It’s been a while since I checked in on Amy Gahran’s blog, but today I’m glad I did, because she has a thought provoking idea:
Contentious » How Movie Theaters Might Thrive in an On-Demand, Long Tail World
The idea? Movie theaters market directly to consumers, allowing them to rent movie theaters and have screenings for small-to-large groups instead of showing the weekend Hollywood block-buster du jour. I think it’s a great idea, and one that will become more tractable in the coming future of digital projection.
The comments also include comments by the founder of bravenewtheaters.com, a group which isn’t waiting for big mainstream theaters to hop on this particular bandwagon. More good stuff.
Hi, Mark! Good to hear from you again.
Glad you liked my idea. Honestly, I can’t believe something like that isn’t in place already.
Gee, you work for, um, Pixar! Think you might have influence for making this kind of thing happen, nudge nudge?
😉
– Amy Gahran
Hey Amy!
I often have been quoted as saying that if there is a center of power here at Pixar, then I am the person who is located at its antipode. 🙂
Several years ago when digital projection had just become possible, there was widespread speculation that movie theaters might find secondary markets such as doing pay-per-view events (World Cup, World Series, Indy 500) in theaters. That doesn’t seem to have happened yet, but I still think it is a good possibility going into the future. It requires a convergence of a few technologies though:
1. Digital projection (still not the norm)
2. Digital distribution (still not the norm)
3. Ubiquitous HD content (increasing, but still not the norm)
4. Some cleverness on the part of theater owners. (still not the norm 🙂
It is interesting to note that theater owners make relatively little off of direct ticket sales: most of that money goes back to the studio (and usually very little back to the original filmmaker). Movie theaters basically survive by selling $4 sodas. You think they might be interested in marketing content where they might get a bigger cut of the ticket price.
Interesting info, Mark.
Mind if I excerpt your comments in a followup posting to my blog?
– Amy
To Amy, and to anyone else who wants to excerpt parts of my comments: of course, feel free to do so. That’s what blogs are for. To keep the conversation going though, make sure you link back to the originating thread. That makes it easier for me to find people who are interested in the same things as me, and makes it easier for them to find me.
If you look around you can find this is happening in a few locations….. The ‘art house’ cinema in Glasgow, Scotland (The Glasgow Film Theatre GFT) often arranges screenings of films that have been suggested by interest groups but the showing is open to the general public. Usually someone will introduce the film and sometimes there is a short discussion at the close. Much more interesting than the predictable summer blockbuster experience.
http://www.gft.org.uk/info.asp