Is There A Future For Movie Theaters?

In March 2021, with the eruption of the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of lockdowns around the globe, the movie industry was forced to put on hold the production of multimillion movie projects. For most of 2020 to 2021, most cinemas worldwide were closed indefinitely due to fear from governmental authorities for wide spreading the virus. Simultaneously, the two biggest Hollywood studios, Disney and Warner Bros announced the launch of their streaming platforms, Disney+ and HBO Max respectively. For the first time movies would be released the same day to cinemas and On Demand.

The cinema theaters were in shock!

(The three dominant streaming platforms, HBO Max - Netflix, and Disney+)

Disney had already announced their plans for the launch of a streaming platform, after the historic acquisition of the Fox brand for 52 billion dollars.

For the second half of 2021 cinemas would have difficulties welcoming spectators in their buildings, as highly anticipated films, such as Dune and Halloween Kills would be available on streaming platforms simultaneously.

The nail in the coffin would seem to be the acquisition of the historic MGM studio, home of the James Bond franchise, by another streaming platform, Amazon Prime.

Then, in December of 2021, the latest Spiderman movie was released, and suddenly cinema owners felt that they were transported back to 2019. The film managed to surpass 1,8 billion dollars of ticket sales worldwide, making it the 6th highest-grossing movie of all time. A decisive role in the film’s success was that Sony decided to release it exclusively for cinemas.

On the other hand, Warner Bros decided to release during the same period the latest Matrix installment, simultaneously in cinemas and HBO Max streaming in order to attract more subscribers. The film though was proven to be a huge domestic flop and as a result forced Village Roadshow, co-producer of Matrix, to sue the latter for that decision.

Disney’s and Warner’s unprecedented failure to produce huge domestic success in 2021, forced them to announce a 45-day theatrical exclusive window for their new film releases.

Some things probably needed to remain the same.

The cinema industry remains in a very stale environment, yet the engagement between certain movie franchises and their audiences, as in the case of the Marvel Universe, is a reason for the industry to remain positive for the future.

After all, the audiovisual experience that movie theaters provide cannot be replaced.