“The Hollywood director, Ridley Scott, warned yesterday that new technology is killing off the big-screen experience. The Oscar-winning County Durham-born movie mogul said mobile phones and computers threatened movie-making on an epic scale,” Raymond Hainey reports for The Scotsman.
“He insisted that the best way to experience great film was still in a cinema with a big screen and state-of-the art acoustics,” Hainey reports.
“Scott launched the attack at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, where he unveiled a newly remastered version of his 1980s sci-fi classic Blade Runner,” Hainey reports. “He said: ‘People sit there watching a movie on a tiny screen. You can’t beat it, you’ve got to join it and deal with it and also get competitive with it. But we try to do films which are in support of cinema, in a large room with good sound and a big picture.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “doc” for the heads up.]
This would all be well and good if not for these facts:
• Our 60-inch screen viewed from 10 feet away is perceptually larger than any movie theater screen this side of IMAX.
• Our 60-inch screen viewed from 10 feet away looks better than the one at the movie theater.
• Our 60-inch screen is available immediately, without a drive, parking, waiting in line, etc.
• Our surround sound system sounds infinitely better, especially since we don’t have to listen to people continually jabbering about nothing in the rows surrounding us. Movie theaters too often supply the wrong kind of surround sound.
• Our seat is more comfortable and nobody’s freakish height, goofy hair, or ugly hat is blocking our view.
• Our popcorn didn’t cost US$8 (and wasn’t stale) and our $5 large vat of Diet Coke isn’t watered down by half and we didn’t have to wait on a woefully under-staffed line for half an hour, missing the previews and the first five minutes of the movie, when – at those prices – we should’ve been served immediately upon entrance by a fleet of servants kneeling before us dispensing rose petals.
The movie business is broken. That’s why 25-cents worth of popcorn costs $8 and 15-cents of soda costs $5 and why we stay home to watch more often than we go out to the movies.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s famous 60-second “1984” television commercial, in which – ironically – an individual rebel destroys a large movie theater-like screen, was directed by Ridley Scott.
[UPDATE: 12:27pm EDT: Revised comments to remove theoretical names of people who may be jabbering at the movies so as to not distract some from the topic at hand.]
I’ve always thought that theaters should sell year-long movie passes. That is, pay one fee for unlimited movie viewing for a whole year. The idea is to increase the average amount spent per person per year at the theater. I know I would spend more at the theater with such a plan.
Our 60-inch screen viewed from 10 feet away is perceptually larger than any movie theater screen this side of IMAX.
Simply not true. I checked the last time I went to the movies. You’d have to sit nose-to-nose with your 60-inch home screen to even get close to the perceptual width of a modern, super-wide movie screen. The local movie theatre here in Fairfax, CA has a brand new, all-digital projection system which produces gorgeous images.
This being said, I don’t like paying ten bucks to see a movie either. Oh well, thank goodness for matinees!
It’s not “tiny screens” or “handheld devices” that are killing Cinema, it’s Home Theater systems.
Personally, I haven’t been to the Cinema in more than a year since I spent 6K on my Sony 46″KDL Xbr2 LCD and my Polk surround system.
Watching films from my living room (with this setup) beats any experience I’ve EVER had in a theatre.
“…I’ve got a 92″ screen driven by a DLP front projector at 1500 lumens, my cinema experience is quite good….”
Thorin :
We’re all gonna meet at your house on NFL “Kick-off” day !
You supply the keggers — I’ll bring the pretzels n brats for the BBQ !
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I think that it’s very interesting the various opinions posted here about the movie theater experience. Some people love being around other people (a shared experience), applauding together at a great scene or the end of a great movie. Others find being around rude people and the exorbitant prices to be strong negatives to stay out of theaters.
I love my 19″ TV and DVD setup. I wish that the sound was a little better, but I enjoy it, but I also love the great theater experience of seeing a movie on the big screen with good sound too. I see theaters closing down up here in Portland all the time, and Portland is a big movie town. Many theaters serve beer, wine, and gourmet foods during the movies. We love movies up here, so this is a scary sight.
I have also seen the movie “Hidalgo” on an iPod and although the movie is good, seeing those huge landscapes on a half inch screen truly sucks. There’s no comparison to the superior theater experience.
Some day I’ll buy the big screen HDTV, but will I be able to enjoy the movies as much as going to the theater? I don’t know. I worry about us NOT being able to see movies from other lands with maybe opposing viewpoints. In the red DVD vending machines, and in many video rental stores, you simply don’t find these kind of movies. I hope that maybe the Internet might correct this possible. Hopefully something like AppleTV might be the answer.
