Multi Opinions About the Multiplex

These are tough times to be in the business of drawing people into theaters to watch movies. Therefore, it's an appropriate moment to ask if the neighborhood multiplex--which has defined the movie theater experience for most of us for the last 30 years--is broken. If it is, what can be done to fix it?

Mark Glaser thinks about these things and writes about them with great insight in his Mediashift blog. In the audio portion of this post I will refer to his April 3 post, "Explode the Multiplex, and Let the Community In." And, as always, I will recount some of my MC101 students' opinions.

By the way, I agree with Glaser that classic single-screen movie houses provide a much more compelling movie-going experience than the multiplexes. If a movie I want to see is at the Vista in East Hollywood, for example, I'll go there and not the multiplex 100 times out of 100.

The Vista (and many other single-screen houses) has more personality and panache than just about any multiplex I can think of. If Hogwarts had an on-campus movie theater, it would look like the inside of the Vista. Besides, if you're stuck in a movie line in front of the Vista on a Friday night, the anti-war protesters provide free street theater.

Got a favorite movie house? Leave a comment about it.