Going to the movies used to be one of the most fun things to do. It would be a weekend night. You and your date would arrive at the theater. There would be crowds everywhere, making it all feel exciting. And then you would take you seat and just get to relax for two hours and suspend the outside world, and whatever was going on in your life outside of the theater, for two hours. It was the ultimate form of escapism. And sadly, that seems to be going away.
The reason why its going away is because movies in theaters aren’t very popular anymore. Movie rarely get sold out, making it so that you can almost always buy a ticket. And while that might seem like a good thing, in terms of convenience and ability, the problem is that what it actually means is the crowds just aren’t there anymore. Without the crowds, we are losing a huge part of the experience. And to make matters worse, there aren’t enough decent movies put in theaters anymore. Not enough movies that are worth going to the theater to see. Here we are in March, with three months of the year gone by already, and there has been only one single movie worth seeing in theaters… Captain America: Brave New World. Now, that movie wasn’t great or anything, but at least it was a blockbuster tentpole movie. Something that was meant to be seen in a theater. It’s pretty lousy that it was the only one in the past three months.
So how did we get here? How did the industry and theaters and the theater going experience change so much? A big part of it was the pandemic. Right before Covid 19 (let’s say the five or so years before it,) theaters sort of revamped themselves. They changed the way of ordering tickets so that instead of showing up and picking any seat that was open, now when you bought a ticket, you also picked your seat. This eliminated the notion to come to theaters early, in order to get a good seat. It seemed like a great idea, because now things would be more convenient for people. You could show up right before your movie began, because you already had your seat reserved. Only there was a negative consequence. Making it so that people could show up right on time meant that people were spending less time in the theater. They no longer needed to be there for thirty minutes before. Which meant less people in the lobby. Less people buying concessions. Less crowds and excitement at the theater.
With less people at the concessions, movie theaters had to up their prices. Now, I don’t know for a fact that this is all related.. that the reserved seating led to less crowds which led to less concession buying which led to theaters upping prices. It’s a theory. But it certainly seems to make sense. The price of going to see a movie sky rocketed. From the ten dollars or so that it used to be about ten years ago in New York (the exact price in each state is different, due to the cost of living, so let’s use New York as an example,) to the nee price of twenty dollars that is double what it used to be. Twenty dollars for one person. Just imagine going as a whole family.
In other words, one way that movie theaters lost us is with the pricing. Another way it with the lousy content. Like I said earlier, which such a slim selection of movies being released that are actually worth seeing in theaters, they need to give us something worth going for. And right now they aren’t doing that. Maybe the lack of content is a result of the actors strike from about two years ago. Either way, it is hurting the industry.
A third way, besides the pricing and content, is due to streaming. This goes back to the point about the pandemic, mentioned earlier. 2020 was a time when the world sort of shut down. Everybody quarantined at home. And movie theaters completely closed down. For a solid year all movies went right to streaming (other than Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, a movie he made theaters reopen for, only to find out that people weren’t ready to go back yet.) During that time, streaming networks completely took over. More and more popped up. And it became a new way of life. With the increase of streaming and movies released to streaming, people buffed up their home theaters. Suddenly people got a lot more comfortable watching movies at home. And this certainly set the theater going industry back.
Now, there have definitely been improvements made to theaters over the past decade or so as well, as all of these problems. A major improvement is the seating. Comfortable, reclining chairs now dominate many AMC theaters, for example. And that’s pretty fantastic. It definitely helps make theaters feel like a more relaxing place that actually can compete with ones living room. But perhaps the revamping of the seating led to an increase in prices too. In other words, for everything good (the reclining chairs, the reserved seating,) there were negative consequences that came out of it and these led to people going to the theaters less and less.
At the end of the day, the number one biggest problem Is the lack of content. If people want to go to theaters, and you don’t give them anything to see, then what are they going to do? The answer is not go. Back in the nineties (so thirty years ago,) every single weekend there was something new to see. That’s how much worthwhile content there was. Now, it’s every three months. This is definitely a problem.
So how do theaters get it back? That’s a really tough question. It’s not like theaters can stop releasing so much to streaming. Theaters don’t own streaming. It’s two different, competing places to show movies. That being said, movie studios generally decide where to release their movies, either in theaters or straight to streaming. So something can indeed be done about this, even if it is unlikely.
Another unlikely possibility is that theaters find a way to lower prices. They already do something like this, charging much less for earlier showtimes. That’s a supply and demand thing, since these showtimes are generally not in much demand. But if there’s a way to lower prices all around, it would make a difference.
I’m not going to suggest that theaters get rid of reserved seating. That’s one change that I think they can never walk back. People are used to it at this point, and it does make things a lot more convenient. But the price lowering would be great, and first and foremost, release more content. Which means make more content. And then put it into theaters. Let’s get back to having a few things worth seeing in theaters every month. Let’s get back to the excitement around seeing a movie in theaters. Let’s get back to the fin!