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You are here: Home / Music / Late Night Open Thread: A Special Afternoon At the Movies

Late Night Open Thread: A Special Afternoon At the Movies

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Seems like a good idea to me — surely there’s an audience that would pay for better video conditions than a sports bar? For the sake of the ushers, I just hope the movie theatres involved either have their own beer / wine licenses, or a legal way to charge corkage fees…

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Ditto for musicians who can sell out an arena… there are certainly fans who can’t afford three-digit tickets, and / or can’t travel to a live show, who would happily round up their besties for a noisy evening at the local widescreen…

Per the Washington Post:

… AMC began selling tickets to “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” the same day, saying in a statement that it had “bolstered its ticket server capacity to handle traffic at more than 5 times the current record for the most ever tickets sold in an hour.” The movie will premiere in the United States, Canada and Mexico on Friday, Oct. 13 — presumably a reference to Swift’s lucky number.

The movie theater chain warned of possible delays and site crashes due to anticipated demand for tickets, alluding in its statement to Ticketmaster’s infamous meltdown when the tour was announced last November.

By Thursday afternoon, fans were posting images of their seat maps and virtual queues on social media. Tickets cost $19.89 for adults (a reference to Swift’s “1989” album, which she is set to release a new recording of in October) and $13.13 for children and seniors.

Swift has previously released films about her 2009-2010 Fearless Tour, her 1989 World Tour (in 2015) and her Reputation Stadium Tour (in 2018) — though those movies opened after the tours had ended. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” by contrast, will release before Swift resumes her latest tour in November — starting in Argentina before hitting the global circuit and returning to the United States and Canada in November next year….

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack

    “Cinema drafthouses” would be an ideal venue. They’re already set up to show movies with drinks and food. Not sure how far they’ve spread from the big cities, but I think they would be an attractive alternative to a sports bar for a lot of fans.

  2. 2.

    lurker

    am aware of people going to see multiple concert movie-type things in theaters related to BTS – the K-pop group, and I think these happened before the end of the tour in at least one instance – not sure of who might be able to claim to have done something first here, or how much that matters.  I think BTS did it in part due to covid shutting down plans for a tour and the band eventually doing a few dates in LA when things opened up significantly

  3. 3.

    Doc Sardonic

    Well guess I’ll contribute to the economic headwinds, because I wouldn’t go see Taylor Swift if you gave me all access laminates.

  4. 4.

    Redshift

    Don’t know about other states, but mainstream chain theaters (AMC, Regal, etc.) that serve alcohol are now pretty common here in Northern Virginia, in addition to Alamo and other drafthouse theaters that pioneered it.

  7. 7.

    Doc Sardonic

    @lurker: Actually, the theater events have been happening for a while now. A company called Fathom Events was doing varying plays operas and concerts pre-pandemic. Saw Elton John’s Million Dollar piano show, Falstaff, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet with Orlando Bloom in a modernized version and a few others. They were all well filmed and felt like you were in the actual live shows, only you could switch views.

  8. 8.

    karen marie

    I went to see Barbie last week. First time I’ve been to a movie theater in 25 years. It was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. The storyline was a bit of a mess.

    But that’s not the issue here. Liquor in movie theaters is apparently common in Arizona. When I was checking theaters on the internet, I discovered that the two large movie theater chains sell beer and wine in most, if not all, of their theaters. Some also sell hard liquor.

    Is this not the case in lots of other states?

  10. 10.

    Ruckus

    @Doc Sardonic:

    I’ve never been a fan but listening to that short clip in the tweet she does sound like she’s actually grown up.

    I’d bet good money on two things. She sings a lot better than anything I’ve heard prior and I’d be more interested in the music than the show. It just looks so over the top, is it about the music or what? And I’m just not into paying, even for a movie show but especially for a glitz show. Maybe it’s my migraine this evening but I see nothing for me. And it would be my money so it has to be something/someone that I might be interested in. This ain’t it.

