I'd just much rather not go through that stress when I know all I have to do is wait an extra 6 weeks or so for the privilege of watching movies in the privacy of my own home.

I'm sure the quality of Hollywood movies (Pixar, Marvel Comics and Batman notwithstanding) has nothing to do with the decline in theater attendance.

Lets see, $4.00 gal gas for the family to search for non existent jobs or an overpriced 2 hr advertisement/movie.

Hmmm, let me get back to you on that. MMMmkay

I blame it on not everyone having an Alamo Drafthouse 5 minutes away.

Ricardo Klement: Cell phones, screaming children at rated-r movies, and a general lack of consideration or civility, and a 65" TV at home... and they're surprised I stopped going to see movies in the theater?

*bzzt*. Oh, I'm sorry. The answer we were looking for was 'piracy'. 'Piracy'.

For the most part, the reason I don't go to many moves is the fact I've seen all them before when they came out the first time.

DamnYankees: That's a shame. I love the theater experience. Going to see Raiders of the Lost Ark in IMAX tonight!

King Something: I'm sure the quality of Hollywood movies (Pixar, Marvel Comics and Batman notwithstanding) has nothing to do with the decline in theater attendance.

It doesn't.

Thats the problem really. With home theaters and big screen LCD's, with streaming, downloading and quick to home theater red box.... there's just not much demand for theatrical presentations unless it's a large social event film. If it's not a film that gets everyone talking around the watercooler Friday or Monday morning at work, there's little push to see it in theaters first run. "You'll catch it later", and probably on HBO. Cinema viewing is becoming much more of a cultural and social event, and less of a normal routine kinda thing as it was in the 80's and 90's, for those outside of the teen years.

So, TDKR or Avengers or Avatar becomes huge hits, rivaling blockbusters for 10-20 years ago. While everything else is seeing margins tighten. If you want to know why the R action movie died, there's the reason. They can't justify the costs vs the bigger audience PG-13 allows.

Me and the roomate have been going to the movies like once a month. We have been pickyu about what we see. We usually hit the last show so we can sneek a flask of rum in with us. That helps a lot

Oh, and forgot

/Can't wait for the 4K re-re-re-release of Lawrence of Arabia 50th anniversary restoration....

Perhaps making movies that don't suck might help?

Where the hell are you people going to the movies? I can only count on one hand the times where the audience was distracting enough for me to even notice, over the course of every movie I've ever seen. Are you that sensitive to ambient noise? Do you people live in monasteries?

a big budget b movie is still a b movie, thanks speilberg and lucas. 

I'd just much rather not go through that stress when I know all I have to do is wait an extra 6 Days or so for the privilege of watching movies in the piracy of my own home.

/ftfm

Sorry, but movie prices have risen faster than wages/salaries, and it's fairly easy to just wait for DVD/Netflix/bootleg.

The median US income is what, 60k/yr? You're looking at a half day of work just to take a family of 4-5 to see a movie.

We're a mixed family of 7 I'm not interested in financing a trip to the theater for at most 2.5 hours of entertainment.

/and they still make you watch commercials before the damn movie!

Ricardo Klement: Cell phones, screaming children at rated-r movies, and a general lack of consideration or civility

If I ever go to a theater again, it will be to shoot as many of these people as I can.

What? Folks don't want to watch five minutes of advertising after they just paid $14 for a ticket?

Who knew??

There's not much out that's good. Frankly, most blockbusters suck and so do most indie movies, which are all copies of one another with characters that have poorly-written mental disabilities and songs by The Smiths in the background.

I'm into seeing Beasts of the Southern Wild and the new Chris Rock/Julie Delpy movie, but at this point, I'm only interested in seeing certain directors that I know will not make me hate myself for spending 10+ bucks on the movies...oh, and the Oscar Short Animated Films when they come out in January because those always rock.

I wanted to see Brave, but it was only in farking 3D, and I wanted to see it without paying extra for nausea and a headache.

So I didn't go.

dont like the commercials? is sitting at blank screen or watching them scroll the same 4 movie trivia questions over and over worse?

tickets and concessions have been expensive for a long time

hollywood has been cranking out turds for a long time

theaters have been filled with idiots, especially on opening weekend of a big film, for a long time


I see lots of angry old men yelling at clouds

Marcus Aurelius
I only go to the theater these days to watch the 20 minutes of commercials before the movie starts.

