None of that is what you pay for at the theatres. The socializing with friends at the theatre is completely irrelevant to whether or not the opening premiere night is important. The fact that there's a band names Harry and the Potters is kind of sad, unless at least one of them is also a Potter, then it's kind of funny, and unless they're a legitimately successful band and not some garage-level band that's known only locally among 30 people, then this is a poor thing to point out. You can also meet all of these people at other times for movie showings.
Okay, true, I didn't pay the movie theater for my Harry and the Potters experience. Do you pay Kumoricon for your experience with your friends? To meet cool people? The chance meetings at Starbucks with cool guests or admired cosplayers? No. You could experience that stuff anywhere. It's just that without the catalyst of the con, meetings like that are much, much harder to come by. Same with movie premieres. And, as I've pointed out before, the hardcore fans go to the midnight showings. If you want to hang out with the fans who have as much dedication and love as you, those are the showings you go to.
And dude, Harry and the Potters is HUGE. Search it sometime. No, wait, let me do your work for you.
http://harryandthepotters.com/http://www.myspace.com/harryandthepottershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_and_the_PottersNot to mention they're responsible for spawning every other Wizard Rock band in existence right now, many of which are as popular as them or more so. That fact that you're ignorant of them doesn't make them lame or unpopular or "kind of sad", it just means you haven't heard of them. There's a difference.
First off, not always. There have been several movies that have had multiple runs in theatres. Even if what I said wasn't the case, it's not like movies are ONLY shown that one time. Movies are played a few times in a single day; if they're "popular" enough, they can even reach a dozen showing or more in multiple rooms. They are also there for several weeks, sometimes being around for well over a month. And there's also the smaller theatres and the $3 theatre in Vancouver that show movies well after their original theatre time.
Again, it's no big deal if you miss the opening premiere of a movie. You'll have plenty of opportunities to see it another time.
All of that it totally true. However, it's missing the ultimate point: The MIDNIGHT PREMIERE. It only happens ONCE. Seeing a movie a couple months later is NOT THE SAME as seeing it at midnight, which is what this whole thing is about. Just saying that it's all available at a later date is completely irrelevant. That's like saying "Oh, you've missed Friday and Saturday and most of Sunday of Kumoricon? That's okay, there are still a couple cosplayers here who are interested in hanging out. Everyone interesting who might have shared your enthusiasm and passion has already gone home or left for their afterparties, but hey, at this point you can practically get into the con for free, maybe catch one more panel, but this is basically the same, right? Plus, PLUS, now it costs less! Really, this is better."
Cons are also multiple days long, not two hours. You get to meet people in the business, not watch something for two hours. Kumoricon is an annual event, movies constantly come out. These are NOT the same.
It's not like you spend time just watching the movie and that's it. There's plenty of time both before and after a midnight premiere to socialize, discuss the movie, make friends, et cetera. For instance, for the premiere of Order of the Phoenix, earlier that night I'd gone to the Harry and the Potters concert that was happening in Portland, and went to the same theater as the band for the movie. I got to talk to the band members, get my swag from the show signed, and connect with a lot of the other concert-goers. Obviously this doesn't happen every time, but midnight premieres get the hardcore fans who are generally more enthusiastic and happy to be there than the rest of the movie audience. I've met TONS of neat people at premieres, people who I wouldn't have met otherwise.
Besides, as you said, cons are an annual thing. Each movie only comes out once. So really, looking at it that way, midnight movie premieres are more of an event that cons. I missed Kcon '07 because I was in Europe, but I wasn't too upset about it because I knew there was always next year; I wouldn't be so forgiving, no matter where in the world I was, if I had to miss the Deathly Hallows premiere.
This. QFT. Absolutely. I can't stress enough how much midnight premiers are about the experience and not just the movie. I'm not much into Harry Potter, but I am a massive Lord of the Rings geek, and the midnight showing for Fellowship was just...indescribable, and sooooo not just sitting watching a movie. Washougal, the fact that you've never attended a midnight showing is really coming through in your justifications. It is really a mini-con. People of the same hardcore passion gather, usually hours in advance either waiting in lines or in the theaters. People cosplay for it, contests are often held, people converse and make new friends. Oddly enough, watching the movie is usually the least spectacular aspect of the movie - it is the atmosphere that surrounds the midnight showing that makes it so worth it in so many people's eyes. And even while the movie is playing, like for the Star Wars Episode III midnight premier, people often interact with the film (but not in obnoxious ways or anything distracting). It is just a very hardcore gathering of those who love the culture and film. You couldn't be selling it any shorter by saying it's just "watching a movie".
Thank you, you've expressed this much more eloquently than I could.
