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It used to be so easy. I would go to the box office, plunk down my cash, receive a ticket, and go in, and watch the movie. That is how I have been doing it, all my life.
But, like so many other experiences that are being ruined by over complication, movie going has now become one of those.
Not at the Film Forum, where I recently saw "Manhattan." That was fine.
No, I am talking about chain theaters, like the Cinepolis on West 23rd Street, and my practically home grown AMC Lincoln Square, on West 68th Street. Forget the price acceleration; that has become standard, and I am used to that.
But these are public theaters, not movie palaces, as of old. So, where do they get off, acting like they are? On 23rd Street, for several times now, I have been requested to choose a seat on their computer board, before being allowed to enter that theater. Inside, the auditorium is marked with numbers and locations so detailed it would seem "A Chorus Line" was being staged, or rehearsed, there.
Now, wait. Whatever the 23rd Street theater is calling itself--because, as infrequently as I now go, it seems each time it always changes names--it still honors the Thursday night tradition of Chelsea Classics, with Hedda Lettuce! At the last screening of such attended, I won two free passes. It wasn't until "La La Land" I had a reason to use them. But, on the day I went, they refused to honor the freebies, because the chain was now Cinepolis, and I had to pay full price--$16.95!!!!!!!!! Idiots! They knew what theater these freebies came from, and how, why could they just have honored them.
And listen, you morons! As far as choosing a seat, I just press whatever on the board, and then sit where I damn well please! Which is what, I am sure, a good portion of your other attendees are doing! Especially if the screening room is not sold out, or crowded. So, why persist in such bullshit????????????
When I told my beloved, he said, "Well, I guess we won't be going to that theater, often."
Fine. But then, when I went to see "Moonlight," I had the same crap experience with the seating!
The days of Reserved Seat attractions are long gone! That kind of filmmaking, and the audience for it, is a vanishing breed! So, why add insult to injury by alienating patrons who might other wise attend!
Nothing beats seeing a film in its original screen format. But, if chain operations keep implementing such draconian tactics, no one is going to want to come.
And then we will be reduced to just Netflix and High Definition!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 comments:
I wish somebody would start a mass protest movement against this annoying-as-fuck, bastardized return of the "reserved seating" movie theater concept. There's no real reason for it, aside from theater chains deciding it might justify jacking their already-outrageous $14 ticket prices to $16 or $17 last year. Used occasionally as part of an "event" promotion for select films, "reserved seating" could be excused, but it has now spread like a cancer to any and every chain theater.
Foremost, its yet another example of the pernicious influence "smart phones" and "apps" have had on human behavior. The mass addiction to doing everything via an app has wrecked nearly every last vestige of fun and spontaneity in the world. The "reserved seating" bullshit is mere pandering to this mindset. God *forbid* these device-addled putzes stand in line for five minutes or less to buy a ticket at the theater cashier or vending machines: oh. no- they need to buy their tix at 10am for the 10pm show while riding the bus to work, thus screwing over anyone who likes to just randomly decide to see a film. Never mind that it forces you to bring infrared binoculars to assist in locating your assigned seat.
This in itself might be worked around, but it unfortunately compounds other unpleasant aspects of modern "human nature" (i.e., most people today are nasty discourteous scumbags). Heaven help you if you wind up confronted by our precious entitled "white trash" or "minority" brothers and sisters (and you will, at least 50% of the time). They'll never cordially tell you you're accidentally sitting in "their" seats, its always a traumatizing sideshow. And good luck if its the reverse: they're in your ticketed seat, smirking at you, daring you to say something. No, better you should sit in the extreme left of the front row with the edge of the screen hitting you in the teeth. For $17, yet. At this point, Hollywood is just begging us to buy a 60" HDTV and pirate them to death for home viewing.
If things keep going in this direction,
moviegoing will be obsolete, and the artistry of
film--seeing a really good one on screen--will
be lost forever. But who is going to care? I
certainly hope this does not happen in my
lifetime, as I do not look forward to it.
I would like to see this gimmick fail, and the
theaters going back to before. But then they
will most likely come up with something even worse.
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