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New Movie Theater experience

 
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draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 7:22 pm    Post subject: New Movie Theater experience Reply with quote


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so went to my local AMC last night with the fam to see Rogue one. I liked it, my kid loved it, and his excitement made me realize I will never be 13 again and see Star wars in the same way LOL . It's a good movie though, a great prequel

the theater though blew me away. $45. for 4 tickets but I picked my seat at the counter (or on line). As we were looking at the on-line choices I was annoyed and said " why are they only showing the front section? , this is stupid lets just buy our tickets at the counter".
Errrr, they were showing all the seats , The normal sized theater only HAD 42 seats. When I got to the theater it was really different. They had done a remodel and ripped out the gameroom, replaced it with a BAR Shocked serving premium beer . The soda and also Icee machine dispensers were also now out in the open, free refills. So I got the kids icee's, popcorn, the wife a beer (expensive but large and you can take that into the theater as well) and headed in

The theater really blew me away. What looked like real Leather recliners, with electric recline all the way back to Horizontal Shocked I sat in D2, and it was a great seat, but I think row B would be the sweet spot based on the AR most of are used to in our homes and also to block out the emergency exit lights and such.

Anyone see this yet? I can't imagine all the theaters were like this , on a blockbuster you would lose money but maybe extended showings for people who don't need to see it on opening weekend and would rather have a premium viewing experience?


Last edited by draganm on Sun Dec 25, 2016 8:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jbmeyer13




Joined: 03 Dec 2010
Posts: 1135



PostLink    Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 4:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

AMC has been overhauling their theaters like this for close to 2-yrs. It's great and I think they are doing it to bring people back to the movies. These days a 65" flat panel and BD player are dirt cheap so getting a quality home experience (let alone what us home theater folks have) is pretty affordable and convenient. These premium features help differentiate AMC from the other chains and once 4K becomes the standard it will be tough to beat.

Interesting thing is we just went to see Rogue One again and had to sit in the second row; however with those recliners it was still awesome. Sure beats fighting with over the shared armrest of the old days;-)

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garyfritz




Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12024
Location: Fort Collins, CO


PostLink    Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

They demolished and re-built the major mall in my town (who would put over $300M into a MALL in these days of online shopping!?) and the new design includes a Cinemark "Movie Bistro and XD." Very similar to what you describe, Dragan.
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Jeremy112




Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 2645
Location: Fond du Lac, WI


PostLink    Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Marcus cinemas here in WI have "Ultra lounge" theaters, basically the same thing you went and experienced. Very nice, especially since there's less than 50 people in the theater!!
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draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well discreet arm-rests and cup holders are definitely nice, not having your ass go number after an hour is even better Thumbs Up

they also guarantee a "distraction free" movie experience although if you go so a kiddie movie that's probly not a realistic expectation. I can say the last few times i went, and I go maybe once year, everyone was very well behaved and i didn't hear a single cell phone, which is a miracle really

garyfritz wrote:
They demolished and re-built the major mall in my town (who would put over $300M into a MALL in these days of online shopping!?) and the new design includes a Cinemark "Movie Bistro and XD." Very similar to what you describe, Dragan.
that is nuts.
I think the outdoor malls are doing ok, the ones where the mall faces an open walking area with fountains and flower beds etc. Online shopping is all well and good but People still need a reason to leave the house, especially in the winter. At Orchards there are even fireplaces built in you can pause at and get a warmed-up while you mosey along.

I do admire the guts of having 300 million to gamble on what you think people might or might not do
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draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jbmeyer13 wrote:
A These days a 65" flat panel and BD player are dirt cheap so getting a quality home experience (let alone what us home theater folks have) is pretty affordable and convenient. These premium features help differentiate AMC from the other chains and once 4K becomes the standard it will be tough to beat.
Interesting thing is we just went to see Rogue One again and had to sit in the second row; however with those recliners it was still awesome. Sure beats fighting with over the shared armrest of the old days;-)


brings to mind another question.

If the 65" TV and a few speakers is good enough for most viewing, and the local plex now is actually really frickin nice in every way for movie watching, is it really worth spending $10-15K to build a proper home theater in your basement? I'm talking construction from bare concrete walls all the way thru to carpet, proper furniture, nice new DILA projector and premium sound system.
Mine cost me about $8K and did the construction myself but I'm not 100% sure if we got another house that I would do it again, Confused
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 3:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

draganm wrote:
brings to mind another question.

