In light of the COVID-19 pandemic’s harsh impact on movie theaters worldwide, the question of whether such establishments may soon grow extinct has greatly loomed. What was once a cherished entertainment institution has gradually faded from relevance. Decreased attendance, a recovering film industry and increased dependence on streaming services as a form of distribution have each put a nail in the coffin for cinemas preparing to fade from their status as the premier location to experience new films.
While recent years have shown some success for big studio films, such cinematic tent poles have not fared quite as well as they did in the past. According to Box Office Mojo, nine of the ten highest grossing films in 2019 accumulated over at least $1 billion in box office revenue. “Avengers: Endgame,” the year’s most profitable release made a total of almost $3 billion. Since then, only two blockbusters, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Top Gun: Maverick” have succeeded in breaking the $1 billion barrier.
As box offices worldwide have begun to show lower returns, chains like Cineworld have been prompted to seek financial help in order to keep their businesses afloat. According to Deadline, the chain cited debts from purchasing Regal Cinemas and the pandemic’s effects on theater attendance as its reasoning for filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 7. Though it has since received financial aid and experienced a rise in shares, the notion of Cineworld’s financial struggles serves as a bad omen for cinemas entirely, thus raising into question what could become of other cinemas in the future.
Cinemas face another major hurdle as they compete with streaming services. Despite the existence of streaming-exclusive films prior to the pandemic, theaters’ temporary closure gave way for film distributors to further experiment with the idea of releasing more blockbusters straight-to-streaming. Such was the case through the Disney+ “Premier Access” model, as well as the seemingly endless barrage of original films being produced by studios exclusively for services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. As more original content is distributed directly to streaming services, audiences are being given an even greater reason to seek out new content from the convenience of their own homes, as opposed to making a trip to the theater.
While theaters may be far away from extinction, recent factors both extraneous and industry-related raise major red flags for their future. If it were not for the presence of large-scale studio blockbusters to help them continue to help keep business afloat, a lingering pandemic-era reluctance to travel to theaters and an ever-increasing desire to access entertainment on-demand could easily eliminate their purpose.
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