I go to the movie theater almost every weekend. While some might say it’s an expensive hobby, there is nothing that brings me greater satisfaction than the silver screen. With a year of quarantine and the progression of streaming, movie theaters have lost some of their audiences–but they haven’t lost their magic.
According to the Museum of Science and Media, in 1891, the Edison company created a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which allowed one person at a time to view moving pictures. The Kinetoscope was presented publicly for the first time in 1893. Shortly after, in 1895, the Lumiere Brothers were the first to present moving pictures to an audience. The brothers used their own device called Cinématographe, which was a camera, a film projector and a printer all at once.
The first films created were short, maybe a couple of minutes long. People gathered at fairgrounds, music halls, or anywhere a screen could be established. By 1914, films were becoming longer and gaining popularity all over the world. By the 1930s and 1940s, cinema was the most popular form of entertainment; people often attended theaters twice a week.
Nobody knew what 2020 had in store, not only for America but movie theaters as well. Quarantine left people home-ridden for months, resulting in empty theater seats. According to the news site CNET, 2019 brought in 11.4 billion to the domestic box office, but in 2020, “as COVID-19 turned movie screens dark, the domestic box office plunged 80% to just $2.3 billion.” While theaters saw low numbers digital entertainment revenue climbed to $61.8 billion.
Theaters have tactics of getting people into seats, for example movie trailers. My mother can patiently wait months for a film to be put onto a streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime, but waiting allows for the momentum around the film to subside. Trailers are made to build excitement, to leave you with just enough information so your curiosity fills in the holes of the plot. Think about the movie rollouts we’ve seen in the past.
One of the most iconic of these is the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” rollouts last summer, when it seemed like the whole world was captivated by these films. The LA Times wrote that the combined release of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” helped make that weekend the highest grossing weekend since the beginning of the pandemic. Combined, the films made a grand total of $235.5 million, which makes it the fourth-highest grossing weekend at the box office ever.
“Barbenheimer” revived the theaters but also the souls of Americans all over the country. Theater-goers dressed in pink and seats filled with Cillian Murphy look-alikes sharing the immersive experience of both female empowerment and the atomic bomb.
Streaming offers something that theaters don’t; you can watch movies anywhere and anytime. Instead of driving to a theater and buying a ticket, it’s all at your fingertips. Additionally, there is an added cost to theaters. A Netflix subscription is $15.49 per month while a ticket at Lake Theater costs $7 per visit.
I’ll admit going to the theater costs money, especially to be going every weekend. But if you care about the art itself, you’ll see it in its purest form. Movies were not meant to be watched on miniscule screens. Movies were not meant to be paused every 10 minutes. Movies were supposed to be their own unique viewing experience; you can’t mimic that on an iPhone. You can’t crowd hundreds of people around an iPhone. You can’t hear the laughter or the gasps of moviegoers around you sharing the same emotions you are.
Netflix will always have a place in my home. It accompanies me for late night TV and the occasional rewatch. However, the theater will always have my heart. I’m sure the Lumiere Brothers would be pleased to see how far their little invention went.
Next time you see a movie trailer, take that extra step and buy a movie ticket. Get your popcorn, drown it in butter if you’d like, but just keep on going to the theater.
