Atlanta Film Festival 365

It sucked that I had to watch my Falcons lose yesterday, but where I watched them lose helped ease the sting a bit.

Of late, my favorite place to catch a flick is the Movie Tavern. They've got food, beer and they bring it to you. That's nothing new. AMC's Fork  and Screen (formerly AMC Buckhead Backlot) has been serving food for over a decade now.

However, a huge difference is the kind of things the Tavern has been doing besides showing movies.

Every Saturday till January, the Tavern is hosting a film and flapjacks morning for families. For 10 bucks, you can see one of the latest kid's movies that are out (last Saturday was Bolt) and you can eat all the pancakes you want. 

Yesterday I watched the Falcons game. I brought my mug (which you can refill with beer for 9 bucks), ordered a burger and sat back and watched Ryan and White do some amazing things.  (I refuse to focus on the loss, we have a viable team dagnabit).

Over the last few months, Movie Tavern has become my theater. Excluding Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, I rarely go to any other theaters to see a movie.  

For quite a few folks, their theater of choice probably has less to do with a unique experience and more to do with proximity and ability to get a decent seat. Cleanliness and some other issues might come into play, but I'm not sure you can say that the AMC or Regal theatres are seeing loyality because of anything they've done to give audiences something different, something new.

As the home theater experience becomes more dominant, as theaters are screening releases that are less than two months old on more than 80% of their screens, one has to wonder what kind of loyality theaters are creating.  By the time we got to the 90s, malls became so cookie cutter, it was hard to find a reason to visit other malls. Back in the 80s, I can remember visiting 2 or 3 malls in one day, just to find what we were loking for. Not good on the wallet for gas or the car, but it did force us to visit different locations.

For now, as long as the Tavern continues to give me an experience I can't get anywhere else, it's going to be my theater.

Overall attendance has stagnated compared to ticket prices. So what will theaters do to ensure that today's younger generation of filmgoers continue to be filmgoers? If they truly address the experience (coffee bars ain't going to do it, and in fact, most of them have disappeared) they'll have nothing to worry about. If they don't...well I'll be seeing you on the couch.