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Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

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Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#221

Post by jdwithit »

m3kw9 wrote: post #194

I can tell Super mario movie is a massive flop.

Maybe I'm just missing the joke, but Wikipedia says otherwise

"As of May 3, 2026, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has grossed $403 million in the United States and Canada, and $495 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $897 million. Produced on a budget of $110 million, the film is currently the highest-grossing film of 2026 and the highest-grossing animated film of the year. The film also set the record for the biggest global opening at the box office in 2026, the only animated film franchise with two films opening to over $350 million globally, the fifth-biggest global opening for an animated film of all time, the second-biggest global opening for an Illumination film, the second-biggest opening for a film based on a video game, and the fourth-biggest Easter three-day opening of all time."

Almost $900 million gross against a cost of $110 million seems pretty good

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#222

Post by Forgeties79 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #173
Forgeties79 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has to be some latitude given here. They can’t possibly, for instance, know exactly what was said or who interacted with who and when with any reasonable certainty. It’s usually “John met with Ted and I think Sally too, he told them to fuck off because it was a bad idea.” Now make that a scene and stay accurate. Rarely are these things documented in the moment and human memory is fickle even when we think we re…

Which is why it should be assumed to all be fiction. Video presents the problem that you are receiving lots of extra data which are fictional, and pretending that you are getting a sufficiently accurate representation when you have no idea how much of the representation is accurate is a detriment. Take it as entertainment, and nothing more. For example, Remember the Titans, we were shown it in school over and over. T…

I’m a little confused, I think pretty much all audiences know there is a degree of fiction to any of these works and that you have to take various work with different sized grains of salt.

Are you saying that no movies should be allowed to claim they are trying to tell a true story, and that documentaries aren’t neutral/accurate enough and are therefore invalid? I’m just trying to figure out the scope of your claim and implications here so I get that could be off base.

Might be simpler to ask: What would you consider a good documentary? What would you consider a movie that is based on a true story and does an accurate-enough job? What do consider or use as a metric when deciding these works are good or accurate?

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#223

Post by pchristensen »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #201

This is not just an awesome concept, but blazingly fast. Well done! I would love to see an article about the tech stack.

The Fandango app has an option to check the seats at all the showings at a theater, so I assume AMC has something like that. There are ~600 AMC theaters in the US. Throw in some caching and you can maintain a fast, fairly fresh copy of their seating numbers. Clever!

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#224

Post by myself248 »

JoshGlazebrook wrote: post #13
caymanjim wrote: post #2

Do enough people buy tickets in advance now that this really indicates anything of value? I'm old and have never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life. I assume a lot of people do, but the few times I've been to the movies lately, it seems people are buying tickets at the theater.

Do people really just show up and hope for the best anymore? The "box office" is not even really a thing anymore at most theaters. And the single person you talk to inside that is the "box office" just uses the same system you can reserve seats yourself on your own time? Pretty much every theater is reserved seating these days. Why would I risk showing up last minute on a whim and end up in a horrible seat near the f…

This is surreal. I've never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life. I show up, buy a ticket and a box of Milk Duds, wander down the dark hall, find a seat, turn off my phone, and the lights go dark.

Exactly the same as it's always been, and it works beautifully. I can't imagine a reason to mess with it.

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#225

Post by [deleted] »

echelon wrote: post #150
zerocrates wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the joys of having Moviepass in that brief period where it was very cheap but still worked was going to random late-night showings of stuff I'd have never otherwise seen, sometimes being the only person there. Of course you can still do that with the surviving "all you can eat" plans, but they're way more expensive and aren't quite as generous.

MoviePass was one of the most absurd ideas for a company ever. I don't know what they were thinking. Unlimited movies and they ate the entire cost? They didn't arrange any special deals or anything - they just paid the full price of the movie. It was insane.

[deleted]

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#226

Post by lostapathy »

mizzao wrote: post #219
blintz wrote: post #7

This is cool. Something about dropping everything to go see a movie in an empty theater is sort of tempting.

I thought this was the case, but then I went to a full movie theater and really enjoyed being a part of an audience that was all experiencing the same thing. You could feel the emotion and that is a different sense than having the theater all to you to, but potentially just as rewarding.

I think this varies with the type of film. If it's a film with real fans and excitement is thick, a packed theater is amazing. OTOH, films where the audience isn't engaged, or dare I say invested, having a crowd can often just be annoying because of the chatter or people moving around.

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#227

Post by dec0dedab0de »

pchristensen wrote: post #223
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #201

This is not just an awesome concept, but blazingly fast. Well done! I would love to see an article about the tech stack.

The Fandango app has an option to check the seats at all the showings at a theater, so I assume AMC has something like that. There are ~600 AMC theaters in the US. Throw in some caching and you can maintain a fast, fairly fresh copy of their seating numbers. Clever!

Yeah, I assumed something similar. Still, it is refreshing to see a website work so well.

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#228

Post by bullfightonmars »

lostapathy wrote: post #226
mizzao wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this was the case, but then I went to a full movie theater and really enjoyed being a part of an audience that was all experiencing the same thing. You could feel the emotion and that is a different sense than having the theater all to you to, but potentially just as rewarding.

I think this varies with the type of film. If it's a film with real fans and excitement is thick, a packed theater is amazing. OTOH, films where the audience isn't engaged, or dare I say invested, having a crowd can often just be annoying because of the chatter or people moving around.

yes! I want the opposite. Packed screenings. There are some movies, especially summer blockbusters, that I want to see in a full room.

Re: Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold

#229

Post by fishywang »

A lot of years ago, while living in Beijing, I once bought ticket to a morning (9:30 or so) show in a theatre. Then came that day, it rained unexpectedly, so I ended up getting there 10min late. When I get into the theatre, I found out that it's completely dark. I asked a staff, they told me that they only sold that one ticket and since I didn't show up within 5min, they cancelled the show and returned the film. They refunded me in the end.
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