After slow and painful death of Blockbuster video stores i think Cinema theaters are heading on the same direction due to recent digital and technological revolution, home entertainment theater and current lifestyle. What do you think?
The last movie i watched at the movies was for Michael Douglass many many years ago and that was it , i don't know i am feeling the attraction and excitement is just not there anymore.
If you stopped or slowed going to the movies what put you off?
I think the death with Blockbuster video stores has something to do with them not being able to re-invent themselves and change their business model. If you look at Apple Inc and Dell computers; you see them today which has zero resemblance of who they were decades ago and the reason was they were able to re-invest themselves again and again and grow. Remember Apple Inc. in the late 90s; bleeding cash and almost going bankrupt until Steve Jobs returned and revamped and re-invented Apple again to become the most stock sought after company and cash rich too!?!
While some Cinema theatres are heading towards the same direction of Blockbuster not because of digital and technological revolution which you keep hearing from the news media. That happens almost every few decades anyways. Digital and technological revolution has always had some impact in media distribution, even when the first television was introduced or the first "talkie" movies came out threatening those silent movie theatres. Back then, people were harping the death of the big screen because anyone who can now buy a television can watch a TV show or a movie on a TV set. While there were some Cinema theatres closed then, those who survived had to re-invent themselves to outcompete TV, VHS and Beta recorders, Laserdisc, DVDs and Blurays with better sound, better concession stand offerings and better comfort. With today's streaming services, theatres have to again re-invent themselves to compete. I had been closely following Cineplex and had done a lot of research in this area, preparing myself whether I want to invest in this area or not as I'm from Canada and this is a classic example of a theater company who had lost about 60% of its stock value from its high, burning more cash than they take in to expand into new areas like The Rec Room, Virtual Reality, Top Golf and among others and losing patrons month over month according to their disclosed financial report. It's always synonymous to the early dying days of Apple where they too were bleeding cash, poor product offerings and aimless management until Steve Job came to the rescue. Now, if I had the foresight to buy Apple @ $9/share, which was the price then and sell them @$700 then like my friend did, I would have netted millions of dollars, retire comfortably and fly first class on a whim like my good friend who actually did. He takes his wife and kids on annual vacation in first class, bought his wife an entire kindergarten school and turned that private so she could fulfill her dream in running a children's school and he is going around the world doing non-profit work. The funny thing was when we were young adults, I was raised in a wealthy family and he was from a poor family and he would drop by my place for lunch and sometimes dinner because he couldn't afford regular meals. Now he is far more wealthier than me. Why didn't I had the foresight and vision like my friend did and not buy Apple then?!? Same with the doom and gloom prediction I see with the theatre companies -- streaming and other services are taking some of that business away. But with Apple; it was the PC taking their business away, it was their lack of vision in making new products with Steve Jobs helped achieved. Basically, my friend trusted Steve and Steve helped make him rich. I trusted the general public at Fidonet and they like me never become rich.
What I am finding with Cineplex is that, their new transformation is actually helping. I had visited this new revamped theatre and you can see a different set of crowd; a younger crowd willing to spend a lot of money. And yet many financial analysts, like those in the dying Apple days, predicted the death Cineplex and Cinema. Well, I suppose that's how you differentiate between someone who had vision and willing to invest in this business and who doesn't.
The bottom line after I had researched on this business is that, the cinema business IS FAR FROM DEATH. Streaming services are not going to kill cinema just like TV, VHS, LaserDisc, DVD and Bluray didn't, because while you might no longer go and watch a movie in front of a screen, some others do and it's how you re-invent the business to keep attracting new markets and that was what my friend then was trying to tell me about Apple. All I can only blame was myself, because I didn't listen to his reasons then which was, I thought, completely far fetched as others were proclaiming the doom of Apple Inc, just like they are doing now with Cinema.