Lucky.
Last time I went to a movie - must have been the Halfblood Prince Harry Potter movie -, the movie was supposed to start at 8 pm.
We had printed our tickets at home (13-14 dollars/ticket; NOT a 3D movie) , left at shortly before 8pm to catch the public transport train at 8:04, entered the cinema at around 8:30, got some snacks and arrived just in time to catch the last commercials before the mobile ice sellers came in and ten minutes of trailers started.
The 8 pm movie itself did start some time between 8:45 and 8:50.

Yeah, we had learned our lesson from before:
we had been to a movie supposed to start at 22:15 or so and the unexpected 45 minutes of commercials and shiat made us miss the last train of the night.

/ Cinestar Original at the SONY Center in Berlin, should you be in town an plan to watch a movie in English

no one is mentioning how much better TV shows are now? Superior than most movies that get major release these days.

also: 20 + mins previews before the movie start

No, I think the movies are getting worse and worse.

It's gotten so bad that the action sequences in one movie instantly remind you of similar action sequences in another movie.

As far as plot, character development, or any characters that you really care about - none.

For me, the most memorable moments of the Avengers were the one-liners. Other "big" summer movies were worse.

This is a sad state of affairs, because there are many environments that could be built into really good franchises with interesting characters. Some that come to mind are:

Richard K. Morgan - Altered Carbon series
Richard K. Morgan - Thirteen
Anne McCaffrey - Pern series
Aaron Elkins - Gideon Oliver series

And there are lots more. The trouble I think is twofold:

Movie executives don't read, and have never read anything more complex than a comic book
Movie executives are not knowledgeable about the market so movies are formulaic and rely on advertising

Even at $4.00 per ticket (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays before 6) or senior citizens' discount ($5.00 - over 55), the movies are mostly not worth going to.

Like other posters have said, I'll wait for it to appear on Netflix, DVD, etc. Then I'll think about buying it or viewing it on Netflix. It's not that my home entertainment environment is so much better (it's not). It's just that the movies suck so badly that I hate to waste my time (and my good popcorn) on them.

Don't even talk about downloading the movies . . . That takes time, disk space, and a DVD to burn the resulting download to. Again, as a friend from work once said - "The juice aint worth the squeeze".

/ make good movies and I'll go
// make garbage sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and board game movies - I'll stay home
/// Hollywood - the best lack of ideas that advertisers can market

Confabulat: Confabulat: I don't need to see a movie the day it comes out; it will be the same movie in three months.

Actually I'd like to revise that statement. In three months, it's usually a BETTER movie, often with deleted scenes or an uncut version. It's almost like you have to wait till the home release to see the whole movie anyway.

That's actually a really good point. They show the Harry Potter films with great frequency on ABC family, and WHEN they show them they always include the deleted scenes you didn't see in theaters. I think that's a great way to get people to watch movies at home. Give them something the theater won't, a director's cut.

I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've regretted going to a movie in the last 10 years. And I've gone to a lot.

Thank you, Cinemark Egyptian 24 in Hanover, MD. Now just bring back the farkin' food bar you used to have...

Times change. I remember seeing Hammer movies at the local Jerry Lewis Cinema... almost feels now like it was a weekly event. Then it felt like movies were maybe a monthly event. That included the drive-in. Then again I had a 13" B&W TV with 7 OTA Channels then 13 whole cable channels at the time. Then came the era of renting tapes (via a catalog before the Blockbuster type stores). That lowered the number of times going to a theater. Then bigger TVs and the bigger video stores. Then laser and DVD's. Then the studios started releasing to video sooner.

Now I have widescreen HD with 5.1 sound and a PAUSE Button (the most important invention eva). Sourced via cable with a dozen movie channels and directly fed from a computer with 3.5T storage and High Speed internet. And I can make all the low cost popcorn I want.

All this becomes available and they act surprised I don't want to go pay $40 for two people for a one-shot viewing of something where I have to worry about missing something if I can't see and hear everything in front of me. 

There's others that don't seem to understand that by creating something else you WILL lower the demand for something similar that preceded it. Current article says that PCs makers are biatching about lower sales. Well Duh. Sales of laptops and tablets will cut into that, not everyone will buy both. Smart phones to a degree as well, though no smartphone can fully replace what can be done with computers and/or laptops.

Well color me surprised! The industry did everything it could to eliminate the independant theater and to reward retarded multiplex boxes... There's no showmanship left. That's what kept people coming back. The films themselves were always the main draw, but the EXPERIENCE of going to the theater was the hook that kept them coming back for more.

I don't care home many hundreds of millions you spend on making your little picture show... when it's screened in a dirty, noisy, classless cinderblock room with zero style... well, it's gonna suck titty.