Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

[Bobby Henderson]

Cinema: AMC Patriot 13, Lawton, OK
Screen: #7, IMAX Digital 3D, Seat J15
Format: Dual 2K Projection, 5.1 audio
Presentation Problems: None (for IMAX 2K digital standards).
Movie Rating: 3 out of 4

Almost a month after it opened I finally got around to watching Avatar: The Way of Water this afternoon. I almost didn't bother because I was pretty angry from a trip to the grocery store earlier (prices just keep going up and up and up). While watching the first two quarters of the Bills vs Dolphins NFL playoff game I saw a promo for a TV series version of True Lies. Yeah, the 1994 hit that still has no fucking proper Blu-ray (or even a 16x9 DVD) after all these years. If I try playing my old non-anamorphic DVD on my big TV set it plays window-boxed -looking like a really shitty YouTube video. Is James Cameron not embarrassed at all about that? But rather than clean up the original True Lies for retail disc sales (or streaming) let's just do a new TV series with a new cast instead!

Anyway, I forced myself to just go to the theater and get out of the damned house. The movie was pretty entertaining on its own. However it doesn't measure up to the first movie. There are lots of perilous moments, but the stakes didn't seem as high. Some action moments reminded me of similar moments in the first movie. In the first movie Jake Sully has to get away from that giant panther-like creature chomping thru tree branches to get at him. Jake's son has to back thru reefs trying to get away from some giant carnivore fish. Sequels will re-hash various moments, perhaps to stay on-brand.

The movie looked pretty cool. James Cameron (as usual) does a great job with all the sci-fi mechanical details. The 3D quality was great, although my eyes were starting to feel the strain a little past the 2 hour mark. I spent a couple minutes rubbing my eyes during the end credits. The sound, while only 5.1, was decent. The volume level was loud and the sub-bass was hitting at a decently hard level for an IMAX branded room. I didn't feel like blowing the extra gas and toll money to see the show in Oklahoma City on a Dolby Cinema screen. I don't think they were playing a HFR version at this theater. It looked pretty normal to me.

Usually I'll get a soft drink when I watch a movie. Not this time. A run time of 3:12 is deep into bladder-busting territory. There was still a decent crowd at this theater despite it being nearly a month into the run. I didn't feel like stepping and stumbling over a bunch of adults and their kids just to take a piss break.

I found those retrofit Dolby Cinema installs that went into many of the "AMC Prime" theaters to be pretty lacking, compared to what the vision of Dolby Cinema originally was, but I suppose they couldn't get a deal done with AMC, where they would retrofit the entire room, like they did in those original installs.

I don't have the first clue of any details of the deal AMC and Dolby made. But I do believe Dolby made a big mistake by giving AMC what appears to be an exclusive deal on Dolby Cinema installs within North America. I think if there had been competition between various theater chains we might have actually seen some Dolby Cinema installs within the US that were much closer to the original concept -or maybe even improvements on the idea.

My booker told me that "onesheets are on the way out" which is a real shame

Yeah, they won't spring for a rolled sheet of paper to display in a cinema. But they'll blow more money on end cap displays for Walmart and Target, despite the bottom falling out in the retail movie disc sales market.


Do these movie marketing people not understand point of purchase advertising strategy? Printed movie posters are very effective advertising tools. I would laugh if one of those marketing people tried to claim they were cutting down the use of printed posters to "be more green." Using HDTV panels as a substitute for printed posters isn't a "green" solution at all. Those things use considerably more electricity than a lighted poster case.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

So how is the move from paper one sheet advertising any more "reasonable" than exchanging the moveable letter marque for large video display panels?

[Bobby Henderson]

Not many movie theaters have LED jumbotron style displays for a marquee or free-standing pylon sign. Plenty of them have the monochrome text-only boards for box offices and signs at auditorium entrances. That's about it. The exteriors of most newer cinemas don't feature anything more than signs for the theater chain's logo and (maybe) the theater's name.

"Analog" changeable copy signs are a dying thing (like neon signs). Most kinds of businesses that have used them in the past are getting rid of them for a variety of reasons. The cost of LED variable message displays has come down quite a lot while capabilities have improved dramatically. Those displays are still expensive to buy, but the cost per pixel is nothing like what it used to be.

Aside from cost issues, city sign codes are another factor that can greatly limit what a cinema can install on its building exterior or on a pylon sign near the highway. It's pretty easy to spot a city or suburb that has a very restrictive sign ordinance. You'll see a lot of trees and other landscaping next to the main arterials, but not much in the way of large free-standing signs. From the 1970's going on into the 1990's a lot of multiplex theaters had street signs with big reader boards listing all the movies playing there. Those kinds of signs would now be outlawed by the sign codes in many American cities and towns. The theater would be reduced to installing a small, low profile monument sign near the road if any such thing was allowed at all. A new cinema would likely be limited with how much signage it could install on the building.

