Theater Chain Death Watch? Chapter 11s inc

Gamma Rays · Jun 8, 2024

I'm in Australia also . . . never seen any hot butter dispenser thing either.

On topic, I only got around to watching the RLM cinema death video last night. I agree with most of their points. That the movie industry is locked into a mindset now of having everything rely on the huge mega-budget blockbuster to draw people in. And that its not a sustainable business model.

As they said in the video, one of the fixes for the problem would be to change the release window(s).

Years back something was in the cinema, then it was a year or more before anything was on home video. And then on top of that the video rental places would have their slow move down the "must see now" stages - new release ( single night rental - kinda pricey ) then over a few months down to regular weekly

One of the only fixes I can see for the current decline of cinema is to go back to a much larger delay before any home media / streaming release.

Which will be kinda fucked by cam vids and digital piracy of course.

Fadaar · Jun 8, 2024

Ossoi said:
We don't have melted butter at cinemas.

Our cinema popcorn comes as "sweet" or "salted". There's not that much difference as getting perfectly encrusted sweet popcorn pieces is like prospecting for gold. The alternative is packaged butterkist which is more caramelized.

The only time I've been served melted butter is in America at seafood buffet restaurants.

not even buffets, it's pretty common with shrimp dishes

Ossoi · Jun 8, 2024

Fadaar said:
not even buffets, it's pretty common with shrimp dishes

spronk · Jun 8, 2024

almost every American movie theater does not use butter but instead a combo of flavacol (salt + dye) and a preformulated mix of hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fats), TBHQ (chemical preservative used in varnish) and PMDS (silicon chemical that is the main ingredient of silly putty). Its basically ingesting a chemical factory.

for home clarified butter (ghee) + some spices poured over some fresh popcorn is 100x better

Caliane · Jun 8, 2024

yeah. that liquid "butter" is butter flavored canola oil. Butter has a low burn level so is actually not used much in restaurants, or low end food places. it has to be SPECIFICALLY called for, and carefully watched.
this is pretty solid on the salt and butter.

How to Make Movie Butter for Your Popcorn: 2 Easy Recipes

Easy recipes that tastes like you just sat down at the cinemaThe appeal of movie theater popcorn has little to do with actual butter, but sometimes you can't beat that nostalgic, greasy taste. You can buy most of the same products used by...

www.wikihow.com

I didn't like the RLM vid much. I felt they were off on a lot of things. Like, no idea on running a business. and looking at it purely from the point of view of movie making.
like when mike talked about "gimmicks". what a strange way to talk about business and overhead. overhead is important. if theatres are dying, you need to ask where the money is going, and what is costing what. how much is spent on AC? on running shows in empty theatres. electricity. etc. how much is the property worth versus empty theatres?
staff, maintenance, etc.
"concessions is where they make their money". its blatantly not. you don't charge 25$ for a coke and popcorn if thats where you make your money. you do that if you DON'T want people buying your food. concessions in the theatre I go to has gotten smaller and smaller. less candy. 15$ pretzils, and hotdogs.
they do probably make money from Coke ads, but not actually selling coke. this I see as a huge problem. its so directly counter productive. the business model is fucked here.

he called changing up the seating a gimmick. which again. 400 empty seats is pointless. if 200 seats with tables gets filled, and lets you sell snacks at a profit. do it.

the arcade in my theatre is now 8 claw games with plush girl dolls. no other type of gambling game, carnival game, or regular arcade game. seems strange to me.

Personally I think the "entertainment zone" idea would be solid. expand food/snacks. arcade games, carnival games. convert a theatre or two of your multiplex into bowling, shooting gallery, or some shit. go full dave and busters. drop your kids off for the day. sell day passes.

AMC is not franchised. not sure if any are. perhaps they should be. would franchises do a better job attending to local needs?
this is a big problem I think. my rural ass white town AMC has no problem with trash. so should be going all in on concessions and food. I can understand why inner city theatres might have a problem and not want people bringing in food. stop treating them the same. this is the reason for the anti-consessions thing. they don't want people buying food, and leaving trash. but are STILL paying for staff to clean up anyway, since people can just bring food from home. its just really stupid.
sell the food, make profits. have a $5 meal deal, where you get 2 bucks off your ticket or someshit if you get a coffee and a donut. also, make a deal with dunkin donuts, and sell coffee and donuts, like walmart/target, everywhere else, instead of shitty hotdogs/pretzils.

they talk about megablockbusters, etc. what does that have to do with movie theatres dying? thats effecting WB, and disney etc.
now, WB, disney, etc. sending movies DIRECTLY to streaming 3 weeks after release in theatres IS killing theatres for sure.
the fall guy is already on streaming. that is just.. what the fuck are you doing? studios are killing theatres with that shit.

very high quality tv is partially a factor, but pretty small I think.

There was no discussion of business deals, etc, either. again, just purely looking at it from moving making perspective, not running a business.

