Posted by Nick Macpherson on 10/24/05 12:47

tabernacle2002@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> Every year that passes I now go fewer and fewer times to the movie
> theaters!
> Heck to use this year (with a little more than 2 months to go) as an
> example I have seen a grand total of 2 movies (Batman & Star Wars-3)!
> And you know I only went to see Star Wars because I am a hardcore fan,
> and I only went to see Batman because the revues I read were so good I
> really wanted to see it that week!
> Frankly I cannot understand why anyone would want to go out to a
> crowded movie theater these days?Especially with screaming babies and
> children running around and rude people talking on phones and popcorn
> that costs an arm and a leg and tastes like plastic and driving to the
> theater paying $3.00 plus for a gallon of gas (and so on and so on and
> so on).
> No not me, especially when that very same movie is going to show up on
> a DVD within 6 months anyway!
> At which point I can then stay home and watch a better picture (on my
> Thirty Two incher) while I am sitting in my recliner, drinking a beer,
> eating pizza/chinese/chips/microwave popcorn,and then when the movie
> ends I can if I want to go to sleep thereby avoiding having to drive
> home!

Going to the movies and watching something on DVD are two different
experiences. It's the difference between going to bar or drinking at
home, or going to club and seeing a band or staying home and listening
to a CD. There's benefits and shortcomings to each option but they're
different experiences. I don't understand how people can *prefer*
watching DVDs at home when it's so different from going to the movies
to begin with. I go to matinees, take my own food in, the only people
there are normally retirees (a recent trend, I don't know what's going
on with that) and I'm avoiding those screaming kids and cell phones.
The gas doesn't cost anything more than it would if I went to Wal-Mart
or Blockbuster to pick up a DVD (or drive to the mail box with the
earliest pick-up time if I've got a Netflix DVD).

And since most filmmakers are still making theatrical releases designed
to be seen at a theater, by going with DVDs you're losing the audience
interaction with what's happening onscreen and you're not getting a
fully dimensional view of what the filmmakers are trying to get across,
especially in comedies or horror films. It's not so important with
indie films, foreign releases or documentaries (particularly the
latter, where you might as well go with the DVDs because of all the
extras) where the presentation in art theaters isn't that good and the
films are normally cheap enough and modest enough that you're not
losing much waiting for the DVD. Star Wars and Batman Begins? Those
need to be seen in a theater.

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