I know box office numbers are plummeting, cinema is dying, and everyone is streaming, but I imagine some regulars on this site are still avid movie-goers. Who all goes often? I suppose often is a relative term, but I guess once or twice a week or more is what I mean.
shareNot no more. Used to go once a week.
Once they became selective who they let in, I became more selective with my money.
I don't understand what you mean. How are theaters selective about who they let in to see a film?
sharehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufqlbaurJPw
But I digress.
Our theatres were closed to people who declined to accept certain medical treatments.
Maybe I'm bitter but I remember how people treated me.
I live in Texas so I probably had a very different experience than you. I never got vaccinated and it was never an issue anywhere for any reason. It was just a choice I made, and no one cared.
It may be that we have different views on the world and life, but for me, I ignore all of that stuff. It's beyond my ability to change any of it, so why punish myself for the actions of others? All kinds of bad things happen. During WW2 Japanese and Italian families were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps. Before that, people were enslaved. Heck, my grandfather was a slave for the first 6 months he was in the U.S. He escaped, otherwise he may have been there longer, or even died in the camp. Bad people do bad things, but I don't expect reparations or apologies, and I'm certainly not going to stop enjoying a trip to the movies just because a theater had a temporary policy that may have been misguided.
Be grateful you lived in a quasi-sane state at the time.
We had cards showing if you were "vaccinated" and you were limited where you could go.
They also made it illegal to visit people at Christmas - seriously.
If the theatres and other businesses would not have been such cowards, it wouldn't have worked but they were.
To quote Marilyn Manson - no forgiveness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl1EVw6pBgI
I suppose the last line is where we differ. I think forgiveness is necessary. Life becomes sad and brutal without it. And even beyond forgiveness, I think we need awareness. Humans are flawed, and those in control are nearly always the ones least fit to be in control. They will always do what's best for themselves with no regard for the rest of us. That's life. We can either choose to be bitter and miserable about it, hold grudges, and live by a code of "no forgiveness," or we can realize that the world is the what the world is, and find our own ways to enjoy our lives the best we can within the parameters we're given.
I love going to the movies. I'm fully aware that the people who make the films, star in the films, market the films, show the films, etc. are nearly all bad people, and each time I go I'm giving them a few dollars. I'm also aware that my dollars are inconsequential to them, and the only one I'd punish by staying home is myself.
I think the last line is where you're wrong.
Your dollars count. They add up.
The Bud Light fiasco proved that people can hurt business with how they spend their dollars.
If not seeing movies in the theatre is the price I pay for showing my disgust for their cowardice, I'll pay it.
I don't see it that way at all. Anheuser-Busch is still making a fortune, even if one of their many brands took a tiny, temporary hit. Not to mention how different it is to switch from Bud Light to Coors Light, beers which are more or less indistinguishable from one another, and to stop going to the movies.
You gotta do you, and if you feel better about yourself for foregoing the pleasure of cinema-going, so be it. I enjoy going to the movies more than pretty much any other pastime, and I'm not going to abandon that simply to make a political statement.
Well, it didn't happen to you, so you can't really understand.
Maybe if more people make statements with their money, we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in today.
What sort of pickle are we in today?
shareIt really is a sheltered life in Texas. Goddamn, must be nice.
shareWe're still a part of the U.S. I think in some perfect world things would be, well, perfect, but I accept that the world we live in is reality. Of course there are going to be corrupt politicians in charge, of course the media will report what they are told to report, of course the billionaires who run things will find more ways to keep everyone down so they can stay on top. That's the sad tradeoff of humanity. Rather than complain about it, or punish myself in a useless attempt to punish those in power, I accept it and find ways to enjoy life despite those things. And sure, one of those ways is to live in a state like Texas, where we have greater freedoms, but even when I lived in California I wasn't worrying about things outside of my control. You get one life. My belief is that you should enjoy it to the fullest, and I don't find joy in boycotting things I like.
shareWhen Tarantino does his last film I’ll go, but that’s about it. Or maybe a retro showing of something cool, but I don’t go regularly.
shareDepends on what's showing. Sometimes if I haven't gone in a while, I'll go even if there's nothing I really have a strong desire to see
shareThe last movie I went to see was the MEG 2.. There just hasn't been anything worth shelling out $17.00 to see
shareWe have vastly different taste in film! I'll see just about anything in a cinema, but I have zero interest in Meg 2. It's so interesting to me that that is a film that would draw someone to a theater who seldom goes. Why that movie?
shareI've always had an interest in the Megalodon shark and the 1st movie was better
shareI WENT WEEKLY MY ENTIRE LIFE...STOPPED DURING THE PANDEMIC AND HAVE NOT BEEN BACK...ONLT REASON BEING...MY DAUGHTER GOT INVOLVED IN MY PHYSICAL MEDIA COLLECTION....SO NOW WE SAVE ALL OUR DOLLARS FOR OUR COLLECTION...WE ARE PLANNING ON HITTING THE THEATER FOR DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE THOUGH...THAT LOOKS AWESOME.
shareMy friend's parents own the local theatres around here. I go with him sometimes whenever he invites me, covers the food and everything. I also get free tickets in the mail every month. I didn't grow up going to the movies so it's a very special treat for me.
shareI stopped when movies turned to shit crammed with woke messaging - you’d have to pay me to watch most modern films, the situation is tragic.
I used to go to the theatre several times a month, now I average twice a year.
Left-wing messaging has been prominent in films since at least the '60s, so it's nothing new to me. I learned a long time ago to ignore it and enjoy good movies despite it.
I don't go as often as I used to, when I lived in a city within a short walk (10 minutes or less) of 7 movie theaters, one of which ran a different double-feature daily, but I still go a lot. At that point in my life I saw minimum 5 movies per week. Now I average about 2. Letterboxd tells me I've seen a movie in a theater 28 times so far this year.
You lived in a city with 7 movie theaters within walking distance?! What magical place was this?
shareI went to school at U.C. Berkeley. From my apartment I could walk to the Pacific Film Archive on campus, the U.C. Theatre, where they played a different double feature daily, the California Theatre, an old-school giant 2 screen palace, the Act 1 & 2 and Shattuck Cinemas, both of which were arthouses, though the Act 1 & 2 had the Circus of Humiliation every Saturday at midnight where they showed cult films, the U.A. 7 which had all the mainstream blockbusters, and then a small single-theater place called the Fine Arts that showed silent films and a lot of foreign films. I think nearly every one of those theaters is gone now. :(
shareA golden age & golden place.
shareWere you there back then as well?
shareI wish. No, East Cost born and raised. In college, there was one art house theater. Everything else was a megaplex.
shareI took it for granted that all college towns had something like that, but I know now how spoiled I was. Factor in all the theaters in nearby San Francisco, and you have a film-lover's paradise probably only surpassed by Los Angeles.
shareThere’s no comparison between the gentle liberal leanings of Hollywood in decades past to the overt, relentless cramming of Woke, a Hard Left cult, into nearly every modern Hollywood film, which has also turned the quality of modern films to absolute shit.
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