The Devil Wears Prada Theater Uniforms
So....Molly and I went to a Gen Arts event last night that was showing The Devil Wears Prada starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and everyone's favorite Entourager Adrian Grenier. The movie was really good! Meryl Streep plays, looks and is dressed like Cruella De Vil and I couldn't get it out of my mind. What a fantastic role for her!
This is the first movie I have seen in a theater in a long time. As anyone can tell you, I am a HUGE movie fan. I probably own about 175 DVDs. I have HBO and Cinemax. I have been known to watch Pay-Per-View [though, RCN's pay-per-view BLOWS!] I was really looking forward to not only getting to see the movie before its general release, but to really enjoy the movie experience. I am a sucker for a large popcorn and large soda, even though the mark up is so huge. I was really excited.
We arrive at the theater and decide to get seats prior to my getting popcorn. As we are heading into the theater, there are 3 security guards at the entrance. "Wow, they are being really strict since none of us have tickets only a stamp," I thought to myself. As we walk forward, the first woman states that she has to search Molly's purse. "That's weird," I thought. Molly brought a bottle of water into the theater; we were both worried that they wouldn't allow the water in. Nope. No problem with the water.
The next guard asks to see our mobile phones and won't let us into the theater with them on. We must shut them off before he will let us in. Huh? Ummmm....ok. Whatever. I believe that I am responsible enough to set it to silent, but whatever.
The final guard has a metal detector wand and basically searches us prior to letting us in. Across my pants and shirt. Across Molly's bag and her dress. "WTF?" Molly is pretty confused at this point but we head to our seats.
I explain that these are some of the new experiences that the movie studios are providing for us. See, they don't actually like us or respect us that much. They don't really understand that our coming to watch the movie in a theater is for the experience. The smell of the popcorn. The huge seats. The huge screen. The booming sounds. They think that it is just about seeing Meryl Streep. About us dreaming to be movie stars.
I continue that movie studios think that we are all criminals and are all trying to steal their content. They don't actually get that I will pay for this content many different times (DVD, Cable, Pay-Per-View) and have coughed up the additional money for this screening because I coming for the experience. I am a 33 year old professional, working my ass off to create value in a startup and won't sneak a video camera into a theater to create a less than optimal copy of content. Unfortunately, the movie studios don't agree and would rather treat me like I am heading into a high security vault or a jail.
But, hey. It's not about the experience in their mind, right? It's about the IP rights.
No worries, though. We got in early enough for good seats (whew, at least security created a little bit of a line so there was less competition for the good seats). So I head back out to get my popcorn and soda. Yum. Almost $10 for a large bag and a large Coke. I am guessing that their cost, minus salary, is around $.10-.18 for the goods, but hey, it is for the experience, right? No worries. I love the smell. Mmmmm...makes my saliva swirl in my mouth right now as I type this!
As I head back into the theater, I am subjected to the tests again. Metal detector. Phone. Etc.
This time I wasn't as cool with it.
I stopped to let the guard know that:
It is a shame that the business model of the movie studios is inflexible and out of date. Hence, their inability to adjust to a world where content is readily available on multiple devices and from multiple sources has led to the theaters losing the one advantage that they have over my living room: the experience. I have paid all of this money to come re-experience Hollywood: smells, grandeur, dreams, and escape. Instead, I feel like I have paid for the experience to feel like a criminal. I suggest that as a theater employee, you should be concerned for your job as you are turning away loyal fans because the movie studios don't care about me and take away the only
During the movie, the wonderful experiences persisted. As enjoyed the excellent acting, wonderful story and beautiful women on the screen, I was distracted by movement on my left and right. There were devils in Pradasecurity uniforms paroling the theater staring at us. I have called the theater to check this out, but my assumption is that they were looking for anyone using a recording device. At least they were consistent in degrading the experience.
I will really stop and have to consider the next time that I am interested in going to the theater. That is a disappointment to me as I value my memory of the experience. Unfortunately, my memories are not the same as the reality.
