“As a young man I watched Star Wars in the theater 27 times. I used to be into that stuff. I’m 64 now. I need a good story. (and, truth be told, star wars was a great story, and a great western).”
I was too poor to see Star Wars more than once in the theater when I was a kid but I became a life long fan from the first viewing. Now I rarely go to the theater. Many movies are visually stunning but the stories are boring, plots are thin, and I simply don’t care about the characters. I did enjoy the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies - the cast has a good chemistry. Even the new Star Wars movies aren’t as interesting to me as I hoped they were. I am still into Star Wars, but I have tired of the insistence on “girl power” in the new trilogy and Rogue One.
Up until about twenty-five years ago I used to go to see movies all the time, two or three times a month almost without fail. Now? Two or three times a year. I was surprised to realize that I went to see 4 films in 2015. That was a lot for me. There have been entire years since 2000 in which I did not see a single film at a theater.
We rarely go to the theater. By rarely, I mean once every few years. I’m a collector of 1970’s “separates” vintage hi-fi and, though it’s stereo with a subwoofer, things get pretty audibly “real” at my place. Our room is smallish with a 55” 4k monitor and, frankly, the movie experience is BETTER than most theaters with the exception of the 3D Imax experience.
We have no need to ever set foot in a theater again. And that was just expanded on when we found out we get a TON of free stuff with Amazon Prime. That being said, after “prime immersion”, I put in one of my blue ray’s and noticed I had forgotten just how sharp the image is. But Redbox covers us if we really MUST have perfect images.
*** “There have been entire years since 2000 in which I did not see a single film at a theater” ***
Decades here
1996-2017 without going to a movie theater... trend will continue.