Bring the cattle in and ship them out

Nora Ephron offre un petit aperçu saisissant de ce que la logique de multiplexe, poussée à bout (logique de rentabilité financière) peut donner. Aller au cinéma devrait être une expérience valorisée, malheureusement il ne s'agit pour beaucoup que de remplir le plus de fauteuils en faisant payer le plus cher et en dépensant le moins possible.
Avec ça comment ne pas comprendre que les gens préfèrent attendre que les films arrivent chez eux ? Pour beaucoup aller au ciné est une sortie qui coûte cher : suffit de penser quel prix un spectateur occasionnel doit payer s'il lui prend l'envie, en passant devant une salle, de se faire une toile.

We passed the shuttered refreshment counter, went into the theater and sat down. The ads were already playing. There were quite a few of them, including a diet cola ad involving trucks and motorcycles that was so in love with itself that it actually recommended going to a special Web site that explained how the ad had been made.
Then, suddenly, the sound turned off and the screen went completely dark. Several minutes passed. The theater was three-quarters full, but no one moved. In some strange and inexplicable way, I felt responsible. I stood up and went two flights upstairs. A ticket taker had materialized and was now taking tickets. I told her that the system in Theater 7 had shut down. She looked at me blankly. I asked her if she would tell someone about it. She said she would and went on taking tickets. I stood there waiting. After a couple of minutes, when the customers had all passed through, she yelled out, "Projection, is there something wrong in Theater 7?" I went back downstairs.

The Last Picture Show - NYT Apr. 7th