In the end, I suggest that you check out The Devil Wears Prada on DVD or on cable. Really a good flick! However, the experience at your movie theater may prove to be a bit more disappointing to that of your living room. Unless you live in San Quentin.
technorati tags:The Devil Wears Prada, Movie, AMC 1000, Movie Studios, Movie Studios Suck, Movie Studios Suck Balls, Movie Studios Suck Balls and make me feel like a criminal, Meryl Streep
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15 Comments:
I think it depends upon the type of movie theater you attend. I've had good experiences at bar-theater combinations. And at revival houses. But you're right: the first run big corporate-owned megaplexes suck balls.
I keep reading these articles about how the theatres are losing business yearly for lack of a good product. Every time I read one I send a mail back to the author about their misplaced reasoning in attributing the decline in movie attendance to the product available. I relay pretty much the same list you did including pricing, treatment, enviornment, rude and loud customers in the auditorium and 1im5 nutes of those annoying commercials.
In the 10 plus mails I have sent out over the last year I have had zero responses or acknowledgement on any of them.
Outside of the occasional Imax film (not a movie - an actual film made for Imax) I have not been to a movie theatre in four years.
With todays multiplex chains, one to two week turnover on films and an auditorium that resembles a high school gym painted black I realize that the days of my youth in dark grand theatres (large and small) experiencing a movie with an appreciative crowd in rapt attention will never happen again. I could even accept today's costs if I felt this was a unique and enjoyable experience. Instead I feel like a cow being herded off to slaughter.
At this point my only comment is "bring on the DVD and theatre release at the same time" because I am never going to step into a theatre to see a first run movie again.
Phil Gray
I keep reading these articles about how the theatres are losing business yearly for lack of a good product. Every time I read one I send a mail back to the author about their misplaced reasoning in attributing the decline in movie attendance to the product available. I relay pretty much the same list you did including pricing, treatment, enviornment, rude and loud customers in the auditorium and 1im5 nutes of those annoying commercials.
In the 10 plus mails I have sent out over the last year I have had zero responses or acknowledgement on any of them.
Outside of the occasional Imax film (not a movie - an actual film made for Imax) I have not been to a movie theatre in four years.
With todays multiplex chains, one to two week turnover on films and an auditorium that resembles a high school gym painted black I realize that the days of my youth in dark grand theatres (large and small) experiencing a movie with an appreciative crowd in rapt attention will never happen again. I could even accept today's costs if I felt this was a unique and enjoyable experience. Instead I feel like a cow being herded off to slaughter.
At this point my only comment is "bring on the DVD and theatre release at the same time" because I am never going to step into a theatre to see a first run movie again.
Phil Gray
Brian,
I agree with you that the movie theater experience has gone downhill of late. As someone who runs an independent theater (The ImaginAsian in NYC), and a 9-year veteran of AMC Theaters, let me explain...
-Regarding the security- I think metal detectors and walking up and down the aisles is pushing it, but those measures were there because you were seeing a pre-release screening. In this industry, piracy is definitely an issue. Most studios know that at some point, when a film is in 3,000 theaters, someone's going to get a camcorded copy in. That they can't control. But for a pre-release screening, things are trickier- should someone make a bootleg of one of those (and believe me- people try, and it's not Joe Average off the street- this is a business for some), it will be available before the release, and that can seriously impact business. A good example is Soul Plane (ok, good being relative)- someone bootlegged a screening two months in advance, and by the time the movie came out, the target audience had seen it already, and the movie did about 30% of the expected business. Still, metal detectors and guards? That's a bit much. You can now purchase an ultraviolet strobe to place above the screen- you can't see it with your eyes, but it blinds 99% of camcorders and makes bootlegs unwatchable.
-You're dead right about the popcorn and soda. You have to price it a little high, because for every $1 you spend on a ticket, at least .50 and as much as .90 for new releases goes right back to the studio. So theaters only make money on food. Still, supply and demand says you'll sell 40 at $2 or 20 at $4, and you only lose a little bit by going to $2. That's what we did, and it works out quite well.
