Automation in Movie Theaters Gives Me the Creeps
Plus: Help Save Lynchland, Demolition Man Pizza Hut Version, FTNC and Saw X
In this scrapbook, I am going to discuss my concerns with the automation of movie theaters, recommend that you help save a David Lynch webpage from being erased by Facebook, and cover some other topics, like the Pizza Hut version of Demolition Man.
Table of ContentsAutomation Creep in Movie Theaters
Last August, I went to the cinema to see Cuckoo (2024, dir. Tilman Singer), a movie that I would later find out, per my colleague Akos Peterbencze, is an example of a subgenre called ‘bird horror.’ I wasn’t all that impressed by the picture.
It was initially quite promising and well executed, but began to drag as it went on, leading to a needlessly overlong and overdone finale. Not only that, the film seemed to be hinting at time travel elements that were ultimately left without payoff or elaboration, and I suspect, might’ve been cut from the picture during post-production.
But what really stood out to me, what lingered in my memory after the credits rolled, wasn’t the quality of the movie but that of the movie theater. See, this was a Regal Theater, and a pretty big one at that. I had visited it multiple times over the past 20 years and though I know memory isn’t always reliable, I recall it once looking opulent and thriving, of truly living up to the name ‘Regal.’
Its grand interior used to resemble something you’d expect to see in an upscale traditional theater that staged elaborate plays or big-budget musicals. When I entered it this time though, I was struck by how barren it looked, how desolate.
Walking around, I could find old, unlit concession stands that had clearly not been operated in years sitting in the corners of the hallways. One main snack booth was still there, and I think there were 2-3 people handing out food and drinks to the few customers who were attending at the time. I don’t recall whether the ticket booths were inside or outside or both, but I recall for sure that there were no staff members behind the counters. Instead, there seemed to only be desktop-computer-like self-service kiosks, where I had to buy the tickets myself.
Sadly, I didn’t really take any photos of the place except for that of the self-service computer. Next time I went to watch something theatrically, it was at an AMC.
Here, I got a strong sense of deja vu: empty counters, abandoned concession stands, swathes of empty space in a location clearly designed to be operated by and so filled with people, the monotony broken up by the occasional automated self-service kiosk and the customer going to or from a screening. This time I took more pictures.
Yes, there were some staff members, of course, like the usher that checked my ticket before letting me pass to the theater. But they were few and far between.
And their absence drew my attention to something that’s really happening almost everywhere I go nowadays: automation creep, by which I refer to the gradual replacement of human beings by automated systems.
I started to recall all the recent times I’d seen the same thing in pharmacies, grocery stores, even airports.* I began to take stock of how many self-checkout machines there were in those places versus the number of people manning the registers. And I gotta tell you: I started to get a little creeped out (pun intended).
*New regulations require customers to check-in, label and drop off their baggage by themselves or use automated self-check-in and passport verification kiosks prior to boarding the planes. The staff that does still work there has little choice than to direct you towards the machines that are likely to soon replace them.
Quite simply, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the human element is being increasingly removed from the service industry.
And as this occurs, movie theaters - at least, the big, chain-owned multiplexes - seem to look more and more like husks of their former selves. Maybe I’ve just seen too many sci-fi flicks, but I find it difficult to not be reminded of a dystopian future where everything looks old and dilapidated yet still seems to just barely function thanks to the presence of some device that either does the work for you or, rather, makes you do all the work, thereby minimizing your ability to interact with another person.
What does it say about our society as a whole and film exhibition in particular when it is cheaper and presumably more ‘efficient’ for huge companies to replace human retail workers with self-service devices? Never mind the lost job opportunities and their impact on the economy. What if the machines break down or stop working? Who will help you make your movie or your flight then? What if you buy the wrong item and want to return it, but nobody is on hand to help you?
When I went to that Regal theater, I was actually about 5-10 minutes late to the start of the screening. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t miss anything due to the fact that trailers nowadays delay the real start of the film by about 20 minutes or so. But the kiosks would no longer list the time slot that I wanted to get my ticket for.
