Hope for Film Challenge #2: 5 Ways to Improve the Moviegoing Experience

Musing Outloud about cinema as third spaces

Ted Hope is turning out challenges to “FilmStack” writers at what looks like will be a monthly rate, starting with 5 Tenets for Running a Movie Studio. The second challenge is “5 Ways to Improve the Moviegoing Experience.” I enjoyed my first foray, and of course can pontificate upon nearly any subject about movies, so I’m in.

However, this specific challenge comes with some major caveats:

I’m mostly happy with the moviegoing experience as it currently is.

Really. I’ve seen the complaints from audiences, I’ve seen the worries from theatre owners and industry folk, I’ve read a ton of the discourse about what moviegoing is, should be, could be, may one day be, has never been, but for the most part I think the actual “go to a movie theatre, buy a ticket, sit in a low-lit room with strangers, and collectively hallucinate while eating a mountain of popcorn and lake of soda” is pretty solid as an experience unto itself. I’m not sure major tweaks are really going to change the fact that film is a smaller industry than video games and social media.

Also, as a workflow-oriented technical thinker that brings a lot of “Yeah I’ve actually read the white paper and can tell you the difference between a wrapper and a codex” energy to film productions, you’d think I’d be obsessed with the premium “70mm ultrawide IMAX™ curved immersive screen 4DX comfort-seating 8.973 DDDDDOOOOOLLLBBBY SURROUND SOUND 3D stereoscopic tactile audience sing-along and second-screen enabled EXPERIENCE!!!!!” stuff, and I’m not. One of the most immersive cinematic experiences in my life was watching my friend Scott Barley’s movie Sleep Has Her House at Spectacle Theater, and you have to understand that Spectacle is like this walk-in closet-sized room off a residential street in Williamsburg with benches for seating about 20 people to watch barely HD footage projected from a laptop. 70mm made Sinners look gorgeous but I didn’t need to see it in IMAX to see that it looked gorgeous. There are some people who are really into premium cinema stuff, but it’s not me.

On the flip side, I love 4DX for vehicle-based action movies. Martin Scorsese complained about some movies being roller coasters, but I personally consider roller coasters and film cameras to be arguably the same technology. Some movies really are just roller coasters with a story (I almost wrote “with a plot” but the rises and dips of your regular every day rollercoaster is, technically, plotting, and now you know the difference between story and plot!), and I think making the Universal Studios or Disneyland “theme park” experience of movies happen in people’s neighborhoods is a fine way of showcasing certain movies.

So, I’m happy with how movies are presented and I’m okay with carving out specifically premium experiences for the sub-cohort of film audiences that enjoy them, even if they’re not my thing. So what is there to improve on?

My last caveat is that a lot of what I have to say about the experience of moviegoing overlaps with distribution, which is a different thing (and probable topic for a future Hope for Film Challenge). We’re talking exhibition here. What can movie theatres themselves change, assuming the production and distribution market we currently have?

Well:

Photo by Krish Shah on Unsplash

1. The Size and Cost of Concessions

I love popcorn. It’s like coffee, the smell gets you going and then the flavor satisfies the craving. It’s a layered experience!

However, if I went to a concession stand and ordered a ‘small’ coffee and ended up with a 32 ounce cup’o’Joe, I wouldn’t be enthusiastic about drinking it all over a two hour period in the dark, regardless of its cost. Similarly, sometimes I order a small popcorn and still end up with more salt and butter coated puffed fibers than I really want.

When I worked at a movie theatre, a large soda was 44 ounces and the extra large was 64 ounces. Today, at the same chain, a medium soda is the 44 ounce and the large is the 64 ounce. This despite the fact that when I worked at the movie theatre, literally a generation ago, customers were already complaining about the size and oftentimes asked for smaller servings after ordering, causing stock loss and stretching out the concession lines.

Because I worked at the theatre, I heard the business case for why concessions are scaled and cost the way they are. The lever movie theatres are pulling here is margin-per-volume. It’s a distinction of mere pennies to add an extra 20 ounces of soda, an extra 40 ounces of popcorn to a tub. But the cost difference is usually something like 50-75¢. So every time the theatre chain wants to inflate prices, they can also inflate volume. “We spend only 2¢ more to make 75¢ more.”

However, for some reason, they don’t seem to recognize that the lever could also work the opposite direction: if they scaled down, and charged 50-75¢ less, they might actually sell more units. What’s more profitable, three 24 ounce sodas sold at $5/cup or one 64 ounce soda sold at $8/cup? The thing is, I’m part of the family making that decision, and usually we go with the 64 ounce soda because then we have enough — MORE THAN ENOUGH! — soda for two adults and two children. It’s a pain in the ass, though, because it’s one cup that has to be shared around, risking spills, distracting from the movie. Whereas if we could buy three 24 ounce sodas, if 24 ounce sodas even existed as an option, the adults could have a normal every day “large” “bottle-sized” serving of soda and the two kids could split the third between them and not go rocketing out the door after the movie in a sugar frenzy.

