theater entropy

So once again SXSW is over and I didn’t see a single movie. Hell, someone offered me free tickets and I still didn’t go to any of the many fine movies offered by the SXSW film festival.
Somehow I couldn’t muster much interest in the film selection that SXSW had this year. I’m sure the films were excellent, and I heard lots of good things about them, but I can only watch so many Quirky Documentaries, or Angry Independent Films, or Films That Question Your Beliefs, or Low-Budget Films with Mediocre Acting. I still have a long, long list of movies I want to see much more than those, movies like I’m No Angel and Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Gunga Din (which isn’t on DVD) and so forth.

And then I didn’t want to deal with the SXSW crowds, and lines, and the parking, and the very real possibility that I might go to all the trouble of getting to the theater and it would be full and I would be turned away.
Some film geek I am.
I love seeing movies in theaters, and there are some movies I only want to see in theaters, but lately I have had even less motivation than usual to go see movies on the big screens.
I can think of a number of reasons for this. Ticket prices are up again. I love Alamo Drafthouse downtown, but since the state parking garage started charging money, it has become either more expensive or more of a hassle to go there. My boyfriend likes to go to movies with me, and when you compare ticket prices for two with the price of a DVD rental, you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth that much more money to see that particular movie in a theater. We both hate the migraine-inducing commercial crap that the Regal chains play at top volume before the movie starts. (Before the trailers start, even.) We hate having to hear people’s cell phones, and non-whispered conversations, and crying babies while we’re trying to watch a movie.
Also, I finally succumbed to the Netflix love, so we are watching a whole lot of movies on DVD. I am watching more films per week than I ever have, but they’re all on DVD. I don’t have to drive around downtown in a frenzy, or deal with Alamo waitstaff, or watch horrible advertisements. I am starting to understand people’s devotion to watching movies while curled up on a comfy sofa.
Netflix lets you have three movies out at a time, but they have a shipping depot in Austin, so there’s often only one-day turnaround. This means I can watch a movie on Monday night, send it back on Tuesday, and get a new one on Thursday. My boyfriend watches movies late at night after I go to bed, so we often go through five movies a week (although I personally only see one or two of those).
Also, because of the queue of movies we have listed on the Netflix page, we have eliminated those horrible video-store fights we used to have. That in itself is worth $20 per month.
We still see new movies in theaters—I’m looking forward to seeing The Ladykillers soon, and maybe Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Plus it looks like Alamo downtown is going to show the Academy Award shorts from 2003, and that’s worth the effort. If the Paramount has a decent lineup of summer films this year, I’ll certainly go to some of those.
I can’t resist seeing Casablanca in a theater even though my boyfriend has the DVD, or Raiders of the Lost Ark (I refuse to pay for three DVDs when I only want one, and anyway the movie doesn’t look nearly as cool on my TV), and if a nearby theater showed The Wild Bunch I would drop everything and rush there instantly. Brazil too.
But we are increasingly questioning the cost and effort of seeing movies in theaters. It’s sad, because I love movie theaters. But lately there are plenty of things that I don’t love about them, and those things are keeping me away. Maybe when I have more money. Maybe when I’ve seen all the movies on DVD that I want to see. Who knows?