Art house cinema is dying

[Giles]

Talking of Vue Cinemas, a new one opened its doors today locally to me in Camberley. Interestingly, a foreign-language film (The Baader Meinhof Complex) is in its first week's programme - a full week's run, not just a one-off "director's chair" screening.

did you happen to see 'The Baader Meinhof Complex'? - is it any good? I have tix to see it this Friday at the AFI EU Film Fest

[Antoine Doinel]

NYCs Metro Theater to become a ginormous Urban Outfitters.

[domino harvey]

The idea of someone going to 99th street to go shopping at Urban Outfitters is hilarious

[Antoine Doinel]

I don't have a link to an English language article, but the owner of the long-running Montreal arthouse Ex-Centris, has announced he will be closing it of sorts. Actually, he just won't be showing films anymore but doing other things that interest him more like multimedia art installations and what not. This is a huge blow to the already ailing Montreal film community. Especially for French cinephiles, Ex-Centris was a godsend as they often played independent and foreign films with French subtitles. As a cinema, it was modern and state of the art with a great soundsystem, layout, comfortable seats and even a strict no popcorn rule (I don't even think they had a candy bar). The Montreal film scene is embarrassing to say the least (we don't have a single rep theater and the AMC shows a more diverse range of foreign and independent films that the now lone standing arthouse, Cinema Du Parc) and this is just another nail in the coffin.

[LQ]

That is really sad to hear. It is a tradition that every time I visit Montreal, I catch a film at Ex-Centris..does the article say when this closing of sorts will be in effect?

edit: March 20th. link.

[Antoine Doinel]

Thanks for the English link. Next time you're in town see what's happening at the Cinematheque Quebecoise. They do an absolutely horrible job promoting themselves (their advertising is virtually non-existent and you sort of have to hunt through their poorly assembled website to see what's playing -- and geez, it looks like I just missed a huge retrospective on Wadja), but that said, they often screen a lot of rare gems and it's a cute little theater.

[Antoine Doinel]

The NY Filmmaker's Cooperative is being evicted.

[AttitudeAJM]

I had a conversation about this with someone when talking about how New York is changing. We seem to agree that non mainstream cinema is becoming more and more a dvd culture. People get together at someone's apartment and watch a film that normally would cost an arm and a leg to see at Lincoln Center Cinema or in LES. As long as you have the right setting Home Entertainment Centers might replace the art house theaters.

[JonathanM]

I don't think it's just an arthouse thing though.

I have loads of friends, film lovers all, who simply do not ever go to the cinema. They refuse to put up with the ever-increasing ticket prices, the endless adverts, the fact that for health and safety reasons the cinema is never dark, the people who text message during the film, the frequntly horrid state of the cinemas themselves, the people who talk during the film and the fact that you have to go out in the rain instead of staying nice and warm at home.

I don't think the movement to DVD is an arthouse problem so much as a reflection of the fact that fewer and fewer adults see going to the cinema as an important part of their lives. They'd much rather curl up on their sofa with a nice bottle of wine and leave the cinemas to the kids and their stupid super hero films.

I still use my local multiplexes because... well... you have to leave the house SOMETIMES, but I have real sympathy for the view that going to the cinema is not for film lovers any more.

That New Statesman article is fantastic. The EVERYMAN cinema chain that offers over-priced boze and truffles delivered to your seat? Surely they should rename themselves NOTEVERYMAN.

[HerrSchreck]

I think you're not seeing the rest of the woods owing to the blocking walls of your cozy little cottage. Movies in general, box office receipts, attendance-- all are doing quite well and Hollywood has seen an unprecedented glut of films vs the more measured release-tempo of past decades. One thing the web/digital has not seemed to leech (yet), is Going To The Movies. It's still the all American (or pick your home country) No Brainer Night Out. What can take the place of dinner and a movie? Dinner and a movie... dinner and a movie... dinner anda movie.

Aint going anyplace. People-- though you may not-- like to get out to Communal Indulgence In Fantasy. Just as much as texting tweeners and day-traders muttering into their bluetooths will get on your nerves, people also still do genuinely like to sit amongst The Group and take in the Current Big Thing. It's a ritual that does't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

[JonathanM]

Historically, I don't think that's true.

