Into Darkness

So, I saw the new Star Trek: Into Darkness movie recently

And I have to say the experience was completely amazing. We went and saw it in 3D and the visuals were awesome. The plot was pretty good. The cast for both this and the movie before it really resemble the original bridge crew from the 1960's, especially Scotty, Uhura and Bones. Also,a large part of the very enjoyable plot of this movie was devoted to dealing with an issue that came up in the original 2nd movie as well. The sound track was fantastic, both the music and the sound effects.

What really made the movie worth the money though was that it was filmed in ATMOS sound, which is a relatively new creation by Dolby. The sound set up is designed for up to 64 speakers at once. The theater we went to  had speakers in two rows on either side of the theater and a couple of rows of speakers on the ceiling as well.  Instead of the standard 8 or so speakers there were dozens and every single one of them produced crystal clear sound. At times when something in the movie was off screen to the left or right the sound would come from the appropriate speaker and it really created the illusion of the movie happening all around you. When an explosion rocked one of the ships in the movie the whole theater vibrated along with the crew of the ship. And between the 3D and the sound it was difficult not to duck when debris from one of those explosions shot off towards you.

What was surprising to me is that there weren't all that many people in the showing that we went to see. I think there were like twenty people and it was opening weekend. Now, it was a midnight showing and the 3D ATMOS tickets are more expensive, but it is so worth every penny. According to box office numbers the movie did really well. I think every movie theater in the world should have the ATMOS sound and every movie should be filmed using it. We have a habit of going to the movies on average once a week. When we go there are usually between 5 and 12 people that all go together as a group of family and friends. The theater that we used to normally go to does not have ATMOS, though they do have 3D movies and they do have XD sound, which is good. It just isn't ATMOS, something that must be experienced to hear and feel the difference.

We have started going to a theater about ten miles further away from our house to see films in the ATMOS theater. If we average 9 tickets per night that we go out and the average ticket is around 15 dollars once you include online ticket fees, 3D and high definition sound costs, our local movie theater is losing $126 per week,  from us, on ticket sales alone. Often times, we also purchase snacks and drinks. You know what movie theater snacks cost? Let's just say they are losing about $200 a week or $800 a month, just from us.

The cost of the full ATMOS sound set up is around $50,000. $800 a month is just under $10,000 a year ($9600). So...six groups like my family and friends would make the cost of upgrading worth the trouble for our local theater in under a year.

I keep meaning to mention it to them, But we so seldom go there anymore.