Fortunately, I managed to find one living, human staff member working at a different area (maybe a help desk?), and asked her if she could get me a ticket into the screening that had already begun. She worked on her computer, performed a manual override of some kind, and I got in, missing maybe the first two minutes. I was immensely grateful to her for her help. It’s a small, yet crucial thing in such circumstances.
What would’ve happened if the theater were completely devoid of human staff? I don’t know. But I doubt I would’ve bothered to see a film at all. And so, I wouldn’t be surprised if audiences stop going to theaters altogether if the automation continues.
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Help Save Lynchland!
David Lynch died on January 15, 2025, just five days before his 79th Birthday.
He was my favorite filmmaker, a director whose work seems to have much in common with European art cinema yet remains quintessentially American. The impression I’ve gotten is that for many budding cinephiles, including myself, he was an inspiration, an auteur that convinced us that movies could be more than just entertainment.
I have seen a lot of responses come up in the aftermath, a lot of thoughts on Lynch and his legacy. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I should say but I really don’t have much to add to the discourse, at least not yet. What I do want is to draw attention to an amazing David Lynch Facebook Page called Lynchland, which was inexplicably taken down two years by Facebook and remains unrestored, despite the best efforts of its creator, Roland Kermarec, and its various managers.
There is still an active FB Group linked to the site called Lynchland Gang, but the pro-per page, an archive of around 8,000 “photo posts” has been inaccessible since 2023.
You can read up on the story of what happened to Lynchland here but the gist of it is that either due to some technical error following an update to Facebook ‘pages’ system or perhaps the efforts of a bad actor, the page was taken down by Meta.
The problem is that it has been virtually impossible for anybody at Lynchland to reach actual FB/Meta representatives and get them to look into the matter. Roland reques-ted a ‘review’ of the situation but hadn’t gotten any responses and though someone working at Meta at the time tried to help him get someone to look into the matter, the page was republished only to get unpublished again about 4 hours later.
The individual working at Meta has since quit and Lynchland remains in limbo.
“After June 2023, many attempts have been realized to try to find a “real human being” working at Meta, without success. Via Lynchland’s group on FB, at www.facebook.com/groups/lynchland, many members have also tried to do the same, tried to report the problem to Meta, without success either.”
Here, we have arguably another instance of the problem with automation. Companies like Meta are increasingly relying on automated processes and procedures, while isolating themselves from human interaction and making it impossible for users or clients to get help in resolving issues. Without going into details, I myself have had similar problems with FB, which, btw, no longer even has a customer service contact number that would allow you get any assistance with your account.
I don’t have that much reach on this newsletter but I’m hoping to nonetheless help spread the word and bring more attention to the site’s plight. Maybe somebody on Substack with a big audience could even turn this into a whole story?
Lynchland would certainly welcome this.
If you’re a journalist (or if you know one) specializing in social media or anything related to this campaign, and might be interested in this case or in writing an in-depth article (the scarcity of the human factor, the growing blind powers of algorithms at Meta, etc.), please contact us!
Team Administrator: SaveLynchland@gmail.com
The Whole Team: SaveLynchland@googlegroups.com
If you are willing to share any part of this article at all, please share about Lynchland!
Revisio-News: “Demolition Man” Pizza Hut Version
Part sci-fi action film, part social satire, Demolition Man (dir. Marco Brambilla) didn’t seem like anything particularly outstanding upon its release back in 1993. But over time, it has become something of a modern (cult?) classic, in part because its vision of the future in hindsight seems ahead of its time* and its satirical gags (eg. the three sea-shells and Taco Bell) have grown into recognizable pop culture memes.
*Who would’ve thought Schwarzennegger really would get into politics in real life?
One of the more interesting things I’ve discovered recently is that there is actually an alternate European Cut of the film, where the movie’s references to Taco Bell - story goes that there were some sort of “franchise wars” in the 21st century, at the end of which only Taco Bell was left standing - were replaced with references to Pizza Hut.
Dialogue mentioning Taco Bell was redubbed (at times quite poorly imo) while CGI was accordingly utilized to remove the Taco Bell logos and replace them with those of the new chain restaurant. The reasoning was simple: product placement.
Taco Bell, which had 4600 locations in the US, originally helped promote the film to American audiences. In addition to being prominently featured in the movie, Taco Bell at the time offered tie-in Demolition Man cups and meal deals. But in Europe, Taco Bell didn’t have much of a presence, while its sister company Pizza Hut did, with a reported 3,300 international locations dispersed across 58 (some say 78) countries.
