]

Putting aside the motivation of the cinemas, I think that movie theaters must change in several ways.

They must offer a lottery that allows the winner to pick a movie to show out of...say 3 possibilities. Call it 'Surprise movie lottery'.

Theaters must have some better food. Cardboard nachos aren't worth 7$. At the same time the high price helps keep the theater clean. I have no idea what the better food could be, but cardboard nachos and plastic cheese both taste like 10 cents. I know...what about hot rolls? They're cheap, and you can make them from inexpensive wheat. Order them from Golden Corral! You could sell Doughnuts 3.50$ for two. Now that's tempting.

Theaters must become more social somehow. You know what they should contact groups on meetups.com and try to come up with some kind of deal for groups. 'Meet me at the movies'. Better yet, let movie theaters build social web sites.

Theaters should have flea markets. People love flea markets.

Additionally.....
- Bacon
- Ponies (in the petting zoo)
- Flu shots
- Swimsuit competition

 

[Poisonshady313]

Putting aside the motivation of the cinemas, I think that movie theaters must change in several ways.

They must offer a lottery that allows the winner to pick a movie to show out of...say 3 possibilities. Call it 'Surprise movie lottery'.

Huh?

Theaters typically have a number of different movies playing. My local Regal has 16. What would the lottery do to improve upon this?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Putting aside the motivation of the cinemas, I think that movie theaters must change in several ways.

Halving the prices, of everything, would be a good start. Why pay almost 10 bucks for a ticket, then about the same for a bag of popcorn and soda, when I can just wait a few months and rent it, pop my own corn, and buy a bottle of soda for about five bucks?

 

[columbus]

Halving the prices, of everything, would be a good start. Why pay almost 10 bucks for a ticket, then about the same for a bag of popcorn and soda, when I can just wait a few months and rent it, pop my own corn, and buy a bottle of soda for about five bucks?

So you can watch the advertisements, sit in a crowded seat, and miss some movie if you pee.
I always figure if a movie is worth watching it will still be in a few months.
Tom

 

[Brickjectivity]

Huh?

Theaters typically have a number of different movies playing. My local Regal has 16. What would the lottery do to improve upon this?

It won't save lives, but I wasn't suggesting that it would save lives. I understand if they intend to check bags. Theaters are creepy. They make girls want to hug somebody. They're dark, smell funny like a motel hallway, vacuous and they have too many unused seats. I sometimes feel afraid in a theater when I go alone, so I understand about checking bags.

True, theaters have multiple movies playing, but they could offer more movies instead of limiting themselves to new movies. What if Tom cannot afford a personal projector, but he wants to treat his kids to Jurassic Park I ? He can rent a projector, set it up himself, hang up a sheet and pop some popcorn....or he can choose to watch one of the movies Regal happens to be playing. So in fact Tom has no choice about what movie to watch when he goes to Regal. What can Regal do to change that, so that Tom wants to go the the movies more often and can show movies he want to show? A lottery might be one way, as if the theater were a big jukebox; but there might be other ways to offer choice.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Halving the prices, of everything, would be a good start. Why pay almost 10 bucks for a ticket, then about the same for a bag of popcorn and soda, when I can just wait a few months and rent it, pop my own corn, and buy a bottle of soda for about five bucks?

There are some theaters that operate at a greatly reduced fee, showing movies that are recently available on DVD. One offers 2$ ticket prices. Food prices remain about the same. This still doesn't give people the ability to choose a movie to play, but it does offer more options.

 

[Poisonshady313]

It won't save lives, but I wasn't suggesting that it would save lives. I understand if they intend to check bags. Theaters are creepy. They make girls want to hug somebody. They're dark, smell funny like a motel hallway, vacuous and they have too many unused seats. I sometimes feel afraid in a theater when I go alone, so I understand about checking bags.