  11. 11.

    P Thomas

    A concert is one thing.  Footbawl?  Nope, not ever.

    The reason the NFL is a juggernaut is: local TV, over the air.  Sunday, regular starting times, consistent.

    I stopped cable and not interested in streaming.  Was a lifelong baseball fan…..but very little baseball is on over the air…so it has disappeared.  Stop watching, you stop following.  Have no idea what the Dodgers and Angels even look like anymore.

    USC and UCLA are fleeing away from the Pac-12.  Once, their games were always on local over the air stations.  Now, their local TV schedules are very hit or miss.  Hard to keep growing a dedicated following when the cable/streamin schedule and audience are so fragmented.

    Hell, the damn Rose Bowl isn’t even on local TV anymore.  In Socal.

  13. 13.

    BethanyAnne

    My sister and I saw Barbie this afternoon. It was so good. Looking forward to seeing it again on streaming.

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    The Taylor Swift concert and sports screening idea are signs that streaming may soon totally replace theatrical screening for movies. The Swift deal went around the typical ways that studio films are booked. From a recent news story.

    Swift and her representatives chose AMC Theaters Distribution as the distributor of record for the U.S.; Cinemark and other circuits will handle foreign territories. However, the concert is not exclusive to any exhibitor; in the U.S., New York-based Variance will book the film for other theaters. It’s expected to open on more than 4,000 screens, which could impact the October box office.

    The concert shows may help exhibitors if the writers and actors strikes continue.

    ETA. Some relatives in Texas went out to the movies for the first time since the pandemic. Don’t know the details, but they said that the theater got rid of the staff that used to sell the tickets.

  16. 16.

    Splitting Image

    @Doc Sardonic:

    Well guess I’ll contribute to the economic headwinds, because I wouldn’t go see Taylor Swift if you gave me all access laminates.

    Swift is a good egg. There are way worse people out there that young people could be swooning over.

    Even if I didn’t like her music, I respect her for re-recording her first few albums after she was diddled out of the rights to the recordings. (Pink Floyd did this with “Money” when the record company refused to release it for a compilation, so Swift is in excellent company here.)

  17. 17.

    Frankensteinbeck

    These sound like excellent ideas.  I suspect there is a huge target audience for both.  Why not make them happy and give movie theaters a boost in the process?  And good for Swift for, yet again, giving a shit about her fans.  There is a woman who earned her wealth.

    @Doc Sardonic:

    I wouldn’t go see Taylor Swift if you gave me all access laminates.

    @Ruckus:

    Maybe it’s my migraine this evening but I see nothing for me.

    Sure, but we don’t have to be the target audience.  I don’t think I would want to see it either.  But we’re not the center of the world.  There are many, many, many people who love Swift and love watching concerts and will never get to see their favorite performer live.  I like knowing they might get a close second to that experience.

  18. 18.

    BethanyAnne

    I have fallen for Swift hard in the last couple of years. She’s making incredible music, and has a good head on her shoulders.

  20. 20.

    Splitting Image

    @Ruckus:

    And I’m just not into paying, even for a movie show but especially for a glitz show. Maybe it’s my migraine this evening but I see nothing for me. And it would be my money so it has to be something/someone that I might be interested in. This ain’t it.

    If Swift makes money on this venture, a lot of other acts will copy her. I don’t think it would be a bad thing if indie bands were able to put together movies of their own concerts and have them play in independent theatres in places they can’t afford to travel to on tour.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    Presidents Putin and Erdogan meet in the Russian resort town of Sochi tomorrow and I wanted to see what Al Jazeera had to say about the prospect.

    The Qatar-based news site had nothing new on the Sochi meeting, but there were other stories from around the world such as a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Cyprus; a massive demonstration in Niger against France’s presence in that country; Australia reinforcing its contingent of police in the Solomon Islands; and a story from the US:

    Biden surveys Hurricane Idalia damage in Florida; DeSantis snubs meeting

    ….He saw the houses with fallen trees on them and said that no one “intelligent” could doubt that climate change is happening….

