They used to have intermissions!
They did? Bring them back.
They did, but it was mostly to boost snack sales (the long-time moneymaker of theaters).
Let’s all go to the lobby, let’s all go to the lobby, let’s all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat!
DON’T TALK! WATCH!
DON’T TALK! WATCH!
YOU CAME HERE, WATCH IT!
DON’T LIKE IT? WALK OUT!!
Haha. I was hoping that was the one that was shared.
Here it is - https://youtu.be/i5pb8a6SrLA
I WILL BITE YOUR TORSO AND GIVE YOU A DISEASE
The little boy takes a bite out of a chocolate bar and it stretches like a piece of taffy.
There’s a little local theater near me, usually plays movies after their out of big theaters, but they play this before every movie and I absolutely love it 😁
It was great. You could even get little pots of ice cream during them.
I remember when I was a wee lad, we went to see Titanic, and the movie was so long they showed it in two parts!
I died a little inside reading thos comment. I’m so old.
First time I saw it was during Titanic!
But then it kind of faded away
Musical theatre and opera still do!
And non-musical live theatre too!
I went to an opera a couple of days ago and was very pleasantly surprised about the extended breaks. It actually makes it so much more of an event, not to mention that nobody was rushing to the bathroom because the breaks were like 30 minutes each (between each act they redo the decor on the set). It also gave you plenty of time to grab a bite to eat and a drink.
Wonder if the studios said they can’t have them anymore. Would be cool if a theater brought them back. Probably have tons of people just leave when the movie is bad.
I have to assume it’s studios – movie theaters make most of their money selling concessions, and intermissions are great for that.
Not sure why the studio would care if people left after intermission, they’ve already paid full price.
All those intermissions would add up. They wouldn’t be able to show as many movies per day…
Does it matter? They’ve already paid. I’d rather people who aren’t into the movie left, than were disruptive.
The Brutalist had a 20 min intermission. It was very welcome. Theaters should totally encourage it, the line for concessions during intermission was crazy.
They still do, at least where i live (western europe). Source: went to the cinema last sunday
In my country (also Western Europe), we only get them if a film passes the three hour mark. We saw the extended versions of the LOTR trilogy a few months back and they were a lifesaver for a quick bathroom break!
In my country as well! (Asia)
You guys don’t have intermissions?
No and some movies are 3 plus hours. The last one I saw with an intermission was the brutalist and it helped me enjoy the movie a lot more.
I know Scorsese said he didn’t like them or something but I didn’t go see killers of the flower moon in theaters because no intermission on a 4 hour movie is not my jam.
I think he has a point actually.
A lot of times the break is inserted in a random moment, regardless if that falls in the middle of a scene. And also if you take too long you’ll definitely miss a bit of the movie.
Film makers could fix this by finding break po8jts. Even using them for suspense.
Yeah, but then every movie would have a cliffhanger in the middle, or even just a clean cut into two halves that would limit a director’s artistic freedom.
Plus I bet cinemas have to break movies differently based on what else is playing so the bathrooms and concessions stands don’t get overwhelmed by more than one screening going there at once.
This is one of the reasons I hate cable tv so much.
It was not cable, but I distinctly remember the worst part of watching movies on TV as a kid with my dad. All the channels would cram a commercial break right before the last 10/15 minutes of a movie, prompting my dad to declare it was too late for us to be up and turning the TV off for the night.
I don’t blame my dad, he was probably tired and just wanted to get some sleep, but I do blame the greedy TV channels for sure!
Uncreative people whine about “artistic freedom.” People that are actually creative would find a way to make the movie better.
Actually, this is probably a reason they don’t do many intermissions. I remember lines in bathrooms being bad enough at the end of movies, when no one is in a rush to get back, because the bathrooms aren’t big enough to quickly handle the rush from even just a single screen. They’d probably have to deal with more fights and irate customers with intermissions vs just keeping the movie going and letting people just go and miss some when they need to.
It works in other countries.
Not everyone needs to pee during the intermission. Some people go pee, some get some more popcorn or whatever, some go for a smoke.
I took a screenwriting class in college, which taught when writing for tv how to structure around commercials like acts in a play, build and resolve suspense, etc.
I’m sure movie directors would hate that, as it would stifle their creativity.
Agreed, this seems like an easily solvable problem.
It was solved like a century ago. Idk wtf stopped.
no intermission on a 4 hour movie
Those of us with ADHD (and plenty others, I bet) would consider that literal torture.
I worked at a theater when Return of the King released, there were audible groans in every showing after the 3rd or 4th fade to black then up on another scene after it had already been 3 hours
Dont generalize please. Hyperfocus can make this seem like a short time as well
The app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie without missing the best scenes.
The most worth it surcharge for a movie ever! Even gives you a summary of what’s happening and notifies you with vibrations just before a pee break and with an OLED screen you can see the countdown without lighting up the entire place.
Movie theatres should have this implemented. Like some dim light by the exit would shine when it’s a good time for a toilet break.
Before the movie starts?
Theaters did have intermissions. Especially drive-in theaters:
RunPee is a website to tell you when its safe to leave the movie to pee.
Movies in India actually do have midway break times included, though.
I would like to hear about a 3+ hour movie that spends the first two hours in the desert or savanna and then the last hour somewhere with a lot of waterfalls and running water with jump scares.
Play Dune in reverse?
At the very least they should be piping the soundtrack into the bathroom.
They don’t usually have one bathroom (for each gender, if that’s still a requirement) per screen.
interestingly, I’ve been to two theaters like this before!
and I can’t fuckin remember where either of them were because I was a clueless kid and didn’t realize how mindbogglingly rare they were. somewhere in OH, PA, or NJ since those are the states I spent the most time in as a kid 🤷♀️
I feel like I remember seeing something on the internet about bathroom stalls with screens in them playing the film, but maybe that was clickbait idk. seems like it would make screen recording too easy
We had this when I was a kid, the movie reel would run out , bathroom break and snack break while projectionist loaded the next half of the film
I saw Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 Hamlet in the theater. It’s just over four hours long and you better believe they had an intermission.
Last 3+ hour long movie I saw was Killers of the Flower Moon.
It was good but if a film ever needed an intermission, that one sure did.
When we saw it the theatre actually had an intermission about halfway through, it was very much needed.
Main barrier is i don’t think the failing movie theater system will pay out for these renovations but maybe they can be convinced with studies showing this pause will lead to massive increase in purchases during it.
Could use devices instead of adding buttons to each seat. Argh dammit, a reason for them to demand customers install a fucking phone app.
Not that I go to theatres these days anyways, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
Just have a QR code on the ticket that you can scan, opens up a website, and you are good to go. One time use, cannot reuse since bound to a ticket, and expires automatically when movie ends.
Yeah but if they make an unnecessary app instead, then they can steal our data and advertise to those of us dumb enough to let apps issue whatever notifications they want! Think of the shareholders!
Am I the only one that turns off my phone when I’m in the movie theater?
I don’t turn mine off but I do put it on silent and don’t pull it out randomly during a movie.
We seem to be a dying breed
I had a buddy with a particular beef with one of the Hollywood studios. I can’t remember which, but he swore that there’d be some huge water scene 3/4 of the way through when everyone was about to burst.
It was always great when he was right.
like an intermission? they solved this problem quite a few years ago
Kids be messing with the buttons
