Screenwriting : Modern cinema by Nadir Akhmerov

My crystal ball is a bit hazy but do I think cinemas (what I call movie houses) can disappear? Yes I think they can but I seriously doubt that they will. I anticipate the revival of the Coffee House and the Art Houses as humans need that social gathering (in a post pandemic era). I'm pretty sure that retreating into your isolated self imposed environment is not healthy for the human animal. We need a gathering place.

I think cinema will exist as a night out of the house and a teenage escape. Streamers have a longer “return on investment” window. Theatrical exhibition is a “get as much now as you can” deal. There is a tail, but less profitable with the death of DVD.

So cinema will evolve. It is no longer the only game in town. Hence the studios releasing their own streaming services.

I think cinemas are on their way out. There are so many options for viewing movies that the idea of sitting in a facility full of the usual nut-jobs with their whispers, phone obsessions, chair kicking, and general wrapper crackling is the least appealing option to me. It's cool to have the enormous screen and booming sound, but the price combined with the annoyances (and risks) will always be an anchor dragging the cinema industry down. Cinemas will go the way of any quaint, old-fashioned pass-times. Drive-ins might make a come-back, due to the hipster appeal, but the industry has already moved toward combined theatrical/at-home releases. Soon, all the hype and marketing will be devoted to on-demand in-home releases (with higher prices during the first week of release for those who buy into the hype). A few places might survive due to the nostalgia factor, and there will always be room for the movie-theater/bar combo, but the overall trend I see is that old-school cinemas will fade.

I think the cinema will change, maybe not disappear. Once covid goes away, people are by nature very social creatures. So the need to go out will prevail and spark, people to do more than before, the film industry has suffered from this type of virus back in 1910 and the cinema survived it. since the French and the american Eastman companies of the 1800s.

The cinema industry has been around it has survived, in addition. the need for humans to tell stories, is (cat nip), so cinema or some form of communal (Metaverse), social space will continue for thousands of years. It has since Roman Times when Aristotle's poetics, over 2,000-4,000 years ago, and it will continue, in another form as long as the human race is on earth or alive.

With everything being everywhere and available all the time, I am seeing a budding trend towards making things more exclusive and elusive. NFTs are part of that, but it is also seeping into marketing, with some luxury brands stepping back from social media, for example.

So I have a feeling that there is a future for small films as well, but perhaps distributed and marketed a different way. Pop-up cinemas by invitation or subscription maybe, and also ways of viewing/marketing that play up the social aspect, as @Richard pointed out. Perhaps pairing a film viewing with a dinner or a wine tasting etc.

I hope not. Some of my best memories are seeing audience reactions. I think the new Spider Man film is a great example of the resurgence of the theatre industry, but tbh it's too little too late. I tend to agree with Christina's view. Most likely a more privatized and intimate theatre experience will survive.

I think the mistake a lot of people make with this topic is that they tend to talk as if all movie theatre experiences are equal when that couldn't be further from the truth. Many people take a night out away from the TV to be met with long queues, expensive food, cramped seating, problematic audience members, and terrible picture quality.

There's a reason most customers are teenagers. It's because they've got no better places to hangout.

Wait until more people get into VR too. Watching a movie in a virtual theatre is the most intimate viewing experience you'll get with the option to have your friends log-in and sit with you.

For the industry to compete, it's going to have to be better than getting up off the couch and that means being able to sit comfortably with high quality food and drink in an environment that feels policed and offers the kind of sound and visuals a home cinema could never compete with.

When people stop being afraid...or better, when they allow us to stop...