“You mean the big screen experience of tiny seats made for 3rd grade pygmies?”
Maybe I’m going to the wrong theatres, but I’ve never had this issue.
Maybe you need to lose some weight…
Not going to happen.
You do not have to leave your home at all if you do not want to.
You can work inside your house.
You can order food to your door step.
You can sleep.. drink.. f*kk.. and so on…
You can chat with people and still people want´s to go out
Two points:
1. The ‘Cinema Experience’ is WAY overpriced (touched on numerous times already here)
2. Technology isn’t going away. Better adapt to it now.
Sure, the movie cinema experience is great IF you have the perfect setting: people are quiet (except for points where it is appropriate to laugh, scream, etc.); the theater is comfortable (good seats, good sight lines, not too cold or hot); and it’s not too crowded.
However, in the few movies I have been to in the past year, the following problems are persistent:
1. The picture is not as good as my HDTV at home (whether focus issues, artifacts on the screen, or simply not terribly bright);
2. The sound is turned up to 11 (WAY too high);
3. The seats or where we had to sit were not that comfortable or for viewing the screen (too close, too far to one side, etc.);
4. Some of the movies really haven’t been that good.
Sorry Ridley, but I think you’re seeing the end of the big screen multiplex. While it will be a slow decline, once new technology develops to allow for fast delivery of HD movies to your home (and enough people have the sets), or companies figure out how to properly market and use PPV, movie theaters will die off.
It’s very hard to justify spending $80 or more to take my family of 5 to see the latest so-so Disney film when I could wait 3 months and buy it on DVD for $18 or PPV for $4.
@Call me Big Poppa
But does your home theater have a cup holder on your chair?
Hell yes, they do! All six of them have cup-holders, in fact. They recline, too. The back row is on a riser so they can see the bottom of the HD image on the 8-foot wide screen. I have sound panels on the wall so they can properly hear the sound from my 6.1 system (my room doesn’t need 7.1) and they also enjoy the bass from my two 12″ subs.
Ridley is right AND wrong. There’s nothing like a nice big screen… in a well-built home theater.
I thought the “rudeness” factor must be an American thing, until the comments from UK and German posters.
I guess we’re very lucky here (Ottawa, Canada). No major line-ups for tickets or concessions, (mostly) considerate movie goers around us, comfortable seats, accessible parking and cinemas within easy transit or bike rides. I have never seen or felt a better movie experience than a giant theatre screen with massive speakers.
Put all that together with my love for the social aspect of the theatre experience, a bucket of fresh popcorn and a jug of Pepsi, and I hope the theatres here never die.
I’m sure if I had to tolerate what many of you have posted here, I, too would discount Ridley’s criticisms and say good riddance to cinemas.
Makes me sad.
MDN Take:
Yeah, watching a big TV is better because my mom brings me fresh peanut butter and jelly sandwichs while I watch. How? DUH, cuz I still live in her basement.
I agree while going to a theatre to see some crap Hollywood drivel movie that’ll be on DVD by the time you get home (Is the uptown A train running tonght?) is pretty much pointless.
here in NYC, there are lots of excellent FILMS that may not come out on DVD in your lifetime. So, those you MUST see in a theatre. $11 per seat makes you a discerning film goer in a hurry.
The 60″ screen experience at 10 feet is *NOT* the same as the optimal distance seating in a theatre. You should be at 2x the image height on the screen. For a 60″ screen that would be NO MORE THAN 60″ from the screen!
Also unless you’re running 7.1 in your home your sound system is worse than any state of the art theatre — and that does *NOT* include the $1 theatres!
And … don’t like the crowds or the noises made by them? Go during the first Sunday matinee. There are no crowds then.
Yes, a 40-60″ screen at home viewed 7-10 feet away with a stereo sound system is “plenty good enough” for most people.
Also Windows is “plenty good enough” for most people too.
Welcome to the new age Mr. Scott. You are now facing the same problems already being experienced by other digital artists, such as as musician and still photographers. Welcome to the fight, however belated your entry. I look forward to watching the re-release of Blade on a flat screen plasma in the comfort of home. After all, I’ll bet you watch your movies at home too — and not in the theaters.
The entire movie theater experience has turned to shit.
I used to love to go to see a movie on the “big” screen.
Now it is just a painful, forgettable, expensive waste of time.