I think the theater industry can blame pirates all they want, but that the real problem is people hate paying $40 to stand in line for hours for a subpar experience. As operator of a single-screen arthouse, what we've done is create a place where you may actually WANT to go, rather than have to. This isn't hard-
-Add lots more time between movies so there's no lines.
-Pay your staff well enough so that they learn about the movies, and are friendly to talk to. Give them internet at the concession stand, so they can research movies and stars they're unfamiliar with.
-Let people hang out in the lobby! Tables & chairs, free internet kiosks, free coffee refills- people love it, and it doesn't cost much. We actually have regular customers who will come just to get a cup of coffee ($1.30 less than Starbucks, thanksverymuch) and check email.
-Eliminate the 20 minutes of ads prior to each show. We have to sell a few video ads to break even, but we play them BEFORE showtime, and keep the volume low so that you can talk during them if you wish. Our movies start exactly at showtime, which actually throws people off- they don't expect it, so we had to post several signs.
-Don't make people feel like they're a "number". Answer their questions, talk to them after the show, help them out.
Theaters can be a lot better, it just takes a little bit of imagination. Sadly, that's lacking at a lot of chains, which view their theaters as big giant cash machines.
You realize of course, that the additional security was because you were seeing an advance screening, right? Maybe it's because you don't go to the movies much that you don't realize that this is not the norm. I go to ~25 movies a year (largely at AMC theaters) and I've never seen anything like what you describe. If you had gone to see the movie during it's regular run, your experience would likely have been what you are used to.
Not that I'm totally excusing the guard's behavior, but perhaps you want to take all of the circumstances into account before you make sweeping generalizations about the movie industry.
My guess is that the SS/Gestapo was due to the fact that this was a early screening. The interesting thing to note tho, is nearly 100% of all movie copies now originate in countries outside the U.S. So the MPAA should stop shipping their movies overseas and then they wouldn't have to worry about illegal copies.
I have been to only four movies in theaters in the last four, no, make that seven, years, and I still enjoy the experience, the only reason to go. It's a dying form of entertainment. You've been boingboing'd, by the way, so expect some comments.
Sorry but I think some of your comments are ridiculous and show that you really haven't seen a movie in years.
At most theaters it is fairly common to never see any staff walking around during a film which means you are subject to various "truly' annoying things. Stuff like people talking on their cellphones, idiots commenting on every little thing that happens in the film, the old laser pointer on the screen, recording the film, etc. It gets tiring having to yell at people or get up and leave the film to get a staffer to handle these constant issues. What you went through sounds like nothing.
Yeah I wish for the old days when people didn't act like they were in their living rooms, but it appears those times are long dead. Sucks.
Dude, I think it's important to differentiate between the security guards, which were from the movie studio, and the rest of the theatregoing experience, which is from the theatre. You do realize that if you see a movie that's been publicly released, you don't get the security shakedown, right?
I don't disagree with you that the movie theatre-going experience isn't what it used to be, and that the studios are pretty boneheaded about fighting piracy (though nowhere near as boneheaded as the record companies), but the security was your tradeoff for getting to see the movie before the rest of the general public.
Look at rock concerts; they've been frisking people at rock shows at least as far back as when I was a tennager, 15 years ago.
Another comment via e-mail: Hey dude! Listen. I rewrote your blog for you to make it more efficient and readable: Here it is:
Blah blah blah....blah blah. We went to the movies and a big bad security man annoyed us by telling us what to do. Blah. He wanded us. I went into a crazy techie rant. Blah blah blah.
See ain't that better?
From dave srigley
I was at that same GenArt screening and I have to say I had a very different experience as did the three friends I attended with. First we were all well aware that it was indeed an advance screening so we weren't surprised at the stringent security. If this had been a movie that had already been released then yes it would have been ridiculous treatment and I think it's entirely irresponsible of you to not note that this was a special ADVANCED screening anywhere in your blog. I think the people there actually handled the large crowd in a very efficient manner, we didn't have to spend too long standing in line and nobody was rude to us. But perhaps that's because we did not go out of our way to berate or insult the people who were simply doing their job. Furthermore, I was too busy enjoying the movie to pay attention to people walking up and down the aisles which happens regulary in movies anyway. Do you also plan on posting about people who get up and go to the bathroom during movies thereby ruining your apparently very entitled movie experience? I do agree that movie concessions do seem to be expensive but that's why I simply don't buy them I mean they do advertise their prices before you buy them. You had a choice not to partake.
