Should the cinema going experience in the future be less bloated with fewer choices. A call for a simpler cinema going experience.
As cinema theatres face another threat not to its existence but instead to its primacy as the best place to watch film, I think that over the years the cinema theatre experience has become bloated and we need to strip back the cinema going experience to what it should be. When did this bloating start well you point to the move from art deco cinemas with one dedicated screen to the soulless multiplex with up to sixteen screens? More screens that sometimes showed the same film. We have always had overpriced popcorn, hotdogs, and soft drinks at cinemas, but this has morphed in some cases to a meal or alcoholic drinks. Where you sat in a cinema was as easy as just buying a ticket and getting to the cinema early. Then it became the subject of a mini quiz asking what seat you want, luxury, sofa, recliner, or regular economy class. Once that quiz was over what format you wanted to watch the film? to have truly seen some films it would be claimed you had to see it in IMAX. Then there were the 3D versions of films, once hailed as the future by Martin Scorsese who once said
Ticket prices these could vary on a few factors, time of day, type of seat, IMAX, 3D or regular. The pricing of a film culminated in the infamous blockbuster surcharge levied by Odeon. The cinema going equivalent of the poll tax. Since the nineties, the cinema goer has more choice, but this has bloated the cinema going experience when it should be simplified. As films move to streaming services making cinema going as simple as possible is, I think something to aim for. Yes, when you stream a film you get choices between different services and whether you want it in HD or SD but compared with cinema going it is an easier experience.
In part the bloated cinema going experience was the result of cinemas trying to make their product distinct from the streaming experience. Come to the cinema you get a huge screen; a massive seat and you could drink beer or wine and as much food as you want to. Sure, this is massive generalisation and slightly exaggerated, but this is how it feels to me.
Not talking about turning the clock back to a stripped down to a bare minimum cinema going experience. Instead, it would be good to have cinemas that show films at under ten pounds in price, do not divide people by class of seat and have the cinema theatres we watch films on with one standard that delivers great picture and sound. Cinema going does not need to be about Impact or IMAX.
