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Anonymous said…
Your Video is not available.
4:09 PM
Anonymous said…
Very, very interesting and amusing.
9:15 PM
Colin said…
1) The corner game is awesome. I'm running a spring break camp at SMUS for their second week of spring break, and will surely play this with the kids. I hadn't played it before as a leader, but can imagine that I played it when I was young.

2)South Africa 'movie houses' also commonly have assigned seating - the patron chooses his or her seat(s) using a touch-screen display. Interestingly, the touch-screen OS is the same OS we're used to at 'Fast lane' machines at Cineplex theatres here in Canada, which most likely means that the feature is available here, but the theatres *choose* not to take advantage of it.

Surely most of us logically would prefer not to have to show up to the theatre far in advance on opening nights to ensure a good seat - the only reason I can imagine that it's not done here is because the theatre suffers from less patronage/income with assigned seating.

Buying movie tickets the patron is shown a seat map and the seats that are already purchased & available. It's possible many people are too touchy-feely or insecure with the knowledge that they'll be sitting arm-to-arm next to a stranger, and thus have a negative connotation with their movie-going experience ahead of time.

Also, having huge lines outside is a sign of social proof and high status for that venue/activity. More people are likely to be drawn to a venue or activity of high social proof, and thus the theatres can charge more.

It's a pity venues do this, but it all always comes down to the bottom line.
9:20 PM
Jordan said…
Funny. I can corroborate every single one of your observations. I've been been meaning to record some of these details on my blog, but haven't gotten around to it yet. You only forgot to mention the maddeningly slow walking pace of Korean pedestrians! -- walking on the busy sidewalks here is comparable to being stuck driving behind some octogenarian in the suburbs of Victoria.


Good observation, Colin, though you forgot one of the most obvious reasons that assigned seating system might discourage viewers: you know whether or not you are going to get the crap seats! If you don't have assigned seats, you've still got blind hope, if nothing else, ha.
3:04 AM
Max said…
Another thing I noticed about the corporate cinema I went to was that the theatres themselves were a bit smaller, with fewer seats and the whole chair layout more centralized. Truth be told, even the worst (front and back corner) seats were pretty decent, unlike the worthless front corner seats back home at silver city.

Popcorn, however, came at a reassuringly outrageous price :P
3:00 AM
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