But not full, according to this reporter on reopening night who first quotes some high mucky muck theater spokesperson, and then observes the movie goers:
QuoteThe New York Times:
The Regal Sunset Station multiplex in suburban Las Vegas reopened on Thursday night after sitting empty for five months in eerie pandemic-forced exile.
[Mr. Zoradi: theater spokesperson]
“There is significant pent-up demand for the theatrical out-of-home experience, with the gigantic screens, immersive sight and sound technology and, of course, that irresistible movie theater popcorn,â€
[Mr. Truitt, 38, movie fan]
“I figured it would be jammed, with pent-up demand to come to the movies again,†said as he sat back in his reclining seat and tugged at his face mask. He looked around the mostly empty auditorium, with capacity for 172, and shrugged in surprise. “I guess not.â€
[reporter, Brooks Barnes]
"Maybe . But the trial balloon that is “New Mutants†suggests that the road ahead for Hollywood will be anything but easy."
As you may suspect, after the expensive ad campaign about new between showing sanitizing procedures and safety regulations promoted by the industry:
Quote[reporter, Brooks Barnes]
Were any workers monitoring the theater reminding patrons that they had to wear masks if they weren’t eating or drinking? (Not that I ever saw.) Is that woman sitting nearby seriously going to watch the entire film with her mask dangling from one ear? (Yup.) By the end of the 98-minute movie, many of the attendees were mask free, their popcorn long since munched.
I think we need a vaccine. In spite of all the government propaganda, it seems that a lot of Americans don't think going to the movies is a bright idea, at least not yet. The movie theater was my one big source of entertainment outside my home. I'll be looking forward to it again, but not now. It stands to reason that people going to the theater during a pandemic are probably not the people you want to be around. It's a skewed representation of society with most of the curve at the knucklehead end of the graph.
Our 55" TV, surround sound system and blackout storm shutters make a fine substitute for now. We never really had "movie time" before C19. I purchased the complete "Game of Thrones" Blueray set around the beginning of the plague and we finally viewed the final episode a few weeks ago. Now we are doing the Brit series "the white queen". It is no G.O.T., but we are enjoying it as we do most period pieces. I also picked up the complete set "black sails" as I love pirates and ship to ship battles. I thought "master and commander" with Russel Crowe was a great flick. "The Bounty" was beautifully shot, and Hopkins was convincing however that asshat Mel Gibson's later antics have sort of ruined the flick for me, LOL.
Throw in some "snowcaps" and I can wait to get vaccinated before returning to the theater.... if I still have the tolerance for all the chatting, chomping, candy wrapper rustling, snoring and giant fatheads who always manage to sit right in front of my smallish frame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4PzpxOj5Cc
Quote from: Cassia on September 08, 2020, 09:52:11 AM
Our 55" TV, surround sound system and blackout storm shutters make a fine substitute for now. We never really had "movie time" before C19. I purchased the complete "Game of Thrones" Blueray set around the beginning of the plague and we finally viewed the final episode a few weeks ago. Now we are doing the Brit series "the white queen".
My system makes a good substitute for the theater too,
(https://i.imgur.com/5FtWnHMh.jpg)
and the sound system is also very good. But a good theater can still do better, both visually and sound, especially sound. I've been buying dvd sets of TV series like crazy. There's some good stuff out there, but it has to be sorted out from the crap, and sometimes I don't sort very well and end up with stuff on my shelves that is really just taking up space.
As to Master and Commander, I sometimes take that out just to play the first 10 minutes of the film and listen to it on my sound system. It sounds and feels like my whole house is under attack. It shakes the room.
Yeah, that is one powerful opening scene, however it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.
Quote from: Cassia on September 08, 2020, 10:54:22 AM
it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.
Wow! That's a pretty big historical inaccuracy for Hollywood to make. I don't know much about navies of that time period, least of all, who was fighting who at what time in history. Was the US involved in the fracas between England and France during that time period? If not, it's probably not an important error, unless the movie made and actual claim that France had the largest frigate on the ocean.
