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posted by janrinok on Friday August 08 2014, @04:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the better-behaved-audiences? dept.

The Telegraph reports on the arrival to the UK of a new service allowing fans to pick the films they want shown:

The service, called ourscreen , taps into the growing trend for crowdsourcing and crowdfunding to create 'people-powered cinema'.

Film fans can use the ourscreen platform to pick a film they want to watch, select a participating cinema to screen it in, and then invite friends and family to attend, or open it up to the general public. If enough people book tickets, then the screening goes ahead.

Ourscreen is currently available in 13 cities around the UK, including London, Bath, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Henley, Liverpool, Norwich, Oxford, Southampton, Stratford-upon-Avon and York. Most of the participating cinemas are part of the Picturehouse chain.

Film fans can choose from over 200 films, ranging from previews such as Next Goal Wins, recent hits such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, to classics such as Scarface and The Breakfast Club, with regular updates and "must-sees" being added all the time.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 08 2014, @05:02AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 08 2014, @05:02AM (#78719) Journal
    For a moment I thought that they'll use people as a source of electric power to run the cinema.
    I guess I've seen one too many SciFi movies (too bad they haven't made any sequels).
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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @05:14AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @05:14AM (#78724)

      Hehe, me too! I was trying to imagine rows of pedals in front of the seats and brightness of the film going up and down depending on how hard the people work them!

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday August 08 2014, @05:16AM

      by frojack (1554) on Friday August 08 2014, @05:16AM (#78726) Journal

      That was my first thought too, a whole theater full of spinners on bikes sweating like pigs.
      Faster you fat bastards we're falling behind on the popcorn machine!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @05:30AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @05:30AM (#78731)

    ...A step down from TRUE crowdfunded filmmaking.

    But for that there is always Kickstarter....

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @12:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 08 2014, @12:09PM (#78806)

    Would never happen in the u.s. We the people would choose some classic and then the MPAA/RIAA would set the license for a single showing so high it would bankrupt the theater to show it. Doesn't matter that it would boost theater rocket sales and finally give viewers the selection they want and have a positive feedback loop of communal support. Nope. Some exec would have a panic that their business model of forcing garbage films on us would send them into a tizzy. Or worse they'd try to capitalize on it a charge a premium so the ticket were around ten times a normal showing.

    Mark my words.

    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday August 08 2014, @03:18PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday August 08 2014, @03:18PM (#78911)

      Oh please. Americans are perfectly happy to cough up big bucks to watch all of Hollywood's latest and greatest 3D slugfests. Look at how much today's movies cost to make; they're constantly breaking records. Even so, these movies are being made, because they make tons of money.

      Maybe you or your demographic doesn't like these movies, but obviously someone does, most likely the younger generations.

    • (Score: 2) by everdred on Friday August 08 2014, @07:39PM

      by everdred (110) on Friday August 08 2014, @07:39PM (#79063) Journal

      From the summary: "fans can choose from over 200 films." Obviously, the films that fans can choose from would either already have been licensed for screening, or have an agreed-to rate set in advance to even make the list for consideration.

  • (Score: 1) by Lazarus on Friday August 08 2014, @02:37PM

    by Lazarus (2769) on Friday August 08 2014, @02:37PM (#78885)

    With many of us setting up home theaters that are superior to regular theaters, attendance is way down.

    My local theater shows TV shows and old movies on weeknights to try to fill the empty seats, but it's not going well. I went to a Doctor Who event on a weeknight,and only a dozen people showed up. Seeing a new movie on a Thursday, my friend and I were the only people in the theater. I expect most theaters to go out of business in the next few years.

    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday August 08 2014, @03:20PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday August 08 2014, @03:20PM (#78915)

      Today's mega-budget 3D movies are hugely profitable. The theaters you're talking about are the older ones that haven't installed modern equipment, and those are indeed going out of business. The big-box high-ticket-price theaters with 3D capabilities from AMC and friends are doing just fine, thanks to countless teenagers.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 09 2014, @07:34AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 09 2014, @07:34AM (#79250)

        > Today's mega-budget 3D movies are hugely profitable.

        Not in the USA. If it weren't for foreign sales, only a couple of those mega-budget movies would break even. That's why the plots keep getting dumber and dumber - boobs and bombs easily translate into any culture - and why you see random chinese cameos [vanityfair.com] and heavy-handed localized editions. [kotaku.com]

    • (Score: 2) by cafebabe on Sunday August 10 2014, @02:27AM

      by cafebabe (894) on Sunday August 10 2014, @02:27AM (#79525) Journal

      My two local multiplex cinemas have resident churches. When the first one set up, I thought it was quite enterprising because it is in a good location and it utilizes surplus capacity. That's in addition to having suitable seating and a sound system.

      I believe this is part of a wider trend to make cinemas into community centers. Eventually, it will be possible to book an hour or two online, show up with a laptop/tablet, connect wirelessly to a UHD 3D projector and use it for presentations/visualization/gaming/birthday parties.

      While I'm on this topic, it has been suggested that public libraries should be converted into hackerspaces.

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