I go to a lot of movies. I like movies. I'll see just about any crap at the cinemas. In fact I quite like seeing rubbish on occasion. It's nice to think about shit, and it's nice to escape.
As a result I often see movies by myself. Sometimes you can't find a mate to go, and you just need to get out. So I go by myself. It’s quite nice actually. You've got your coke and popcorn, and a little bit of reality t escape to.
Although many people do find the act of going to movies alone somewhere between odd and strange with a bit of weird blended in. Some people have expressed that they could never do that, like it's something quite bad to do. Or that people are watching, and if you go to movies by yourself you land up on the terminally uncool list. I guess that’s me.
Although I have noticed something odd happening at the movies. No, not the fact people seem to always plan badly and come in after the movie has started. Not the fact that people seem to think it's ok to talk in a public movie like it's their personal living room. Not the fact the price of popcorn is insanely ridiculous. That's all old. No I am noticing a lot more people seeing movies by themselves.
From the early afternoon matinees where there are barely half a dozen people in the cinema to the almost packed Sunday evening show, I'm no longer the only "ticket for one" in the cinema. I feel a kind of kinship with the other ticker-for-ones. I bond, like we are there together. But still that’s the way I think are very unlikely anyone else thinks that.
This got me thinking though, with all these new dating things going on (speed dating etc), surely there is a way to turn this into a dating thing. I guess that's the other way I think. I've always said "dinner and a movie" is my classic first date, although this is been widely advised as "bad", "stupid" and "don’t do that sevitz", so perhaps I shouldn’t be trying to think of dating systems.
But still, "moviedates™" is good idea I think. There are probably two ways to do, one involving time and one involving money, neither of which I really have. For time, you would need to set up a website, and get people to sign up, you then book a movie, and have everyone come to the movie and then meet in a bar afterwards.
The more expensive method but ultimately I think the more successful moviedates™" would be to rent out a whole cinema for a movie. Better yet, for a premier of special screening. Coke, popcorn etc all provided as part of the ticket price, followed by canapĂ©s outside after the movie (included in the price) and an bar (dating needs booze).
See the great thing about the movie is it gives you something to talk about. It's a shared experience, and a shitload less intimidating than speed dating. The flaw in all this however is people often go to these dating things with friends, which means you end up just going to movies with your mates, which kind of defeats the whole ticker-for-one cum dating concept in the first place. Although this could be partly solved by having preallocated but random seats for everyone. Add this to big share sized tubs of popcorn that you have to share with your (opposite sexed) neighbour. I'm not sure how people would take that though.
I really quite like this idea. Although I quite like seeing movies by myself. Actually I really like seeing movies with others, female company especially. The question is, how many other people would pay say Ł30 for a movie with random strangers.
Ah it’s all academic I suppose. It's probably something one of the established dating sites could do quite easily by adding it to their portfolio of dating functions, but it's not something I could do quite easily just on my lonesome (ha, pun).
Pity though, I think it's quite a good idea.
1. Coop
Bloody hell Sev, for once in your life you might have a nice little idea here. Got a disagree on the way you would go about it though. Your original web site sounds ultimately like one of your blog barbecues or whatever you set up for a laff only within a cinema.
The ideal way to set this up would be the way you said in the first place but a little different. You register with your full details. The web site has the moviue schedules etc.. and you click whichever one you intended to attend / look up someone that you take the fancy of and contact them.
What a great way would be is to get in with a particular cinema and assign specific seats for a person. i.e. the web site has personal details of a person, like age interests etc but no pic, and then they select the film and register their interest. If in the time before the film, someone else logs onto the web site and also registers their interest against that person, a pair of tickets can then be ordered assigining adjoining seats or something.
Bloody hard to sort out I suppose, but can then come back to your idea of booking a cinema out and drinks after.
If you booked a cinema out to do this, then careful seat planning / assigning depending on submitted interests would be a must. Otherwise people would just turn up and sit any where they want.
