Alice in Wonderland. Anyone else seen it?

[Thomas W. Bethe]

I went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D with my 16 year old niece last Sunday. I thought it was well done and the sound was very well mixed. The 3D effects were amazing and the movie was exciting from the start and the two hours went by very quickly.

An aside.....

We went to the 12 noon showing and when we got to the theater at 11:20 am there were already 30 people waiting to get in. The theater was packed and at one point the manager came in and asked if everyone would "move all the way left" and fill up all the empty seats. I was sitting in the middle of the theater and had gotten to the theater 40 minutes before the show started and I wanted to stay in the seat I had chosen so I told her no. She was NOT HAPPY but didn't say anything more. About 3 minutes before the movie stated a family with about 10 people came in and asked the audience if people could move around so the family could sit all together in one row near the middle of the theater. No one moved and the "family unit" finally sat two rows from the screen. There were also people who got there very late and were upset that they could not have prime seating and were very vocal about their displeasure. This is some of the most idiotic behavior I have ever seen in a movie theater. Since when did this become acceptable????

Oh yea and the best part "bargin matinee" two adult tickets one large, one small popcorn and one medium soft drink = $30.00.

-End of Rant-

[JoeMilner]

Uggh, sorry to hear that.
This is why I wait 6 months (or less) for the BluRay to come out and then watch it on the mix stage. I guess I've had my fill of the "shared moviegoing experience", but by buying the discs, I still feel I'm supporting the industry. And, given the state of many theaters these days, on the stage I'm probably experiencing the film much closer to how the director intended than if I'd gone to the theater!

My 2¢

[Enos]

thumbsup to watching and listening to movies on a dub stage/mix room if you can!

[StratSvante]

Thats why in sweden all the seats are numbered and you cant get unnumbered seats.

[PoxyMusic]

The damned commercials are what keep me out of the theater. They're now played at 75% of full volume (or so) so you can't ignore them.

Except for my local small town art deco place though...they play classical music before the shows. I really don't go to any other theaters any more.

[ecologie]

Agreed.
I went to see the Imax 3d version and its was really wonderful eye candy and sweet audio.

I agree about the commercials. My GF and I went to the movies to see Shutter Island I think a week ago and there had to be at least 10 -15 ads in there from Coke, Nivea, Dove, Nissan.

I wish the industry would just understand I go to the theater to escape, not be trapped into watching their vapid ads.

[marclop]

Here in Cyprus I realized that the best days to go to the cinema and be practically alone is Monday and Tuesday. I saw 2 films and I was the only person in the theater.

Remeber last year, I was in Stockholm with my wife, and we saw Inglorious Basterds in Rigolleto, a big and beautifull stage. It was packed!! But, nobody was speaking during the film. And sounded very good!

Best regards,
Marco

[mgoorevich]

Originally Posted by marclop

nobody was speaking during the film. And sounded very good!

Ha-ha...I guess this is a general Mideterenian mentality.
Here in Israel, people too go to the cinema, behaving just like they are seating on their sofa at home and watching DVD. For them the pop-corne is what makes the difference not the big picture and big sound.
The popcorne must be declared illegal inpublic places

[Mundox]

I dozed off watching this film.
Pretty disappointed.
Somehow my brain couldn't connect the voices to the characters.
But overall sound design was very good.
Liked the atmosphere change from Wonderland to normal when she comes out.

[mikevarela]

Joe, staying away from the theater? Biting the hand that feeds you???
(Jokingly)

I totally agree on the commercials though. It's almost enough to keep me away from the theater. I've already payed over 12 bux, I think I deserve some ad free space.

I wish I had a stage, I'd probably stay there as well - and - drink beer during the movie.

Hoooray

[Thomas W. Bethe]

My Creative Director just informed me that movie theaters only make REAL money on the concessions and that most of the ticket price goes to the movie studios and distributors. He also informed me that all the "commercials" are paying the rent and keeping the lights and heat on and without the concessions and commercials the cost of a ticket would be over double what it is now.

I would like to know if that is really true and where I would find out the facts. Thanks in advance.

