Comment Re:Rerelease 'Life of Pi' 3D (Score 4, Interesting) 64
Yes, but it's in line with what cinemas said since the advent of TV: You're not paying for the movie only, but for the experience of a night out. And - for people who enjoy that experience - it makes sense to not only watch new movies (read: uninspired sequels or unnecessary remakes) but classics, too.
And with the time frame for exclusive theater distribution got shorter and shorter with discs and streaming services, you can't charge anything anymore for seeing a movie two weeks before it hits the streaming services. If you tried to fill that gap with more and more new movies, you would end up producing nothing but B-movies and worse.
And third: technology made it possible. A 35mm copy can cost as much as a car and has to be hauled around from cinema to cinema by big trucks. For digital movies, you put a few SSD into a UPS box and can ship it out for a night or two.
A cinema here has a surprise classic movie every other Thursday. Alternating a dubbed and original versions. Tickets are 6 bucks each, get a beer with it for 4 more. And the target audience is people who like movies more than annoying other viewers.