An architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times reviews the new Landmark multiplex at the Westside Pavilion:
... [It is] designed to compete directly with your living room — with your sofa, your flat screen and your ability to pause, rewind, turn on the lights or just give up on the movie idea altogether and switch over to "The Daily Show."Well, why should a theater be less comfortable or less aesthetically satisfying than your average big-screen TV home set-up? This kind of thing has been done for years (the beanbags or sofas and ottomans in the front row and such), but what I'll be interested in seeing is whether cozy 30- to 50-seat auditoria can bring in enough revenue to justify building them.As if to acknowledge how tough it's becoming to drag people out of their houses for a night at the movies, with home-theater technology getting better and traffic getting worse, the Landmark includes a number of domestic architectural touches. The most striking are three "Living Room" theaters on the top floor that hold between 30 and 50 people each. They include sofas and side tables as well as overstuffed love seats and ottomans by the high-end French furniture company Ligne Roset. [...]
All of the Landmark's larger auditoriums are pleasingly steep and feature extra-wide seats with cup holders that will accommodate your Chardonnay as well as a Big Gulp-sized soda. They are served by top-of-the-line Sony digital projectors, which construction crews were moving carefully into place last week.
But those rooms offer a variation on an architectural experience we all know well: the big movie auditorium with cushy seats and teeth-rattling sound. What's new at the Landmark, at least for a first-run theater, are those Living Rooms — not just for their furniture but for what they reveal about the industry's attitude toward architectural space in a digital era. [...]
This time around Hollywood is openly admitting the extent to which the public now associates the movie-watching experience with the comforts of home.
I find this hilarious -- my TV is a piece of shit, I have no sound system to speak of and I sit on a hard, strangely angled futon-like contraption of indefinite origins. Oh, and I have to engage my cats in hand-to-hand combat to compete for space. The bastards may have claws, but I have opposable thumbs. Time will tell who emerges victorious.
I rarely watch films outside of my house or the AFI Silver. In fact, I purposely avoid the theater closest to home as it is located in that harrowing black hole of a mall, Tyson's Corner. Anyone living in the area knows of what I speak: the unspeakable horrors of terrible food, impossible parking and -- God be with us -- nauseatingly large masses of teenagers.
It's a nice idea, but couches and ottomans may be going a bit overboard.
I used to manage a theatre that served food and liquor inside the theatres themselves -- not your typical beer and hot dog place, a little more upscale with a better atmosphere. Hell, we even had curtains that pulled back before the previews started in the two main houses.
This was.. 8 years ago, now. Being able to have a glass of wine or a meal was a pretty big novelty in Dallas, but the real attraction (as I saw it) was the nice office chairs everyone could sit in. Tall backs, wheels, rotate as you want -- with enough clearance that you wouldn't smack into whoever was sitting next to you unless the place was jammed. The rows were spacious, so even on the busiest nights it was a far cry from that sitting-in-coach feel you get in regular movie houses.
The food and the drink were nice, but I think that -- and the couches and so on in question here -- encourage a little too much casual behavior in a movie theatre. Decorum, already a vanishing quality in most movie audiences, disappears entirely.
People talk, in other words, and not softly... because they feel like they're at home. And they give you poisonous looks if you remind them they're actually in public and ruining the experience for someone else. It got to the point where I could only watch comedies in the place -- the casual atmosphere ruined thrillers, horror films, and anything else that required tension or complete immersion to weave its effects.
Short version: I think Landmark is overreaching, but they're on to the right idea. This is where theatres -- or at least the ones that want to survive without having 24 screens -- are going.
Why do theater-owners feel this is necessary? No one is making a drive to replace football stadium seating with Lazy-Boys, and the bulk of the football watching public watches games on television. It seems to me that the country, as a whole, either cares very little about the movies anymore or can't find a movie worth leaving the comforts of their home for.
My bet is the latter.
Thanks for the post, but the link isn't correct.
JE: Whoops. Thanks. It's fixed now.
I agree with Mr. Lowery. I'd trade all the plush seating and other luxuries for the simple pleasure of watching films in a theatre where silence is enforced during the screening. I love going to the cinema, but the constant yapping makes it almost unbearable and the 16 year old "ushers", if they appear at all, are not up to the task of keeping people quiet. I'd like to blame it on rude kids, but as often as not lately it is adults happily chatting away as though they are alone in their living room.