Cool idea though. Not to sound sad, but I would actually condsider going for something like this. At the end of the day you still get to see a film.
2. Adrian
Thanks Coop and for the link below.
Mass movie dating: hooking up in the dark.
Guess the idea isn’t so silly after all. Just easier to do as an established dating site, than trying to do myself.
3. nrgza
I think this is a fantastic idea Ade. You’ve clearly thought it through a LOT because all of the little questions that immediately came to mind were answered in this post.
And I like the idea of picking the movie - because then you’d meet like-minded people. Nothing worse than a ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ type meeting a ‘Van Wilder’ type. Oil and water, man.
4. Adrian
I don’t know, I’m swing both ways (movie wise that is) :-) but I get your point.
5. wonderful electric
I’m part of discussions on another mailing list to create a “film buddy” service to allow people to match up films/locations with each other so they can go see movies together. The “draft” website I’ve seen is bloody nifty if you ask me!
6. Nuge
I think you should set it up, become fantastically rich and then sleep with a number of busty blonde women who will flock to you and your fortune. Numerous problems solved.
P.S. Can I join your revolution?
7. Gordon
I’m sure that some cinemas would be interested in this as well. Ideal for them… mind you I have a vague bell ringing that this has been done before…
8. diamond geezer
You don’t need somebody to go to a movie with, but you do need somebody to leave a cinema with afterwards, otherwise who are you going to talk to about what you’ve just seen? Such a waste.
9. annie
Good idea. When I win 88 million on the euro lottery, I will invest in moviedates (TM)
10. Helen
I first went to the cinema by myself when I was 17. I had just passed my driving test so I borrowed my folk’s car, drove to the cinema and went to see Kevin and Perry Go Large.
It was weird seeing a film by myself, there was no one to talk to about the plot, what I found funny and what didn’t work etc. However, crucially I was able to see a film I wanted to see.
Three years ago I was living with three bitchy girls and decided to go and see a film just to get out of the damn crappy house - I think we all had PMT at the time! My housemates thought I was mad and couldn’t believe that I had the guts to go by myself. They said there was an unwritten rule that I either had to go with a guy (a date) or with a group of girls/guys.
I love your moviedates idea. However, a much cheaper option would be to create a database of cinemas and allow people to enter specific details - film name, time, what they are wearing etc. Before you leave to go and see the film you check to see whether anyone matches your details. If there is a match then people pay a fixed fee. No match, no money passes hands.
11. Helen (again!)
Whoops! I should have read the other comments before I posted mine - Coop beat his idea to mine!
12. Adrian
Helen, unfortunately you would have no way of knowing if anyone actually met up or not, and the honour system isn’t always a good business model. Movie meet ups could work, but it would only work as a community thing, not as a business venture.
I actually think the idea would work better as a paid arranged service. Otherwise it’s just a fairly random chance thing, and approaching a stranger in a movie foyer and saying “Um, hello, are you BigBob76” would be really tough.
The problem with running the idea as a full venture, is that it’s not in a very defensible market. You would need to become big and renown to be able to fight off the incumbent dating sites and that’s tough.
I figure to be sustaining you would need to generate about ÂŁ5 profit per attendee. And I reckon you need at least 600 people a month at that rate to start, double that to generate enough money to expand.
That means to just get it in a sustainable position, assuming you can get 40 people in a cinema (20 guys/20 girls) you would need over 4 cinemas a week to run it.
To set up an effective website, do the cinema deals, get the custom base, that would take at least 6 months to get it to that point. Minimum.
However an existing dating site or organisation (match.com/speeddater/chemistry) could add movie dating to their portfolio within about 4-6 weeks. Shorter if they wanted to push it. The idea may be good, but it’s not very defensible.
Too do all that hard work, but have the business go to the incumbents would be costly. Too costly to do on the side with a mortgage. If someone wants to swing by with a couple of hundred thousand in VC, I bet I could make it workable. But as a side venture, I just don’t think it’s defensible enough.
This is why start ups do best when you are twenty something. No blasted mortgage.