December 21st, 2006

Filed under:
Movies, Technology
6 Comments »

My Second Idea of the Day: Watch the Movie From the Cinema Bathroom

I thought that wood idea was pretty good. Here’s another one. It needs some tweaking, but I think it’s fundamentally sound.

I’ve got a small bladder. I go to a lot of movies. I order a “medium Diet Coke, lots of ice” at every movie.

What does this add up to? In every movie, I go to the bathroom at least once. Sometimes, in three hour epics, I’ll go twice.

I’ve gotten pretty good at judging what the current scene is about, identifying whether it’s pivotal to the plot and picking my spots, as it were. I never miss anything crucial.

That said, it’d be nice if I could keep up to speed while at the urinal. Wouldn’t it be cool to have screens above each urinal and on the inside of stall doors that displayed the current movie in progress? There could be quiet audio or subtitles, and small bladdermeisters could keep abreast of the movie they’ve stepped out of. There’d be a little channel changing button (or a touch screen?) to choose your movie from the ones currently playing. I imagine this would be easy enough once the world moves to digital projection.

Speaking of breasts, that’s one issue. What do you do about movies that are rated R or NC-17? Don’t show them in the bathroom at all? That’s a tricky one.

You could generate revenue by running ads around the content. They already use this space for advertising (including video these days), so that’s a natural fit.

What do you think?

Comments: 6 Responses so far

Jen
December 21st, 2006
4:47 pm

I think it needs a little tweaking.

1. Your issue of R & NC-17 movies would have to be addressed.

2. From what I’ve seen, many movie theatre bathrooms are unrestricted to non-ticket-holders. In the instances they are, can you imagine the lineups one would encounter trying to use the loo during sold-out shows?

Both issues could be addressed with some sort of verification system. Print barcodes on ticket stubs that need to be inserted (like parkade tickets) in order to watch the movie. Or put a code on the ticket that needs to be entered on the screen you’re watching in order to show the film as it’s playing at that moment (expiring after 10 or 15 minutes).

The biggest problem I see with those, however, is that the acts of figuring them out and getting them to work may take longer than the average person takes to void, zip, and return to the show.

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Arjun Singh
December 21st, 2006
4:49 pm

Breasts could be a problem. Also, how does the sound from different movies flow easily in a confined space.

Darren, very best of the holidays to you. You have been my way into pretty incredible areas of the blogosphere.

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intepid (MarkP)
December 21st, 2006
5:51 pm

Considering how many people don’t wash their hands I would not relish the thought of using such a touch screen

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Robin Capper
December 21st, 2006
9:39 pm

Is it stupid to ask why not skip the drink? Takes longer than a movie to die of thirst!

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Jeff
December 22nd, 2006
7:48 am

Movies are still projected - it would take some expense to have a video stream sent to monitors in bathrooms.

Plus you would have people sitting in the loo recording the films for cam torrents.

I’d be hesitant to use a touch screen that so many others have touched in the moments prior to washing their hands.

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Ryan Cousineau
December 22nd, 2006
9:53 am

I think yours is a silly idea, but then I have a strong bladder. But it would be better to just use one-way glass and have the urinals look into the theatre.

This is not a trivial fix: you’d pretty much have to design new movie houses where there was a bathroom for each individual screen. Inefficient in a big multiplex, for sure.

Also, I’d suggest the best solution is for you to switch to a small Diet Coke, or learn what a Texas catheter is.

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