Published Dec 16, 2006
I — rather belatedly — saw the new James Bond movie this weekend. After years of Bonds who were indistinct from any other action hero, Casino Royale finally gives us a satisfying, absorbing Bond. The theater at which I saw this movie even offered me a nice bit of gratitude: “Thank you for choosing Pacific Theaters,” the promo reel said as it ran before the movie. Unfortunately for the producers of this clip, I didn’t choose Pacific Theaters. Like most people, I chose the convenient place and time for the movie, not the specific theater chain. Theater chains are a commodity: all are essentially equivalent to the consumer. Commoditization is a serious threat to almost every product, but these same theater chains show us some ways all of us entrepreneurs can avoid becoming commodities too.
Up until recently, the Century chain in the Bay Area had resisted the trend towards placing lots of advertising (particularly for crappy mainstream music) during the wait before they started the projectors rolling, and mixed in with the trailers. That actually made me prefer Century over the other local options. Sadly, they’ve now caved to the advertisers. :-P