If the 65" TV and a few speakers is good enough for most viewing, and the local plex now is actually really frickin nice in every way for movie watching, is it really worth spending $10-15K to build a proper home theater in your basement? I'm talking construction from bare concrete walls all the way thru to carpet, proper furniture, nice new DILA projector and premium sound system.

People stopped being interested in building dedicated HTs years ago. The ship sailed quite some time ago. I'd say that interest in dedicated probably peaked around 2000 and started to really wane around 2008-2010 if not sooner. Now people just want a big flat panel in their family room. It does make a lot more sense from a usability standpoint as it's a multi-use room. In many circles dedicated HTs now seem garish and completely over the top.

$10-15K for a proper HT including a good projector, speakers, and furniture is extremely low too. Just the cost of 2x4 and 2x6 framing material to build the walls/ceiling/proscenium/riser/columns is going to cost you a few thousand. $10-15K for dedicated HT is what the budget conscious DIYer spends if they do everything themselves and go for more function over looks and stick with budget equipment.

Kal

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jbmeyer13




Joined: 03 Dec 2010
Posts: 1135



PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 4:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kal wrote:
draganm wrote:
brings to mind another question.

If the 65" TV and a few speakers is good enough for most viewing, and the local plex now is actually really frickin nice in every way for movie watching, is it really worth spending $10-15K to build a proper home theater in your basement? I'm talking construction from bare concrete walls all the way thru to carpet, proper furniture, nice new DILA projector and premium sound system.

People stopped being interested in building dedicated HTs years ago. The ship sailed quite some time ago. I'd say that interest in dedicated probably peaked around 2000 and started to really wane around 2008-2010 if not sooner. Now people just want a big flat panel in their family room. It does make a lot more sense from a usability standpoint as it's a multi-use room. In many circles dedicated HTs now seem garish and completely over the top.

$10-15K for a proper HT including a good projector, speakers, and furniture is extremely low too. Just the cost of 2x4 and 2x6 framing material to build the walls/ceiling/proscenium/riser/columns is going to cost you a few thousand. $10-15K for dedicated HT is what the budget conscious DIYer spends if they do everything themselves and go for more function over looks and stick with budget equipment.

Kal


Interesting perspective. When we sold the last house our first realtor felt a home theater only belonged in a $1.5M+ home and gave me a ration of $#!@ over it. She felt potential buyers would have a difficult time envisioning the room as anything else. We switched realtors, relisted the house and sold within 6-days. I don't see it as a selling point but don't see it as a negative either.

I'm using all of the same equipment from the prior theater and have done a good portion of the work myself and when I look at the tab mounting up it's pretty significant. Some of my friends may see my theater as over the top but I couldn't care less. Funny because none of them have a problem parking their rear in a seat to watch a movie or football game Wink

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kal
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Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jbmeyer13 wrote:
When we sold the last house our first realtor felt a home theater only belonged in a $1.5M+ home and gave me a ration of $#!@ over it. She felt potential buyers would have a difficult time envisioning the room as anything else. We switched realtors, relisted the house and sold within 6-days. I don't see it as a selling point but don't see it as a negative either.

We had a similar experience in 2011, though we sold ourselves. Everyone loved the idea of the HT we had at the old house but didn't like the fact that (a) we wanted money for the equipment/seating, and that (b) it took up space.

So it's like any luxury item: Like an exotic sports car, a well done dedicated HT will turn a lot of heads (mostly the guys) and get people going "oh and ah" but nobody actually bites when you try and sell it as it's not a "must have". "I'd love to have one but I don't want to spend any money at all" was the real answer. The guys would usually get slap in the back of the head from their wives then they were seriously considering paying what I wanted to recoup for the equipment and seating. It just wasn't a priority in their house spending.

Our house was a 3-bedroom single family home in an 'average' neighbourhood. Nothing over the top. A dedicated HT was considered by anyone in this sort of neighbourhood as completely over the top. No different than parking a Lamborghini in the driveway really.

I probably could have sold ours faster if I was to include it all as part of the home cost (I wasn't going to do that, it was a lot of money) but most people still didn't want it and saw it as just taking a lot of space.

