Why are movies more popular than plays?

Question

Is it because plays are more expensive? Is it because plays aren't as heavily marketed as films? Or is it because (insert theory here)?Lois

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Is it because plays are more expensive? Is it because plays aren't as heavily marketed as films? Or is it because (insert theory here)?[/nq]
Um, because you can't have the same play on 4,000 stages at the same time?

Paulo Joe Jingy
Just a thought.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Is it because plays are more expensive? Is it because plays aren't as heavily marketed as films? Or is it ... John Goodman's salary) but it's going to make a lot less money than even the smallest of theatrical film releases.[/nq]
As far as the audience goes, a play is a scheduled event in a generally narrow window of time. You wanna see John Goodman in CoaHTR? You've got six weeks of one show a night, vs. three or four weeks (maybe more) of 3,000 screens, times another show every two hours or so. The lion's share of the work our box office does is reticketing for our subscribers, who seem to have difficulty keeping clear one night every two months or so.
"What, we're too late for the eight o'clock? Then let's just get dinner now, and go to the ten o'clock."

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Is it because plays are more expensive? Is it because ... producer's POV, movies are more popular because a paly exists[/nq]
[nq:1]for such a short time, and for so few people. At my theatre (the Geffen) we generally do a six ... John Goodman's salary) but it's going to make a lot less money than even the smallest of theatrical film releases.[/nq]
Who ya got for Maggie the Cat? Roseanne? 'You can be young and fat, but you can't be old and fat'. Which ending are you using? Tennessee's original, or the bastardized version Elia Kazan made him write? I liked Elia's better. Had closure. Never saw the play, but read it and saw the film with Taylor and Newman. Great film. Now that Tennessee knew how to write.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Is it because plays are more expensive? Is it because plays aren't as heavily marketed as films? Or is it because (insert theory here)?[/nq]
I beg to differ.
Let's define "popular" economically: how much is a person willing to pay to see a movie versus a play?
Ashton Kutchner in "A Lot Like Love": $9.00 for a ticket. $12.00 for popcorn, coke and candy. $2.49 for a gallon of gas. Total cost? $23.49.

Nathan Lane in "The Producers": $300 for a plane ticket to New York. $120 for a reasonable (but not great) seat in a musty old theater. $250 for a night in a reasonable (but not great) hotel. About $100 for a day's worth of eating and drinking. $100 for cabs, subway and bus fare. Total cost? $870.00.
The real subject of this thread should be, why are plays more poplar than movies?
Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
$200 for a mugging...

Usenet · Answer

It's because you're much more lilkely to see a boobie close up in a movie. And even if you see a boobie in an intimate live theater, you feel sort of like you need to look away.
That's why.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Is it because plays are more expensive? Is it because plays aren't as heavily marketed as films? Or is it because (insert theory here)? Lois[/nq]
Because plays make you think. Plays that don't make you think (large broadway spectacle thingees) are as popular as movies.

Mysti

Usenet · Answer

More visceral experience.
Movies are shared dreams - and they work like dreams. We can look down into our hand and see the stolen wine cellar key. We can looks up and see the guy looking for his key. Looking right at us! Walking right toward us!
A stage play is flat - not 3D. It's not something we experience, itls something we watch. I don't think it's as involving - and that makes it less popular.
- Bill

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Let's define "popular" economically: how much is a person willing to pay to see a movie versus a play? Ashton ... bus fare. Total cost? $870.00. The real subject of this thread should be, why are plays more poplar than movies?[/nq]
Well, for starters, most plays aren't that expensive. There are lots of plays in New York or L.A. that you can see for $20 - and nowhere near as many people go see them as go see films.
Secondly, if you're going to count the money, count ALL the money. That some people are willing to pay a lot for something doesn't mean that it's popular - just that it's highly valued by that segment of society. Far more people are willing to pay your $23 than are willing to pay you $870; I think it's self evidence that it's way more than 40x as many people, meaning, from a total money standpoint, film's killing theater.

Not that that's a terribly useful metric, but if you're going to use it, go all the way with it.

Usenet · Answer

@reader1.panix.com:
[nq:1]More visceral experience. Movies are shared dreams - and they work like dreams. We can look down into our hand ... something we experience, itls something we watch. I don't think it's as involving - and that makes it less popular.[/nq]
I think you've hit the nail on the head, Bill. It's all about POV.
jaybee

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]More visceral experience. Movies are shared dreams - and they work like dreams. We can look down into our hand ... something we experience, itls something we watch. I don't think it's as involving - and that makes it less popular.[/nq]
WHAT!!!???!!
I think you mis-counted your D's there, Bill. Movies much as I love them, and in spite of all the tricks they can employ remain a 2D projection on a screen. Stageplays, at least in my limited experience, and with some of David Mamet's pieces excepted, employ 3-dimensional people.

I just re-read your note again, and I'm wondering if you're being ironical and I'm just slow today...
Movies can be more spectacular, that's for sure. Haven't seen a great car chase scene on or off Broadway in years, much less any good helicopter crashes, but I felt deeply involved with most of the stage plays I've seen recently.
Seriously, the reasons I think most people enjoy movies more than stage plays are:
1. Access: it's just tough to find and get to many plays, or even to findout about them. Whereas movies are advertised in every possible media outlet, and show in every mall and multiplex on the planet.
2. Price: Movies tend to be far cheaper (see my previous, slightlyexaggerated, note on this thread).
3. Mindshare: As film has displaced stagecraft, people just don't thinkabout going to live theater anymore.
4. Cost/Benefit ratios and The Science of Rare Events: You may have seen 10really lousy films in the past year and only 5 you really liked, making the odds of the next one being enjoyable about 1/3. Not great, but what if you've only gone to one stageplay in the past year, and it sucked? That makes your perceived odds of having a lousy time next time at live theater about 100%. If you go to the theater infrequently, there's a good chance you've only seen really bad plays recently and don't want to take another chance. Couple that with the increased cost, and many people just opt out.
5. Shared experience: You're hanging at the water cooler and everyone elsewent to the latest Russ Meyers' comedy last night while you went to a lesbian production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros, in Latvian. Who you gonna talk to about it without sounding like some culture ***?
6. Short of "Passion", and restagings of "Hair", there's not a heap ofsexual titillation on stage.
7. Mindlessness: Stage plays generally ask you to engage your brain. Manymovies request that you check your brain at the door. After a tough day at the salt mine, disengagement can sound pretty sweet.
8. Spectacle: You just can't do some stuff on stage. Explosions, chases,violence, extreme closeup, crane shots, graphic ***, cartoons, exotic locations, amazingly accurate historical recreations... Films rule.
9. Star Power: Some folks just need their George Clooney hit.
10. Saw too many bad productions of "Our Town" when your daughter was inhigh school drama club: Speaks for itself. Get yourself a popcorn and make a left where it says "Austin Powers: **** Another Day".

Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
Mrs. Woodrow's 3rd Grade Class Presents
"Cat On A Hot Tin Roof".

Why are movies more popular than plays?

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