What has happened to the showmen? Are they gone? Where they ever here?

Did the people who built the great Movie Palaces ever exist? Are we watching the wrong numbers? Are we looking in the right direction?

Are we as a group more interested in candy, popcorn, soda than quality of film presentation?

Can I touch the past? Was it better then? Is it better now? Can we change it? Will we let automation win? Is it up to us? Will it happen anyway? Will we accept the garbage films that are being produced? We we allow the actors to dis the people who want to give them awards? Will we as a group stand up for what is correct and proper?

I have a lot of questions and I have a lot of answers. However I would like to know how you think?

Movies have first and foremost always been a business. Theaters exist to make money. With so many entertainment choices to select from, movie theaters have naturally evolved to the mega-multiplexes we have now, in order to ensure their own survival. Yes I know many people who participate here are running smaller, independent theaters and doing it successfully, or at least doing it out of love for the craft or something like that, and you are to be saluted. But the vast majority of us see movies at the big chains, and that's the way it's likely to stay.

Exhibitors owe their customers a pleasant moviegoing experience and the best possible presentation. Are all locations meeting those basic standards? Of course not. Who or what is to blame? Uncaring or untrained staff, cheap owners, and dumb-ass customers who don't know any better and don't complain. How to change that? I don't have an answer except to say the chains must be doing a lousy job of weeding out the losers they employ, and/or they are hoodwinking the public in a particular market due to lack of competition.

Yet we also know that many locations are staffed by good, concerned people who want to do right and do care.

My blabbering is motivated out of love of movies and interest in the technology of film presentation. Note that I'm currently unemployed, and every day I seriously consider chucking my "real" career and somehow getting into film exhibition. I would love to be a circuit technician and have the power to make things better at all my theaters. Or at least to be your basic film handler working in a booth, putting on good shows. I have a good tech background, including component-level troubleshooting and using test equipment, so I could do it and I think be good at it. So why don't I do it? I don't know.

Anyway I've made a point of seeking out and communicating with the local Regal and Cinemark General Managers. I talk to them, and I give them feedback about what I think is right and wrong at their theaters, including comments about every show I see. Laugh if you want, but you know what? I think I've helped them to improve their presentation. In fact I KNOW I have. Both of these GMs seem to genuinely care about quality presentation, and they welcome constructive comments. Now you can argue that they should be fixing things on their own, and not be depending on customer input. Well, maybe, but they can't be everywhere at once and can't know everything, and of course they have good and bad people on their staffs too. But the point is they are trying hard to run good cinemas, under less than ideal business conditions.

Actors who dis the public: You wouldn't be referring to Russell Crowe would you? Mr. Crowe can do anything he pleases as long as he makes good movies. I don't give a what he does in his public-private life, as long as he isn't a child molester or sending money to Saddam Hussein.

Don't concern yourself with how things used to be, only worry about the here and now, and to the extent possible, what you can do to influence where we are going.

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You might want to check out http://www.loewsjersey.org/

The folks at the Loew's Jersey are doing some incredible things. They are really taking the time and effort to do film right. They even have an upcoming screening of FORBIDDEN PLANET in true, authentic Perspecta sound.

David, I've found theater operators don't want to hear from me. Even when I've complained about safety issues, such as rooms that are so dark that I hit my shins on the seats, I get no response other than a form letter, if that. So, I simply use my wallet. My closest theater treated me rudely, so I have never gone back, and I tell all of my friends to avoid that theatre. I will drive past inferior theatres to go where I know I will see an excellent presentation. But, the great majority of people are happy just to plop down at the local "plex" and see something on a moderately big screen that looks better than their VHS players at home. Until the owners are convinced that better quality means more dollars, only the few will continue to care.

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