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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Lyddon who wrote (55919)	1/22/2003 5:30:30 PM
From: Rande Is	Respond to of 57584

Joe, interesting points. As you probably are well aware, the movie theatre business is going to the dogs. In many big cities, there are half the number of theatres there were just 5 years ago. The big 101-cinema-stadium-seating-cappucino-IMAX-dolby-digital-Niagra-cyclo-massage-recliner-seating-theatres have displaced the old neighborhood Plaza Cinema. Many people (present company included) are opting for the Home Theatre experience. This is eating greatly into the front end revs. DVD sales and rentals have become a major factor in how a movie does. . . as does foreign revs. So a box office smash is actually getting tougher, since so many prefer to wait for the DVD. Treating the family to a night out at the movies these days is a hundred dollar bill by the time it is all over. . . more if dinner or the mall is involved. Last night I treated the kids and their friends to a sneak preview showing of "When Darkness Falls". (Too scary for my wife and I). The tickets were comp'd and I gave them some money for popcorn. That is doable. But my how times have changed. We much prefer owning the DVD of the films we know we are going to love. We didn't even bother going to see "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", knowing that this was going to be a keeper. The big blockbusters will always get people to come out. But the smaller films have it all the harder. Though these days there are dozens of feature films released each week. SIDEBAR: Here is a very interesting link that I review on a regular basis: movies.yahoo.com It shows the breakdown of box office all the way down to the tiny hand made films. We have several generations of young people who spend a far larger percentage of their disposable income on personal entertainment than we ever did. So it all evens out. Nowadays, the kids see a film in the theatre, then review the film to their parents who decide whether or not to buy or rent the film, based on their kids review, coupled with critical acclaim and of course hype. It is a far more complex industry than in the days of Gone With The Wind. And frankly. . . .(well, you know the rest). Rande Is