Sorry but I think you're totally out of line on this one.
dylan,
your movie theatre sounds amazing. I wish I lived near it. No, in it!
I went to a major theatre for the first time in years because I had a 2-for-1 coupon. Total price for two tickets? $20.
And then followed the rest of the Movie-Theatre-sucking-balls experience.
It's also worth noting that, with a handful of notable exceptions, they stopped building single-screen movie palaces by 1970, and the really ornate ones generally date from decades before *that*. From 1970 through the early 1990s, the standard new movie theater built did indeed suck balls. This was the age of "shoebox" movie theaters, often 4-plexes or 6-plexes, often wedged inside shopping malls, with horrible sightlines and zero charm whatsoever. In the 1990s they finally started building theatres that were at least designed well, with stadium seating closer to a wider screen, improved sound systems, etc. In that sense, at least, theatres built within the last decade are generally much better than anything except an old-time movie palace retrofitted with modern equipment.
Another change is that with so many more screens and such an emphasis on first-weekend box office, you generally have far more options today on when and where to see a major Hollywood release than you did 15 years ago. On the one hand, obviously, this is far more convenient for the consumer. But on the other hand, seeing a movie on opening night is much less of an "event" than it was back when the new blockbuster everyone had been anticipating was playing only at the one best theater in town, and you had to wait in line all morning to buy tickets.
And yes, we didn't get bombarded with 20 minutes of commercials before the film those days. But again, an important distinction should be made between trailers for upcoming attractions and ads for other products. In general, people enjoy watching the upcoming attractions. But they don't like being sold Sprite.
The business model of movie theaters has been pretty much unchanged for decades, too. They make the bulk of their money off of the concessions stand, not the price of admission.
I feel the same way as anybody else about jerk-offs disrupting movies by talking, kicking seats, etc. I go to the movies a lot, and these problems are usually minimal, but occasionally they are disruptive, as are technical problems with the picture, lighting, or sound. I worked in a movie theatre from 1990-1991, and I feel in general that standards are down in the movie exhibition business as far as things like customer service, crowd control, ushers, etc. In other words, generally the problem is *not enough* security (i.e., ushers), not too little.
There are some theaters with premium service, like the Arclight in Hollywood, with much better standards for these things.
wow, people are really up in arms about this post - ha! well, i'm with you, brian - sounds like a lot of security and annoying for sure. it's like slims & the fillmore checking our bags, like we're packin' heat. silly. but then again, reading over the other people's comments, i'm also not in the film industry and so i had no idea about the racket around bootlegging. ah well... such is life and our getting used to the ch-ch-changes.
Hi, I know this is old... and I found this while searching around for "theatre uniforms" to see if I could see what others are wearing these days...
I myself am a theatre employee. I am honestly... astonished at what you say. Other than signs, I don't think we've given a second thought to piracy. (My personal take is that it's going to make it to the internet somehow. Who cares!)
You can't blame the employees or guards for what you experience. If anything, please PLEASE blame the company. Theatre companies are by far the most selfish of any job I've held, and that includes department stores. Take it from someone who has to pay bills on minimum wage, at a job where I usually do food service, janitorial detail, and, during particularly understaffed times, ticket sales as well... it's not a fun job, and I have no control over it. Don't like the rules? I'm sorry. But I have to enforce them--otherwise I lose my job.
Of course, I also work at 2 nice, laid back theatres, one of which is historical and gorgeous -- but we don't make enough money to get our company to notice that we haven't had a new soda machine since 1984 and the popcorn machines are probably from the same time. Nor that there are things that need to be repaired. Updates that need to happen. None of that matters because we don't make money.
But, I love my job.
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