Right? I’m fairly certain $15 for 72 ounces is more money for the theatre than $8 for 64 ounces. Not difficult math. But having been on the employee side, having the corporate meetings where these people explain it to us, they refuse to see the other side of the lever.

They’re also obsessed with margin-per-customer than customer-per-minute, which is the exact opposite concern you want when you’re running an event-based market. To wit, if the lines for concessions are too long, the customer will miss the movie. So the concession stand should be predominantly concerned with moving that line along and getting everyone the concessions they want.

They are not. We were instructed to upsell every customer, which causes confusion and doubt, and thus stalls the process:

“Would you like to upgrade the popcorn to a large? It’s only 75¢ more and becomes refillable!” (3 seconds lost). “Uh… how big is the large?” (2 seconds) “It’s the tub you can see right there, it’s an additional 40 ounces of popcorn.” (4 more seconds lost) “Uh…” [to wife] “What do you think?” [Wife stares at price list, sizes of popcorn displayed.] “I dunno, seems like a lot.” (20 seconds lost) “Yeaahhh… I guess we could do a large.”

Great, I earned the company 75 more cents. Meanwhile, literally, and I mean I counted them myself and confronted management with these numbers, a dozen whole people are leaving the concession stand because the line is too long and moving too slow. To get 75 additional cents from one customer, our upsell script was sacrificing at least $50 in potential revenues from a dozen customers.

And these genius MBAs thought they could solve that problem by putting a timer on the POS terminal and telling us to try to average less than 2min / sale, which is another among a long list of proofs I’ve had that MBA middle managers are aliens who have never shopped for themselves because they clearly don’t understand that no employee ever has control of how fast humans move through a retail line. Human speed is ALWAYS the limit of commerce, and businesspeople hate human speed. The only way to speed things up is automation, never coercion. You can tell an intelligent businessman by their recognition of that basic fact.

Anyway, people want snacks during their movies. They do. They aren’t buying them because the lines are too long and the sizes are too big. Make smaller options and move the line along, and people will enjoy getting snacks more. Consider “budget” items to make people feel good about spending less on shared snacks.

Meanwhile, I’ve never seen this an issue an an indie theatre. Their sizes are always reasonable, their prices more reasonable as a result, and whereas there’s some back-of-line attrition inevitable for rush blocks, I attest that attrition rate is far, far lower.

Photo by Kyle Smith on Unsplash

2. “Third Spaces”

Sophie had an interesting discussion about how movie theatres need to open up more lobby space for people to mill and discuss the movie:¹

Remember hanging in the lobby, debating whether the ending made sense, or whether that was actually Willem Dafoe in a background scene? Gone.

You know… I don’t, actually? The lobby was never the place I stopped to talk about the movie, and the places where I see the movies I most want to chat about — indie theatres — tend not to have that much lobby space. IFC Center, my favorite cinema in Manhattan, actually shuttles you out of the lobby as soon as they can, spilling members, NYU students, and people like me right into the streets to stand around and have our discussions. The Guild Cinema in Albuquerque, NM, has only enough lobby space to really hold about five people. Again, the discussion goes to the street.

OR… more accurately… the discussion goes to the nearby bar, coffee shop, restaurant, or park.

When I was growing up in the East Mountains outside of Albuquerque, the closest movie theatre was United Artist’s Four Hills right at the corner of town, in one of those gridded shopping centers that surrounded a vast parking lot. Across from the UA Four Hills cinema was a Dion’s Pizza and next to it was a Hollywood Video. Catty-corner was a supermarket. So the flow was, on some Saturdays, we’d go to a movie, eat lunch at Dion’s, go to Hollywood Video and rent some more movies, then hit up the supermarket for groceries and head home.

Movie discussion time was pizza time.

I’m under the impression that movie theatre chains are building out entire entertainment centers to lure audiences back. Basically having lost the retail opportunity grab of malls, theaters are figuring they can at least become entertainment complexes. This is exactly the sort of thing that grouchy cinephiles tend to get brittle about (“Films are NOT videogames and I don’t want the sound of bowling alleys over my head!”) but I’m totally for it. I fucking love arcades and bowling. I’ll absolutely catch a flick and then discuss it while knocking pins down afterward.

But, I hope in all this rush to expand entertainment options, these developers are smart enough to consider relatively quiet, calm café and bar annexes to movie theatres. Places for people to wait for the movie to start or go afterward to have some dessert and chat.