The reason why modern films gross so much is because cinema ticket prices have gone through the roof but if you compare cinema attendances now with those in previous decades you'll see that the escalator is being taken straight to the basement.

As for dinner and a movie, I agree. But the movie need not be watched at the cinema. There are certain... practical... advantages to taking a date out to dinner and then taking them home to watch a film.

I'm not saying that people are no longer going to the cinema at all, but I am saying that people go less frequently than they used to in times gone by and that the trend towards DVD-centric nights in for the arthouse crowd is far from being limited to the arthouse crowd.

[HerrSchreck]

Historically, I don't think that's true.

The reason why modern films gross so much is because cinema ticket prices have gone through the roof but if you compare cinema attendances now with those in previous decades you'll see that the escalator is being taken straight to the basement..

Can you provide some stats on that, rather than hearsay?

Someting authoritative along the lines of MPAA Snapshots?

Worldwide box office continued to grow and reached an all-time high in 2007 of $26.72 billion. This
5% increase was driven by growth in all regions, with Asia Pacific, EMEA, and the United States &
Canada each rising 5%. Latin American box office remained fairly flat with only 1% growth in 2007..

and

Worldwide admissions dropped in 2007, due to declines in the Asia Pacific region (down 14%).
Admissions in the United States & Canada, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America all held
steady from 2006 to 2007.

Here are the admissions (from their attendance study), in millions, from 1998- 2007:

1,289 ('98); 1,311 ('99); 1,340 (00); 1,339 (01); 1,406 (02); 1,421 (03); 1,470 (04); 1,415 (05); 1,472 (06) 1,470 (07)

If you follow the same chart, tracking not admissions, but number of individual filmgoers, you get a sense of a slight increase weighted over the last four years for the same period: (in millions)

162 (1998); 158 ('99); 163 ('00); 157 ('01); 166 ('02); 168 ('03); 179 ('04); 169 ('05); 176 ('06); 172 ('07);

Windup: nothing noticeably drastic has happened to the market beyond it's usual interyear fluctations down & up.

[JonathanM]

Regarding box office, I think that can be explained away by increasing ticket prices (as I said in my original post). Nowadays central London cinemas are brushing up against £20 a ticket. If you keep charging more to go to the cinema then you can make more money from less tickets.

As for the ticket sales, I meant there was a historically downwards trend since the 1930s, but upon second thoughts you're correct. The DVD impact would only logically show since the launch of the DVD (duh) so you couldn't really use long term data to show very much of anything in that respect So I'm happy to withdraw my comments as pronouncements ex posterior.

[Gregory]

One view of what’s happening outside the metropolis:
Omaha, the midwestern city where some of my extended family lives, had an arthouse cinema open a couple years ago, and when I'm back visiting I go see every film they're playing. To my surprise, people are flocking to the place. It's not jam-packed usually but it's doing better than I'd expected. And it's not just the black-turtleneck crowd, either, although a lot of them are probably from the NPR crowd. But it seems to me that, depending on the film, a surprising cross-section of Nebraskans are plunking down money to see new releases like Un Conte de Noël and revivals from Rialto Pictures etc. I look around at these folks and wonder if they'd ever be the type to buy these films on DVD, and many of them I could never imagine doing so, not to stereotype unduly.* The main reason this amazes me is that I sort of gave up on Omaha as a wasteland (for a city its size) a long time ago after seeing every just about every little cultural mecca give up and shut their doors, sooner or later.

Perhaps it is the social quality of going out to this place that appeals to people. Omaha doesn't have a huge number of other things to do, and I guess a certain number of people have gotten bored with going to the regular theaters all the time. Again, I'd be surprised if these folks are buying films like The Wild Child on DVD (even though it's available used on Amazon for less than the price of a single ticket), and they may not even be getting them from Netflix in any significant number. But I think they can read the little synopsis of these films in the newspaper and say, "That sounds interesting. Let's go see that." I'm encouraged.

Still, I’m not sure how many people who are trying this place out will ultimately become lifelong patrons, and I’m not sure a place like this can be fiscally competitive against the battery of multiplexes that dominate cinema there, not to mention Netflix and Blockbuster.

