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Take Me Out to the Ballgame... at the Cineplex
Movie theaters boost lagging ticket sales with live broadcasts
By Caroline Zimmerman
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Posted Mar 23, 08 2:52 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Cineplexes are boosting stagnant sales by showing more live broadcasts, the New York Times reports. From the Metropolitan Opera to the Mets, high-def feeds are luring fans for less than the price of a live concert or ball game. "We can now replicate Carnegie Hall across the country," an exec at Screenvision said.
Film audiences rose by 1% in 2007, after stagnating in 2006 and declining the previous 3 years. Cineplexes rented out auditoriums for meetings to compensate, but the advent of digital projectors and 3-D are making live broadcasts possible. "Live simulcasts of sporting events won't displace the first week of Harry Potter, but they might displace the fifth," said the CEO of Landmark Theaters.