I too am getting really tired of commercials in a place where I am PAYING to see the movie. The biggest turn off happened recently when we were getting ready to watch a movie and this charity PSA came on the screen, the house lights went to full on, including the cleaning lights, and the ushers started passing containers up and down the rows for people to donate to the charity that was running on the PSA. Commercials are one thing but asking for charity donations at a movie theater is IMO is over the top. I was so upset I don't even remember the charity's name but it had to do with some celebrity who was fronting for the charity. A couple of people got up and left and some people started telling off the ushers. When the movie was over I went and sought out the manager and told him that this was pure BS and he agreed but said the company had agreed to go along with it because the companies president was on the board of the charity. He said he had received hundreds of complaints but he was not able to do anything about it. He asked if I wanted my money back which I declined since I had sat through the movie. I noticed that they have since stopped doing this and there is now a container in the lobby and elsewhere in the theater where, if you want to, you can donate to the charity. A much better approach.

[zwiebel]

Originally Posted by StratSvante

Thats why in sweden all the seats are numbered and you cant get unnumbered seats.

Same here in switzerland.
Buy/reserve your ticket online, choose your favorite seat and you're done.
But...a Ticket (here in zurich) is about 20$...

[georgia]

yup, the business of running mom & po / local movie theaters is in trouble overall. the cost of operations is high and the margins low. The only way most stay in business is the concession stand ( water and syrup = $3.50...) and advertising....

cheers
geo

[mdjice]

it was "okay" to me. nothing special. I should have waited for it to be on TV.
I went to a 9pm session and it was empty, maybe 4 people top

[mikevarela]

if the theatres squeeze enough, there won't be anywhere to play the flix.


oh, and maybe you all had heard about the protests against Disney. International theaters were not showing the flick (Alice...) because Disney had decoded to reduce the time between screen and DVD, therefore killing off the time the movie lived exclusively in there seats. Apparently when a theater buys a movie, the first several weekends are at a loss, and only around the 3 or 4 week mark do they actually make up the cost and possibly profit.

Maybe in 10 years we'll all be doing nearfield mixes only.?!

[ruy]

the film was way too loud.

[emf1138]

Saw it at the Arclight here in L.A (reserved seats anyone? :D). Looked and sounded great, lotsa really nice foley. The movie overall was a very "meh" experience. I almost dozed off a few times too. It's the first modern 3D movie I've seen and I thought it distracted from the movie itself more than adding to it. Yes, I know, I'm probably the only one left who has not seen Avatar.

[dcwave]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

My Creative Director just informed me that movie theaters only make REAL money on the concessions and that most of the ticket price goes to the movie studios and distributors. He also informed me that all the "commercials" are paying the rent and keeping the lights and heat on and without the concessions and commercials the cost of a ticket would be over double what it is now.

I would like to know if that is really true and where I would find out the facts. Thanks in advance.

Yes this is the case. I looked into buying a local theater in my small town last year. The price was right, but I would be making less, working more hours than I do now. About 90% of the ticket price pays for the film. A summer movie will be about 97% depending on the distributor. Also, the food you eat is often purchased from the same distributor as the movie or you don't get the movie, or you pay more for the movie. Small mom/pop theaters try to go to Costco or Sam's Club to get cheaper food in order to make more money.

A place you can go and read some stuff is www.bigscreenbiz.com

[PostKID]

Unless I missed it while scanning the responses nobody mentioned the crazy panned Dx...

yes the Foley was great, sound design top notch and mix loud but this is the most panned Dialogue Iv ever heard in a movie and curious what others have to say about it.

Just for reference I saw it at Universal City Walk in IMax 3D.

[emf1138]

Actually yeah, now that you mention it, I do remember the very odd panning.. especially when Alice first gets back to wonderland and is talking with tweedledee/dum and the mouse and flowers. Yeah, all over the place.

[pmx]

i went to see it in IMAX, and i found it very weird that there was a lot of score coming from the LsRs (which were waaaaaay to loud). is IMAX dubbed in a different way?

the overal sound was too loud too, had to put in my earmoulds. are IMAX loudness standards different from Dolby? really enjoyed the movie from that point on though, amazing movie

(non-sound observation: the glasses we got from the theater created a shimmer because the rims reflected the light a bit too much. quite distracting. i'd think that such details would be taken care of by now...)

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by pmx

i went to see it in IMAX, and i found it very weird that there was a lot of score coming from the LsRs (which were waaaaaay to loud). is IMAX dubbed in a different way?

the overal sound was too loud too, had to put in my earmoulds. are IMAX loudness standards different from Dolby? really enjoyed the movie from that point on though, amazing movie

(non-sound observation: the glasses we got from the theater created a shimmer because the rims reflected the light a bit too much. quite distracting. i'd think that such details would be taken care of by now...)

