Caught in The Movie Trap
May. 15th, 2008 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
semiotic_pirateOkay. I don't know if any of the people on my f-list have a Showcase Cinema nearby... Maybe this isn't restricted to just Showcase. Let's find out.
Here's the scam. Build a "Director's Hall" where the seats are more comfy and covered in leather, where the armrest between you and your sweety can be put up for added comfort/snuggles. Make it assigned seating so, when you order/buy your tickets for a hot new release you don't have to stand in line to get in and try to get a good seat... (Of course, you don't have to wait in line for anything but opening night normally so this benefit loses its value rather quickly - heh, marginal benefit talk!) Also, you can bypass the concession stand and order food right from your seats for a certain amount of time (basically until the first green screen of the previews appear).
Cost to movie-goers for all this? A $3 surcharge on every ticket.
The catch? You also pay a surcharge on any food you purchase from your seats. CoB's brother noticed this a few weeks ago when he had looked at how much it costs to buy a hot dog & soda at concessions and then what it cost for the same thing inside the theater. Yep, it is across the board, the prices are higher inside the theater.
Now. Truth be told... I actually do patronize this theater when I go to see a movie. I don't like waiting in lines and I don't like worrying about whether I'll get a good seat either. I will always arrive early for a movie otherwise, just in case, and end up sitting there for a good half-hour or so (sometimes in an empty theater because I didn't judge the time/movie/rush/popularity correctly). I am caught in the Movie Trap.
This still doesn't cull the people who bring noisy kids or the rude people who talk and/or use their cell phones during the movie... You'd think the staff would have people in there, assuring everyone that if this type of behavior occurs, the offenders will be booted. After all, we paid EXTRA to get in. (Yeah. I went to see Iron Man again the other day by myself and there were these two people chatting through almost the WHOLE MOVIE sitting directly behind me. I was PISSED.) Maybe there should be "movie etiquette" signs.
What say you? Worth it? Not worth it?
Here's the scam. Build a "Director's Hall" where the seats are more comfy and covered in leather, where the armrest between you and your sweety can be put up for added comfort/snuggles. Make it assigned seating so, when you order/buy your tickets for a hot new release you don't have to stand in line to get in and try to get a good seat... (Of course, you don't have to wait in line for anything but opening night normally so this benefit loses its value rather quickly - heh, marginal benefit talk!) Also, you can bypass the concession stand and order food right from your seats for a certain amount of time (basically until the first green screen of the previews appear).
Cost to movie-goers for all this? A $3 surcharge on every ticket.
The catch? You also pay a surcharge on any food you purchase from your seats. CoB's brother noticed this a few weeks ago when he had looked at how much it costs to buy a hot dog & soda at concessions and then what it cost for the same thing inside the theater. Yep, it is across the board, the prices are higher inside the theater.
Now. Truth be told... I actually do patronize this theater when I go to see a movie. I don't like waiting in lines and I don't like worrying about whether I'll get a good seat either. I will always arrive early for a movie otherwise, just in case, and end up sitting there for a good half-hour or so (sometimes in an empty theater because I didn't judge the time/movie/rush/popularity correctly). I am caught in the Movie Trap.
This still doesn't cull the people who bring noisy kids or the rude people who talk and/or use their cell phones during the movie... You'd think the staff would have people in there, assuring everyone that if this type of behavior occurs, the offenders will be booted. After all, we paid EXTRA to get in. (Yeah. I went to see Iron Man again the other day by myself and there were these two people chatting through almost the WHOLE MOVIE sitting directly behind me. I was PISSED.) Maybe there should be "movie etiquette" signs.
What say you? Worth it? Not worth it?
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-15 03:04 pm (UTC)*It seems like National Amusements likes to put its own movie theaters out of business. There are two closed Showcase cinemas in Worcester. When I started Clark, Sho-No was the new and cool movie theater...
Just another profit-mad business strategy
Date: 2008-05-15 03:13 pm (UTC)If they wanted, they could open up the old theater to play older movies - including indie flicks - if they thought they could make a profit at it.
Re: Just another profit-mad business strategy
Date: 2008-05-15 04:00 pm (UTC)P.S. By squeezing movie theaters so hard, the movie industry is nearly killing them. But they don't care anymore because they know that people will buy the DVD to watch on their big-screen TV, even if there isn't a cinema around. (More people have been switching to home "theaters" anyway because of how expensive movie tickets have gotten-- and that price increase is mainly driven by Hollywood's demands for more money from the cinemas.)