media Bubble and Brokeback Mountain

Posted January 24, 2006 • Comments Off on Bubble and Brokeback Mountain

A friend of a friend put up this excellent post about movies, with Bubble, a fascinating experiment, as a jumping-off point.

From his own comment to the post:

All I’m saying is, rather than piss and moan about DVD releases, movie theaters should work on having a service that is functionally different from buying or renting a DVD. Live music clubs don’t complain that CDs are unfair competition, because they know that they’re not selling just a band performing music, but an experience that the CD doesn’t provide. If movie theaters focused on making the theater experience an enjoyable and special one, one that was significantly different from watching at home, they’d have a better chance of luring customers in without resorting to current brute force methods. But as it stands, there is absolutely no reason to see most movies in the theater.

I disagree with that last bit; the reason to go to the theater is to see the movie first—namely, before anyone can spoil it for you. Other than that, he’s right on. And this reason doesn’t exist with simultaneous release.

I went to the theater last week and saw Brokeback Mountain. I loved this movie. Besides being heartwrenchingly sad and deceptively simple, it was actually one of the sexiest movies I’ve ever seen. It was something else.

I had a good theater experience. Few commercials, many trailers, only about six other people in the theater, all of whom kept quiet during the feature, and a good, comfortable seat where I could make the screen take up my entire field of vision.

And the theater I go to actually does have a bar, where I watched “American Idol” and chatted up the bartender before the movie started. You can’t take drinks into the theater, and it was a little chilly during the movie, but all in all, it’s a good theater, and it was a good experience. I didn’t wish for my two hours back, and I didn’t wish for my ten bucks back.

But, given the choice, and all other things being equal (timing and whatnot—something happens in the movie that I was glad not to know ahead of time)…

Given the choice, I still would have watched it at home.