So part of the sales agreement when we sold was I had to dismantle everything and get rid of everything HT related. That meant taking apart the carpeted riser I had built myself and drywalling the ceiling and equipment wall. To make it look like nothing had ever been installed. Luckily for me I had installed the riser free floating on top of carpet so it was fairly easy.

Once you get into the high end homes, often worth many millions, the budget of having a dedicated HT included in the cost isn't even something the buyer notices. That same home probably has a 4+ car garage, at least one pool/hot tub, $100K+ outdoor kitchen, walk in wine cellar, and so forth.

Quote:
I'm using all of the same equipment from the prior theater and have done a good portion of the work myself and when I look at the tab mounting up it's pretty significant.

+1. I have all the material costs for what I've done and the new theater was especially expensive even though I had most of the equipment and seating already.

Quote:
Some of my friends may see my theater as over the top but I couldn't care less. Funny because none of them have a problem parking their rear in a seat to watch a movie or football game Wink

Agreed! I built it for me, not for others. The same is true for our current house with everything we've done. There's absolutely no way in hell we'll recoup the costs of what's been done but we're ok with that as we built it for us, not for others. I can just see trying to sell it: "A dedicated brewery? Seriously?". Wink

Kal

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draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kal wrote:
$10-15K for a proper HT including a good projector, speakers, and furniture is extremely low too. Just the cost of 2x4 and 2x6 framing material to build the walls/ceiling/proscenium/riser/columns is going to cost you a few thousand. $10-15K for dedicated HT is what the budget conscious DIYer spends if they do everything themselves and go for more function over looks and stick with budget equipment.

Kal
yes, absolutely. I built my friends for $8K but that was using CRT, buying very nice equipment on close-out from trusted online retailers I know who blow out the previous year stuff, and doing all the work ourselves including framing. Call a contractor and have them followed up by the local hi-fi dealer doing the install of retail equipment and your into it for $25-30K

jbmeyer13 wrote:
Some of my friends may see my theater as over the top but I couldn't care less. Funny because none of them have a problem parking their rear in a seat to watch a movie or football game Wink
LOL Laughing

kal wrote:
We had a similar experience in 2011, though we sold ourselves. Everyone loved the idea of the HT we had at the old house but didn't like the fact that (a) we wanted money for the equipment/seating, and that (b) it took up space.
"I'd love to have one but I don't want to spend any money at all" was the real answer. The guys would usually get slap in the back of the head from their wives then they were seriously considering paying what I wanted to recoup for the equipment and seating. It just wasn't a priority in their house spending.
So part of the sales agreement when we sold was I had to dismantle everything and get rid of everything HT related. That meant taking apart the carpeted riser I had built myself and dry-walling the ceiling and equipment wall. To make it look like nothing had ever been installed. Luckily for me I had installed the riser free floating on top of carpet so it was fairly easy.

wow, I think you guys missed the obvious alternative. You include the theater, but before you list you pull the stuff you want to keep.
The JVC goes back in the box and in it's place an Epson, the $2k speakers go back in the box and a pair of really nice looking but inexpensive towers replace them. the $1500. screen gets replaced by a $200. roll-up. The theater remains functional , you get to keep using it, the average buyer still gets the wow factor, but you're premium gear goes with you. A lot less work than what Kal described and all in all a break even or you might even come out a little ahead if you shop wisely.

right now if wee were to move I would take my screen, my leather recliners, and not much else. My Denon 5800 was a CL score for $150., my Marquee 8500 isn't even worth pulling down, and none of my speakers are really very valuable. Although I really like my Quad 22L towers in their Piano lacquered Mahogany, brand new ones are on sale right now for $699. pair.

The real bitch for me in doing another HT is the construction. The framing, dry-wall, carpet, etc. and I can't take any of it with me from my old house. Paying a contractor is also not an option because I would not do just part of the basement again, now i really wish I had finished the rest with a 4th bedroom and half-bath that i could have had. it would have to be the whole basement or nothing.
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kal
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PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

draganm wrote:
wow, I think you guys missed the obvious alternative. You include the theater, but before you list you pull the stuff you want to keep.

Overall, people really didn't want an HT that were looking to buy our place. A lot found it really "neat" but didn't want to use up the space for it. Our housing prices had gone really up so we had a lot of older couples looking to move in with their older son or daughter as the only way to afford a single family home. Many were looking at turning the basement into a separate apartment/suite for the son/daughter. An HT just took up too much room. In Ottawa (where I live) single family homes start at about half a million (about $370K USD).

