New Ways to Stuff a Theater

Last night I went to see the David Gilmour concert again. Sort of.

A company called Big Screen Concerts has, for about a year now, been showing filmed concerts in regular movie theaters, and last night the David Gilmour show was screened in select theaters in select cities across the country. (No previews or commercials, either--we walked in at 8:02 for an 8:00 screening and it had already begun.) As this article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out, there are several advantages to this sort of thing: a close-up view of the performers (when I saw Gilmour, I brought my binoculars but left them in the car because I do that sort of thing all the time), great sound, and--a particular advantage, given my complaints about the width of the chairs at the Gibson Amphitheatre--nice comfy seats.

There are advantages to concert promoters as well, not to mention theater owners. As is noted in the article, these concerts can either capture overflow audience for a sold-out show, or can recapture people like me who saw a show but now want a taste of that experience again. The presentation last night started, at first, a bit worrisomely, with the studio-produced video from Gilmour's new album and then a short documentary about the album that looked exactly like what you would see as a DVD extra. Only after this introductory material did they get into the concert footage, which in this case was shot at the Mermaid Theatre* in London. The introductory stuff, though, reveals the other great advantage to the artists and their promoters: psyching people up so that they will want to buy the album in question. (In our group of six last night, three had not gone to the live show; all of them came out of the film concert saying they would definitely buy the new album. Mission accomplished.)

And for theater owners, there are considerable advantages. Overall box office receipts are down this year from last, and last year from the year before. If the advent of good home theaters is leading to the slow death of the movie-going experience, then owners will increasingly feel compelled to find other ways to get audiences to come out and buy overpriced popcorn. Also, during the period when digital projection was first proposed, there was a mighty struggle between studios and theater owners over who would pay to have the equipment installed; and one of the arguments for owners to pay was that they could use the equipment for other purposes, like showing concerts or sporting events. Indeed, it looks like exactly that sort of thing is now starting to happen, and you'll probably see a lot more of it over the next couple years.

The concert last night was definitely digitally projected, although I don't think it was high-def. But the sound was good, the seats were comfy, and I was able to watch David Gilmour work the fretboard to my heart's content. Definitely worth the ten-dollar ticket. Gilmour gets more record sales, and the theater filled more seats on an off-night. Wins for everybody. Welcome to the latest wrinkle in the world of entertainment.



* In case you noticed that sometimes I write "theatre" and sometimes "theater," it isn't accidental: in recognition of the European origins of the theatrical craft, I use the French spelling to denote a space devoted to the legit stage; and since movies are essentially an American creation, I use the American spelling for movie houses. And yes, I really do think that hard about that sort of thing.