True, theaters have multiple movies playing, but they could offer more movies instead of limiting themselves to new movies. What if Tom cannot afford a personal projector, but he wants to treat his kids to Jurassic Park I ? He can rent a projector, set it up himself, hang up a sheet and pop some popcorn....or he can choose to watch one of the movies Regal happens to be playing. So in fact Tom has no choice about what movie to watch when he goes to Regal. What can Regal do to change that, so that Tom wants to go the the movies more often and can show movies he want to show? A lottery might be one way, as if the theater were a big jukebox; but there might be other ways to offer choice.

At a particular location, there are thousands of people who go to the movies on any given day. It would be impractical to let anyone simply select their own movie, aside from the list of new movies already available. If there are 16 movies, Tom absolutely has a choice. If he wants to watch old movies, then perhaps rather than renting a projector, he should purchase a projector. Or a TV with a blu ray player.

 

[Underhill]

The problem with movie theaters is that they are overpriced and charge exorbitant rates for snacks. More people would go if they'd be a little more reasonable. Now they're going to check bags? That's not going to work. Still their popcorn sales will not go up. Nobody buys 5$ popcorn and thinks "Wow this is such a great deal!"

My first thought was, 'they were just itching for a reason to search people for contraband snacks...'.

 

[Brickjectivity]

At a particular location, there are thousands of people who go to the movies on any given day. It would be impractical to let anyone simply select their own movie, aside from the list of new movies already available. If there are 16 movies, Tom absolutely has a choice. If he wants to watch old movies, then perhaps rather than renting a projector, he should purchase a projector. Or a TV with a blu ray player.

You are talking sense, but I change my mind. It isn't the choice of movie or the price of popcorn thats the problem. Theater franchises should find ways to compete against the many new forms of entertainment: blue-ray, home-game-consoles, and especially against the new head-mounted video theaters. There are fewer and fewer reasons to go to a theater. Ticket prices and food prices get criticized, but what is the hidden objection? What is the real complaint? Its that people go to the theater hoping to have a social event, but instead they get hypnotized for a few hours and feel like they are poorer than when they went in. It has to become social again or it can't compete.

edited: chopped off a lot of extra windage

 

[Underhill]

You are talking sense, but I change my mind. It isn't the choice of movie or the price of popcorn thats the problem. Theater franchises should find ways to compete against the many new forms of entertainment: blue-ray, home-game-consoles, and especially against the new head-mounted video theaters. There are fewer and fewer reasons to go to a theater. Ticket prices and food prices get criticized, but what is the hidden objection? What is the real complaint? Its that people go to the theater hoping to have a social event, but instead they get hypnotized for a few hours and feel like they are poorer than when they went in. It has to become social again or it can't compete.

edited: chopped off a lot of extra windage

There's some truth in that. They've made movies more like Television in a lot of ways with 30 minutes of commercials before the movie and made it almost as expensive as a ticket to a theme park. All so you can watch tired story lines repeated with different actors. Going to the movies back in the day was an event. Now it's a fleecing.

 

[Poisonshady313]

You are talking sense, but I change my mind. It isn't the choice of movie or the price of popcorn thats the problem. Theater franchises should find ways to compete against the many new forms of entertainment: blue-ray, home-game-consoles, and especially against the new head-mounted video theaters. There are fewer and fewer reasons to go to a theater. Ticket prices and food prices get criticized, but what is the hidden objection? What is the real complaint? Its that people go to the theater hoping to have a social event, but instead they get hypnotized for a few hours and feel like they are poorer than when they went in. It has to become social again or it can't compete.

edited: chopped off a lot of extra windage

The prices aren't hidden. They're well displayed. You go to a movie theater knowing you're about to spend a lot of money. If you're smart, you eat before you go so you don't have to spend money on food. Unless you have the expendable income to do so.

Blu rays and game consoles don't show new movies. That's why people pay for the experience. Comfy seats, surround sound, large screen, no distractions like phone calls or knocks at the door.