Again, this is something indie theatres have figured out. Alamo Drafthouse and Nitehawk not only has their in-theatre dining service but attached, themed bars. Film at Lincoln Center and Metrograph have cocktail bars, and Metrograph’s has a book store nook. The Guild in Albuquerque has no space to attach coffee or beer, but literally everyone who goes there knows the proper post-screening discussion place is Tractor Brewery right across the street.

If I were to design a movie theatre in this day and age, I’d look to casinos. At the base are games and courts and bowling, the upper levels would have the auditoria, and the top levels would have cafés and dining options.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

3. Car Services

Okay. Cars are increasingly electric. There’s been no end of ink and digital bits spilled over “How do we charge these things quickly and efficiently?” And those articles keep getting stuck on the idea of how a gas station functions and how THEY have to change everything around and invest and build and add fast food services or little playgrounds or whatever so that people can tolerate hanging out at a gas station.

Dude, why haven’t AMC and Regal theatres outright partnered with electric car companies directly to say, “Hey, you know how it takes two hours to charge your car? Why not catch a movie?” Electric car owner discounts, people. Hook up your Leaf,² get 20% off ticket prices and a free small popcorn with a little ‘charging’ QR code that generates on an app.

Movie theatres and electric cars have the exact same problem: they have to have parking, and a lot of it, for several straight hours. Build some fuckin’ charging stations into those parking lots, man!

Simple. Elegant. Straightforward.

The fact theatre chains have slept on this… Oy. The fact car manufacturers have slept on this. I mean c’mon people.

But also, you know, I’ve always thought a ‘location location location’ thing to consider would be a movie theatre and a car repair shop sharing a parking lot. Drop off your car for maintenance, go see a movie. Even a carwash, wax, and oil change service would be good. There’s just a heck of a lot of make car work that also causes wait around without transportation for literally the length of a feature film.

Just put two and two together.

Photo by Michael Marais on Unsplash

4. Merch Tables

We all know at this point that the larger amount of profitability and income from mainstream, particularly franchise, movies is the merchandising. One could cynically even state that these movies are elaborate, 2hr45min long commercials for toys. I wouldn’t recommend the industry as a whole devolve to such cynicism, but I will say this:

Last year, when I watched I Saw the TV Glow, one of my biggest takeaways was that I must have the soundtrack. And this year, it happened again when I saw Sinners. These movies reminded me of how “the original motion picture soundtrack” was a frequent add-on to the overall culture and experience of the films, at least back in the ‘90s.

I could go on a tangent about how the soundtrack seemed to decline in relative importance and what that means to cinematic storytelling either way (I mean, I don’t necessarily want movies to be elaborate music videos any more than I want them to be elaborate toy commercials), but I think a major drop-off in that synergy came from the decline of home video on VHS and DVD. Those home videos had the commercials for the soundtrack on them, which helped reinforce the idea “Did this movie vibe with you? Well, you can keep that vibe going with this playlist, available at your local record store!”

Anyway all this is to say, when you go to a concert, the bands typically have their records available to buy. It’s an add-on to how the performers manage to earn income from touring. I don’t see why movies can’t do that too.

The movie theatres understand merchandising for themed popcorn tubs and collectible cups, but why not sell shirts? The printed screenplays? The OTS on CD and vinyl? Those weird bobble-head looking toys that are overtaking game store real estate like kudzu?

Or! Here’s where I get crazy, but…. hear me out…. Or! The Blu-Ray of the movie?

Yeah. I mean it. Why not? “Hey, I liked that movie, let’s grab a copy before we head home.” I’m not gonna lie, many a movie I walk out on thinking “Man, I want to own this on BluRay” and then just don’t get around to it.

This notion is the sort that would probably scare the chains and the distributors because, “If people can just buy the BluRay, why would they watch the film?” But that’s the thing: like concessions, the margins on BluRays are high. It costs pennies to print them, they sell MSRP for like $50.³ And you could tier the release so that the BluRays are exclusive to theatre merchandise shops before they release to retail at a cheaper price, if you must.

This is, again, yet another thing that the indie people have already figured out. Hundreds of Beavers is still touring around indie theatres, but now has BluRays to sell at the events (in addition to the tee-shirts and other things).

I’m telling you, if the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack was sitting available to buy right outside the auditorium when I was leaving, if the Sinners BluRay was chilling in the lobby when my friends and I were leaving right after, I would have bought them right then and there. However, I still don’t own the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack because the opportunity for impulse buying passed by.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

5. Themed Screenings

None of the above seem to really deal with the experience of watching the movie itself. I acknowledge that. It’s all tweaking around the real-estate footprint of extant or future chain exhibitors to provide additional services to customers. As per my caveats, this is mostly because I’m happy with exhibition as it is and most of my other ideas have more to do with distribution — both distributors and film buyers — than exhibition itself.

However, looking at the opportunity of A Minecraft Movie, exhibitors need to appreciate that there are different rules for different sort of films.

