Would you pay $50 to watch first-run movies at home the day they're released in theaters?

Then they went streaking through the quad to the gymnasium. Everyone was doing it!

 

Definitely not. I love going to the movies and do it a lot. I think I saw about 35 movies in the theater last year. Maybe one of those experiences was less than pleasant.

 

Plus, there's no way I wouldn't get drunk.

 

You could drop $40 on an Amazon fire stick, jail break it using step by step tutorials on You Tube, and then watch The Revenant in your living room on the day it came out in theaters. You could also see dozens of movies you never would have bothered to spend money on, and you could save hundreds of dollars. Ya know, you could. Theoretically....

 

I'd pay double.
And I could make out with my wife without people staring.

 

Can't think of a single movie I just "had" to watch the day it came out. Or even the week it came out. If there's something I want to see I'll see it . . . eventually . . . for maybe a couple of bucks.

 

Fuck and no.

 

I have daughters who are 2 and 4. When Frozen 2 comes out we'll have to see it and it might be worth $100 to not have to brave a theater.

 

If I had a giant screen and great sound system and invited 3-4 people over I can see it being worthwhile. The additional $150 box to plug in is a deal breaker though.

 

Nope. Wife and I love going to the movies, and we catch a lot of matinees and spend less than $25 on tickets.

 

I wouldn't mind the option. I don't know how it would even work for theaters, though. Would they just be getting paid for people not showing up? Would I be able to open a new theater after this goes into effect and get money even though nobody goes? Would they use the money I spend on the movie and give a cut to the nearest theater even if that isn't a theater I wouldn't have patronized?

I don't see a way that this goes into effect and doesn't nearly end the movie theater business.

 

If I had a really good home theater setup (as in cinema-quality specs and seating), and/or many friends/family members to defray the cost, possibly. But as a single man with no friends and a pretty good TV without 3D and a broken recliner as my main sitting option, I don't see paying $150+$50 for a movie that costs $10-15 at the theater or less if I wait for it to hit Netflix/Hulu/VOD (or free if I go all illegal hacker and grab a torrent).

EDIT TO ADD: I wonder how many underground movie houses could sprout up — someone with the cinema-quality theater setup and leather recliners charging $15 a head to watch A Good Day To Batman vs. Superman Harder in a more intimate environment, or in areas where the nearest multiplex is many miles away? And how do they combat that?

Movie theaters are going to have a rough run of it eventually. Sorta like video arcades, which in America hit the skids once the gap in graphics and gameplay quality between the arcade and console narrowed and online play became a thing. Now coin-op games are mostly limited to Ms. Pac Mans at the laundromat and redemption-game-heavy gamerooms in family vacation areas. I could see theaters of the future being for a) immersive experiences that can't be replicated at home, like IMAX or whatever the next generation of that ends up being, and b) movies that gain from watching as part of a community -- an arthouse film, a movie as part of a discussion or festival or something like that.