Patrick Stoner ...
welcomes your questions about movies and
the people who make them. Send your
questions to
pstoner@whyy.org.
Here's the current question and answer:
Q: Given all of the entertainment -- including films -- that you can get in your own home these days, why do so many people still go out to the movies?
A: For a sense of community.
There are other reasons, of course. You certainly get a lot more out of a film like INDEPENDENCE DAY in a movie house, with the multiple speakers and the big screen.
Also, it can be argued that there are few public entertainment vehicles that give you so much for so little. Consider: A $7 ticket gets you a couple of hours of exposure to a very slick production that may have cost $50 million or more to make. Compare that to the price of tickets to sporting events or plays, and you have to admit it's quite a bargain -- even for a mediocre film.
Still, there are many downsides. I don't know about you, but I hate parking lots and lines and occasional danger when you leave the theater late at night and have to navigate a dark, lonely stretch to get back to your car. Then, there's the mess of the theater itself. You could stick to the floors of some and never be heard from again unless someone came along to free you. AND, that mess comes from some of the most overpriced food and drink to be found in America. (In fact, as I'm sure you know, THAT's where theater managers make their profit -- not from the ticket sales.)
So, all things being considered, you would expect people to pick a very few movies to go out and see, leaving the rest to show up in the video stores or on cable. The facts are otherwise. Millions of people make filmgoing a regular part of their lives, and the studios are churning out their product in record amounts.
I submit that the decisive factor is the need for a sense of community. True, you can have some idiot behind you talking all the through the sensitive love scenes or laughing at the well-crafted dramatic moment, but there is NOTHING as effective as being part of a large group of other human beings who share an experience that makes them laugh, cry and care about being alive. We've all left the theater after some special picture feeling better about ourselves and the people around us. We've had this need for communal experience since the earliest stories told around campfires, and it will keep us going out to the movies no matter how sophisticated our home entertainment becomes.