Gravel · Jun 8, 2024

Yeah, the whole thing really needs to separate theaters from movies. They're two connected businesses, but one of them needs the other to survive and the movie making business kind of doesn't need theaters anymore.

They've obviously run the numbers and think they'll make more money by throwing shit on streaming than they would with long release schedules.

At this point I kind of don't care about either one though, so finding solutions doesn't matter to me.

Big Phoenix · Jun 8, 2024

Gamma Rays said:
On topic, I only got around to watching the RLM cinema death video last night. I agree with most of their points. That the movie industry is locked into a mindset now of having everything rely on the huge mega-budget blockbuster to draw people in. And that its not a sustainable business model.

Pretty much like the gaming industry. Either youre the next CoD/Fortnite or youre some barebones gotcha.

IMO the fundamental problem is movies today are simply not good enough to compete with the plethora of entertainment options available nowadays especially considering what zoomers prefer. Why go spend $20+ at the theaters on a new release thats has a good chance of being meh at best when you sit back on your couch and browse netflix/hulu/amazon or tackle that 100+ game steam backlog? Or consume the endless brain rot of tiktok/fb/ig?

Caliane · Jun 8, 2024

Gravel said:
Yeah, the whole thing really needs to separate theaters from movies. They're two connected businesses, but one of them needs the other to survive and the movie making business kind of doesn't need theaters anymore.

They've obviously run the numbers and think they'll make more money by throwing shit on streaming than they would with long release schedules.

At this point I kind of don't care about either one though, so finding solutions doesn't matter to me.

which yeah.. there is a solution. Exclusivity. AMC should say fuck it, you are fucking us? we are going to produce movies ourselves. if netflix, disney-, etc can do it, so can we.
shit, bring back serials. AMC produce a serial. Imagine if Shogun was aired in movie theatres. one episode a month.

Furry · Jun 8, 2024

BoozeCube said:
@Butthurt
@Araysar

Does this qualify with “oil comes from the ground” “steam engines” and “maps never changed”. I feel like it should.

I'd say no. That stuff you put on popcorn aint butter. When I worked in a theater it was like a 30 pound brick of oil that looks like pure heart failure. When you attach it, the machine needs a bit to warm it up in the cabinet, cause its solid at room temp.

Kajiimagi · Jun 8, 2024

Chris said:
They don't have that here.

You just pour hot vegtable oil over popcorn!?

That's not what I said it is? There's that contrarian personality coming out that causes you to have no IRL friends.

Calling a foul here. Asked my British wife and she went to the movies in England and had buttered popcorn there. And she moved away from England in 1991.

Ossoi · Jun 8, 2024

Kajiimagi said:
Calling a foul here. Asked my British wife and she went to the movies in England and had buttered popcorn there. And she moved away from England in 1991.

She's wrong

Palum · Jun 8, 2024

spronk said:
almost every American movie theater does not use butter but instead a combo of flavacol (salt + dye) and a preformulated mix of hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fats), TBHQ (chemical preservative used in varnish) and PMDS (silicon chemical that is the main ingredient of silly putty). Its basically ingesting a chemical factory.

for home clarified butter (ghee) + some spices poured over some fresh popcorn is 100x better

Bro clarified butter is not ghee

Chukzombi · Jun 9, 2024

Caliane said:
yeah. that liquid "butter" is butter flavored canola oil. Butter has a low burn level so is actually not used much in restaurants, or low end food places. it has to be SPECIFICALLY called for, and carefully watched.
this is pretty solid on the salt and butter.

How to Make Movie Butter for Your Popcorn: 2 Easy Recipes

Easy recipes that tastes like you just sat down at the cinemaThe appeal of movie theater popcorn has little to do with actual butter, but sometimes you can't beat that nostalgic, greasy taste. You can buy most of the same products used by...

www.wikihow.com

I didn't like the RLM vid much. I felt they were off on a lot of things. Like, no idea on running a business. and looking at it purely from the point of view of movie making.
like when mike talked about "gimmicks". what a strange way to talk about business and overhead. overhead is important. if theatres are dying, you need to ask where the money is going, and what is costing what. how much is spent on AC? on running shows in empty theatres. electricity. etc. how much is the property worth versus empty theatres?
staff, maintenance, etc.
"concessions is where they make their money". its blatantly not. you don't charge 25$ for a coke and popcorn if thats where you make your money. you do that if you DON'T want people buying your food. concessions in the theatre I go to has gotten smaller and smaller. less candy. 15$ pretzils, and hotdogs.
they do probably make money from Coke ads, but not actually selling coke. this I see as a huge problem. its so directly counter productive. the business model is fucked here.

he called changing up the seating a gimmick. which again. 400 empty seats is pointless. if 200 seats with tables gets filled, and lets you sell snacks at a profit. do it.

the arcade in my theatre is now 8 claw games with plush girl dolls. no other type of gambling game, carnival game, or regular arcade game. seems strange to me.