I went to see it in normal 3D and the sound was GREAT! not too loud and not too soft. Must depend on the theater "projectionist"?????

[iluvatar]

Originally Posted by PostKID

Unless I missed it while scanning the responses nobody mentioned the crazy panned Dx...

yes the Foley was great, sound design top notch and mix loud but this is the most panned Dialogue Iv ever heard in a movie and curious what others have to say about it.

I noticed that too.

One other thing I noticed regarding the dialog was that the tonal quality and eq seemed rather inconsistent from character to character, particularly towards the beginning of the movie. For example, in the same scene, Alice would sound fine, but TweetleDee/Dum sounded muffled. Throughout the movie, Alan Rickman sounded like he was in a closet.

Though part of that may have been the speakers in the theater, which had a big boost around 3-400 and the Left & Right seemed to be darker sounding than the Center.

We went to the 12 noon showing and when we got to the theater at 11:20 am there were already 30 people waiting to get in.

Lines at the imax theaters here start forming about an hour early. For an 11am show, we got there at 10:10 w/ about 30 people ahead of us. By 10:20, there were nearly 100 people in line.

-Dan.

[georgia]

i'm soo much more happy , screening on DVD in my studio. No problemic public taking in my ear, babies crying (what's up with that!!), Everything is calibrated, and if there is something that bothers me ( too loud, not loud enough, eq a little off overall ) I can just change it. And, I don't have to pay $20.00 for a coke and popcorn.


To an earlier post, one of the things i've seen in the film business, over the past 10 years or so, is the time between Film release and DVD release is getting shorter. The theater owners rent the movie, with an agreement to not release the DVD until a specified time period. If the DVD comes out too soon they'll just rent a different film. Theaters want at least a good 3 months before the DVD releases ( and the rest of the pay-per-view assets for the flick) because they do need to run the film for a few weeks to make money. The general public is more likely to wait, and buy or rent, the DVD if it's only going to be a couple of weeks after a short theater release period ,before the DVD comes out. And yet, some releases are now taking about Theater, DVD releases simultaneously. Be interesting to see how that works out for theaters.

cheers
geo

[jhorsley]

Originally Posted by georgia

And yet, some releases are now taking about Theater, DVD releases simultaneously. Be interesting to see how that works out for theaters.

cheers
geo

I agree with a few director friends that the simultaneous theatre/DVD/Blu-ray release is a bad idea for just about everyone who stands to profit from the the film.

One main reason is that there's no time to get reviews on the DVD/Blu-ray jacket, so you've got a blank title page in the store, which looks bad compared to others in the store that are splattered with reviews.

Also, going to the movies and renting a movie are two different events - I would argue two totally different kinds of ways to spend your leisure time. Why does it make sense to dilute the profit potential of either?

Just my thoughts.

Joachim

[Dee$]

I thought it was very good technically. The graphics, costume design, 3D effects, and sounds were all very good. I also thought the characters were true to their form. However, I did find it a bit predictable, probably because i'm so familiar with the story already. I have to agree though that the 2 hours when by pretty quickly.

[Jaymz]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

Oh yea and the best part "bargin matinee" two adult tickets one large, one small popcorn and one medium soft drink = $30.00.

I work in a cinema here in Dublin, Ireland.....as an usher (long story short, my US visa expired and I was thrown back home where, currently, there's no such thing as work in the audio industry)

All that would cost about 10 USD more here. Though I guess it levels out with inflation/higher minimum wage.

Originally Posted by PostKID

Unless I missed it while scanning the responses nobody mentioned the crazy panned Dx...

yes the Foley was great, sound design top notch and mix loud but this is the most panned Dialogue Iv ever heard in a movie and curious what others have to say about it.

Originally Posted by emf1138

Actually yeah, now that you mention it, I do remember the very odd panning.. especially when Alice first gets back to wonderland and is talking with tweedledee/dum and the mouse and flowers. Yeah, all over the place.

Haven't seen it yet but I'll have to check it out. Always annoys me when it's like the mixing engineer was playing pong.

Originally Posted by georgia

To an earlier post, one of the things i've seen in the film business, over the past 10 years or so, is the time between Film release and DVD release is getting shorter.o

Indeed. I've also noticed the international release gaps getting shorter. I remember back when it was all "did ya hear? Tommy was in the US last summer, said he saw the new Die Hard film!".