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“My Theatre” Concept Debuts In Thailand
posted by
Patrick Crowley
on
November 11, 2004 at 11:25 am
BANGKOK, THAILAND — According to a report from the Bangkok Post, Shin Broadcast Internet is testing a new theater concept in Thailand.
The concept, dubbed “My Theatre”, is designed to deliver multiple forms of entertainment to small groups of people. Theaters are rented on an hourly basis by small groups of people — two, eight, or twenty-one patrons — who choose between watching films delivered via satellite, singing with friends in a karaoke session, or playing video games.
The test theater, which cost $250,000 to construct, was built in the Ratchaburi province. If the concept proves successful, the size of the existing exhibition industry in Thailand could double according to the theater’s backers.
Comments (3)
I doubt the concept would work here, karaoke is not very popular, and I don’t think Americans like to rent things out and go through the hassle, and we aren’t aas big on video games as they are.
A few years ago, anticipating the arrival of very costly high-quality HDTV systems, I considered an idea much like this- having a theater with a large number of screening rooms of various sizes available for small audiences, with any movie in the catalog (probably on a DVD) available on request. It would have been an adjunct to a video rental store, with snack food service available.
I abandoned the notion when I considered both the problem of working out some sort of deal with the owners of movie copyrights, and the likelihood that big screen HDTV would probably drop in price fairly rapidly, (as have other big-ticket electronic items), depleting the potential audience within a few years, as people set up their own home theaters. The window of opportunity would close too quickly to assure any profit from such an enterprise. The economics of a similar scheme might be better in Asia, though.
Joe —– my guess is that you made a very good business decision.