MPAA Rakes in Record Amounts of Cash

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
I could have sworn the MPAA said the economic downturn and piracy were killing the movie industry. Ticket prices are at an all-time high and the industry is set to shatter revenue records again…someone explain to me how this is possible?

At least so far, theater owners have gotten away with the biggest year-to-year increases in ticket prices ever -- with average admission costs spiraling upward more than 40 cents in 2010, or over 5 percent. Meanwhile, attendance has stayed largely flat, dropping less than 1 percent, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.
Click to expand...
 
Actually, I'm looking forward to the death of the movie theater.
 
The closest theatre to my house changed to a $1 admission fee a few months back.

Before that, there was hardly anybody ever there. Since they changed to $1, it is usually pretty busy.

They don't show brand new releases... usually the movies have already been out for at least a couple weeks or so.

They make most of their money from the way overpriced food and drinks they sell.... none of which I waste my money on.
 
ICOM said:
Actually, I'm looking forward to the death of the movie theater.
Click to expand...

Your city's theaters must suck. Here in Kansas City, everyone has digital projectors giving stunning picture quality. Sound is also fantastic.

I couldn't come close to competing with that for less than $15,000 in equipment, not including a room acoustically designed for a theater. Even then, that system wouldn't be as good as the AMC theater around here. And I only have to pay $5/ticket Monday through Thursday.
 
Steve said:
I could have sworn the MPAA said the economic downturn and piracy were killing the movie industry. Ticket prices are at an all-time high and the industry is set to shatter revenue records again…someone explain to me how this is possible?
Click to expand...

Avatar and other 3-d film's inflated prices?
 
IRSmurf said:
Your city's theaters must suck. Here in Kansas City, everyone has digital projectors giving stunning picture quality. Sound is also fantastic.

I couldn't come close to competing with that for less than $15,000 in equipment, not including a room acoustically designed for a theater. Even then, that system wouldn't be as good as the AMC theater around here. And I only have to pay $5/ticket Monday through Thursday.
Click to expand...


I don't think it's the equipment but the atmosphere. 90% of the time I go to the theater, I hate it. Granted I'm in Canada but I've been to a good majority of the theaters in the Greater Toronto Area and it's all the same problem. It's the people.

They're obnoxious and disrespectful. Not just the kids (re: mostly teens) but adults alike, making noise at random and running around. Flashing likes and noises ringing from their cell phones and other gadgets. Or laughing or making jokes when the scene is serious. It ruins the movie. The ticket prices are pretty much up there and heaven forbid you want to snack or drink something. I often have to smuggle stuff in just so I don't break the bank.

Anyway, everything is cumulative and I am tired of the theaters in that regard. Back on topic though. MPAA/RIAA just spin the whole doom and gloom stuff but they never provide solid data to back it up.
 
So, nothing has changed in the piracy world as far as I know. How will they explain this?
 
Term-X said:
Anyway, everything is cumulative and I am tired of the theaters in that regard. Back on topic though. MPAA/RIAA just spin the whole doom and gloom stuff but they never provide solid data to back it up.
Click to expand...
Or they feel they haven't made "enough" money, so they bitch about piracy and whatnot.
 
cyclone3d said:
The closest theatre to my house changed to a $1 admission fee a few months back.

Before that, there was hardly anybody ever there. Since they changed to $1, it is usually pretty busy.

They don't show brand new releases... usually the movies have already been out for at least a couple weeks or so.

They make most of their money from the way overpriced food and drinks they sell.... none of which I waste my money on.
Click to expand...

Actually, it works because they are able to make money off of ticket sales at all. The first week or two the movie is out, the theater gets to keep very little of the admission costs - and in some cases none at all. After 4 or 5 weeks, though, they get to keep most of the admission costs. By sticking to movies that have been out a couple of weeks, it means they get to actually make money off of ticket sales.

The entire movie industry has some seriously fucked up economics.
 
We better work harder at downloading movies illegally. Do your part! Download today!
 
