Can picking a movie theater get any more complicated?

With all the recent technological breakthroughs, choosing the right movie theatre has become increasingly complex. Why? Listen in as Marshall breaks down the different sound and video technologies available in modern movie theaters.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com
where smart Happens. Hi'm Marshall Brain with today's question, when
did it get so complicated to pick a movie theater
and what is next in the world of movie theater picking.

(00:23):
A friend of mine invited me to go to a
movie within this weekend. That sounds simple enough, doesn't it.
And in the past it was simple. It used to
be that you went down to the theater and you
watched the movie. In the movie Back to the Future,
you can see that world. That's a nineteen fifty five representation,

(00:43):
and in that movie there is one movie theater in
town and one movie playing at that movie theater. In
the case of Back to the Future, the movie is
Ronald Reagan's Cattle Queen of Montana. So that idea, one
theater in town, one movie playing. That's the movie you see.
So it couldn't be simpler. Now, let's look at how

(01:05):
things have morphed since then. In the United States, in
the early nineteen sixties, the idea of a two screen
theater took hold, so at least you had a little
bit of choice when you went down to the theater. Then,
during the nineteen seventies, the idea of a multiplex exploded.
The number of screens per theater mushroomed into the teens

(01:26):
and then the twenties. By the nineteen nineties, a single
theater with thirty screens had been built. Then came things
like Dolby and th X sound systems. If you wanted
the best experience, you would only go to a certified theater.
Then came stadium seating. You get a better view with
the seats in a stadium configuration, and they're a lot

(01:48):
more comfortable because they're usually padded and they have nice
arm rests and so on. So now you wouldn't go
to a theater unless it had th X and comfortable
stadium seating. Then came digital projection. There's no more scratches
on the film and no more weird stuff between reels.
So that became a point that you wanted to have

(02:09):
if you want to see a movie theater, you wanted
th h X with a digital projector and stadium seating.
And now there's three D projection. Some theaters have three
D projectors, some don't, So if you want to see
a movie in three D, you need to make sure
the theater has a three D projector, and now now

(02:30):
that three D option is morphed as well. There's actually
three technologies that are used to display three D movies.
So my friend wants to see the new film, and
he sends this email which theater near you has three
D digital projection? And I look up theaters in my
area and one nearby is actually showing the movie he wants,

(02:52):
with stadium seating on two separate screens using two different
three D projection technology. The first is Imax three D
and the second is Real D three D. So now
the obvious question is which is better. If you've got
a choice like that, how do you pick whether you
want IMAX or real D. I jumped into Google to

(03:15):
find a review, and the difference seems to be that
IMAX three D is more of a pop out effect
where stuff comes out of the screen towards you, and
real D is a more subtle into the screen effect
where you can actually see depth rather than being kind
of shocked when things come out of the screen. Based
on that review, we chose our show time so that

(03:37):
we could see it in real D. So now the
question is what is going to happen next. There's been
all these different differentiators that have been built into the
movie theater experience over the last couple of decades. Something
is going to happen next. What might it be? Be
sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from

(03:59):
the Future Oin how Staffork staff as we explore the
most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The hou stefforks
iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.