The one part of that movie that I have questioned was the Captain's strategy of luring in the French ship. It's hard to believe he developed a new strategy from a bug. I would think that strategy must have been used before. But then every military trick had a first time, so maybe he was the one. I would have enjoyed a sequel, and I thought the ending left that open, but really the story was told by then, and a sequel would have been little more than an afterthought.
I think I heard that in WWII the allies would lure German submarines in the same way. The German subs would surface at close range to use their cannons, thereby saving torpedoes for bigger prizes, but the Allies would sink the subs before anyone came out of the hatch to man the cannon. That probably only worked for a week or two, before the Germans stopped doing that.
Quote from: Cassia on September 08, 2020, 10:54:22 AM
Yeah, that is one powerful opening scene, however it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.
Original story was Americans as the bad guys. To sell the movie in the US, they had to change it to an American ship sold to the French. There was a short quasi-war between the US and France in 1798-1800.
The real thing ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F6MD11X_bU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vVYiMuS-d0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEUmSpyBhjA
Quote from: Cassia on September 08, 2020, 10:54:22 AM
Yeah, that is one powerful opening scene, however it is interesting to me that the one nation that truly had a hard-hulled large frigate was the US, not the French. Artistic license. We were visiting St Augustine and the park service fired a real cannon that guarded the port. Impressive.
The French borrowed a copy, according to the movie.
Quote from: SGOS on September 08, 2020, 11:18:26 AM
I think I heard that in WWII the allies would lure German submarines in the same way. The German subs would surface at close range to use their cannons, thereby saving torpedoes for bigger prizes, but the Allies would sink the subs before anyone came out of the hatch to man the cannon. That probably only worked for a week or two, before the Germans stopped doing that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on September 08, 2020, 05:19:54 PM
The French borrowed a copy, according to the movie.
Damn, I knew 3d printing was dangerous!
I always imagined great battles between the Royal Navy and pirates. I found a used book with great artwork about pirates. It turns out that they had little chance against a disciplined navy crew so they would strip their ships to make them faster and try to hide or out-sail the navy. "Cut and run"... as in the anchor line, LOL. I read that book while on a tall ship vacation down in the Grenadines, so the whole effect was magnified. What a trip (a life dream). Ten whole days..I guess it was clothing optional during beach excursions and some old man nudist guy sent us nakid christmas cards for a while :uchicken: Yeah we were chicken.
(http://www.cruiseserver.net/images/ships/wj_yank.jpg)
Yeah, I always wanted to go on a Tall Ship vacation. Or take my daughter on one. But my mother wouldn't have it (Hurricanes).
Did you see the excellent dramatized documentary on Edward Teach? Also visit the Widah Museum in Providence Mass?
Quote from: Baruch on September 08, 2020, 10:18:17 PM
Yeah, I always wanted to go on a Tall Ship vacation. Or take my daughter on one. But my mother wouldn't have it (Hurricanes).
Did you see the excellent dramatized documentary on Edward Teach? Also visit the Widah Museum in Providence Mass?
I will check them out. I did go to the Mel Fisher museum in the Keys and also Mystic Seaport. Family had to drag me out of there. Why do people rush through museums?
Quote from: Cassia on September 08, 2020, 07:56:29 PM
I always imagined great battles between the Royal Navy and pirates. I found a used book with great artwork about pirates. It turns out that they had little chance against a disciplined navy crew so they would strip their ships to make them faster and try to hide or out-sail the navy. "Cut and run"... as in the anchor line, LOL.
I love pirate history. There's such a wide gulf between the myth and the reality. Much less exciting and glamorous, more like serial mugging. No one walked the plank, probably. And very little in the way of buried treasure.
One pirate fact I love to tell people is that the movie flags are all wrong - pirates typically didn't wander around flying the Jolly Roger. Real pirates would sail under the flag of whatever country best suited them at the moment, try to blend in. Then, when they spotted an unescorted merchant ship and got real close - that's when the black pirate flag typically came out, and while the Jolly Roger was popular, especially towards the end of the golden age of piracy, there were other varieties. The black flag means that if you give up your cargo, you (probably) won't be killed. People being people, they generally preferred the former. But if things went sour or the pirates so desired, they'd fly the red flag. The red flag means they're liable to kill anyone they come across.