Term-X said:
I don't think it's the equipment but the atmosphere. 90% of the time I go to the theater, I hate it. ... It's the people.

They're obnoxious and disrespectful. Not just the kids (re: mostly teens) but adults alike, making noise at random and running around. Flashing likes and noises ringing from their cell phones and other gadgets. Or laughing or making jokes when the scene is serious. It ruins the movie.
Click to expand...

+1

Theaters are charging so much for tickets, maybe they can spend some cash on a preview clip that tells people to STFU and turn their electronice devices OFF. When people pull that crap around me, I turn to them and ask them for my $30 back because THEY messed up the experince I paid for.

It's gotten so bad that despite the fact that we have a stack of paid for passes, we tend to wait for a movie to come out on Blu-ray. Nice big ISF calibrated screen, Audessy calibrated 7.1 sound system and the remote control = I AM IN CONTROL.

Oh yeah and 3-D movies are 99% crap that look just as good in 2-D for $5-7 less a ticket in theaters and WAY less than that on HD at home. SUCK IT Theater Owners!
 
KatalDT said:
So, nothing has changed in the piracy world as far as I know. How will they explain this?
Click to expand...

They wont, they will claim some thing like they should of made more money, or that they lost X amount because of piracy yadda yadda, i wish people would go on strike from seeing movies, the problem is, most people don't even know about piracy and downloading movies, so they stay clueless and think the movies is awesome and worth every penny! Obviously this report proves most people in society these days is brain dead.
 
Term-X said:
I don't think it's the equipment but the atmosphere. 90% of the time I go to the theater, I hate it. Granted I'm in Canada but I've been to a good majority of the theaters in the Greater Toronto Area and it's all the same problem. It's the people.
Click to expand...

being a fellow canadian living slightly over an hour away from toronto, i feel your pain. best way i find to beat it is simple: any popular movie, don't go for at least the first week. most people see the movie within this time so down the road you end up with smaller turnouts and less chance of having to put up with tards.

my wife is great, she'll mouth off the kids playing with cell phones lol.
 
webdev511 said:
+1

Theaters are charging so much for tickets, maybe they can spend some cash on a preview clip that tells people to STFU and turn their electronice devices OFF. When people pull that crap around me, I turn to them and ask them for my $30 back because THEY messed up the experince I paid for.

It's gotten so bad that despite the fact that we have a stack of paid for passes, we tend to wait for a movie to come out on Blu-ray. Nice big ISF calibrated screen, Audessy calibrated 7.1 sound system and the remote control = I AM IN CONTROL.

Oh yeah and 3-D movies are 99% crap that look just as good in 2-D for $5-7 less a ticket in theaters and WAY less than that on HD at home. SUCK IT Theater Owners!
Click to expand...

This is an interesting post.

Most of the movie theaters around me DO have that preview clip that tells you to turn off your devices and keep quiet. And play it multiple times while you're waiting for the movie to start. I thought it was common practice by now. Guess not...

Also, most people I've seen in a theater are NOT messing around all the time, or being loud and obnoxious. Of course, I don't go to the opening night or even weekend of a movie, ever. Maybe that's where all those people like to appear?

And the 3D movie thing is totally your opinion. I love most 3D effects in movies (assuming the base movie is good too), and think that without the theater showing it that way, I'd have to spend multi-thousands just for a tiny bit of that effect (besides the sound system and huge screen). PLUS, it's a freaking choice at most places where I go. If you want it 2D, watch it that way.
 
In my city (Edmonton AB) everyone goes to the giant multiplexes, which are really expensive, like 13 dollars a ticket. These theatres are super crowded and you have to wait in massive lines all the time.

I however choose to go to the downtown theatre with my tickets I buy through AMA, which are 8.80 for a single, or 23.55 for 2 tickets+one big popcorn+ two drinks. This theatre is always really quiet, I can show up to a big movie on opening day 20 minutes ahead of time and easily get in. Now that is the way to watch movies.
 