I'm thankful I live and work in a part of the country where large free-standing street signs and LED variable message displays are allowed to be installed. Unfortunately there is a LOT of people in the sign industry who do shitty quality work. Add to that the large number of businesses that just don't maintain the signs they have. Those factors can (and often do) lead to community backlash. Sweeping anti-signs ordinances don't just happen by themselves. Businesses push their luck with the general public. The ugliness and/or blight spreads. The public (and elected officials) strike back. They'll point to upper income suburbs such as Scottsdale, AZ and how its commercial streets look. Then they aim to copy the same "template" for city beautification. The end result can look "pretty," but it also makes it a lot harder for a local business to advertise itself or just let the public know it exists in that location. Highly restrictive sign codes can help persuade customers to buy their stuff online rather than from a local business with a brick and mortar location.

Vandals and thieves are another factor that have pushed businesses away from using changeable copy signs. We've often sold such signs with see-thru locking covers to keep people from stealing Zip Change letters out of a low profile monument sign at a school or church (or prevent pranksters from re-arranging the letters to spell naughty or racist things). Such things aren't a worry with a LED-based variable message sign. A prankster would need access to the control computer and need to know how to use the software in order to display bad messages on a jumbotron style sign.

Then there's the very basic matter of having to manually change the messages on a changeable copy sign. That's not always a pleasant thing to do if its windy, rainy, cold, etc. An LED-based sign can have its messages programmed remotely, even with play lists dating weeks or months into the future.

Even if someone wanted to install a new "analog" changeable copy sign, like one built into a theater marquee, supplies of the letters and related materials are more limited. The Wagner Zip Change company went out of business not long ago. No more brand new Zip Change or Wagner slotted letters. You can buy similar items from Gemini (Pronto and slotted Snap-Lok letters are similar). But Gemini isn't producing nearly as much of this stuff as they did in the past. There are 3rd party companies selling used Wagner letters from "retired" signs.

[Darin Steffl]

We're installing a Daktronics LED sign on our building and replacing neon with LED rope lighting that looks similar to neon.

The LED sign will replace our analog marquee. We're looking forward to displaying cool movie banners, advertise our concessions and special events. It will change the look of our 1937 theater but the times are changing.

[Bobby Henderson]

Out of the various companies that manufacture LED-based variable message displays we prefer selling and serving the ones from Daktronics. Their displays may cost a good bit more up front, but the product is far better supported and the company is based in South Dakota.

Watchfire is another pretty dependable brand (they're also American-based). After that it really starts going downhill from there. Our sign shop refuses to sell or service any of that cheap "OEM" crap made by fly-by-night Chinese companies. There is a lot of cut-rate sign companies offering up that garbage. Customers find out the hard way those things are a bad investment. A board can get stuck pixels or a controller can go bad only a year or two after purchase and the customer will often be shit out of luck for getting it serviced. That's the fatal problem of going cheap on a LED sign. We've been able to service Daktronics units as much as a decade old.

There is a lot of companies selling LED-based border lighting. It's great for straight runs, like on the edges of a building. I still haven't seen anything that is an acceptable substitute for tightly bent exposed neon -such exposed neon tube in an open faced channel letter sign. There is a lot of LED "rope" products on the market. But it doesn't work as a lighting source for open face channel letters. I hope a solution gets developed soon because the use of actual neon itself is disappearing. We used to do a lot of that kind of work, but hardly do any more of it. The costs of the colored glass, electrodes, transformers, etc have gotten very expensive. The talent pool of neon tube benders is literally dying off. Our own tube bender is semi-retired (only working part time now); it's only a matter of time before he retires all the way. Hardly anyone relatively young is picking up the craft. I think it's a sad situation because nothing else really looks like real neon. Commercial landscapes will look more boring without it.

[Darin Steffl]

Ya we narrowed it down to Daktronics and Watchfire. I think we would have been happy with either brand but I got Dak to offer decent amount less than Watchfire for a 6mm sign and they offered another year of warranty.

The sign company we chose only sells those two brands. They have similar stories of losing bids to cheaper companies that sell cheap signs that die and can't be serviced.

[Bobby Henderson]

Sounds like you got a pretty good deal. How big was the 6mm pitch unit you ordered, or rather what was the pixel count?

[Mike Blakesley]

I have thought about having the readerboards in our marquee refitted with LED screens. The cost is scary though. I've never gotten an actual quote, but I've seen estimates that are well into the five figures per side. The readerboard area is around 6' x 12' and it's a two-sided marquee, so.... if I could be reasonably sure that a set of those would last as long as I do, then I'd go for it, but I do worry about longevity when I see things like:

We've been able to service Daktronics units as much as a decade old.

Taken another way, Bobby really seems to be saying that it's a miracle that old thing is still being used. So what is the normal expected life span of these LED signs anyway? It's kind of odd that TVs have dropped in price like a hot rock, but LED signs are still stratospheric. (I know there is economy of scale with TVs, of course.)

Our local Dairy Queen has the LED-that-looks-like-neon on it. It looks good, but real neon is definitely better. Although I hate the upkeep on our marquee...seems like every year an icicle or a hailstone or somebody with a frisbee takes out at least one of our tubes. (We have 54 total tubes, 30 of which are exposed.) I guess even if we did refit the readerboards we'd still have the exposed neon to keep up with, so it would just be an add-on.

