I can’t speak for every working parent, but The Job(™) and The Kid(™) have definitely killed my outbound movie going experience. At home, you’re bombarded by film choices for your in-residence studio: Premium Cable, Pay Per View, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Watch, not to mention good old Blu-Ray and CDs for the old timers.
For the classic movie theatre experience? Overpriced, blockbustered up, and inconvenient? Not so much. Until today in the theater I’d seen exactly 1 movie in the last 24 months: Toy Story 3. (Surprisingly good for the third of a trio).
Every now and then though, one has to partake of “cinema” just to remember what it was like. Since I was taking a day off I caught Rise of The Planet of The Apes, (Surprisingly good for a reboot). Yeah, I gouged myself even on a matinee: (8.50?! don’t ask about the popcorn and soda I got), but I was the only one in the viewing at Leesburg’s spanking new Cobb 12 Theater, which is quite nicely appointed. Think full service restaurant, full bar, spacious accommodations attached to your friendly neighborhood multiplex. No great shakes for the rest of the country, Evanston, IL had the same setup when I lived there over 5 years ago, but relatively new to good old Loudoun County.
The movie was good, not great. Didn’t feel stupider having seen it. No commercial ads, reasonable number of trailers. Nobody talked, cried, texted, or took a call during the screening. The seats were comfortable and the space clean. To my eyes the projectionist didn’t screw up. A 5 minute drive from my humble abode. What’s not to like? Other than the prices.
I’ll probably never get back to my grad school heyday of seeing multiple double bill classics at the Berkeley Theater in a week (The Godfather, and The Godfather, Part II back-to-back, $7, FTW! RIP Berkeley). But there’s still a little life in The Big Screen business.