Movies

Published: April 4, 2023, 7 a.m.

In this week\u2019s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand how Americans interact with movies. Motivated by watching Nicole Kidman\u2019s heartfelt introduction before every movie at the AMC theater chain, Farrier sets out to understand the other big chains like Regal. How are these chains enticing people in the door? He finds that AMC has the Stubs A-List, and Regal has Regal Unlimited. Then Farrier talks to Stacy Spikes, the founder and brains behind MoviePass - a subscription service he started, then was kicked out of, then bought back again. Stacy\u2019s new venture is rumored to monitor where your eyes are looking to see if you\u2019re watching ads or not, prompting Farrier to ask \u201cWhat?!\u201d David also wants to understand how the smaller indie chains are competing and ends up talking to Tim League who started the Alamo Drafthouse chain. He talks about movie showmanship and muses on the state of the industry right now.