Pirates often ran flotillas of small, fast ships that could come out of a cove and smarm a passing ship. The Black Pearl would have been hard to hide from patrolling naval units.
Red flag was used by Dictator Santa Anna at the Alamo.
Better than a movie ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuHR1bx83ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZCvZ8ToSj0
Quote from: SGOS on September 08, 2020, 10:24:50 AM
My system makes a good substitute for the theater too,
(https://i.imgur.com/5FtWnHMh.jpg)
and the sound system is also very good. But a good theater can still do better, both visually and sound, especially sound. I've been buying dvd sets of TV series like crazy. There's some good stuff out there, but it has to be sorted out from the crap, and sometimes I don't sort very well and end up with stuff on my shelves that is really just taking up space.
As to Master and Commander, I sometimes take that out just to play the first 10 minutes of the film and listen to it on my sound system. It sounds and feels like my whole house is under attack. It shakes the room.
Nice projector!
Since most of my home theater was fried by lightning, I decided to upgrade the entire system. I got a 85-inch Sony 4K television, Denon receiver and replaced the Bose Acoustimass cube speakers I've had for 23 year with MartinLogan. I replaced the damaged Xbox 360 and Blu-ray player with a used Xbox One X since it can do both. My family room isn't large enough for a 7.1 system so I went with 5.1. We watch a lot of television and movies and because I have no idea when I will return to a theater so I felt justified in splurging. I know by home theater enthusiasts standards our system is modest but we're loving it.
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/c9ab78c10925339345043f02f31579ea/a6723038d614ea8f-92/s2048x3072/c15ef04ec3adf5757633272c9fee7b3b83153d6f.jpg)
Quote from: GSOgymrat on September 15, 2020, 06:05:57 AM
Nice projector!
Since most of my home theater was fried by lightning, I decided to upgrade the entire system. I got a 85-inch Sony 4K television, Denon receiver and replaced the Bose Acoustimass cube speakers I've had for 23 year with MartinLogan. I replaced the damaged Xbox 360 and Blu-ray player with a used Xbox One X since it can do both. My family room isn't large enough for a 7.1 system so I went with 5.1. We watch a lot of television and movies and because I have no idea when I will return to a theater so I felt justified in splurging. I know by home theater enthusiasts standards our system is modest but we're loving it.
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/c9ab78c10925339345043f02f31579ea/a6723038d614ea8f-92/s2048x3072/c15ef04ec3adf5757633272c9fee7b3b83153d6f.jpg)
I first got interested in a projector and home theater room around 20 years ago, but projectors back then were infant technology and produced images reminiscent of the very first Walmart digital cameras that produced wallet sized prints with visible pixels. About 12 years ago I was walking through a little mom and pop optics store that was projecting a cartoon on a 3 X 5 screen in a darkened room. There were still pixels, but eight years ago, I was visiting my sister in Chicago, and went to some large tech store. I think it's name was ABT, and they had a 25 X 40 foot projection theater with stadium seating and a screen that was maybe 20 feet wide where they were projecting Pirates of the Caribbean. They had a price tag on the door for the theater, seating and all, for $20,000. Out of my price range, of course, but the point was made. Projection was now a viable mode for presenting movies. I'm on my third projector now, and my last one cost half as much as the first. Bulbs are the big expense.
But now the size of TVs are getting there too, and I can imagine projectors becoming obsolete. An 11 X 6 foot screen like mine is still a ways off, with the biggest problem being how do you get the thing into the room? At times I wonder if maybe I should just be done with projection and satisfy myself with an 85 inch flat screen like yours, but I think I can still justify waiting for the 120 inch screen. I'll probably die first. An led screen is brighter than a projection system, so there's that.
My room is actually a converted bedroom that measures 14 feet by 12 feet. 5 people is a crowd, and as you pointed out, a 7.1 sound system doesn't make sense. The room is not big enough for the right sound separation. The middle/side speakers add zero to the experience, and I took them out. With 5.1 the separation is clear enough that I have been tricked by knocks on the door, thinking someone was in the room behind me. One time, a dog was barking behind me, and I wondered why they added a dog bark to the scene. When I turned around my neighbor was standing behind me with her dog. I had the volume up too high to hear the door bell, so she let herself in.