I don't believe there's much you can do to make the theater experience any more social than it is now.

 

[Underhill]

The prices aren't hidden. They're well displayed. You go to a movie theater knowing you're about to spend a lot of money. If you're smart, you eat before you go so you don't have to spend money on food. Unless you have the expendable income to do so.

Blu rays and game consoles don't show new movies. That's why people pay for the experience. Comfy seats, surround sound, large screen, no distractions like phone calls or knocks at the door.

I don't believe there's much you can do to make the theater experience any more social than it is now.

I don't know if social is the right approach. But they definitely need to make it more of any experience for the absurd prices. I have a 60 inch screen and surround sound at my house. I may have to wait a few months, but very few movies are worth the cost of admission these days. Even my kids don't want to be bothered.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Comfy seats, surround sound, large screen, no distractions like phone calls or knocks at the door.

Or crowded seats, worn down and uncomfortable seats with little-to-no leg room, smelly people, obnoxious people, noisy people, people getting up and down, people who do not understand or comprehend "turn off your cell phone," and because I have worked with customers, the annoyance/urge to strangle people who leave all their trash behind for someone else to clean up.
Or, I could just wait a few months, rent it for a couple bucks (many movies Best Buy sells them when they are new on shelves for about the price of a ticket), watch it with friends, skip all the ads, pause it when someone has to pee, have our own socializing rituals, and save a chunk of money.

 

[Brickjectivity]

The prices aren't hidden. They're well displayed. You go to a movie theater knowing you're about to spend a lot of money. If you're smart, you eat before you go so you don't have to spend money on food. Unless you have the expendable income to do so.

Blu rays and game consoles don't show new movies. That's why people pay for the experience. Comfy seats, surround sound, large screen, no distractions like phone calls or knocks at the door.

I don't believe there's much you can do to make the theater experience any more social than it is now.

I don't know what can be done either, and the prices aren't hidden. Also true! I'm not in the biz., but I think theater franchises have a lot of potential that they let go of. They draw people in, but then they just send them away! They don't understand their own potential market. If I had a theater with a little extra floor space I could make that floorspace more profitable than the theater, per square foot. That's because the theater attracts a lot of people. A theater can start a mall by itself. I think all theaters should have internet cafe's, copy centers, sell books and comics, toys, software, games etc., but they don't. They let all their market walk right out after the movie is over!

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I don't know what can be done either, and the prices aren't hidden.

In a way, they kind of are hidden. Theaters themselves do not make much money from ticket sales (kinda like how gas stations barely make any money from selling gas) by showing these movies that cost millions and millions of dollars to make. But because "Hollywood" is a business, they need to profit, and because they spend millions and millions on interchangeable actors, recycled plots and stories to make the movies, and millions more on advertising, they need to make millions and millions more than what they spent, so the price of tickets keep going up and up. Overall, it's a smaller part of our economies system of perpetually funneling more-and-more money upwards. So, to make money, theaters jack the price of concessions through the roof.

 

[Brickjectivity]

In a way, they kind of are hidden. Theaters themselves do not make much money from ticket sales (kinda like how gas stations barely make any money from selling gas) by showing these movies that cost millions and millions of dollars to make. But because "Hollywood" is a business, they need to profit, and because they spend millions and millions on interchangeable actors, recycled plots and stories to make the movies, and millions more on advertising, they need to make millions and millions more than what they spent, so the price of tickets keep going up and up. Overall, it's a smaller part of our economies system of perpetually funneling more-and-more money upwards. So, to make money, theaters jack the price of concessions through the roof.

Some theatres, such as Carmike 14 in Raleigh, NC only charge 2$ for out-of-date movies; and they make some money on movie-priced popcorn. I don't object and even have purchased some popcorn there. Still, if they relocated to a corner lot and leased space to a developer they could make a killing. How about a big arcade, a department store and a bookstore? People would come for the movies and stay for these other places.