There comes a time when you have to question paying $65 for rafter seats at an arena concert, especially if those nose-bleeders are for Bon Jovi and it’s not 1986. Recognizing that you might not enjoy craning your neck behind Jersey hair, large movie theater chains are repurposing the same hi-def screens and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound you bug out to during Pirates of the Caribbean to lure music fans. With help from National CineMedia, your local cineplex can show live footage from a sold-out concert in New York City. Sure, you may not get away with smoking a joint and sipping a flask, but for $15, you’ll get comfy stadium seating and a view of every wrinkle on the aging rocker’s face.
National CineMedia saw the potential of empty theaters four years ago when it broadcast a Korn concert live via satellite to 40 auditoriums. Since then, Bon Jovi, Prince, and Tom Petty have agreed to similar deals, which typically earn them a percentage of the box office. Audiences for these simulcast shows have ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 people, and 40,000 rocked out to Phish’s last hurrah in 2004. The next frontier for National CineMedia: opera. Time to find a tux to match the concession-stand Jujubes.
– Sonia Zjawinski
Music Reborn
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