Nailed it. A lot of this video is basically what I've been saying for a WHILE about multiplexes, especially in relation to where box office has been for years.
The theater I worked at for a decade, a Cinemark, shared many of the same or similar issues to the ones Rolfe highlighted. All those premiums largely add little while driving up the price, but the indifference to what a gamble going to the theater is remains the same, if not worsens.
Though, funnily enough, my Cinemark continued to do a lot of things the old school way: Old-style soda fountains that you hook the syrups up to, actual paper posters in cases, and we never used old popcorn - we always popped fresh batches all day every day.
But it's not the same, elsewhere. Rolfe was largely detailing his experiences at AMCs and Regals, most of my theatergoing experiences have been at Cinemarks (all the ones I go to used to be National Amusements-owned Showcase Cinemas buildings), sometimes AMCs, and every once in a while the *one* Regal near me that closed down a few years back. That Regal used to be a Hoyts, which is an Australian theater company, for a while they had had multiplexes here in the states.
Even a local non-chain theater near me needs to up their game, I went there in March of last year to see THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP, and the movie wasn't even projected correctly. About 10% of each side of the image was OFF the screen. Because of that, and because of how cool the movie was, I wanted to see it again. I went up to an AMC showing the film, since my Cinemark didn't book it. The AMC showing's picture was an improvement, but the sound was unusually quite low. Win some, lose some, I suppose!
I went to that same AMC to see SCARLET, the latest Mamoru Hosoda film, and I could hear the movie next door blaring through the walls. Where's the quality control?
And I already said it in other posts, there are plenty of other things that make the experience a gamble. That all being said, people are still flocking to movies. It's the power of the movies themselves that keep people coming (i.e. PROJECT HAIL MARY, DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2, OBSESSION, BACKROOMS), those movies are the ones really doing the heavy-lifting alongside the staff who do what they can with what they've been given. I should know, I did just that for 10 years lol.
