As the cost of movie tickets rise to $10 and more and more households have high definition 40"+ TV's, not to mention kids, going to movies becomes less and less attractive. With the content owners (movie companies) talking about boosting overall revenues by simultaneously releasing movies in all formats at once, it is time for the movie theater to reinvent itself - and by that I dont mean time to add more pre-movie commercials. The industry is going to shrink unless it finds new reasons for people to go the theater.

Digital projectors will allow unprecedented movie variety. No more film. Now the theater can download and show any movie from its database on any screen. Advertisers are focusing on this to show more commercials but the theaters should also use the technology to create a new theater experience.

I would love to watch a giant screen high definition version of MSU basketball or NBA basketball.

Instead of showing the same 20 crappy box office movies, they could show twenty different movies a day, or a different movie each hour. They could show old movies, classic movies, themed movies. They could have a Harry Potter day and show all the previous movies to promote the new release. In other words, instead of new releases the theater could pull from the entire catalog of past movies.

Technology is already blurring the lines between homes and theaters but so far it has been to bring a theater experience to the home. It is time for theaters to start bringing the home experience back to the theater. Or face the consequences.

Hollywood could gain from release changes

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in London

Published: March 11 2007 22:05 | Last updated: March 11 2007 22:05

Financial Times

Film studios could boost their revenues up to 16 per cent if they released titles simultaneously in cinemas, to DVD rental chains and via video-on-demand, according to a new study.

Falling box office takings and a slowdown in the lucrative DVD market have prompted some studios to consider changes to the traditional four to six-month “window” in which new films are available exclusively in cinemas.