Cinemas Are Close To Obsolete: RIP Hollywood?
- Quincy Corsey
- Feb 1, 2021
- 5 min read
2020 just wrapped up and A LOT has come to pass with COVID-19 making a huge change in many public spaces that we once enjoyed. Ranging from concerts, schools, and restaurants having to adjust their whole operation in order to stay open; the world has been hard on everyone and everything. But, this can be seen in the most peculiar yet obvious place we all regularly attend.
Not Church or the gym, but Hollywood in the cinema which is where Hollywood makes most of their millions. This is an overlooked spectacle that we hardly notice because of all the other things going on in the world. With the rise of streaming services, COVID-19, and all that other jazz; are movie theatres on their way out for good? Let us dive in.
A Short Look Into "The Movies":
The concept of theatre has been around since the sophistication of literature and recorded history. But the combination of plays and recording only came in the last two centuries. In the late 1800s, the Edison company made a machine to give life to set scenarios of photography to move in a set order to make a "Moving Picture" which would later be shortened to "Movies". These would be global phenomena by the 1930s and progress into what we traditionally know and sit in today by 1952 with evolving resolution and screen size with the curved screen being the latest development in movie history.
Cinema culture would grow gradually with more presence going towards American production after World War One with productions being seen by crowds as big as a cumulative total of 31,000,000 people in Britain seeing movies each week in the 1930s. Even with these great steps towards movie greatness, the hype died down with streaming services taking on more of a presence that Television wished they could get. Since the rise of services like Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, etc. the theatre has seemed to have been holding just for the sake of nostalgia. This isn't a feeling you can see through their statistics.
Box Office Sales:
Like I already said before, the 30s showed the cinema as peak entertainment, and by the 1950s had created a golden age in American film specifically. Just to give an overview of what numbers show I found a study of statistics on the North American Box Office from the last 40 years that shows the number of tickets sold. The trend that came was there is a gradual rise from 1980 to 2002 and then a drop into last year with only 1.239 Million tickets being sold compared to 2002's ticket sale of 1.575 Million sold. These statistics are testaments of the fall-off that was talked about before. But what happened in the last 15 years for the cinema to lose its flare? Yeah we can blame it on things like Concessions & Family Estimate Costs being a pretty penny but we also have to bring the rise of streams as a big factor of what caused so much damage.
Netflix Takeover:
In the last 5 years with two other studies, the first being statistics of a gradual upward trend in people's possession of a streaming service for an alternative form of media that is not cable. This trend of streaming service ownership shows just how much influence services have come to acquire in the 2010s by showing 52% in 2015 to 78% last year.
The other study specifying with the streaming service Netflix showed millions going from 43.4 Million in 2015 to 61.0 Million last year.
For those who do not know what Netflix is, it is a streaming service that plays feature films, shows, etc. at the drop of a dime for a monthly subscription with access to said stuff. They have acquired the wealth of stream shares in the form of monthly subscriptions. Getting all of this success, they have come to produce originals that they fund with raises in said subscriptions and honors in contracts or licenses over movies they are allowed to play on their streams. This put a lot of things into perspective for sure by giving people an alternative point of "I'll just wait 'til it comes on Netflix". That magic of going to the movies has diminished significantly and it shows in their ticket sales. It is not in demand like it was 90 years ago but this might just a phase like some would say in the world.
All Bad Really?:
Although the decline in movies is coming at an alarming rate, this might just be a bump in the road. Theatres have come to revitalize the 3-D phenomena that took the world by storm 40 years ago.
They have added curved screens like stated before and even luxury style seats that give immersive vibrations to furthermore enhance your immersion in your film. If anything, one might say this is only the beginning of a newfound appreciation of nostalgic experiences for Millenials, Generation Z, and future generations to come. However, this wonder and magic are ceasing to exist with streamed original productions taking the lead in what is determined as box office material. This problem mixed with COVID-19 stopping theatres in their tracks is what will kill Cinema as we know it.
The Decision:
Overall, the problems are on the table and if there are any retribution and solutions on what to do it should be to give people a reason to come again. Bring back actual midnight premieres, movie posters, toys, etc that came along with those said premieres. Cut the prices on concessions that turning these people away to lean on Netflix. People do not hate the movies but they do not see the point in wasting money on things they can buy from the local corner store for $10 when it's $3 or $4 max.
Bring that aura of Star Wars: Episode III back where people would come up in Jedi Outfits with lightsabers fighting other sith in line. We saw these things in the last 10 years with Ironman in 2008 and ending it with Avengers: Endgame in 2019 but that's not gonna be enough. Cinema has to get off its high horse and act like it's 1930 again because their gonna die being too proud to lower prices. Hollywood, already has people out of jobs so Cinema since you only get business from what they do what ya gonna do? Make it easy and invest in yourself? Stop yourself now before you cease to exist forever.
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