The other night I went to the movie theater to watch a movie but mostly, to experience going to see a movie in a non-English speaking country. It was interesting to search online about movies and there was 3 sections of some movies. Back home, there is only one type: the movie in English. Here, when I was searching I found movies offered in just Spanish, in English with Spanish subtitles and Spanish with English subtitles. Something simple like going to the movies never seemed so complicated. As an international student, it was great to have all those options. When I went to the actual theater I noticed there was mostly people going into the Spanish movie since this is the native language, but I found that a lot of younger Chileans went into the Spanish movie that included English subtitles. I asked one Chilean if he understood any English and he said a little bit but he wants to try to become more fluent which is why he went into a movie with subtitles. As a marketing perspective I think it is awesome to have so many different options whether it is benefiting the locals, international students or even the occasional tourist. Now when I go back home, I am going to look more closely into the movies to see if they have other language options for movie goers in Massachusetts.
Of course I would like to know what movie you have seen and what you think of it, but that is beside the point of my normal comments. Can you take another look at the cinema’s offering, apart from the language options? What is on the menu and compare this to your home environment? Is the cinema going for the mass movies, family movies, is there room for more cultural - perhaps more intellectual - movies? When you take that into consideration you can probably see a clearer pattern of the marketing approach of the cinema(s). After all the language options are a kind of obligation for the cinemas as too many of the audience lack any or sufficient dominion of the foreign (English mainly) language. And I would advise a Chilean to go and watch the original language with Spanish subtitles, as fast reading in a foreign language is harder than in your own language.
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