In St. Louis, we're blessed with the Moolah Theater and Lounge, a renovated Shriner Temple that's been converted into an upscale, single-screen theater with a comfortable, adult, slightly retro atmosphere.
http://www.stlouiscinemas.com/moolah/
It shows a nice mix of big-budget blockbusters and arthouse films. The area in the front and center of the auditorium features luscious leather couches and chairs and end-tables. I always try to grab these, rather than the traditional theater seats along the edges. The theater also has a full bar in the lobby, with custom cocktails based on the currently showing film, and dirt cheap draft beer. The fact that I can by a huge glass of beer at the bar and carry it into the theater seals the deal for me. Best of all, this theater is the same price as the multiplex (about $8.50). I just saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 there, and it was as pleasant an experience as my last half-dozen multiplex experiences.
The picture sure made it seem like another article from The Onion. Google found me an article on the Landmark theater with that photo in it, but I still don't see why they chose a red sofa for the first row. There's enough light in the darkened theater for the red to potentially distract everyone sitting behind it for the duration of the film, and that doesn't seem like fair retribution for the first-row moviegoer who has to sit too close to the screen.
Perhaps on the lawn outside the theatre they should have a few old Fords and Chevys resting on cinder blocks, with empty cans of Bud and Colt 45 strewn about.
This so much signals the end of an era, it's not even funny. What a stupid idea. They're actually trying to revive the collective experience by making it feel more private. What's next: video booths? (Damn, this is cartoon material!)
If anything, this will stimulate viewers to stick to the "real thing" and stay at home.
Do NOT knock this "innovation." However--
K. Lowrey makes a good point: the casual nature, carousing, and that Bottle of Chardonnay...
There must be some clever "economic-demographic bracketing" to ensure patrons are Boomer-age oligarchs (L.A. Times article, industry?) versus those Whippersnapper Teenagers, who have ruined the movie experience (with cellphones and movies that cater to them only).
How would this theater fare with a film like Grindhouse, that BEGS to be -ditched- for 10 minutes...
In my little town a few miles north of LA, the couches would be promptly soiled, stolen, and used in gang violence.
Movies = Daycare here.
...and good to read you again Jim!
I agree it's a bit ridiculous. My experience with theaters in general is that as long as the seat is moderately comfortable, you have decent legroom, and you can see the screen, then there's really no problem.
I can only imagine the behavior that'll eventually befall the place, not to mention the numerous people who will fall asleep during the movie (Wine+a meal+Sofa+No Lights+People who work=sleep, no getting around that).
Not just the practical problems it creates, but also I don't know how comfortable I'd be on a couch that'd been made to feel comfortable for thousands of other people before me.
This all seems very wrong headed.
I know it sounds silly on paper, but I saw Grizzly Man in a "living room theater" at Cinetopia in Vancouver, Washington when I lived on that side of the country (just over the river from Portland). Same sort of thing, big leather couches and recliners, ottoman footrests, cup holders that held an entire gourmet meal tray, a pillow pit below the screen, live jazz before the show, everything. The tickets were more expensive, I think about 13 or 15 bucks at the time, but no one under 18 was allowed in the living room theaters after 6pm.
It was seriously the best theatrical experience I've ever had. Cinetopia's gone all digital now, which is disappointing, cause the film presentation was the best I'd ever seen, ever. But, as far as the rest of the experience goes, it was stellar. The audience was exceptionally polite, even with all of the eating going on, the sound was amazing, the seats were super comfortable, and on and on.
So, yeah, the idea looks silly, but trust me, it's an amazing way to see a movie. Don't knock it till you've tried it.
What you're going to see is increased cases of making out in the theatre, people falling asleep or people falling asleep after making out.
Do you think such comfort will bring out the worst at home habits? Will I be turning over my shoulder three times as often to shush the morons behind me?
The strange thing to me is the need to fight the at home experience. I still search out films that are readily available on DVD to see on the big screen. "Lawrence of Arabia" is coming to the Aero in LA this month, I'm certainly not going to go rent it instead...I don't care how great my sound system is or how much I like my comfy chair, I'm going to go sit in an old creaky crusty chair and enjoy that 70mm print in all it's glory. You don't need to serve me wine and give me a pillow to help me enjoy a good movie.
I'm not sure they know who their audience is. Obviously, the ticket prices will have to rise for these rooms. What will they exhibit - Spider-Man 3? The Golden Age ended in 1975. There's nothing in the theatres these sorts of folks would want to see. I suppose they could exhibit HBO TV series, but would someone pay to see them on the big screen every week?
Brandon:
No, people would not pay to see an HBO TV series on the big screen. The theatres around here show popular shows on the big screens for free -- and thus everyone has more cash to spend on wine, food, et cetera. Put it on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday night (the slowest nights of the week for just about any theatre) and you've got a solid gold win.
It is a nice idea, but lounges and puffers may be going a bit overboard. I am sure they know who their audience is. Plainly, the ticket prices will have to rise for these rooms.
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james
sofas