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Q. News item: "An Associated Press-AOL poll last week found that 73 percent of adults prefer watching movies on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view rather than going to the theater."
As much is it pains me to agree, increasingly I find myself irritated by the theater experience. For example, I saw "Batman Begins" last week; the picture was dark, and there was a row of drugged-out hippies laughing and talking during the whole movie.
Do you think the AP-AOL poll is an accurate reflection of people's views, or is their sample skewed? What impact do you think this will have on movies released theatrically? The box office returns ARE at their lowest point since 1985, after all.
Matt Wolf, Burnsville, Minn.
A. Movie exhibitors have reached a moment of truth. It is time to create and enforce a superior viewing environment in theaters, or accept the consequences. Ushers should have ejected the annoying patrons, but I am just as disturbed by your comment that the picture was dark.
"Batman Begins" is a dark movie, set mostly at night, but if it is properly projected, it is dark in a clear and atmospheric way. It is possible, however, that the theater you attended is one that practices the idiotic economy of turning down the power on the projector bulb for "savings" -- on electricity, bulbs, who knows? The life-span of a projector bulb is not shortened by using it at the correct setting.