I haven't been to a movie in a theater in years, but the horrible little cineplex-owned theater down the block from me was recently purchased by a local rep theater, and their opening week lineup is kind of insane, so I might come out of retirement to see Wings of Desire, In the Mood for Love, Ikiru, or Paris Texas somewhere that's a 2-minute walk from my house.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

We have a locally owned theater that we go to all the time and have a blast. They only charge $7 for matinee ($9 regular) and do the whole table/dining experience. There was another just like it that got bought out by Regal around a decade ago and Regal ran it straight into the ground to the point that they just boarded it up a couple of months ago.

I dont know that the issue is with theaters so much as the issue being with everything being owned by some mega corp with sky high prices and poor quality service.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

that's cool. jealous. i used to have theatres like that around me but none of them do that anymore. post covid they just play boring repetitive stuff and third/fourth run hollywood movies, and do these of identity themed festivals for weeks at a time that are full of bottle barrel amateur movies. occasionally they might get a 70mm cut or something, but that's once every few months. these are places i used to hold memberships to and go a monthly or more basis... now it's been years since I've been.

Play good movies and I will come to your cinema. But they just... don't. i just looked at one place i used to go and nothing in the next two months looks interesting to me unless i want to see a bunch of 90s crappy movies and/or reruns of big hit movies from '24. it's no wonder they are struggling so much... garbage programming.