Kal

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draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kal wrote:
Overall, people really didn't want an HT that were looking to buy our place. A lot found it really "neat" but didn't want to use up the space for it. Our housing prices had gone really up so we had a lot of older couples looking to move in with their older son or daughter as the only way to afford a single family home. Many were looking at turning the basement into a separate apartment/suite for the son/daughter. An HT just took up too much room. In Ottawa (where I live) single family homes start at about half a million (about $370K USD).

Kal
yup, same prices here, even worse actually for new-build.

I hear what your saying though, small 3 bedroom is a starter home, which usually means young people or retired couple. A kiddy play room, sowing room, or 4th bedroom is more desirable than a HT, no matter how nice. the time of the personal HT has certainly come and gone for typical middle class neighborhoods.
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jbmeyer13




Joined: 03 Dec 2010
Posts: 1135



PostLink    Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

draganm wrote:
kal wrote:
Overall, people really didn't want an HT that were looking to buy our place. A lot found it really "neat" but didn't want to use up the space for it. Our housing prices had gone really up so we had a lot of older couples looking to move in with their older son or daughter as the only way to afford a single family home. Many were looking at turning the basement into a separate apartment/suite for the son/daughter. An HT just took up too much room. In Ottawa (where I live) single family homes start at about half a million (about $370K USD).

Kal
yup, same prices here, even worse actually for new-build.

I hear what your saying though, small 3 bedroom is a starter home, which usually means young people or retired couple. A kiddy play room, sowing room, or 4th bedroom is more desirable than a HT, no matter how nice. the time of the personal HT has certainly come and gone for typical middle class neighborhoods.


Our house was a 4bdrm 2bath and while that sounds like a lot it was a bi-level so you get a lot jammed into a relatively small space. Our customers were either first time home buyers or downsizers and the prices in my area were/are consistent with Kal's.

If someone had really wanted the theater then I'd have considered what Dragan suggests. The flip side is that when you are trying to move you have so much going on that your looking to eliminate any unecessary work. Another concern I had was that if someone really wanted the theater they'd likely have been specific about having exactly what was there during the showings. I wasn't willing to part with any of my primary equipment but had enough spare parts to build a 9500LC and had an old Da-Lite 90" screen and faroudja scaler to make things half way decent. The speakers would have been the PITA because no way was I going to part with my M&K's. After thinking about this, the right method would have been to do all of this prior to listing the home. Just thinking about all of this reminds me how much I hate moving...

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Curt Palme
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PostLink    Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 3:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Frankly, I don't have numbers, but I think the HT craze with a projector and semi-dedicated room has long passed. It peaked in about 2000-2003 I'd say when HD was a new thing, and it resurged when HDDVD and BR came into play. I've bought back more than one projector from a client that I sold it to originally, but 10 years later wanted the room for something else.

With Joe Average going with an HTIB (I can't believe how many people buy those!), everyone now has a 'theater' <rolleyes>

A buddy that builds monster homes had a really nice HT, originally one of my CRTs, then he went digital). He lived in the homes he built for a year, then flipped them with ease in the ritsy part of town. He's a cheap bastard (super nice guy!), and would take down his 9" set after he sold the house, and I'd install a lower end NEC and POS Cerwin Vega speakers instead of his Missions. Of course his sales clause simply stated 'home theater with projector' and never the actual model numbers or brands..
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cmjohnson




Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 5180
Location: Buried under G90s


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A home theater (a real one, not an HTIB and a flat screen TV) is absolutely a personalized thing. Anybody who wants that huge projected picture so much that he'll put the time, money, and effort into making it happen and picking out all the equipment he wants will be picking it exactly to his own personal tastes. (And budget) It's as personalized as your own bedroom, if not more so, and I expect that the majority of houses with a theater in them, that are sold to another buyer, get the room converted back to something else. If they're serious HT enthusiasts, expect some equipment to be changed out at least.

One of my G90s came out of a house that had a hand-me-down home theater in it. Although the new owner likes the theater and uses it, he replaced a poorly set up G90 with no HDMI input card (he didn't know there was such a thing available or he might have kept the G90) with a less than high end digital flashlight. But he's happy and I've got a garage full of G90s under renovation, so that's quite all right with me.

Expect that the home theater will not survive when the house sells.
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