Obligatory "Fuck the MPAA!"

I refuse to go to any theater other than Cinebarre. Since it opened near me the wife and I have actually gone to more movies. Prices are equal to everwhere else, but with the increased leg room, beer, actually good food, and normally great service, why would I even consider going to a normal theater? Not to mention being 21+ only, I don't have to deal with kids. Only downside is I don't ever just watch a movie, there's always a meal or drinks involved, so going to the movie for 2 quickly becomes a 50$ or more affair.

If they were to increase prices there, I'd probably still go, just because of everything else. I still have free passes to Regal theaters, had them for almost a year now, should give them to my kid cousin, because I'm never going to use them.
 
It wouldn't be so bad if they just admit that they want even more ridiculous amount of money. But it makes them look like a retard when they go on about people losing job and dreams get broken by piracy
 
Although the MPAA, and it cousin, the RIAA, is very quick to the draw in providing you with estimates of how much money it has lost through its estimates of piracy, it's estimates of bootlegging, and it's estimate of "shaky-cam" infringement, you'll notice that when asked to provide an estimate of how much money it should otherwise be making the results are anything but as clear and concise as to how many losses they theoretically incur because of the above-mentioned estimates of said losses.

IE, they don't ever want to state how much money they'd make in a IP-infringement free environment, because they know that should they ever hit those profit numbers then it will be a tacit admission that piracy in all its forms has failed, and generally the industry is reaping its just fiscal desserts as the profit numbers demonstrate. This is a state of affairs that the MPAA, the RIAA, and all the rest of the inbred family, would be loathe to advertise, market, or, especially see: the hitting of a theoretical number of what they could except were piracy a thing of the past.

No, the specter of piracy in all it forms, still gives the recording industry all the ammunition it thinks it will need to sell the notion of "huge losses" to Congressmen, judges, and any other group willing to listen without asking too many deep questions....;) The specter of piracy enables them to keep their pricing higher than it would be in a piracy-free environment (to their honest, non-infringing customers, at the very least), and estimates of how many legitimate sales of their albums might have sold at a legitimate price point is simply among all those other, myriad, thought-provoking questions that the RIAA doesn't consider germane, and won't waste time contemplating.

A weakness? Assuredly. The MPAA, RIAA, and pals, have a very real weakness for not being able to think as their nemeses think! And I predict that will be their undoing in the end, as technologies continue to strengthen to add individuals with eventually sole control of their purchased IP. I think that by the time the MPAA and the RIAA wake up and realize what's happening beneath their very noses, that they will shriek bloody murder all to no avail, because by that time it will be too late. The principle of "IP" belonging chiefly to they who purchase it, as opposed to they who sell it, will become enshrined into law in a sweeping, wide-range of statutes and legislative dictates, that will be hard, very hard, for the RIAA to pierce, let alone set back.

Today we've got a scenario wherein even after they buy exclusive rights to their own copy of IP, as lawfully sold to them by the originally IP owner, consumers of those IPs are considered to have grossly inferior rights of ownership over the said copy than does the original owner of the IP--even long after he has sold it. I think this is changing already before our eyes as indeed it must. So enamored of their rights over the IP they sell, so fixated on those rights, that the MPAA. RIAA, etc., have become virtually blind to the rights of the consumer, rights the consumer obtains by virtue of having lawfully brought his copy of the IP in question.

MPAA, RIAA, essentially wants to keep their cake while eating it, too...;) They want to sell copies of the IP to the public at large, and yet even while selling the ownership rights to consumers, the MPAA, RIAA, is still going to try and tell them what they can do with that IP and what they can't, just as if the MPAA was still the undisputed, 100% owner of that IP. Clearly, the consumer will soon have his day in court, and many pre-conceived notions of the rights of copyright holders versus the rights of those to whom they sell such rights to, will be shattered for all time. It's at that point that consumers will once again assert their ultimate rights over the private property they buy, and it cannot come soon enough for me.
 
