Mark Cuban: What business are theaters in?

Mark Cuban has a great post on his blog today. The focus is why theater owners - or at least their trade association - feel that they can't possibly compete when movies are released simultaneously in several formats (often called "day-and-date" release). Cuban writes:

How sad is it when the President of the National Assoc. of Theater Owners doesn't think his members can create a better movie-going experience than what we can see in our houses and apartments ?


Guess what John [Fithian, the president of NATO), I can whip up a mean steak, but I still like to go to restaurants. Because I enjoy it. I enjoy getting out of the house with family, friends, who ever.

He also mentions that Landmark will be showing "Bubble" on 4K Sony projectors in some theaters - the first time that the general public will have had an opportunity to see those projectors in action. Hmmm... wonder which cities they're being installed in.... Cuban writes:

And starting with [Steven Soderbergh's] Bubble, [Landmark theaters will be] selling the DVD of the movie you just saw. Also starting with Bubble will be the rollout of Digital Cinema. Every single play of Bubble in our theaters will be digitally projected. We are using a mix of Sony 4k and TI based 2k projectors. We want our customers to have the best possible viewing experience with every single showing of this and future movies. No scratches, no pops, no fades, no problems with the presentation whether you see it the first day of release or the last showing 6 months later.


We have to create an environment that makes going to a movie at a Landmark Theater - fun, entertaining, relaxing, a good value and for a film fan, the best answer to the question, what do you want to do tonight.

Cuban goes on to say that most theater owners don't focus on who their audience is - is it teens or 40-year olds?

The entry is well worth a look.