Comparative analysis and contrasting perspectives

¶ … Renting vs. Theatre

As the price of a movie ticket rises, movie-watching often becomes a question of: "Is it a renter?" The questions of what makes a movie "a renter" may be only an expression of the viewer's opinion that the quality of the movie does not warrant the price of a movie ticket. Assuming that it is generally more expensive to go to the show than to watch a movie on VHS or DVD, and assuming that most people would rather spend less money than more, when a person says that a movie is "a renter," he or she is saying that the theater experience would not enhance the movie enough to make the extra cost worthwhile; however, the measure of the value of the theater experience is purely subjective, depending entirely on the viewer's move-watching preferences.

There are key differences between the movie theater experience and the experience of watching the movie on video. First, there is the smell of the popcorn. Even if the viewers do not intend to eat it, when they go to the movie theater, they are greeted instantly by the potent smell of butter-slathered popcorn. If a viewer is a movie theater muncher, he can buy some Milk Duds and a large wax cup filled with ice and Coke. Of course, he could also make popcorn, eat candy, and pour himself a glass of soda at home, but it would not be the same. Anyone who has gone to a movie theater knows that the taste and smell of movie theater popcorn cannot be recreated at home. Whether this is a good thing rests is a matter of a personal taste.

The second difference between the theater and the video is the size of the screen and the quality of the sound. There is clearly a disparity between the experience a viewer will get if he goes to the theater vs. staying at home to watch a video on a modest-sized television with no special audio equipment. Even a big-screen television with surround-sound stereo may not be a match for the theater, with its massive screen and booming sound. As the curtain rises and the lights dim in the theater, the largeness of the screen coupled with the severity of the sound echoing in the vest room casts a serious drape over the waiting audience. The silence in that moment is solid, somehow tangible.

At this time, the viewer becomes slightly more aware of the people around him. Depending on the viewer's feelings about the general public, he or she may relish the camaraderie of watching a movie with a group. He may be amused by a wiseacre in the back of the theater yelling comments at the goofy advertisement for dancing candy bars. He may appreciate seeing a tear fall down the face of a fellow viewer during a poignant scene. On the other hand, the viewer may be agitated by the nearness of a stranger's elbow on the armrest of the seat next to her, or the sound of someone behind her chomping on popcorn and slurping at the bottom of a cup with a straw. As the movie progresses, all of these other people in the theater may affect the viewer's experience. They may talk too much or kick the back of her seat. They may yell at the screen. Their children may whine or their cell phones may ring.

Of course, all of these things may happen while the viewer is watching the movie on video; however, when a viewer is watching the movie at home, he can rewind parts that he missed or re-watch scenes that he likes over and over again. He can fast-forward through a cheesy love scene or heckle the characters without disturbing strangers.

He can also get up to go to the bathroom, answer the door to pay the pizza delivery guy, or he can rewind the movie to try to hear a line he did not catch the first time. This is another key difference between the theater and video. If the viewer is at home, she can watch the movie while lying in bed under the covers snuggled up with her cats and dogs. She can have friends over to watch an old favorite and recite all of the lines along with the characters, or she can play the movie in one room while she is working on something else in another room.

These options are not available at the theater. When one goes to the movies, he commits to watching the movie under certain conditions: (1) The movie will start at a time predetermined by the movie theater, (2) the movie will play in one continuous sitting without breaks, (3) if the viewer arrives late for the movie, or if the viewer has to get up to go to the restroom in the middle of the movie, he will miss that part of the movie, (4) the theater will be dark, (5) the sound will be quite loud, and (6) there may be a wad of gum stuck to the floor under the viewer's seat and he may not notice this until the wad of gum has attached itself to his shoe.

These factors may be a boon if the viewer does not mind sitting in one spot for an hour or two. The movie begins and ends with a definitiveness that makes it an encapsulated event. For many people, in spite of some occasional unpleasant drawbacks, this is the perfect movie-watching environment. On the other hand, watching the movie on video allows the viewer to pause whenever and for whatever reason she wants. The viewer can begin watching the movie on Monday night, turn it off to do something else, and resume the movie later in the week.

In spite of these differences, there are two key similarities between movie watching in the theater and movie watching on video. First, regardless of the mode in which the viewer chooses to watch the movie, he must first decide which movie to watch.

The process or reason for picking a particular movie is as varied as there are people doing the picking and choosing. Moreover, going to movies at the theater and watching movies on video can be both family events, dates, class assignments, or ways to pass time and each mode offers many different genres of film.