Would you pay $35 for a movie ticket? (Yeah, that’s what the theater owners need to bring back their shrinking audience: more expensive movie tickets.) How about if that $35 bought you a luxury moviegoing experience, including valet parking, gourmet menu choices, plush chairs, seat-side waiter service, and a screening-room capacity of just 40 patrons? That’s what’s coming soon to a theater near you (if you live in suburban Chicago and other select locales), thanks to the aptly named Gold Class theater chain.
Now, granted, most of us think the current moviegoing experience is uncivilized. Things have only gotten worse in the 14 years since Pulp Fiction, when John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson (pictured) marveled that there were theaters outside of the U.S. where you could actually order a glass of beer. Still, I don’t think this tiered pricing concept goes far enough. If this is what you get for $35, then for, say, $50, you should get a movie-watching environment guaranteed to be free of cellphones and children. For $75, you’d be seated only among fellow film snobs, or at least people who’ve never paid to see a Michael Bay film, and pre-screening cocktail discussion would consist of a debate whether Hou Hsiao-hsien or Abbas Kiarostami is the better director. For $100, while you watch, Qi Gong practitioners would massage your feet, and Martin Scorsese would show up to comment excitedly about the director’s masterful use of tracking shots.
Right now, though, I’d settle for movies projected in focus, with the correct aspect ratio and unmuffled sound.
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For $11 I souldn’t have to put up with cellular devices, talkers, or unruly children. Don’t get me started on those who want to eat large greasy meals in the theatre.
For that kind of money, I want to be able to punch people guilty of talking on their cell phones in other movies.
Snarf, you and I should start an “I Hate Going to the Movies With Other People in the Theater Club”! I’ve practically stopped going altogether because of other people’s inconsiderate actions!
By the way, for $35.00, I’d better get the following:
1. A private screening with nobody else except who I choose to bring.
2. A double feature with a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon beforehand.
3. Free food and drink.
4. A blowjob while I watch.
I would not pay that much to see a movie. Even if I came with a backrub and a pedicure! (And you can get a beer or a glass of wine at many of the movie houses here in St. Louis.)
A movie theatre in Toronto (Canada) has VIP rooms, where for 16 or 17 dollars (can’t remember exactly) you enjoy your movie in a cosy room with no more than 30 people and you have the pleasure of being served your food at your seat. I don’t really like this atmosphere because it feels like your watching a movie on a giant screen television with a bunch of strangers in your living room. I personally like go to the movies for the big crowd atmosphere so this doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t know if the audiences in my area are better behaved or if I’m just plain lucky but I’ve never had really horrible experiences with people talking, eating, or hitting my seat.
I would pay that much if it ensured that a usher would be there to escort any person found talking excessively or text messaging..
No – I’m not that fabulous. Where is all the disposable income coming from these days? I’ll stick to going to the first showing of the movie of the day when no one else is there. 10:30 am is a little early, but I can pick my seat and avoid humanity.
In the summer of 2005, my wife and I purposely went to the first showing of WAR OF THE WORLDS on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday afternoon. We were the only ones in the theater – a private screening for just the two of us! YES!!!
The growing trend is to take several $35 movie tickets, buy a large flat screen, order takeout and watch the DVD at home. There, if someone talks too loud or is on a cell phone, you can throw something at them. If the floors are sticky, it’s you’re own fault.
Here in Asheville, NC, there’s a theater called Cinebarre that shows first-run movies and has a full menu of (actually quite good) food, beer and wine. They’ve removed every other row of seats and installed tables, and servers take care of you at your seat. The best part: they have a strict no-talking/no-cell-phones policy, and no one under 18 is admitted unless an adult actually watches the movie with them. Movie tickets are a dollar or two more than other cineplexes, but it’s well worth it, and it’s the only movie theater I’ll go to now.
I too feel that for my ~$10 I shouldn’t have to put up will cell phones and the like. Let’s see, for less than $5 I can see a movie at my own place, have a date (or three) and sit in comphy chairs that aren’t sticky or smells. And theaters want to charge us MORE? I know, these aren’t first run movies, but if I’m paying $10 per person, I expect part of that is to go to a half-decent usher who can deal with cell phones, overly-gaby teens, and 5 year olds at a rated R movie that starts after 10pm.
$35 as an all inclusive? Maybe, but it still seems pricey. We’ve got a local “cinema and draft house” that shows second run flicks at good prices and the seats are like a couch. You can get beer there and everything, and there are never kids or loud talking idiots.
I went to a place in Oakland, CA that showed first run flicks, but offered otherwise the same deal. they even had specialty popcorn flavors. I had so much fun there!
The idea of specialty theaters is cool, but I don’t think raising prices is going to put more butts in seats when many home viewers at home have 42″ HDTV, upconvert (or blu-ray) dvd players and movies that were just in the theater three weeks before being put out on dvd.
I am predicting that within the next 50 years, the entire movie theater experience, as well as the movie theater itself, shall become extinct; this shall be in lieu of more sophisticated home theater options, computer movie downloads (legal or illegal) and straight-to-DVD motion pictures.
Color me a film snob, but for $50 I’d pay to have a comfy seat, people escorted out of the movie who talk or text, and to be served. And I like a pre/post discussion with other pretentious film snobs. We can wallow in our snobber together and plan Michael Bay’s death Tarantino style.
