Hindsight As Being 20/20
Toronto independent movie theatres The Kingsway, The Royal and the Revue will be closing June 30th, but who is really to blame for such a sad twist of fate? While poor attendance or mega-theatres are obvious scapegoats, I have a different spin on the situation.
As someone who watches a minimum of 3 movies a week and who lives in close proximity to the Revue, the owners should have considered me their target audience. After all, I treasure the moments I get to sit in a creaky chair eating over-priced popcorn over a sticky floor. Yet whenever I had the urge to go out to see a movie, I’d look in the paper and discover that some mediocre family or foreign film was playing. I have nothing against such genres, but the selection offered was rarely exciting. Besides, I don’t need to pay more than 4 bucks to see films that are just as good in my living room. These days I go to the theater for two things – in your face special effects, or older films that I may never have the chance to see on a big screen again.
Of course, when I would see a great movie was playing, it would be offered in a short run of only a few days and for some reason was never EVER convenient to my schedule.
Planning ahead to see a film has always been an unpleasant task too. To this day the festival cinema web-site is less than helpful. It is quite difficult to locate schedules specific to each theatre. And once located, the site only shows what that particular month has to offer. Why should I have to wait until the first of the month in order to view June’s schedule? I wanted to plan ahead, I really did, but it seems that wanting to prepare for June 1st on May 26th is somehow unrealistic.
Ranting aside, I actually love and will miss the cinemas – which is why I am so passionate/frustrated by their closure. Unfortunately, if going to see a festival movie in my own neighbourhood was more of a chore than I had time for, then really, how did the chain expect to succeed? Maybe I should have brought my complaints to the owners. Sadly, now it won’t make a difference. I only hope they don’t turn these beautiful buildings into convenience stores, or even worse, a Starbucks.
As someone who watches a minimum of 3 movies a week and who lives in close proximity to the Revue, the owners should have considered me their target audience. After all, I treasure the moments I get to sit in a creaky chair eating over-priced popcorn over a sticky floor. Yet whenever I had the urge to go out to see a movie, I’d look in the paper and discover that some mediocre family or foreign film was playing. I have nothing against such genres, but the selection offered was rarely exciting. Besides, I don’t need to pay more than 4 bucks to see films that are just as good in my living room. These days I go to the theater for two things – in your face special effects, or older films that I may never have the chance to see on a big screen again.
Of course, when I would see a great movie was playing, it would be offered in a short run of only a few days and for some reason was never EVER convenient to my schedule.
Planning ahead to see a film has always been an unpleasant task too. To this day the festival cinema web-site is less than helpful. It is quite difficult to locate schedules specific to each theatre. And once located, the site only shows what that particular month has to offer. Why should I have to wait until the first of the month in order to view June’s schedule? I wanted to plan ahead, I really did, but it seems that wanting to prepare for June 1st on May 26th is somehow unrealistic.
Ranting aside, I actually love and will miss the cinemas – which is why I am so passionate/frustrated by their closure. Unfortunately, if going to see a festival movie in my own neighbourhood was more of a chore than I had time for, then really, how did the chain expect to succeed? Maybe I should have brought my complaints to the owners. Sadly, now it won’t make a difference. I only hope they don’t turn these beautiful buildings into convenience stores, or even worse, a Starbucks.
posted by M'Adair at 8:33 p.m.
1 Comments:
blowing in the wrong direction
;)
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