Movie theater Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
A movie theater or cinema is a location, usually a building, for viewing moviess. Other colloquial names include the silver screen and the big screen (contrasted with the "small screen" of television). Generally, theaters are not owned by individuals, but rather operated by corporations and visited by the general public: one can attend the film showing after buying a ticket. There are often several rooms or auditoriums, each showing another movie; such a theater is called a multiplex, and if very large (16 screens or more), a megaplex. Sometimes a popular movie is shown in more than one auditorium. The film is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium.
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2 Admittance 3 Crowd control 4 "The back row" 5 Other services 6 Major movie theater companies 7 See also |
Some movie theaters are outdoors and so can only be used when it is dark. A drive-in movie theater is basically a parking area with a screen at one end and a projection booth at the other. Moviegoers drive into the parking spaces which are usually provided with portable loudspeakers or the vehicle's sound system tunes to an FM station over which the soundtrack is played, and the movie is viewed through the car windscreen. Drive-in movies were mainly found in the United States, and were especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s, but are now almost extinct.
Some outdoor movie theaters are just cleared areas where the audience sits upon chairs or blankets and watch the movie on a temorary screen, or even the wall of a convenient building.
In late 1990s student organisations in universities and schools started to show movies in auditoriums equipped with multimedia projectors.
Some alternative methods of showing movies have been popular in the past. In 1980s the introduction of VHS casettes made possible video-salons, small rooms where visitors viewed the film on a large TV. These establishments were especially popular in the Soviet Union, where official distribution companies were slow to adapt to changing demand and so movie theaters could not show popular Hollywood and Asian films.
As movie theaters have grown into multiplexes and megaplexes, crowd control has become a major concern. An overcrowded megaplex can be rather unpleasant (due to factors like body odor and bruising), and in an emergency can be extremely dangerous. Therefore, all major theater chains have implemented crowd control measures.
The most famous one is the ubiquitous holdout line which prevents ticketholders for the next showing of that weekend's most popular movie from entering the building until their particular auditorium has been cleared out and cleaned. Furthermore, many theater chains like to co-locate their theaters in shopping centers, and they deliberately build lobbies and corridors that are too small, making holdout lines a necessity. In turn, ticketholders will hopefully be enticed to shop or eat while stuck in the holdout line.
Arm rests may be a hindrance for intimacy. Some theaters have love seats: seats for two without armrest in the middle. The most modern theaters have movable armrests throughout the theater that when down can hold a food container as well as act as an armrest or partition between the seats and when up allow closer contact between the couple. More expensive theaters may have large comfortable sofas.
It is quite common for the lobby to include an arcade game area.
This is an Article on Movie theater. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Movie theater Types of movie theater
There are a variety of movie theatres:
Some movie theaters are converted from conventional theaters, and some theaters may be temporarily converted to show movies. As for content, some theatres have special series devoted to art and foreign films shown on a limited basis, and sometimes a higher ticket to appeal to an audience that sometimes does not have a dedicated venue for such fare.Admittance
According to motion picture rating systems, children or teenagers below a certain age may be forbidden access to theaters showing certain movies, or simply subject to parental guidance.Crowd control
"The back row"
Sometimes couples go to a movie theater for the additional reason that it provides the possibility of some physical intimacy, where the dark provides some privacy (with additional privacy in the back-row). This applies in particular for young people who still live with their parents, and these parents tend to monitor and/or forbid certain activities. Compared with being together in a room without other people, it may also be reassuring for one or both of the couple (and for parents) that the intimacy is necessarily limited.Other services
Movie theaters usually sell various snack foods and drinks at concession stands which often represents their primary source of income; movie studios in the US traditionally drive hard bargains entitling them to more than 70, 80, or 90% of the gross ticket revenue during the first week (and then the balance changes in 10% increments per week from there). Some movie theaters forbid eating and drinking inside the viewing room (restricting such activities to the lobby), while others encourage it, e.g. by selling large portions of popcorn. Concessions is currently a huge area of expansion with many companies in the US offering a wider range of snacks, including hot dogs and nachos. The noise of people eating, including the opening of wrappers, is frowned upon by many moviegoers.Major movie theater companies
North America
Europe
See also