Our
View: Going to the movies has its problems
The Los Angeles Times reported at the end of October director M. Night Shyamalan
saying the collective moviegoing experience
is threatened with extinction.
Shyamalan is right. The moviegoing event in the United States continues to decline,
but for reasons the director may not realize.
Shyamalan’s belief is that the industry’s recent proposal to release
movies both in the theater and on DVD simultaneously will lead to the downfall
of the exhibition industry. He also believes it will also diminish the artistic
integrity of moviemaking, as reported in the LA Times.
“
Art is the ability to convey that we are not alone,” the LA Times quoted
Shyamalan as saying. “When I sit down next to you at a movie theater, we
get to share each other’s point of view. We become part of a collective
soul. That’s the magic of the movies.”
The problem here is Shyamalan only remembers a more golden age of cinematic movie
experiences. He indirectly refers to a nostalgic time when the audience was shocked
upon learning Darth Vader was Luke’s father in “The Empire Strikes
Back,” when everyone cried as E.T. said he’ll be right here or when
the audience could practically feel the heat of the desert sunrise during “Lawrence
of Arabia.”
Shyamalan probably has not been to a real movie with real people outside of Hollywood
in quite some time, so who is he to comment on the cinematic experience? Combine
that with the fact any comment coming from a director who many think only made
one good movie, “The Sixth Sense,” makes it equally invalid.
Here are a few reasons why the moviegoing experience is declining from the viewpoint
of more normal and realistic Cal State Long Beach students.
1 — Movies are scarily expensive. A night showing nowadays is an astronomical
$10 in most major multiplexes. Buy two tickets and maybe a few snacks from the
concession stand and the evening becomes pretty costly. And besides, one can
almost buy the DVD for the same price of seeing the film once in the theater.
The entertainment industry claims piracy and a resulting loss of profits is why
ticket prices are so high. While this may be true now, several years ago when
ticket prices began to surge, theaters claimed rising energy costs were making
tickets pricier.
So which is it then? The answer is probably neither. Both are excuses to hide
the desire to make more money from the profitable industry.
2 — Movies just are not as good as they used to be. Why should many of
us bother to go see films when the majority of them are not worth $10, or even
half that amount?
Of course, there are a few exceptions. But otherwise, with expensive ticket prices
to see bad films, it’s no wonder people are going to the movies less and
less.
3 — Shyamalan may feel energy alongside his seated neighbors in a theater,
but most of us have had recent bad experiences with rude neighbors in the dark.
Cell phones (one of society’s newest evils), loud talking or other forms
of obnoxious behavior ruin the already too-expensive bad movie moviegoing adventure.
4 — Snazzy home theaters provide the camaraderie the neighborhood multiplex
used to have. Instead of collectively dropping a hundred bucks for your dozen
buddies to go see a movie together, people can now spend a fraction of that,
load the fridge with beer, order a pizza and watch a favorite film in surround
sound — no annoying ushers, no rude strangers and no parking hassles included.
Maybe if Shyamalan and his fellow bad Hollywood directors made good films, more
people would go see them in the theater. More importantly, if ticket prices were
cut in half, or were at least a little cheaper, many would not be so reluctant
to buy them.
The industry needs to change its ways by offering a better movie theater deal.
If any company decided to show movies at $5 again instead of $10, who wouldn’t
go support that endeavor? There surely would be an exodus worthy of “The
Ten Commandments” going back to the movies.
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