O O Ø O O O O
Pissing in my Popcorn
It shouldn’t take a genius to realize that one of the fastest ways to kill a business is to piss-off your customers. If you’ve been to a movie theatre recently, you know full-well why the movie theatre business is dying.
Case in point. On my last foray to the theatre, I was subjected to 5 minutes of TV commercials before the previews began. (This was a recently converted IMAX theatre, so they didn’t have the digital projector that subjects you to an additional 20 minutes of “trivia” and commercials). One of these spots was an an anti-piracy commercial, attempting to explain to me how downloading movies is wrong.
Insulting? You bet your booties. Because I’m sitting in the damn theatre, having just paid $12 for the privilege of seeing this movie. And now I’m being lectured on how important it is to pay for movies, instead of actually being allowed to see my movie. If anything, I’m now more tempted to download movies, so I don’t have to sit through all the insulting scolding.
And what about the commercials, anyway? Whatever posessed you folks to think that while I’m sitting here, munching on a bag of $4.50-profit-margin popcorn, that I would want to see a lifestyle ad from an automobile manufacturer? I’m not here to buy cars. I’m here to be entertained. And the entertainment here has to be more compelling than the entertainment in my living room, or I am going to stop coming.
Speaking as a capitalist, I agree that it is silly to have a theatre full of people staring at a blank wall for half an hour. But these people are here to buy entertainment, not cars. If you are going to give them something to look at for the half-hour preceeding the show, make it worthwhile. Give them something they actually want to see. Give them something they don’t get by watching pay-per-view at home (and no, I don’t mean commercials. It’s avoiding the commercials that is prompting them to pay in the first place)
Give them more movie trailers.
Seriously. If you want to get bodies back into the movie theatres, you need to give them a reason to come back. Show more trailers. There’s hundreds out there. Why should I have to go visit Apple’s web site to see what movies are out there? That’s dumb. Give me more trailers, and don’t be afraid to hop genres. I might not be as easily pigeonholed as you’d like to think.
Another nit. You might actually want to think about starting movies on-time. Now that Hollywood has it in its collective hive-mind that a movie has to be getting near 3 hours to bring in the viewers, finding the time to get to a movie is increasingly hard. Padding the front end of your 3-hour “masterpiece” with 15 minutes of trailers and commercials doesn’t make things easier for me. Give me the chance to skip the extra bits, and I’ll be a lot happier. Believe me.
And finally, there’s the small matter of the concession stand.
Again, I’m a capitalist at heart. I’m not averse to you making a buck or two at the concession stand. But come on people! A $10 profit margin on $11 worth of “food”? I’m aware what your cost on popcorn and fountain pop is. You are well-past your customers comfort margin. In fact, you are keeping families out of your theatre, as they can’t afford to buy their kids snacks.
The movie theatre business is bad capitalism. You are insulting your customers. You are calling them criminals. You are innundating them with commercials that they should be coming to your theatre to avoid, and you are raping them at the concession stands.
And you wonder why profits are down?
Stop blaming DVD sales. Stop blaming home theatres. Stop blaming the Internet.
But most of all, stop pissing in my popcorn. I’m your customer. Try treating me like one.
Kjell Wooding
May 31, 2005
OOØOOOODCCVI
June 1st, 2005 at 10:39 am
Hear Hear……
We cut back going to the theatre a while ago. When we lived in Calgary, and when ticket prices were in the $15-17 price range, it was like a once a year outing. For less than the cost of 2 of us going to the movie (no treats), we could buy the movie at Costco or Wal-Mart.
After moving to WinterPeg, and the normal price of a movie was $8-10 range ($9.75 for Star Wars), we have started to attend more movies. We still have a “Drive-In” here which is awesome to go to.
Commercials / previews - they can play them all they want - until the “advertised” starting time of the show - if the show is supposed to start at 8:15, then, damn it, start the main feature at 8:15, not 8:30 - if I wanted to watch the 8:30 show, I would have bought a ticket for that show. And if I want good seats, I’m going to be there early anyways.
But, still have a heard time choosing not to wait and watch a movie at home, with my Digital Dobly/DTS-ES system (upgrading to THX at christmas), my HDTV, not to mention the ability to pause, rewind, and watch previews too. Oh - and have popcorn, pop, beer, wine, supper, whatever at fraction of the cost.
Thats a lot of my chest……off to Apples site to watch previews…..
June 1st, 2005 at 6:24 pm
I must agree. What I say is if I go to a movie, usually with my family of four, then I think I already paid for the copy I am going to download or burn. It is outrageous the price we pay for stuff. Don’t forget the levy that you pay when you buy blank media. They assume you’re a thief. I say steal from the movie industry because they’ve been steeling your money. Oh yes and let’s not forget about Billy Gates. He’s poor right!!
Darrell from Nova Scotia
June 2nd, 2005 at 10:03 am
Margins or profits? I would think the margins are fixed (or increasing?).
I feel obliged to mention Mark Cuban’s initiative:
His approach is different though in that he is changing the business model whereas your approach is tuning the existing model. (and I would even say your way is returning it to the way it used to be when people went to movies!)
June 2nd, 2005 at 1:14 pm
Whoop. yep. I meant profits. Had margins after the brain after that vociferous popcorn paragraph.
June 12th, 2005 at 10:50 am
why would the guy piss in ur popcorn.
June 13th, 2005 at 10:38 am
Popcorn pissing? Hm. I know all kinds of pissing. This is something new.
July 26th, 2005 at 12:23 am
I saw your popcorn
November 10th, 2005 at 4:56 pm
Indeed. I hate the TV commercials before the film. I can see those at home, and even there, I change the channel, or just ignore them. I’m sure they make a ton of cash from selling advertising, and then they still want you to drop an arm and a leg for tickets and concessions. Making the cup bigger doesn’t justify charging $5.00+(US) for it. I don’t want 5 gallons of coke. I’m not going to finish it. I want 32oz for less than $2.00. I won’t even buy popcorn. Going to the movies used to be a nice cheap way to spend the evening. Now I have to actually find a way to fit it into my budget. Most of the time, I don’t even bother going any more.