Entertainment industry has seen a significant shift in how people consume movies in recent years. Traditional movie theatres face a stiff competition with the rise over online streaming platforms Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney plus etc. While theatres have been going to place for movie enthusiasts for decades, Online streaming vs theatre have disrupted the industry by offering a more convenient, affordable and personalized movie viewing experience.
In this context it’s worth exploring online streaming vs theatre’s comparison, challenge and benefits to analyze their impact on the film industry to understand the potential future of movies. Online streaming apps have revolutionized how people watch movies, tv shows, and other digital content. However, in this massive competition Movie theatres has not lost its charm what’s the reason? Many people responded that, one cannot match the experience and big screen while some are just couch potato but maximum people prefer theatres.
While asking John Plantus, Prof of Communications and Film Productions about his choice, he said that “It depends on Movie, which movie it is, I have gotten to a point where I got so many options in online streaming where it was difficult to motivate oneself to get out of the house and go to the theatre. And almost after 3 years I went to the theatre to watch a movie which is kind of shame because one cannot get the experience like theatre at home.”
He also said the reason behind why often people choose theatre, “one of the things I love about going to movie theatre is it’s a very a communal experience, movies are very different when watching them with group of people rather than watching it alone at home. But the smaller or independent movies that seems serious in nature but have humor but you don’t get that sense of humor if you’re watching it alone, you need that permission form the audience when something is funny to laugh or horror movies, there’s something is experiencing people’s reactions, like there’s a shared emotions in a theatre you just can’t get at home.”
According to reports, during pandemic, theatres have suffered a lot. In 2020 AMC lost 44.5 billion and both Cinemark and AMC had to close all their theatres. Post-pandemic, according to some surveys, only 41% of adults are interested in the movie theatres. whereas, in 2021 the number of online streaming boosted from 26% to 78% i.e., 78% of consumers having at least one streaming app.
He also stated some points about the difference between shooting for movie or series, which are being shot for the streaming services are getting lot of talent in front and behind the camera which reflect the type of movie, directors, scripts, which, one cannot see in the theatre anymore, they have lots of freedom on what they can do on streaming services as they are not behold on to the money-making producers and studio regulations and the major reason. People like watching online streaming, is because the kind of work one wants to see is not available at theatre anymore but also there is lots of creativity and experimentation in streaming services and lots of quality production that we are not seeing in theatrical release
There are some main demographics John mentioned which will carry on the movie theatre first is ‘families’ whenever you see a release of an animated movie like the buzz light future or Disney those movies tend to be big openers as that’s what families do as there are not lots of activities something that a family of four-five they can all go together by enlarge.
Lots of teenagers are still going at the movies I mean you’re too young to go to the bars or dancing but lots of the movies that are being released in the theater like DC or Marvels they have lots of appeal to the teenagers and can’t ignore the fact that lots of our theatres are in mall so whenever you are out for shopping, so you have always had something to do something to watch and I think that every so often.
Commenting upon the future he said, “There was time when I was growing up there were many theatres around street malls or shopping malls and movie sales was down during that time due to rise in CDs and DVD cables and what theatre did to gain success again was
remodeling it and then theatres opened up in silver city’s and cineplex opened up they were really big theatres with varieties of facilities available like food, video games etc…the ideas behind this strategy where they wanted to make the movies an experience again! And we do want to see how theatre evolve in the future.”
Talking about the major factors affecting the theatres the first one would be Cost, people can get stuff free at home where as here they charge, people are paying so much for tickets and food and are underwhelmed for what they see on screen will be less incentive for us to go back to theatre those are the big factors affecting the theaters.
John believes web-series could be one affecting factor, “Yes that’s likely true, if I am watching a movie at home I am likely to think like I don’t know if I want to commit to a three hours long movie right now, I’ll just watch a show and then ill watch episode after episode as it has guarantee of higher quality because we have so much streaming web series right now, I think I am still taking a gamble to watch movies right now, movies has become bloated in length like its hard to find a movie which is less than two hours long where as it was not long where they made time length to 90 minutes which is much more comfortable.”
However, theatre have evolved much in 10 years for instance, providing 3D, reclining and comfy seats bring a bit of the home to theatre too and VIPs (meals) people will bring your food to your seat and pre booking your seat which makes theatre more welcoming. John added a new angle to this story that is Virtual Reality, “I wouldn’t be surprised if virtual reality was more incorporated into our daily lives, I think that there is probably a way to create a cinematic virtual reality experience, and I wouldn’t be surprise if technical and experimental film makers like James Camron try to adopt that or work with it, its like being into the movie then watching the movie so that’s really having an impact on movies in the future.”
Even online streaming are facing lots of challenge as there are lots of illegal sites from where you can download the movies for free so as of now there is no proper answer to this what will happen in future as this is unpredictable, but the future of movies will likely involve a combination of both formats, catering to different types of movie enthusiasts.
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