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If I can buy the movie for the price of two adult tickets to the movie and “own” it forever, I just stay home and stream the movie. Are there some movies that I’d like to see on a big screen? Yes, but maybe only once a year.
I saw Dune 2 in the theater. I’m maybe going to see one more, but that’s it. Anything else, I will stream when it shows up if I’m looking forward to it, or I’ll see it when I see it. There’s value in turning the cinema into a real experience, but not every-week value.
TLDW summary, please? That’s… an hour long.
For me, a lot of the hand wringing over the so-called death of movie theaters comes down to the fact that much more of the “magic” of it had to do with exclusivity and the inadequacy of home set ups. Take those away, and the value proposition of waiting to watch at home changes drastically.
We’re not all Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese, literally enthralled by the silver screen at the movie palace. We just want to watch our movie in the situation that is the most comfortable and fun for that particular movie. For most people, the ones that seem to benefit the most from a giant screen with giant speakers and a darkened room and a communal experience are big action show pieces with stunning vistas.
Like live theater before it, movie theaters are settling in to their optimum use cases, instead of being the one size fits all that we do just because that’s the only way to do it adequately. So buckle in. Eventually there will be many fewer theaters, with 90% of their capacity catering to giant marvel movies that are made for the broadest possible audience, and 10% to cinema geeks. The rest of us will have big OLEDs and a sound bar, and we’ll generally find that to be fine. The zoomers and alphas won’t even care about that, I think.
Shoot, based on The Marvels and Indiana Jones 5 and Furiosa, maybe we’re already there. Even just a few years ago, anything big and noisy and adventure-ish would do OK (looking at you, DC). Now you have to really nail the zeitgeist just so if you want make a good amount in the theatrical run. “Barbenheimer” events are going to remain really rare, and maybe happen only every year or two.
Yeah I think the only reason I ever went to see a movie in a theatre was because it was literally the only way to see that movie (because it had just come out). Now that there’s almost no delay between theatre and streaming release, there’s no point in going to the theatre.
For most people, the ones that seem to benefit the most from a giant screen with giant speakers and a darkened room and a communal experience are big action show pieces with stunning vistas.
Works well for horror movies too as you are in a dark room, hopefully, with few distractions and that really draws you in.
