Todd Phillips: Movie Theaters Should Ban Commercials Before Films
Todd Phillips: Movie Theaters Should Ban Commercials Before Films
"Joker" director Todd Phillips thinks movie theaters need to stop showing so many commercials before film screenings.
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I’d be more concerned that there aren’t going to be any movie theaters left at this rate. The studios own all the streaming channels now — they’re going to cut out the middle man.
They tried that during the pandemic and didn't like it.
This. There's little point in seeing most films in a theater when they will be streaming a few months later.
That’s not too different from renting a movie a few months later. Theaters have always been more fun to go to for a movie you actually care about.
The problem I have with theaters is that the time and money sink is a terrible value these days. For my wife and I it’s always somehow shy of $70 and takes up most the night.
The problem I have with theaters is that the time and money sink is a terrible value these days. For my wife and I it’s always somehow shy of $70 and takes up most the night.
The money is bad, yes, but the deal breaker for me is....other movie-goers.
For 90 minutes, modern movie-goers simply:
- can't keep their bright phones in their pockets
- can't stop talking to each other above an occasional whisper
- can't consistently keep their food and drink off other movie-goers
- can't level their infants or small children at home during non-family movies
- can't quietly not do any of the above when someone challenges them on it
Paying for a movie is expensive, but when its regularly ruined by others in the theater it simply stops being worth trying to go anymore. I'll watch it at home when it comes there.
edit: After checking on responses overnight I see I have 3 downvotes. I can only assume that these are the movie-goers I'm talking about in my list above. To those folks, why are you upset with my post? You won. You have the whole theater to yourself because I'm certainly not going to be in the same room watching a movie with you. Enjoy your theaters. I hope there are enough of you and you don't annoy each other enough to drive each other off that movie theaters don't go out of business.
This. Its like people have no sense of decorum anymore. There was a couple chit chatting through every other scene in a movie I watched a while back like they had the whole cinema to themselves. Super distracting.
I went to see Venom and there was a group of people in the row in front of me - almost 10 people, all adults. They brought a toddler that screamed any time a symbiote was on screen. Which was a lot.
I've gotten parents kicked out of movies for that before. I've got a kid of my own so I get it, but goddamn, pay for a fuckin sitter like the rest of us.
I paid for the movie too, so I either get to enjoy it in (relative) peace, or I get my money back.
I'm lucky enough to have an Alamo Drafthouse theater nearby. Those issues aren't a problem. Plus, the clarified butter for popcorn makes it the best I've ever had at the movies.
Other than the bright screens, all of the other points have been true since I was a kid in the 80s. We just didn't have the affordable giant screens at home as an option back then.
Holy shit. I live in a prominent city in the Midwest and tickets are only $11 to $12.
Just threw two tickets in for a local theater and it’s $38 for two tickets after the $6 convenience fee and taxes.
$20 for snacks and drinks not including tax
$6 convenience fee
I guess the fee is convenient for the theater.
Get pants with big pockets or a kangaroo pouch hoodie and cut your movie drink/snack expenditure drastically.
I get a lot of enjoyment from the giant tub of oil drenched popcorn and my wife likes her 1 liter of Diet Coke. At this point it’s just a cost you account for like tipping if you’re going out to eat.
I guess that's where we differ, I enjoy the thrill of sneaking stuff in and not paying highway robbery prices for sugar water or candy. Getting the popcorn is legit tho.
So you're the guy that smuggled in the All You Can Eat Fajitas from Chili's into my theater last week.
You could have at least shared.
Theaters have always been more fun to go to for a movie you actually care about.
I'm not convinced that's true. Clerks and Mall Rats both bombed at the box office but were huge on VHS. I don't know if I'd want to sit in a movie theater and watch Groundhog Day. I don't need "Ned! RYERSON!" bigger than god booming down at me from a 30 foot screen and a 90 gigawatt sound system. Some movies are designed to be watched on a couch with your legs pulled up beside you clutching a cup of hot tea. Or to be laughed at and riffed on with friends. Some movies work best when watched several times, maybe even while doing something else, just listening to the dialog as it plays on the living room television while you're doing the dishes, letting the dialog simmer long and low on your mind's back burner.
I find movies that rely on the spectacle of the big screen and powerful sound system just aren't that interesting. I mean, I saw Transformers in the theater and I haven't wanted to see a movie for its special effects since. "Spectacular" has become a synonym of "noisy" to me. And that's functionally all they make now.