Personally I think the "entertainment zone" idea would be solid. expand food/snacks. arcade games, carnival games. convert a theatre or two of your multiplex into bowling, shooting gallery, or some shit. go full dave and busters. drop your kids off for the day. sell day passes.

AMC is not franchised. not sure if any are. perhaps they should be. would franchises do a better job attending to local needs?
this is a big problem I think. my rural ass white town AMC has no problem with trash. so should be going all in on concessions and food. I can understand why inner city theatres might have a problem and not want people bringing in food. stop treating them the same. this is the reason for the anti-consessions thing. they don't want people buying food, and leaving trash. but are STILL paying for staff to clean up anyway, since people can just bring food from home. its just really stupid.
sell the food, make profits. have a $5 meal deal, where you get 2 bucks off your ticket or someshit if you get a coffee and a donut. also, make a deal with dunkin donuts, and sell coffee and donuts, like walmart/target, everywhere else, instead of shitty hotdogs/pretzils.

they talk about megablockbusters, etc. what does that have to do with movie theatres dying? thats effecting WB, and disney etc.
now, WB, disney, etc. sending movies DIRECTLY to streaming 3 weeks after release in theatres IS killing theatres for sure.
the fall guy is already on streaming. that is just.. what the fuck are you doing? studios are killing theatres with that shit.

very high quality tv is partially a factor, but pretty small I think.

There was no discussion of business deals, etc, either. again, just purely looking at it from moving making perspective, not running a business.

Mike made some good points, but he missed the obvious. make movie theaters multi functional. the old fashioned movie theaters with the tons of seats and balconies were wonderful. i had one near my house and i saw all my favorite movies there back in the 80s and early 90s til it was burned down. it had movies, but it also had plays and you could rent the place out for a private movie party. that place probably didnt show 10 different movies a year. i swear Return Of The Jedi played there for most of the year when it came out. so we watched that movie a bunch of times on saturdays for the matinee when the movie was just a few dollars and popcorn and soda was a buck each. the place was able to stay open even if it didnt get a lot of business because its operating costs were extremely low.

Gamma Rays · Jun 9, 2024

There's a kinda local cinema, "location" local I mean, but part of a nationwide chain,

Anyways, they're in a part of my city with lots of internationals ( mostly students, but there is a small Chinatown in the area )

They show a mix of international films on their regular routine. Currently ( today's screenings ) there's a Japanese anime, 2 x Chinese and 2 x Indian films

Plus they'll show movies from the 80's and 90's to let you see them back on the big screen. Limited showings yes, but something to keep an eye out for if you're keen.

Now after saying all that . . . I got no idea if it's working for them from a financial aspect, but it does break the mold and bring some interesting changes to the way its run.

Gavinmad · Jun 9, 2024

Palum said:
Bro clarified butter is not ghee

That is some impressively nitpicky shit right there. Do you actually know the difference without looking it up or do you just know that they're different?

Palum · Jun 9, 2024

Gavinmad said:
That is some impressively nitpicky shit right there. Do you actually know the difference without looking it up or do you just know that they're different?

Yes I did because I've accidentally made ghee many times trying to clarify butter. Hence why I hate electric ranges.

Cybsled · Jun 9, 2024

Caliane said:
"concessions is where they make their money". its blatantly not

Concessions is where movie theaters have made their money for close to 100 years. The reason popcorn became the defacto movie snack is because it was dirt cheap and could be marked up for a large profit margin. This helped the theaters themselves make money to offset most of the movie ticket sales being routed to the production studios.

Think gas stations - gas stations themselves make most of their money from the convenience store and not the actual gas they sell.

ShakyJake · Jun 9, 2024

Cybsled said:
Concessions is where movie theaters have made their money for close to 100 years. The reason popcorn became the defacto movie snack is because it was dirt cheap and could be marked up for a large profit margin. This helped the theaters themselves make money to offset most of the movie ticket sales being routed to the production studios.

Think gas stations - gas stations themselves make most of their money from the convenience store and not the actual gas they sell.

Right. They definitely don't make the bulk of their money from ticket sales.

TBT-TheBigToe · Jun 9, 2024

Gravel said:
At this point I kind of don't care about either one though, so finding solutions doesn't matter to me.

I'll mist theatres, kind of, when they are gone but at the same time I haven't gone in a couple years, at least 1.5, and don't really feel an overwhelming desire to go again. Part of that is that no movies seem worth the effort or price.

I don't pirate much anymore, just watch shit on Prime, Netflix, Disney+. Once rarbg went down and then we moved it just became too inconvient but if these companies keep going the way they are going pirating will become the more convient option. Is it just me or all of these apps ui's getting worse?

Aldarion · Jun 9, 2024

TBT-TheBigToe said:
Is it just me or all of these apps ui's getting worse?

Every single streaming app I've ever used had a worse interface than the old pirate streaming sites had. Every one. Zero exceptions.

Whats maddening is knowing that the superior format (a text list) is far easier to design. So they're literally spending millions on salary to make the interface fucking terrible.

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