Theaters Try to Adjust to Increasing Competition from Other Formats

When I was a kid entertainment options were not as vast and varied as they are today. You could listen to some music or a ballgame on the radio or watch one of four broadcast channels on the TV. Or you could go to one of several neighborhood movie houses, or grindhouses, to catch a movie. The movies were usually second run and either westerns or horror movies. Usually there was a matinee and a double feature. The theaters were small; dinghy and dark, with a concession stand up front and a row of vending machines inside the auditorium right behind the seats. The vending machines were cheaper than buying your snacks and goodies from the concession stand. The soda machine was one of those that mixed the soda water and the syrup into a small paper cup that always came out sideways and you'd lose half of the soda before you could get it righted again. Your mother warned you not to lean your head back against the seat because there was a danger of head lice and your feet usually stuck to the syrup-laden floor. It was usually a good idea to sit up in the balcony because there might be other children up there willing to spill something onto your head right in the middle of the movie.

Now, according to an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, (www.stltoday.com) we have a lot more choices. We can watch a movie on our computer, order one through pay-per-view, have one delivered through the mail with NetFlix, Tivo one from cable, watch one on our video IPod, load one onto our cellphone, or get one on Blu-ray. All these choices have definitely affected attendance at the theaters. In 1947, because most people got their news from newsreels, movie attendance in the U.S. reaches 4.1 billion. In 1958, the number of drive-in theaters peaks at 5,000. Cable movies started in 1972 with HBO. In 1975-76, the VHS and Betamax formats were introduced. VHS wins out by 1980. In 1992, Americans spent $12 billion to rent videotapes as opposed to box office sales of $4.9 billion. In 2003, DVD rentals topped VHS rentals for the first time and studios stopped recording movies in the VHS format. Now in 2008, it looks like the Blu-ray format will make DVD's obsolete.

Movie theaters are trying to recapture some of their lost audience by making the movie going experience different. Some are offering smaller venues with more comfortable seating and alcoholic beverages. For me, however, nothing can beat the experience of seeing a movie on the big screen like it was meant to be seen, even if the film is grainy and the person in front of you is wearing a cowboy hat and talking too loud.