So, a new deal was struck to create Pizza Hut tie-ins for the film’s international release, such as Demolition Man pizza combos that would “…coincide with the movie’s opening.” Supposedly, this was the first instance of a movie being edited after release specifically for ‘promotional reasons.’*
*Source: Arizona Daily Star, 06 Dec 1993, 14.
I would debate that last part, given that movies are constantly re-cut for distribution purposes, but in any case this led to the film having an alternate Pizza Hut version in Europe. For years, US audiences were not privy to it, but reports indicate that it somehow made its way to some TV airings in the States not too long ago.
More recently, on December 27, Arrow Video released a new limited edition of the film on BluRay and 4K, including the “Pizza Hut version” alongside the US theatrical version via seamless branching. I’m not sure if I’ll order the BluRay but I might, as I don’t have the film on disc and it sounds like Arrow has a nice Special Edition here.
FTNC Updates
I have more or less made it through my backlog, but as usual, I'm continuously adding newsletters to the Film and Television Newsletter directory.
Here are the most recent additions:
- [Check Book] // Blank Check
- // Tom Barrie
- // Jim Fields
What I’m Reading/Responding to: “Saw X”
I have finally seen Saw X (2023, dir. Kevin Greutert), the belated third sequel to the Saw: The Final Chapter (2010, ibid.). The film lives up to the hype. From the opening moments, I had the impression that this was the best Saw movie, one that truly should’ve been called Jigsaw in lieu of the 8th film, given that it’s the first time John Kramer is truly the lead rather than a supporting player in other peoples’ stories.*
* Naturally, this means that Jigsaw is no longer a mysterious villain, whose story is slowly revealed via flashback. No, by virtue of being thrust into the role of the protagonist, Jigsaw becomes the de facto good guy or antihero, and so the film has to introduce a true villain in the form of the grifter Cecilia Pederson.
If its predecessors can be considered pulpy genre mashups of the slasher film and the police procedural, Saw X functions as something more of a prestige drama take on the material. It is calmer in its editing, more confident in its storytelling, more focused on characterization rather than pulp thrills.
Saw X is also interesting in that it needs to function as a truly standalone movie, yet one that also fits into the larger continuity established by its predecessors.* Really, that’s a subtle yet crucial difference: the first seven Saw movies were very much serialized chapters that routinely avoided closure and set up various mysterious and loose ends for future movies to resolve.
*The returning actors obviously look 20 years older than they should at this point, but that isn’t a dealbreaker. In fact, Tobin Bell’s age really helps sell the cancer-stricken John Kramer’s frail condition and so render him a more sympathetic character.
Saw X, in that regard, is a considerably more conventional film, but after so many serialized installments, it really feels like a breath of fresh air.
Anyway, I recommend Skylar Singer’s article on the film, as it really gets why Saw X is awesome and how it breaks with the established conventions of the previous nine movies while also working within their framework.
But What about you?Have you yourself ever encountered automation creep? What do you think this will do to our movie theaters? Any perspective on the Pizza Hut version of ‘Demolition Man’?
Want to share any thoughts on David Lynch or the impossibility of getting in contact with anyone at companies like Meta? Please,
Hi Mikhail,
Thank you for adding my newsletter, Notes From the 10th Row, to your Film and Television Newsletter Directory! Also, we don't have any AMC theaters here in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I live. In fact, all of our local theaters are owned by Marcus, (ugh), and going to most of them is like stepping back into the late 1980s/early 90's because none of these theaters have been upgraded since then. Even so, after reading your post I worry that Marcus could eventually embrace automation in their theaters too. How I miss my childhood days of Roadshow presentations that required patrons to reserve their seats in advance, dress up to go to the movie, and interact with a well-dressed staff of ticket sellers, ushers, consessionaires, and coat checkers.
Ugh yeah the automation is soooooo depressing. Movie theaters feel so void of life and sad and grey lately. I want to support the medium but supporting the companies stripping us of a simple joy is hard. I try to get out to independent theaters but in NYC that’s a lot of travel time.