I live in suburban Chicago, and a theater here almost delivers the same thing at $8 a ticket plus any food/drink purchased (you have to buy at least one item, which can be as simple as popcorn). The seats are comfy office chairs with armrests, it’s not overcrowded, and you can order food/alcoholic drinks while you’re watching the movie. The food’s pretty good, and the audience is generally better than at your typical movie theater. Best of all, no kids allowed at the nighttime showings, guaranteeing a reprieve from parents who drag toddlers into R-rated movies.
No, no, no! I don’t even want to eat popcorn when I’m in the theatre much less listen to clacking silverware & the inevitable conversation that goes with a meal. If I want a great meal, comfortable seats and crowds that will shut up when I ask them to be quiet, I’ll stay home. I love watching movies in a theater. The shared experience brings film to another level, especially comedies. Sorry, but for me, this is the wrong direction.
I would not pay that much to see a movie. Even if I came with a backrub and a pedicure! (And you can get a beer or a glass of wine at many of the movie houses here in St. Louis.)
Having seat side service isn’t always great. I live in the southwest suburbs of Chicago and sometimes I go to a theater called Hollywood Blvd. They serve real food and alcoholic drinks through out the show while you sit in comfy office chairs. The tickets aren’t expensive either, but they definitely over charge for the food. That’s how they get ya. But when employees are continuously running up and down the aisles serving customers, it’s way too easy to get distracted. When there’s a movie I’ve been dying to see, I won’t go to that theater because I actually want to watch the movie. Oh and they always bring film. Guaranteed!
Only good thing is on Wednesdays they have college night. Show your i.d. and get in for 3 bucks. I’m out of college, but I still have my i.d.
*Oh and they always bring film
Oh and they always bring the check at the climax of the film.
I’m glad to see there are other theaters that do the cheap second-run movies with good food and no kids. Here in the SF East Bay we have two (the Parkway in Oakland and the Cerrito in El Cerrito). Good beer, decent food (pizza, nachos, surprisingly tasty hummus platter), big bowl of real popcorn (with real butter!) for $3, strict cellphone policy, comfy couches and ticket prices top out at six bucks. I love going there, but for $35? Not a chance.
$35 for any stupid movie (even with the fancy food, etc)…NO…but, that being the case, in Austin, we have the Alamo Drafthouse where we often times attend a ‘Feast’ that run between $50 and $70 (sometimes more)…BUT, that’s typically for a good-great movie (classics, or first releases), it also includes a wonderful 5 course meal w/ wine served with each course…Its an event, and we do it a few times a year, but not for movies like ‘Jumper’ or “Fool’s Gold”…
For $50 bucks, I can buy a Blu-Ray dvd and get a pizza delivered to my front door. Then I can watch a movie in my pajama’s, pause it when I need to and rewatch it if I want to.
I would not pay extra for what they are offering. I would pay extra for a perfect moviegoing experience, however. I want no talking during the movie (or crying, or cell phones ringing). I want the picture to be guaranteed to be in focus. I want the house lights to stay off for the entire film. I want the projector to use the proper wattage bulb, as many cinemas nowadays use weaker bulbs, leading to an inferior picture.
Yes to movies in focus! I don’t know if it’s just me (or enhanced home quality), but the quality of most projections I’ve seen recently seems pretty bad. I don’t know if it’s just focus (seems like it) or poor prints.
I swear, no amount of amenities can persuade me to go to the movies, especially when two months later I can watch the film on TV at home in peace and quiet, with no noise coming from people wolfing down their gourmet meal.
Hey Hollywood! Want to get people to go to the movies?!??!?!?!?!
MAKE BETTER MOVIES.
Allison, please let me join your “Movie Snob Club’!!! I promise to rub your shoulders and your feet during the movie. We’ll make it a long epic like LA DOLCE VITA or SEVEN SAMURAI!
FYI: To all you Michael Bay lovers – the above-mentioned films are in black and white and subtitled; meaning they’re NOT in English! Yes, you have to read them!
I would pay that much ONLY if they made people “check” their cell phones/BlackBerry, etc. at the door. They do that for screenings out here in L.A. and I would love it to be the norm so, like Nicole, I am not tempted to punch people out.
We already have that in MA & NH. Chunky’s Cinema, 7.25 a show (cheaper than regular theaters). The seats are front seats from Lincoln Town Cars that recline and there is a full dinner menu that you can order from (price not included in ticket fee). Also, you can get a pitcher of beer which is great. So no, I wouldn’t pay 35 bucks for this when it already exists for cheaper than regular theaters.
Would I pay $35 for the movie experience described here? No. I’m too poor.
Also, I just don’t have as huge a problem with other moviegoers as most people on this board seem to. I mean, yes, it’s rude to talk during a movie, and yes, it’s rude AND idiotic to leave your cell phone on and talk on it during a flick (unless you’re a doctor and it’s important), but such are the perils when you’re surrounded by people. You’re going to get your share of knuckleheads.
If I really wanted to have a deluxe movie experience, I’d spend $15 on a pizza, and have each of my non-knucklehead friends bring over their favorite flick and we could discuss it before and after and make a fun evening out of it.