The screens suck, the people around you are assholes, the print they show is usually full of scratches, the soundtrack has hiss and pops in it, and the “management” at these theaters is a joke.
It is sad that waiting for and watching a movie on an old 30 inch tube is more enjoyable.
Bullshit movies is what killed cinema.
If you look at 24, Sopranos, Shield, etc., It’s no wonder why I spend more time watching TV-series’ than movies. They’ve come a LONG way from Knight Rider, A-Team, Miami Vice and Bonanza.
As far as “state-of-the art acoustics” the movie industry would go alone way in making the experience a bit more enjoyable if they didn’t set the sound levels at 120% 0r 140% of normal…
There was a time when 90% was the normal…
Now days all they want to do is blast everyone out of there seats…
That must be why Hollywood just broke its all-time summer record with 4 billion in gate receipts.
Just more apocalyptic bullshit from movie execs looking for legislation to give them more control than they should have. Will we stop buying ice cream cones because we can buy it in stores? No. They said the same thing when VCRs were introduced, then DVDs. The truth is people go to theatres for an evening out and that will never stop. Teens go to movies to get away from parents and meet other teens. These things will never change.
Yeah, there are some issues with theaters. They should install cell-phone signal jammers, for instance. But there’s still nothing quite like cheering along with everyone else when the bad guy gets what’s coming to him, and other such innocent “crowd” pleasures.
As for the complaint about expensive movie food – if you can’t go 2 hours without eating or drinking pop, you have a problem, and it’s probably called “obesity.”
there is ONE big advantage of a home cinema vs a real one
PAUSE
you can pause your dvd/blu ray etc – go to the toilet , have a sandwich and a bottle of beer and not miss one second
try that at your local fleapit and you’ll miss half the film
Riddley Scott’s comments on the perceived demise of the movie experience are weird, but MDN’s take is even weirder. It’s clear that MDN – under the pretence of being evangalist on anything made by Apple (regardless of actual quality) – is solely about making money by creating as much “arousal” as they can with their venomous takes and made up headlines. A very cynical, and actually very Microsoftian business model. But we all know that, don’t we?
– It is simply NOT TRUE that the perceived size of a 60″tv from 10″ is equal or better than the real cinema. And apart from that, this kind of relativity is not all that matters: the brain also registers the physical (actual) size of things, which adds to the experience (or not when at home).
– Things that CAN go wrong in a theatre, CAN ALSO go wrong at home: kids screaming in their bedrooms, mother in law call (again), neighbour knocks at the door, traffic noise, gf or bf can’t keep his/her mouth shut or doesn’t like the movie, …..
– There is no way that the sound experience in a home can equal that of a theatre. The size of the theatre/room matters.
MDN’s take is a joke.
But MDN’s poor take doesn’t make Mr Scott’s point of view right. Some people just don’t like going out and prefer to stay at home no matter what, housebirds as they are. These are not lost customers. Other people prefer cinema no matter what and will keep coming as long as the movies themselves are of good quality.
And that is not determinded by HD-nonsense or such, but by good stories, good acting, good directing and the like. Or as someone above said: by good storytelling. And that hasn’t been the best since the 80’s.
Thus, the only thing that can blow up the movie industry is the industry itself, by delivering just poor movies.
“That must be why Hollywood just broke its all-time summer record with 4 billion in gate receipts.”
I’d like to see numbers for actual tickets SOLD. Of course, Hollywood is breaking records in revenue. First, the population, (potential movie watching audience) has grown by tens of millions in the last 20 years. Second, prices have increased three fold in the same period. That’s why the top grossing movies of all time will keep getting unseated over time.
Another point, ticket sales don’t reflect actual attendance for each film. Show me a theater that actually enforces what theater you go into. Kids buy tickets to PG films and enter R rated ones all the time. Then other films get the credit (revenue) that should have went to another filmmaker. Just another reason why the business is broken.
you know, the theater exp isn’t too bad every once in a while. if you are fortunate enuff to not have a bunch of idiots in there with you—which is not often. further more, why is it the price continually increases yet the ads do too?? i mean, i thought advertising is suppose to offset cost [to some extent anyway]. i remember a time b4 in-theather advertising, it was nice. guess i’ll continue to use my college student id until someone calls me out (the thing was issued in ’98, lol)
MacDailyNews gets it wrong. Cinema is a communal experience. I have a huge screen TV, but to really experience a film is to watch it in the dark with 100s of strangers.