AMC’s Dine-In Theatre seeks to re-invent the movie-going experience with in-theater dining, cocktails and waitress service right from your seat. But in the face of On-Demand streaming content and inexpensive, high-definition home entertainment technology, is the movie theater still viable?
Like many Americans, I love going to the movies. There’s something special about the entire experience, sitting in the dark theater with a huge screen, booming sound system, munching on popcorn, and being in a large venue where you’re sharing the experience with others.
Movie-going has been practically a cornerstone of American society — more marriages and long-term relationships have probably started from “dinner and a movie” than any other. I myself can attribute the first date with my wife to going to a movie some 16 years ago. I even remember what film we saw — Star Trek: Generations. The movie was so awful, I’m surprised I even got a second date.
However, no matter what the American attraction to the movies may be, theaters themselves have been in decline, ever since home entertainment technology entered the picture, starting with the VCR and VHS video rentals in the early 1980s.
Nevertheless, the box office and the traditional theater was still king because you really couldn’t replicate the in-theater experience at home, despite the advantages of being able to pause and rewind the film, provide your own food and refreshments at significantly lower cost, and stay at home with your family.
Also See: AMC Dine-In Theatres (Gallery)
Also See: AMC’s “Dine-In” Delivers a Big Wow (Baristanet.com)
With the introduction of the DVD, cheap High-Definition video televisions, inexpensive surround sound and now On-Demand video from suppliers such as NetFlix, Amazon Video and Apple TV, the home movie-watching experience is now at a point where one could argue that it’s actually superior to going to the average movie theater.
The realities of the current economy adds additional pressure when you consider that the typical movie-going experience is $12-$14 per ticket plus $10 or more per person for concessions, not counting going out for a meal with your family or date.
On-Demand and Pay-Per-View/Subscription content from Amazon, Netflix or your satellite TV/cable provider is considerably cheaper, if you factor in a entry-level home theater investment of about $2,000 (including HDTV, receiver/amplifier, surround speakers, media player/streaming devices) and an average play cost of about $5.00-$10.00 per premium film, provided you aren’t just watching stuff on basic cable or premium content packages like HBO or Showtime
To fight back the Home Theater onslaught, the Box Office has had to do a number of things in order to stay relevant in the digital, On-Demand age. The first of which was renovating many theaters for Digital Cinema, which began as a result of George Lucas releasing the Star Wars prequel films in digital format in 1999. This technology upgrade included HD digital projection as well as THX-certified and/or SDDS sound systems.
With the full DTV conversion in the summer of 2009, many consumers went out and purchased HDTV equipment, which has significantly come down in price in the last several years. The Box Office then needed to pull another trick out of its sleeve — by focusing a lot of its forthcoming releases on 3D digital films, such as Avatar.
Not to be deterred by this, the home entertainment industry and TV manufacturers began to release 3D HDTV technology this year, but the sets are still considerably more expensive than their regular HD counterparts. Still, we can expect that 3D capability will become a regular built-in feature in even basic HD sets in the next few years, which leaves movie theaters with few compelling technology improvements to continue to bring in the throngs of moviegoers.