I've found the best way to avoid most if not all of the idiots is to go see a movie on a slow weekday night. Everything's cheaper, it's less crowded, and rarely do any idiots show up and try and ruin the movie.
 
wtiger said:
I've found the best way to avoid most if not all of the idiots is to go see a movie on a slow weekday night. Everything's cheaper, it's less crowded, and rarely do any idiots show up and try and ruin the movie.
Click to expand...

Yep. I usually take the lady to midnight showings on weekdays. She's the same as me and hates all the people, so she's happy.
 
One: The "business" people in the MPAA don't understand economics or business.

Two: The movie theaters around me do have the "shut off the annoying crap" clip, but people don't listen to it.

Three: I personally avoid certain theaters because they attract a low-class, noisy clientele that doesn't know how to sit down, be quiet and watch a f---ing movie!
 
IRSmurf said:
Your city's theaters must suck. Here in Kansas City, everyone has digital projectors giving stunning picture quality. Sound is also fantastic.

I couldn't come close to competing with that for less than $15,000 in equipment, not including a room acoustically designed for a theater. Even then, that system wouldn't be as good as the AMC theater around here. And I only have to pay $5/ticket Monday through Thursday.
Click to expand...


QFT

AMC 30 or Town Center, hell even the legends.

Fork & Screen, Cinema Suites, IMAX...the list goes on. I <3 movie theaters. :D
 
WaltC said:
MPAA, RIAA, essentially wants to keep their cake while eating it, too...;) They want to sell copies of the IP to the public at large, and yet even while selling the ownership rights to consumers, the MPAA, RIAA, is still going to try and tell them what they can do with that IP and what they can't, just as if the MPAA was still the undisputed, 100% owner of that IP.
Click to expand...
I like your whole post, but especially this part. Why is the content industry the only one that can sell you something and still tell you what you can and can't do with it? And if you show it on a TV over 55", you're committing a crime.
 
I feel for all you people that have to deal with jerks when you go see a movie at the theatre...

I don't go to the theatre all the time, but there really has only been once or twice I can remember where people were making unnecessary noice during the movie.

And that is including the opening nights of stuff like the newer Star Wars movies, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and a few others I have seen on opening night.
 
Cholula said:
I dl all my movies, fuck the mpaa
Click to expand...

I know way to many people who just dont goto the movies anymore period... most dont even give a shit about downloading a movies from the net... I also know some die hard film fans.. who pay to see a movie.. and buy the dvd or bluray.. spending thousands of dollars a year...have enormous collections of movies... some of the most ridiculous titles imagineable...

And ya know, im fine with that... whatever you decide is your choice...I make my own choice also..

However, what really pisses me off... is if i buy a movie ticket.. then buy the movie on blu ray or dvd.. and... i cant do whatever i want with it...almost every copy on the net thats not a cam was from a PAID FOR copy...so the movie industry is getting its share anyway.. and even CAMS... the people who download them arent going to the movies anyway...

Give it another 10 years... the generation who has grown up with bit torrent will be the ones with families... the older generation will begin dying off.. and with the economy probably being as bad if not worse then... i think most stuff will be downloaded for pennies on the dollar with the blessing of the MPAA, or the MPAA will simply die...
 
cyclone3d said:
I feel for all you people that have to deal with jerks when you go see a movie at the theatre...

I don't go to the theatre all the time, but there really has only been once or twice I can remember where people were making unnecessary noice during the movie.

And that is including the opening nights of stuff like the newer Star Wars movies, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and a few others I have seen on opening night.
Click to expand...

Fucking Harry Potter movies... i loved the books and the movies... but after the last movie i went too... i seriously believe that people should bring tasers for their children... and that teenagers should be maced for not shutting the fuck up.. especially females...soemthing about teenage girls and yapping in theatres...on their cell phones.. with their 10 girlfriends...just shut the fuck up...

