I just saw Pirates 3 which was about three hours with trailers. I got to thinking about how long movies affect various aspects of going to the movies.
Movie watchers.
-more bang for their buck (literally in Pirates)
-sometimes have to miss part of movie (or hold it) to go to the washroom.
-some may forgo going to the theatre because the movie is so long. That was one of the problems with Grindhouse.
Movie Theatres
-long movies tend to be blockbusters which are usually good for concessions sales, they don't call 'em popcorn movies for nothing.
-fewer shows per day which means less income.
-late shows that start and run really late increasing staff costs. Pirates 3 ended at 1am.
Western Film.
-We usually only have one show a night with a long film, no late show. We can't push our start time any later than 10pm, it never works. This reduces our staff costs but also reduces any income we might have had from a late show of a different movie.
-If I do run a long movie for a late show it increases costs, occasionally even to the point of paying for a taxi home for staff if the movie ends after the buses stop running.
-long movies are a pain in the .. back. A 3 hour film weighs about 100 pounds.
2 comments:
100 lbs??? Never knew those reels weigh those much...would the movies shot digitally be almost weightless (weight of a disc)?
The digital movies will initially be shipped on a hard drive which weighs little. The movies are 500-600 GB so it would have to have a high capacity.
Personally I think the movies will end up being downloaded from satellite or possibly the internet. Shipping hard drives around will cause too many problems with lost or damaged drives.
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