[Darin Steffl]

Sounds like you got a pretty good deal. How big was the 6mm pitch unit you ordered, or rather what was the pixel count?

I wouldn't call our sign project a good deal by any means. Here's the pricing for the whole project.

-Daktronics GT6x 6mm 5' 4" x 12' 3" one-side mounted to our marquee. They are building a fabricated cabinet with "State Theatre" on top and it'll be lit. Roughly $50k
-Remove all neon on the awning/marquee and replace with LED lighting. Same inside the glass tiles going up the theater front. Roughly $40k
-Light refurbishment of the marquee

Total cost just under $90,000. I personally think it should be under $50k for everything but here we are. I'm having some buyer's remorse for how costly this project is but I'm committed so I hope I love the end result and can forget about the money part. I think the sign is about $50k or so on the quote but it would have been a little cheaper if we want with 8 or 10mm spacing for sure. I wanted to futureproof.

Everyone I talked to said the signs should last for at least 10 years, or at least they guarantee parts availability for that long. They said most people are ready to replace signs after 10 years to upgrade to better pitch, quality signs. This means if you don't feel the need to upgrade, as long as there's parts available to replace defective modules or other parts, you could go 15+ years.

I've attached a picture of their design render.. The LED sign will be about 1 foot taller vertically because we added a row of panels to increase the size.

[Bobby Henderson]

LED variable message displays do cost quite a lot up front, even for a sign company re-selling the product (along with service and warranty work). The 6mm pitch GT6 model you mentioned is 600 pixels wide by 240 pixels tall. That may not seem like much, but it's fairly high resolution for a jumbotron style display. 20 years ago it seemed like a big deal to sell a coarse 35mm pitch unit with 128x32 pixel resolution. Cost per pixel was far higher back then.

I wouldn't be promising anyone a 15+ year product life span on one of those boards. Product quality is a lot better (particularly the refresh rates) but LEDs do fade or fail over time. A display upwards of a decade old or more will have had a decent number of its driver boards replaced by then. Colors on the replacement boards can be fine tuned to match the existing boards. That's why they have these ridiculous claims of "68 billion colors" or whatever. Over enough time the display's color and contrast quality won't be so good. Lower cost LED displays start looking like crap much faster.

Another problem with costs: sign making materials costs have absolutely skyrocketed over the past couple of years. Steel, aluminum, plastics, etc all cost a lot more. And the availability of various materials is still badly constrained. My company has a back-log of jobs in our production pipeline we haven't been able to finish yet because we're still waiting on certain materials or components to arrive. These LED displays can take several weeks or multiple months to be delivered after the order has been placed. It's a frustrating situation.

[Mike Blakesley]

Darin, that's a really nice looking sign.

Seeing those prices of Darin's makes me feel better about the $1014 I just spent to have repair work done on ours. A lot of it was mileage, as the sign guys come from 100 miles away. I don't know if I could stomach spending $50,000 on a sign (which would be $100k here because we have a triangular marquee), knowing I'd have to buy it again in around 10 years. It's bad enough having to plan for a new digital projector.

What I've got on my side here is nostalgia. Our marquee is from 1935 but it still looks like it did brand new, thanks to me getting it repaired every time something breaks on it. If we modernized it too much, it wouldn't look right. When we refurbished it in the '90s, about the only thing we changed on it is one of the colors -- we changed the green to blue, which proved to be a mistake because the blue draws a ton of bugs. But it looks really good.

[Darin Steffl]

Mike,

If you don't have any multiplexes near you, there's less incentive to invest crazy amounts of money like this on signage. I see you already have recliners so that was a big investment. We're doing those too and investing about $900k into the theater total for building repairs plus upgrades. We also have 3 multiplexes just 15-20 minutes away from us so if we want to grow business, we need to invest and change things up. This is a hobby business for me and I've saved up plenty over the last 10 years at my main business to be able to invest into this Theatre. It's a lot of fun for sure but it doesn't make much money. I'm hoping I can achieve ROI in 10-15 years and that's with paying myself nothing. I have income from my main business and investments thankfully.

If this goes well, someday I may build an entertainment center in our area with 4-5 screens, bowling, laser tag, restaurant, etc. to keep up with our growing town.

[Mike Blakesley]

I guess it depends on your definition of "near." In Montana, most people consider anything you can get to in 2 hours or less to be pretty close, especially if the destination is on the freeway. By that yardstick we have 17 other screens that are pretty close to us.

I totally get it about investing into the business. While my theater provides me with a good "side" income, I wouldn't be able to completely live on it. I've owned it since 1979 and there was only one period in the '90s of about two years when we didn't have a bank payment. The bank and I are buddies at this point.

[Jon Dent]

Our theater is owned by a father and son team. It's interesting seeing the different approaches they take to the theater. The son views it as a money making enterprise and wants to put as little as possible into improvements in order to maximize how much he can get out of it. His dad is a film lover who wants to have the theater be as good as it can possibly be and doesn't mind investing in improvements.

Neither of them make their living off it. Neither do I.

Thankfully the dad is more involved and hopefully he'll buy his son's share out like he's said he's going to....