    Al Jazeera’s coverage of US politics is intermittent, but it does some steady coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is neutral in tone but in substance seems to lean towards the Ukraine side. Public opinion does not matter much in Qatar, but Al Jazeera is published under the auspices of Qatar’s government and I don’t think they like Russia’s invasion.

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    The campers at burning man have been told to shelter in place because of flooding.  Now there are rumors of someone dying of Ebola there.

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: So I turned to Turkish Twitter for commentary on the upcoming Erdogan-Putin meeting and ran into a sports controversy. Turkiye’s national women’s volleyball team (“the Sultanesses of the Net”) plays Serbia today, and some Turks are complaining about the young star hitter Ebrar Karakurt. She’s been the target of abuse since 2021, when she posted a picture of her and her girlfriend. Last month a pro-government newspaper called Ms. Karakurt “our national disgrace.”

    Other Turkish atheletes have come to Karakurt’s defense, as do the secular Turks I seem to have fallen in with on Twitter. They are also Turkish nationalists and are appalled that some of their countryman say they’ll root for Serbia just to spite the Sultanasses’s lesbian player.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: I forget to mention that Turkiye and Serbia play today for the European women’s volleyball championship, and that volleyball is a very popular sport in Turkiye.

    I’d watch the match if I could. I’ve seen some clips of the Turkish team and they are very exciting to watch. They’ll be one of the favorites in in the Paris Olympics next year.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    They are also Turkish nationalists and are appalled that some of their countryman say they’ll root for Serbia just to spite the Sultanasses’s lesbian player.

     

    Shades of right wingers cheering the loss by the USWNT in the World Cup.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Turkiye is a few decades behind us as to public policy regarding LGBTQ rights, but we’re not that far ahead of them culturally. This makes me want to look up polling of Turks on this general issue, especially the attitudes of younger Turks.

  32. 32.

    BethanyAnne

    @Splitting Image: That would be awesome. I’m in Arkansas now, and very, very few bands play here. I’d be happy to see (for example) Ghost in a theatre with their current tour.

  34. 34.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    @MomSense: reminds me of Obama’s ebola which poof! disappeared after the 2014 election.

    It seems like I haven’t seen Amir Khalid posting in a while. Anybody else see him posting?

  37. 37.

    mrmoshpotato

    @snoey:

    No Ebola but lots of shit. Unserviced portos at biohazard level and GI diseases surely spreading.

    They all should have gone to the Fyre Festival instead.

  41. 41.

    Mousebumples

    Slightly on topic – I loved seeing Bohemian Rhapsody in theaters. Less because of the story (*definitely some artistic license taken with facts and timelines), but because they used Queen music for the concerts in the movie (vs having the actors try to sing their respective parts), and I loved hearing it in surround sound.

    Related – I’m going to see Queen + Adam Lambert in concert for the 3rd time this fall. Queen is easily my favorite music group. Not sure how much longer Brian May and Roger Taylor will be touring, so I’ll take advantage of this while I can. (for reference, I was about 10 when Freddie Mercury died, so never saw the original Queen lineup live in concert)

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @Baud: No, Canada is the only foreign counry I’ve visited. I would like to see Istanbul, though.

    I started paying attention to Turkiye because of its role in the Ukraine war. Then tbe presidential election pulled me in.

    Now I’m always looking up Ragip Soylu (@ragipsoylu), Istanbul chief of the Middle East Eye which I think is a spinoff of BBC.

    And I also look up Bora Bingol (@bora_bingol. He has an interesting point of view. There are several Bora Bingols including a forestry professor and a landscape architect, but this one served 8 years as a Turkish Navy officer before resigning and making a career in the medical industry as an engineer. He’s a fan of Dire Straits, Neil DeGrass Tyson and is a self-described “old school Kemalist.”

