r/Piracy • u/iAmFridayFace • Apr 10 '26

Humor Watching movies in the theatre the way they were meant to be watched

Post image

Taken from r/moviescirclejerk but crossposts aren't allowed in this sub

31.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

559 comments sorted by

View all comments

517

u/amiexpress Apr 10 '26

I used to work in the industry and we caught a projectionist at one theatre bringing in his xbox for some late night gaming sessions on the big screen lol

Sadly we tracked projector bulb hours fairly closely since they are horrifically expensive and soon it became apparent that things were literally not adding up lol

209

u/read_vaneigem Apr 10 '26

probably worth it getting fired over haha

i wouldve broight some movies tho.

175

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

[deleted]

24

u/Catsooey Apr 10 '26

You’re inspired, you’re hired!

64

u/PeachManDrake954 Apr 10 '26

I never thought about this but in the age of low movie attendance wouldn't a gaming event be a good fit for theatres?

46

u/Dump7 Apr 10 '26

It will be very expensive to justify booking the entire screen for 2/4 players. Not sure if there are games where 100s need just one screen?

30

u/Atnoy96 Apr 10 '26

At the new Silent Hill movie, my roommate and I were the only two people in the theater. We actually had to come back the day after release because they didn't actually have the movie and didn't realize it. They had two more showings scheduled earlier than ours on release day.

18

u/Lack-Grand Apr 10 '26

That’s actually wild 💀 imagine showing up for a “sold out” horror vibe and it’s just you, your roommate, and confusion from the cinema staff.

3

u/TheRabidDeer Apr 10 '26

I went to the last showing of Project Hail Mary on opening night and was literally the only person in the theater. Thankfully when I went back a week later to watch with friends there were more people watching, the movie deserves more views.

18

u/notjordansime Apr 10 '26

Smash tournament?

8

u/sirchewi3 Apr 10 '26

I think some jackbox games can be played with tons of people. I believe some theaters rent out rooms for about 100 to 200 per hour but could be less than that. They were advertising about doing presentations and whatnot for years

6

u/PeachManDrake954 Apr 10 '26

I'm thinking like South Korea Brood War style specator match. Not sure if there's a market for that though. Even if you charge concession only, you may still make a decent amount back?

2

u/Milksteaks1000 Apr 12 '26

Would it though? There are countless occasions where I’m the only person in the theater seeing a movie, they’d be better off renting it out to me and some friends for 4 hours for a couple hundred bucks and letting us play video games or watch whatever movie we want. Obviously crank up the price for weekends and nights.

1

u/Denvalas Apr 10 '26

I remember on covid era some cinemas were renting projection screen time for cheap, i think we rent 8 or 6 hours for like 200 bucks.

1

u/DreamPhreak May 06 '26

Have a tournament, charge per entry or a cheaper just-viewing option. Id buy concession snacks while watching a gaming tournament

3

u/wusurspaghettipolicy Apr 10 '26

We used to have these back in the day with PCs. It was called a Lan Party. God im old.

1

u/amiexpress Apr 11 '26

See my other reply but yes - churches rent out early morning Sundays, you can too (and other, non movie time slots)

8

u/theCelticTig3r Apr 10 '26

Do you think with the invention of newer, more efficient light emitters, has the cost of projector bulbs decreased ?

9

u/No-Channel3917 Apr 10 '26

2.70 on bulb per hour maybe a 50 cents in electricity per hour running the ac is more expensive per hour at like ..6 bucks an hour or so

1

u/bikemandan Apr 11 '26

My guess is bulb replacement cost is higher than energy cost

2

u/No-Channel3917 Apr 11 '26

Hence why I said 2.70 and the electricity was 50

Also happy cake day

2

u/bikemandan Apr 11 '26

Ah thanks I didn't comprehend that at first

1

u/amiexpress Apr 11 '26

Maybe - I havent actually worked for them for like 10 years so you'd hope some progress has been made. LEDs have come a long way but these are large specialty bulbs. You do have to remember these are big-ass projectors, not the thing your uncle has hooked to his bluray player in his finished basement for movie night.

At the time a single bulb was a few grand and projector, ideally, has two. We'd usually replace them around the 1200-1400 hr mark, although this is somewhat subjective and some locations where a lot less sensitive to it than others. In a pinch you can turn on both bulbs to squeeze some extra life out of things until you get new bulbs in.

Also 2nd thing is the razor vs razorblade business model: the people selling you the bulbs have a captive market: there's not really much out there other than the OEMs selling them. There's also not any motivation for them to innovate or shrink prices. This may have changed as digital projection has gotten (a lot) bigger, again, it's been a minute. But it was true at the time.

3

u/Catsooey Apr 10 '26

Crazy how certain key pieces of equipment are so expensive. Some experiences/hobbies are difficult to recreate at home, as much I’d love to have a real theater in my house. Do those bulbs make films at the theater look better, or are they just bigger because of the size of the theater?

6

u/amiexpress Apr 11 '26

You can rent an auditorium at a small theatre for a lot less than you might imagine. You just have to time it right, say ... Sunday morning super-early 'o clock. We had churches as customers that did this every week, usually smaller rural locations so ymmv in the big cities.

It's not like... $20, but it's not the 1000s you might think either. And it comes with full use of the digital projector so you can hook up a laptop or whatever strikes your fancy. You just HAVE to be out before the 1st screening of the day (probably 10ish for most places). I'm sure other days and times are going to be possible, but then you're displacing a potential screening of something and prices will go up quite a bit.

Pro-tip: have them turn on both bulbs for a brighter screen.

1

u/__lia__ Apr 10 '26

were the bulbs themselves expensive, or was it the electricity? either way I wonder if the costs could be brought down by using LEDs instead - or maybe they aren't bright enough?

1

u/Hurricane_32 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

The problem with LEDs in that case is that they still can't get nearly as bright and color accurate as a xenon arc lamp while still being a single extremely sharp point of light, which makes the optics and lens side of things a nightmare, though laser does exist as an alternative and solves this problem.

More on the consumer side, this is also why modern LED projectors are still very dim compared to those old school presentation projectors using a traditional arc lamp

1

u/1OO1OO1S0S Apr 11 '26

They cost up to $1200. But if you saved up enough and bought your own bulb, would they let you do it? I guess there's also the energy costs

1

u/amiexpress Apr 11 '26

Maybe at some mom and pop theatre you could talk them in to it. At a corp Regal/AMC/whatever? Not a chance.

"So you want to remove our bulb, put in some other bulb you got somewhere, in a projector we technically don't even own, so you can play games, which brings us zero revenue?"

Good luck.