I wont be seeing the last two in the theatres...how i see them, however, is my choice.. :)
 
SS_Wehrwolf said:
I know way to many people who just dont goto the movies anymore period... most dont even give a shit about downloading a movies from the net... I also know some die hard film fans.. who pay to see a movie.. and buy the dvd or bluray.. spending thousands of dollars a year...have enormous collections of movies... some of the most ridiculous titles imagineable...

And ya know, im fine with that... whatever you decide is your choice...I make my own choice also..

However, what really pisses me off... is if i buy a movie ticket.. then buy the movie on blu ray or dvd.. and... i cant do whatever i want with it...almost every copy on the net thats not a cam was from a PAID FOR copy...so the movie industry is getting its share anyway.. and even CAMS... the people who download them arent going to the movies anyway...

Give it another 10 years... the generation who has grown up with bit torrent will be the ones with families... the older generation will begin dying off.. and with the economy probably being as bad if not worse then... i think most stuff will be downloaded for pennies on the dollar with the blessing of the MPAA, or the MPAA will simply die...
Click to expand...


do you have a point? cause it sounds like you're just rambling incoherent thoughts. you're actually upset that when somebody uploads a rip that it was from a paid for copy? you do realize the movie industry needs revenue to make more movies right? the only thing worse than the RIAA and MPAA whining and justifying their actions are when pirates whine and complain.
 
Me and a buddy actually try to make it to the theaters queit often. The one thats about 30min away is really nice.

But it is hard to afford the ticket price sometimes, and we always sneak food in except for drinks.
 
Vampires Suck was written, filmed and edited in a record amount of time and kicked ass at the box office. I just wanted to mention that.
 
IRSmurf said:
Your city's theaters must suck. Here in Kansas City, everyone has digital projectors giving stunning picture quality. Sound is also fantastic.

I couldn't come close to competing with that for less than $15,000 in equipment, not including a room acoustically designed for a theater. Even then, that system wouldn't be as good as the AMC theater around here. And I only have to pay $5/ticket Monday through Thursday.
Click to expand...

Please!

My 60" 1080P LCD cost me $1,600
My 5.1 surround sound system was $399

Plus:

I don't have to sit through ignorant commercials that they now show at the theaters
I don't have to watch 4-5 stupid arsed movie trailers that I don't give a fuk about
I don't have to drive to the theater
I don't have to stand in-line to pay $10 for a ticket (I'm not in...Missouri...)
I don't have to pay $25 for a soggy bag of popcorn, lame sodas and a box of Mike-n-Ike
I don't have to deal with rude and inconsiderate "people" at the theater
I don't have to deal with some rat bastager kid kicking the back of my sticky seat

I watch hi-def movies in the comfort of my home. I can drink beer on my recliner/sofa with the wife buck arsed naked if I want. If the mood strikes me, I can pause the movie, "take care of business", and restart the movie whenever I want. The image quality of my home theater is stunning and the audio is bone shaking. A movie theater can't touch the "home theater" experience. Theaters need to die off along with the MPAA.
 
&#8230;someone explain to me how this is possible?
Click to expand...

In Hollywood land there exists mathematics, this is not the mathematics that the world in general follow. In this Hollywood mathematics, 1+1 can equal 2 or 1+1 can equal -X or can equal +Y depending on the observable conditions present at that particular moment in time. So the number given the condition "in front of lawmakers or the general media or paying out royalties to our artists" are present, numbers are represented by a loss or -X and as such, numbers like "billion in lost revenue" are possible. Similarly the same numbers given the condition of "to our bank accounts" are presented in the +Y and given the title of "record profits" so credit scores and affluent way of life is preserved. It should be no surprise that this happens and is the main reason why Actors always become part of or buy "production studios" as that is the way to really make money even if you made no money at all, or make no money at all even if you made "record profits". Though on a side note please do not try these mathematics yourself in any other business, in anywhere but Hollywood land it is considered illegal and can land you in prison.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top