Friday, November 18, 2011

Evolve or Die: Movie Theaters

I was thinking the other day as I often do about the movie theater experience. As a man in my thirties and a ex-employee of a movie theater chain, I often wonder will the theater business as we know it be around 20 years from now. With the evolution of technology and the degrading experience of going to the theater mixed in with the cost and inconvenience, are people really going to keep putting up with things as they stand? Can you remember the last time you went to a movie and was not blinded by the bright white light of a cell phone screen? I am not sure I can. Cell phones use to have a small indiglo screen that was a little annoying, but now they are small beacons of light that can be seen from anywhere in the theater. Add this little annoyance with a complete lack of respect for other people and you have the current movie theater experience. For some reason, people think that they are the only people in the theater and constantly talk. The last movie I saw in the theater was "The Thing", during which there were about 6 teenagers who sat in the back talking the entire time. In addition to the talking one of them had a cell phone and decided to answer it multiple times during the movie. Between people talking, cell phones, popcorn bags, and babies I think the most destructive aspects of the current movie theater experience is the customer.