* Part of this is based on conversations I've had with locals who have visited the theater.

[Matt]

I think what you're seeing there is the experience trumping content. I'd happily go pay $10 to see a movie I like and already own in a theater if I could be guaranteed that the two dizzy dames behind me will not be hashing out the plot in stage whispers throughout the film, if the guy next to me will not be crinkling his Twizzlers bag every 5 minutes, and the picture is in focus. I used to see at least one movie a week in a theater (even movies I knew I was going to hate) because it was fun. Now that going to the movies is no fun (and not only because I'm an old curmudgeon) and my home theater is not half-bad, I see a movie in a theater about once every 2 months. Of course, I also live about a 35-minute drive from the closest multiplex and about 50 minutes from the nearest arthouse, so that contributes, too.

And I don't claim to make my experience universal or characteristic of any trend. Just another voice from the wilderness. I can believe that cinemagoing is on an upswing, but that audience isn't anybody I know. I'd like to see some demographic data over time to see what's really going on.

[Ruby]

I’m not sure the whole art house-mainstream distinction has any real value. Most art house is so defined because it is 1. subtitled; 2. non-major studio / ‘low’ budget; 3. slow-paced; or 4. is lacking recognisable stars. Note that these are commercial reasons for films not to be shown in multiplexes and have precious little to do with film as art.

A true art-house is concerned with exploring film as an art form but such work is mostly confined to the art gallery, which is hardly ideal. (The Tate Modern shows Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon on a continuous loop even though it’s a temporally progressive film that should be seen beginning to end.)

It is much better to see films on the big screen - the scale they were made for. This is especially true for so-called difficult art films. Consider how Rothko’s paintings reproduced in a magazine are not much to look at but they can be pretty impressive when standing before the huge canvases.

Nevertheless, DVDs allow people access to a huge and varied range of films they would never see otherwise and this gives both a financial and an artistic life to films outside the cinema. Also, cheaper technologies mean lower film making costs and that can only be good for encouraging filmmakers to experiment and innovate.

I think cinema ticket price is overplayed a little if you consider how expensive it is to go the theatre. The cost of seeing one play = 3/4 films. Also, the theatre is dominated by crowd pleasing musicals and reproductions of well-known plays. There’s only a little room for new innovative work and ‘innovation’ seems to give theatre types chronic headaches. We should cheer up really...

[Antoine Doinel]

A lovely piece on Stuart Oderman, a silent film pianist.

[Antoine Doinel]

A beautiful gallery of photos of now shuttered movie houses from yesteryear.

[filmnoir1]

These photos are a sad reminder of the glories that once were involved in going to the movies. It wasn't only the films, but the crowd, and the atmosphere that made going to the movies an event. Now days it is tiresome and irritating to see a film in the theaters because the plexes are unfriendly and everyone is too busy talking or text messaging.
Moreover, it is a shame to see this grand old palaces reduced to storing furniture or merely falling down without any concern for their value and history to American filmgoing.

[Michael Kerpan]

A beautiful gallery of photos of now shuttered movie houses from yesteryear.

I think the photos of Detroit (on the same site) are even more distressing.

Thanks for the link

[Antoine Doinel]

Guy in front of me won't shut up. Also plz fixor aspct ratio.

[ghostargot]

Heh, imo, seeing the illuminated face of a cellphone during a film is at least as distracting (and often more irritating) than a bit of chatter.

[Antoine Doinel]

The Cerrito (in El Cerrito) and The Parkway (in Oakland) have been saved.

[eerik]

Just for your information: a brand new art house cinema will be opened in Tallinn, Estonia in October. Two screens, operated by Tallinnfilm/Estonian Film Foundation, funded by the government. This probably means they will close their current cinema Sõprus (Friendship) with one screen.

It's part of a new entertainment centre "Solaris". There will also be a commercial cinema Cinamon with seven 3D screens, concert hall, theater, ballet studio, etc.

This new centre will also be the home for Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and European Film Awards 2010 ceremony will be held there.

[Adam]

Los Angeles County Museum of Art = LACMA

Wasn't sure where to post. Dreadful news.