The Movie Business Challenge -or- The Movie Theater business is DYING

Yesterday I noted an entry on Marc Cuban's blog about how to get marketing dollars spent more in line with butts in the seats. He asked for "entries" to figure out how to get the cost/benefit more in line.

My response - see if you agree:

The movie THEATER business is DYING. Every time I go to a theater, I hate it more than the last time I was there. Why do I go? Because that is the only way to see a particular film on OPENING DAY.

Two things:

1. Make truly, insanely, FABULOUS movies that generate buzz, and use A-List talent, advertise them traditionally, AND using non-conventional methods, many talked about here (all that MySpace, web site, word of mouth, "no ads at the beginning" stuff is CRAP - you know why you DON'T go to a theater - because it's a POOR experience)... and

2. Get them out in a venue that offers "opening day" availability on a PPV or cable outlet like HDNet, etc. Let me see it in my home, or wherever, without the cell phones, "movie-talkers", people who want to go out for more popcorn, etc. I don't want to sit in a theater with a fat slob next to me who thinks he's the only one there. I swear, the next time I hear a cell phone in a movie, I'm going to light up a NASTY stinky cigar.

Have you done your market research? Find out how many people would like to see a first-run movie on opening day AT HOME.

MOVIE THEATERS SUCK! END THE MONOPOLY. It's not the movies so much as it is the theater experience. (Although there is a DEARTH of good movies being made.) Slam them into submission, shut them down, put movie-going back into the hands of the people! In today's atmoshpere of blended media and high-def availability at a consumer cost/benefit that is dwarfed by a movie theater scenario, why is this even a question? Yet we still go to theaters like we did in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. WHY? Make me NEED to see it, and preferably not at the local mega-plex. Then offer me a downloadable coupon to Netflix or Circuit City, or CompUSA, or whatever, at the end, so I have a return on MY investment. MAKE me NEED your solution. Then give it to me.