  43. 43.

    Paul Begala's Pink Tie

    @Ruckus: She played a few nights here in Houston and we knew a LOT of people who went, based on social media. But the ticket prices were exorbitant, and the lines to buy merchandise (because t-shirt or it didn’t happen) were apparently 2 hours long. No thank you, although I had a few moments feeling like a bad mom. My oldest & his girlfriend are going to see Drake in a few weeks, but spent their own money because the tickets were around $500. The number of concerts I attended in the ’90s to for under $20 –!!

  45. 45.

    BC in Illinois

    @Paul Begala’s Pink Tie:

    The number of concerts I attended in the ’90s to for under $20 –!!

    I saw the Rolling Stones at the RFK Stadium in DC, 4th of July, 1972, for $12.50.* I thought it was exorbitant.

    • $91.20, adjusted for inflation. Maybe it was exorbitant.
  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Paul Begala’s Pink Tie: how many of those were stadium tours of huge acts and how many were just a band on a stage in a small venue?  Prince and Springsteen ticket cost a pretty penny in the ‘90s.  Rancid and Bowling for Soup were a lot less.  All were good shows.

  47. 47.

    Paul Begala's Pink Tie

    @Omnes Omnibus: some of each. The first real concert I ever saw was the Bangles playing *free* outdoors in Newport News, VA. Just don’t remember any shows being all that far out of reach, even some of the big stadium shows like the Dead at RFK. We even went to U2 a few years ago and the tickets weren’t that crazy; but Beyonce tickets (which we lucked into) were way, way more expensive. I guess venues and acts charge what they think people will pay.

  48. 48.

    geg6

    @Paul Begala’s Pink Tie:

    I saw, literally, dozens of concerts in the 70s for single digit $, like 7, 8 or 9 bucks, depending on where your seat was.  Aerosmith, Springsteen (just as Born to Run was released), Clapton, ZZTop…so many big names and some almost big names like J. Geils Band, who I saw five times because they were one of the greatest live bands ever back then.

    FTR, I already have tickets for the Taylor Swift movie.  Going with my sister and niece.  Niece saw the live show but is a major Swiftie.  I am not but I do respect Swift for her business acumen, her appreciation of her fans and, yes, her music.  What she did to take back her art and her recent new music have been a tour de force.

  51. 51.

    OverTwistWillie

    Between covid and the strike, that industry is ferked. The number of releases has been trending down for decades.

    The CCTV model for sports and concerts goes way back. According to wiki the first fight with a closed-circuit telecast was Joe Louis vs. Jersey Joe Walcott in 1948.

  52. 52.

    Facebones

    When my wife worked at Alamo Drafthouse, they had their staff party on Super Bowl Sunday. One theatre would show the game, and it was great. Lots of popcorn and beer, great viewing conditions. I’d prefer that to a Buffalo Wild Wings full of loud drunks.

  53. 53.

    WeimarGerman

    Rolling back the clock to when sporting events had closed circuit TV into major venues.

    In 1974, my father packed my older brother in I into the Plymouth station wagon for a drive to Washington DC’s Armory, adjacent to RFK stadium.  Why?  Because it was the only place to watch the World Cup Final live.  The Dutch scored before the West German team ever touched the ball, but the Germans won 2-1.  Cruyff vs Beckenbauer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSznZ9spb6A

  54. 54.

    smintheus

    @WeimarGerman: And I watched the 1978 World Cup Final in a similar auditorium in Providence. It was bonkers. The Argentinians kept fouling the Dutch with impunity, so obvious the ref was helping to fix the match. The central and south American immigrants in the audience loved it the more outlandish it became. I could scarcely believe what I was seeing.

  55. 55.

    Eric

    McMenimens Mission Theater in Portland, one of their theaters that is a pub, used to show Monday night football, it was good, pizza and beer and the game on a large screen

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