Your system looks very nice. We live in remarkable times.
I bought a few 4K UHD Blu-rays and they are terrific. To mark the 20th Anniversary of the release of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings all six films in the Middle Earth saga have been remastered in 4K UHD Blu-ray are set for release in 2021. I'm really looking forward to watching all the movies again.
Quote from: GSOgymrat on September 15, 2020, 11:23:22 AM
I bought a few 4K UHD Blu-rays and they are terrific. To mark the 20th Anniversary of the release of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings all six films in the Middle Earth saga have been remastered in 4K UHD Blu-ray are set for release in 2021. I'm really looking forward to watching all the movies again.
Some people don't think Blu-ray makes much difference. You can't always tell on a little 30 inch monitor, but on big screens, the difference is dramatic, and if sound makes a difference, it beats a DVD there too. I haven't seen Ultra High Definition yet.
Quote from: SGOS on September 15, 2020, 11:53:05 AM
Some people don't think Blu-ray makes much difference. You can't always tell on a little 30 inch monitor, but on big screens, the difference is dramatic, and if sound makes a difference, it beats a DVD there too. I haven't seen Ultra High Definition yet.
Go outside an see the sky. Reality is better ;-)
People have been predicting the death of movie theaters for some time but I think COVID restrictions will have lasting changes on how people view movies. I predict people will still go to theaters for big event movies, such as Avengers, but most movies be released via streaming. It's much more cost effective for studios and for families. Also, because of the release of high quality shows on Netflix, HBO and Amazon, there is much less "direct to video" stigma. Jeff from Films at Home below makes a good point by comparing the releases of Tenet and Mulan.
https://youtu.be/QcfJ5LjCpbs
Quote from: GSOgymrat on September 27, 2020, 03:01:06 AM
People have been predicting the death of movie theaters for some time but I think COVID restrictions will have lasting changes on how people view movies. I predict people will still go to theaters for big event movies, such as Avengers, but most movies be released via streaming. It's much more cost effective for studios and for families. Also, because of the release of high quality shows on Netflix, HBO and Amazon, there is much less "direct to video" stigma. Jeff from Films at Home below makes a good point by comparing the releases of Tenet and Mulan.
It might change things a lot. I have been an avid movie goer, an I do miss my weekly trip to the theater, but not in a big way. As everyone else, I have other things I can do, and when this is over, I'm thinking I won't be going to as many movies as I did before. It was kind of like a habit, and the habitual nature of the thing seems to have been broken. As for straight to DVD, I have rented the occasional sleeper that should have made to to the theaters, but in the last 4 months, I haven't found one of those at Redbox. I too have read doomsday speculations from the theater industry long before Covid-19 came on the scene, and theaters around here have been trying to bolster movie going by installing spacious recliners, which cuts down capacity to 33% (capacity that wasn't being used), and when I went mid week during the day, theaters were only filling a handful of those spacious recliners for the last two years since they were installed.
It's amazing that theaters still exist considering that an employee once told me that almost all of the revenue for ticket sales goes right back to Hollywood, and that the profit to the theater owners comes almost entirely from the concession stand, which partly explains why popcorn costs $10.
Only fish people like streaming ;-)
Warner Bros. is releasing all their movies scheduled to be released in 2021 on HBO Max the same day they are released in theaters at no extra charge, just as they are doing with Wonder Woman 1984. Movies include Matrix 4, Dune, Godzilla Vs Kong, and The Suicide Squad. This is big news and will certainly affect how other studios choose to distribute their films. The impact on movie theaters could be devastating.
Quote from: GSOgymrat on December 03, 2020, 04:53:49 PM
The impact on movie theaters could be devastating.
A hard blow to a dying industry.
Quote from: SGOS on December 03, 2020, 05:01:43 PM
A hard blow to a dying industry.
TV started dying with streaming too, cable TV is so 20th century. I haven't had cable TV for 15 years. YouTube is enough for me, I don't need the additional "theatrical" experience of a giant HDTV setup and streaming like by Ex has. I like my TV to be educational ;-)