An Old Man Rant About Cineplex Entertainment

Dear Cineplex,

Since you're pretty much the only game in my town for seeing new movies, I suppose there isn't much to worry about on your end.  You bested Famous Players (my theatre chain of choice #PepsiCoFTW)

You even took out AMC.  You'll never not get my money, I suppose, is the main message I'm getting at.

Now I'm well aware that it's hard out here for a movie theatre!  Everyone has found reasons to not make it out to the theatres.  There are ways to make your home movie viewing experience just as exciting as going out to the movies.  There are other things to spend your money on.  I get it, I get it.  You're out here trying to hustle and remain relevant.  As my favourite poet, Shawn Carter, once said, "You Can't Knock The Hustle!"

So I'm not here to knock your pricing, your less than generous distribution of scene points, or nigh on feature length block of advertising before we even get to advertising upcoming movies (the reasons we will actually be coming back to the movies).  I just want to walk you through what it's like to be a Cineplex Entertainment customer.

Bruh!  Who is in charge of keeping the lights on over there?  Seriously, you'd assume someone over there only gets paid for the length of time the lights are on in the theatre.  Not only do the lights stay on during the trailers ruining the effect of being in the movies and sometimes causing a glare making parts of the screen invisible, but the lights go on with the quickness after movies. When I went to see Captain America: Civil War, the lights came on a good 7 minutes before the credits started rolling... I mean like before the extra footage during and after the credits... 

Remember when everyone knew to stay seated till the lights went on?  If the lights were on the movie was definitely done.  That's gone now.

Let's just assume that there is an amazing reason for ruining the visuals during trailers.  Like I'll just assume that customer surveys have revealed that most people who don't like trailers want to come in during that time and having the lights on helps them not trip.  

I'll also assume some kind of survey revealed that it's no longer a good idea to start IMAX movies right away with no ads.  I don't have to agree with these choices, I just have to understand the hustle.

However, there does seem to be a change that's been made that I can't imagine customers told you they wanted.  Why aren't you properly masking your screens?  The reason I doubt there is data out there that back ups this puzzling decision is because I doubt the majority of people know what masking is without reading THIS ARTICLE HERE.  

If I'm wrong about that data, I'm sure the convo went like this "Hey, stop readusting the curtains so that the movie actually fills the whole screen.  I want to feel like part of the movie is being covered or see them nice black bands box in my movie!"

I may be off but I feel like people who legitimately enjoy going to the movie theatre, and aren't people described in this insightful piece of writing HERE, do not appreciate these lapses in judgement.  It feels like you're catering to the wrong audience. 

If you're really about that hustle, you should be investing in keeping the people who actively like coming to the theatre happy instead of forcing them to find alternatives to the increasingly alienating film going experience.

There so many options outside the cinema for seeing movies.  Why continue to add to the list of reasons it's probably not worth coming to the movies by taking people out of the experience when you don't have to?

Having said all that, there are seriously much bigger issues in the world.  I just needed to vent.  I just wanted to provide a brief interlude from all the real issues of the world... you know... like going to the movies should do!

-YG