After a visit to the local cinema to see The Dark Knight Rises, it became overwhelmingly clear why home theatres are so popular.
Here are my costs from going to the cinema:
(Event Cinema at Marion, formerly Marion Megaplex.)
Ticket: (Concession): $19.50
Popcorn and drink: $11.00
Total: $30.50
(Could already buy two pizzas, a drink and garlic bread with this and get change! And add 3D and/or change it to normal tickets/Gold Class, and it's higher still!)
And the best part? The drink and food section used to be run by paid staff who made your food and drink.
Now they make customers do that part.
(Clumsy/messy people making the equipment trashed and sticky as hell. The serviettes being in a tiny wall hole easily messed up by others was great too.)
Sure, the staff is still there (the poor girls in skimpy candy cane stripe maid outfits), but all they do is take the cash.
Oh and the $4.00 waters are insane as well. Supermarkets sell them for $2.50 TOPS.
(And that's the expensive chain.)
Let's do the math on a full cinema showing.
Even on the lowest income for the cinema, a room full of concession holders with just medium popcorn and a drink:
$30.50 x 250 seats = $7625
$7625 x 32 showings a day = $244,000
Sure, the film costs a bit to hire from the company, but hell, with $244,000 a day surely you can afford to:
- Keep tickets reasonable
- Get the staff to SERVE THE FOODS in LESS HUMILIATING UNIFORMS
- Keep food and drink prices reasonable
THIS is what's killing cinema viewings. It's not DVD, not Blu Ray and not Streaming Media becoming easier/cheaper to use. It's GREED and IDIOCY.
Which is sad, because I used to love going to the cinema.
Now? Just going to invest in a good home theatre, be more comfortable, have affordable foods, pay $10.00 for a movie I can KEEP, and have the ability to pause the film if my friends and I need to.
And I'm sure I'm not alone in taking that over cinema viewings.
(The sad part is I don't even have something like my kids stopping me from going - don't have any yet. It's just unappealing to pay a metric ton of cash for a poor experience.)
So, if anyone from the cinema/film industry is reading (doubtful yet possible), THIS is what needs fixing for more profits. Otherwise the home industry will overtake the cinema industry.
Balance the profit and the fun experience of the cinema and we all win.
Is that so hard?
Here are my costs from going to the cinema:
(Event Cinema at Marion, formerly Marion Megaplex.)
Ticket: (Concession): $19.50
Popcorn and drink: $11.00
Total: $30.50
(Could already buy two pizzas, a drink and garlic bread with this and get change! And add 3D and/or change it to normal tickets/Gold Class, and it's higher still!)
And the best part? The drink and food section used to be run by paid staff who made your food and drink.
Now they make customers do that part.
(Clumsy/messy people making the equipment trashed and sticky as hell. The serviettes being in a tiny wall hole easily messed up by others was great too.)
Sure, the staff is still there (the poor girls in skimpy candy cane stripe maid outfits), but all they do is take the cash.
Oh and the $4.00 waters are insane as well. Supermarkets sell them for $2.50 TOPS.
(And that's the expensive chain.)
Let's do the math on a full cinema showing.
Even on the lowest income for the cinema, a room full of concession holders with just medium popcorn and a drink:
$30.50 x 250 seats = $7625
$7625 x 32 showings a day = $244,000
Sure, the film costs a bit to hire from the company, but hell, with $244,000 a day surely you can afford to:
- Keep tickets reasonable
- Get the staff to SERVE THE FOODS in LESS HUMILIATING UNIFORMS
- Keep food and drink prices reasonable
THIS is what's killing cinema viewings. It's not DVD, not Blu Ray and not Streaming Media becoming easier/cheaper to use. It's GREED and IDIOCY.
Which is sad, because I used to love going to the cinema.
Now? Just going to invest in a good home theatre, be more comfortable, have affordable foods, pay $10.00 for a movie I can KEEP, and have the ability to pause the film if my friends and I need to.
And I'm sure I'm not alone in taking that over cinema viewings.
(The sad part is I don't even have something like my kids stopping me from going - don't have any yet. It's just unappealing to pay a metric ton of cash for a poor experience.)
So, if anyone from the cinema/film industry is reading (doubtful yet possible), THIS is what needs fixing for more profits. Otherwise the home industry will overtake the cinema industry.
Balance the profit and the fun experience of the cinema and we all win.
Is that so hard?