Sometimes sober, quiet adults want to contemplate an immersive story with a minimum of distractions. Sometimes kids want to scream in excitement and throw popcorn at the screen. Sometimes horror fans want to shout “He’s behind you!” at the screen. Sometimes people enjoy having a Q&A or supplemental material afterward. Sometimes people want a release night event where they can dress up as their favorite characters and wait in line until the magical 11:59pm first ever view in history. Sometimes, particularly Sunday afternoons, it’s a church group that just got out and they’re largely elderly and quiet people who just want a light comedy.

We also need to return midnight movies and double-features to cinemas.

There needs to be more experimentation here, and more leaning-in on spontaneity. Alamo Drafthouse made itself famous by clamping down against talking in the movie theatre, but now offers “talk-back” screenings.

I have a whole different post, which hopefully fits into a similar challenge like this about distribution, about expanding the concept of what cinema actually is, because audiences, exhibitors, and a few too many turgid cinephiles are a little too stuck on the “everyone quietly absorbed in a high definition presentation of an illusion of movement.” This is not only not the way cinema has always been exhibited historically, it’s not even true in much of the world. In Korea, people slurp noodles while watching movies. In India, they dance to the music and loudly cheer the action.

This transition would be difficult to achieve. American domestic consumers have a specific interpretation of what the moviegoing experience is, and some of what I’m pitching here is exactly the opposite of what they want. The default presentation format really ought to be everyone sits down, shuts up, and collectively hallucinates memorable dreams. But you don’t get new members to the church of cinema by caring more about the rules of behavior than the content of the sermon.

What I noticed is that movie theatres have already started some adjustments that they communicate well. One is Open Captions screenings, which have burnt-in subtitles. It’s a simple choice that opens up some screenings to new audiences and is communicated directly in the website or app or marquee with “(Open Captions)” added after the title.

We also have the premium exhibition alternatives: 4DX, IMAX, 70mm, etc. Also communicated well.

So just add a parenthetical: Sinners (Talk-back) at 3:00pm, Sinners (Sing-Along Captions) at 5:30pm. A Minecraft Movie (playtime) vs. A Minecraft Movie (family-friendly). Play around with (Lower volume) for those, like me, who don’t like fearing for my hearing whenever an explosion hits — I need my hearing for work! Figure out what fits for which audience. Most after-work movies and Friday and Saturday night releases should be mainstream, but kids stuff can be weekend matinees and quieter exhibition can be for the retirees that show up on Tuesday mornings.

Similarly, schedule around this stuff. Hire additional theatre crew to clean up after Minecraft, but less to clean up after Black Bag. There’s simply never going to be as much popcorn on the ground of a Black Bag screening as a Minecraft one, ever. Run a temporary concession stand right outside the doors of a double-feature so that viewers can restock, but no need to staff it during matinees. Stock that temp stand with alcohol for Midnight Madness.

Hire hype people to show up before a new release and build the audience up for the feature presentation. Create “influencer friendly” screening blocks where people can take selfies of themselves with the title screen or big moment behind them⁴.

Movies are many different things to many different people and so just as diversity and novelty of content matters in getting people to return, making clear opportunities for the experience matters.

The second difficulty in this is that innovating around how people enjoy their narrative hallucinations still requires some commitment to respecting the values of the movie itself. We can’t lose the core of what the movie format does and means to people, and end up destroying the opportunity to simply sit back and enjoy a good story well told because the movie theatre is insisting this is the time kids should scream or teenagers should snap a photo.

But I am saying that different movies have different audiences and cinemas act like they must all be presented in the same way. This is not the case. I guarantee you my screening of Sinners would have been improved if people actually knew it was okay to pound their feet in rhythm to the music — you could feel them wanting to and holding back because it isn’t the proper behavior for a movie theatre. I actually saw a few people start to clap along with the music at one point and then stop themselves. If everyone in the screening was on board and knew this was the screening where you could, I’m pretty sure all of us would have had a riotous time clapping and stomping and dancing along to Coogler’s testimonial to the power of music to do exactly that.

Movie theatres need to pay more attention to how audiences want to move.

Photo by Zhifei Zhou on Unsplash

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To read my previous film essays:

To watch some of my own movies:

1. Sophie’s posts on this subject seem to be what incited Ted Hope to pitch this specific Hope for Film Challenge.

2. Your humble writer here specifically moved to New York to avoid owning cars and is an advocate for walkable cities, so this is not a sponsored post for Nissan. I merely cited the first electric car that came to mind that doesn’t enrich an outspoken Nazi.

3. No retailer ever sells MSRP but I would argue first-run event-based exclusive releases would get away with it.

4. I mean, whatever. People complain but I always figure it doesn’t matter to the bottom line if someone is buying a ticket for the wrong reason, as long as the ticket is paid for.