I finally got to go see the movie today with my wife. There have been enough reviews of the movie so I'll skip that, but I did notice a few things.
#1 - I was at an independent (well small chain of like 8) theater - not an AMC/Regal/etc). No sound or AC issues.
#2 - We are both Gen-X. I've never seen so many boomers in a movie theater. All of the handicapped parking spaces were full. Never saw that at a movie.
#3 - it was fun watching the boomers actually use their phones to scan the QR code at the end of the "special message". It surprised me that they knew what that was, and how to scan it.
#4 - It was fun listening to people try to figure out which guy was in Passion of the Christ and hearing them get excited when they did. It was also nice that nobody got up in the middle of the movie, and no cell phones were ringing/knocking or lighting the theater up.
And #5 - I mentioned all the older people but what I really wanted to point out was boomers vote. This movie is bringing out a large segment of the population that doesn't normally go to the movies, getting them away from their CNN and Fox, and showing them stuff they never would have seen. They will remember that next year.
One sad note too. Since the audience for this movie has a large number of older people, the theaters are very likely not making their normal money from concessions. Old people on fixed incomes are cheap, and they also won't eat a big popcorn or a large drink. Think of all those people not ordering popcorn and a drink, versus showing a Marvel movie (or whatever) where the crowd is younger and buys food, drink, candy, etc. I hope that doesn't discourage some of the smaller theaters from showing movies like this in the future.
The theater I was in was one with actual food, real drinks, even ice-cream sundaes. My wife and I were the only people I noticed that ordered anything, and we just got popcorn and a soda.
It was a strange but refreshing movie experience. And yeah - the movie was really good.
I finally got to go see the movie today with my wife. There have been enough reviews of the movie so I'll skip that, but I did notice a few things.
#1 - I was at an independent (well small chain of like 8) theater - not an AMC/Regal/etc). No sound or AC issues.
#2 - We are both Gen-X. I've never seen so many boomers in a movie theater. All of the handicapped parking spaces were full. Never saw that at a movie.
#3 - it was fun watching the boomers actually use their phones to scan the QR code at the end of the "special message". It surprised me that they knew what that was, and how to scan it.
#4 - It was fun listening to people try to figure out which guy was in Passion of the Christ and hearing them get excited when they did. It was also nice that nobody got up in the middle of the movie, and no cell phones were ringing/knocking or lighting the theater up.
And #5 - I mentioned all the older people but what I really wanted to point out was boomers vote. This movie is bringing out a large segment of the population that doesn't normally go to the movies, getting them away from their CNN and Fox, and showing them stuff they never would have seen. They will remember that next year.
One sad note too. Since the audience for this movie has a large number of older people, the theaters are very likely not making their normal money from concessions. Old people on fixed incomes are cheap, and they also won't eat a big popcorn or a large drink. Think of all those people not ordering popcorn and a drink, versus showing a Marvel movie (or whatever) where the crowd is younger and buys food, drink, candy, etc. I hope that doesn't discourage some of the smaller theaters from showing movies like this in the future.
The theater I was in was one with actual food, real drinks, even ice-cream sundaes. My wife and I were the only people I noticed that ordered anything, and we just got popcorn and a soda.
It was a strange but refreshing movie experience. And yeah - the movie was really good.