It seems pretty clear that the current movie theater model doesn’t quite work for anyone. Well, maybe it’s nearly perfect for a 15-year-old in Normal, Illinois, but that’s precisely why I hardly ever see a movie in a multiplex.

A long time ago (at least on the Spout calendar), Paul wrote a post essentially brainstorming about his dream movie theater. In his post, Paul actually wrote “I secretly hope Landmark Theaters will consider this a quick and dirty business plan to elaborate on.”

Well, it looks like Mark Cuban is actually jumping on Paul’s bandwagon, or at least something close. An article today on Cinematical, “Mark Cuban Wants To Make Us Scoop Our Own Popcorn,” says Cuban and Todd Wagner are unveiling their new movie theater concepts in three of their Landmark theaters–in Baltimore, Denver, and Los Angeles.

“Landmark’s goal is to be the ultimate night out for grownups. Today’s customer has different expectations than the customer of 10 and 20 years ago, and we need to recognize that and respond to it,” says Cuban in the article.

But what does that actually mean? Amenities, retail sales, and a “lounge-like atmosphere” for food and drinks before and after the movie. Next to Paul’s dream theater, Cuban’s model sounds a bit like it’s trying too hard, although of course I’d have to see and experience it before I could say anything conclusive. Paul’s plan includes ideas like converting old neighborhood theaters back into theaters, starting clubs and other opportunities for like-minded people to come together around films they love, and offering opening acts as a way to expose people to shorts and other emerging cinema. The plan is practical in many ways (brief intermission, anyone?) yet also focuses on actually enriching the movie-going experience, not just lengthening it and providing more opportunities for spending too much.

I guess what I’m thinking is that Cuban’s plan sounds perfect for a first-date, or for any date meant to be somewhat novel–but minus the work. Paul’s plan sounds sustainable for real people who love movies and want better movie-watching experiences on a regular basis. Of course, Cuban has the money, not Paul, so in many ways I have to agree with Patrick Walsh on Cinematical: “Going to the theater is far too expensive to be as unpleasant as it so often is–why not experiment with the formula?”

Greetings from Portland, the city that apparently has more movie theater seats per capita than any other city in the country. My man Jason and I are out here visiting my brother, Bill, who is a huge film lover–6-foot-4, to be exact (so sorry for the bad pun). For people who are into great community film-watching experiences, this seems to be the place to live. Not only are there theaters all over the city keeping up with the first-run pace of much larger cities like New York and LA, there are several alternative theater experiences to take advantage of. Personally, I’m much more excited about these than I am about catching a new film now that will hit my local art theater back home two or three months later. I can wait. What I can’t do back home is drink a good microbrew while I’m enjoying an affordable, well-chosen film in a community setting (ie: not my livingroom).

Take the Laurelhurst Theater. This movie theater landmark since 1923 shows second runs and classics on four screens for $3 a show, while you fill up on pizza and wash it down with microbrews. The McMenamin brothers have also made a huge name for themselves in Portland, by refurbishing historic buildings, showing $3 films, and serving exceptionally delicious pub grub and their own micro-brewed beers. They have four theater locations, including one in an old elementary school. And get this: The Academy Theater not only has “real” food, beer and wine, it also offers inexpensive babysitting on site! A complete date at an affordable price–what a novel concept!

So all of us not from Portland (or Austin or the few other places in the country that have their theater groove on) are thinking “Of course! That’s the way to see films! That’s the way to keep historic theaters as theaters, and to repurpose other great old buildings into film destinations rather than driving film-lovers all out to the suburbs!” If we’re all thinking that, where are the McMenamins of Indianapolis and Pittsburgh and Louisville? When will every other place jump on the train? Are the rest of us really not cool enough to support these kinds of theaters in small and mid-sized cities across the map?

So with the Weinstein’s leaving Miramax to truly fill their movie Mogul ambitions, people like Mark Cuban are stepping in to fill the void in filmmaking that Miramax seemingly used to. With the film Bubble he is executing his plan of financing a group of films (by Steven Soderbergh this round) and then releasing them simultaneously in all three channels–theater, HD-TV, and DVD.  And now we read about this, a new Cuban venture called Truly Indie, which is a sort of self-service framework for filmmakers to essentially rent screens using Truly Indie’s established partnerships and systems with Landmark and other theaters. 

There are a number of interesting quotes in the article from "I believe the film distribution system is rather closed" to "plain and simple it’s a way for indie filmmakers to slide by the gatekeepers," both sentiments that I agree with.  I also find it interesting that they titled the venture "Truly Indie," which definitely draws attention to the truly non-indie-ness of the existing indie product out there (Garden State anyone?). So while Truly Indie is probably a good step for filmmakers, I see it as really an incremental one. On the upside, it streamlines for the filmmaker an old and risky tactic of renting theater screens on their own dime. It’s nice for a filmmaker to have a simple "plug and play" framework now, but that doesn’t change the inherent geographic limitations of theatrical release and non-existent marketing budgets that indie filmmakers must face.

The fact is that movies that are released via Truly Indie will most likely never be screened in a theater near my house. What I think will be interesting is if they combine the theatrical release with a DVD release, like Cuban is doing with Soderbergh. I think a step like that can really free a "truly indie" film from theater constraints, allowing it’s popularity to spread faster, and put some money into filmmakers’ pockets.