As media giants like Netflix, Disney, and Warner Media try to downgrade the moviegoing experience, it’s important to articulate how essential immersive theatrical watching is. When we watch a movie at home, or on an airplane, or on a treadmill at the gym, the movie is a small part of the environment. It’s easy to be distracted from the movie by everything else all around us, even if we have a giant wall-screen TV. When we watch a movie in a theater, the movie isn’t part of the environment; it is the environment. We’re enveloped in the movie and taken away from our humdrum existence.
Our humdrum existence! It's the big screen that makes us feel like the little people out there in the dark.
But even as theatrical moviegoing is more all-encompassing, it is also more social. At home, we watch a movie alone or with people we know. In a theater, we watch a movie with strangers, who are as immersed in the narrative as we are.
Except when they're not, which ruins the effect. Maybe we could get a virtual crowd to stream within our headset device. Make them perfect movie companions. Couldn't we have beautiful, witty partners sitting on either side of us, whispering perfectly apt comments and learning our sense of humor and our comfort with interruptions?
When a comedian like Jim Carrey does a pratfall, the laughter in the crowd is infectious. When the romantic couple finally unites and kisses after endless complications, everyone watching can swoon in unison....
Yeah, that can be virtual, with an audience calibrated to my humor preference and sentimentality. I might want a more sophisticated crowd — with a few really smart hecklers.
[T]he film critic Johanna Schneller observed that “there is a collective emotional energy that floats above the people who are watching movies.”...
Yeah, this is The Nation, so I'm not surprised to encounter enthusiasm for the "collective" mind floating over us.
The streaming future that these media giants are creating is very much a future that is favorable to capitalism: a deeply privatized, fragmented world where everyone watches in their own individual cave and is incapable of forming a collective identity. It’s the ideal autocracy as imagined by Plato—with Mickey Mouse as the philosopher king....
Here's a little movie about Plato's allegory of the cave. Let me know if you see any connection between that and the author's hope for "collective identity" and the practice of seeing movies in the theater:
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68 comments:
Mystery Science Theater 3000 always seemed like a good compromise to me.
Movie Theaters as Church tag.
I've paid to watch a movie in an empty theater. I really don't think the streaming model is going to work.
In a sense, this represents a major mask falling. The studios see an opportunity to keep even more money, so of course they took it. What it means is that the theatres will become increasingly worthless, and everyone who relied on them will be out of a job. On top of the rage normal Californians feel as the industry is conveniently "exempted" from their jobs, the Democrats are really doing their best to make formerly reliable pieces of their empire hate them with a burning passion. Which means that the centralized wealth will likely be looted as the Morlocks fall upon the ultra-rich with vicious intensity.
How marvelous.
I'm OK with being alone in my house watching a movie, but I'd like to have a gigantic room (and screen) in which to do it.
No more crinkly candy wrappers, phone screens, etc.
If I ever do move, I will make it a point to argue may case as my wife is OK with a 50" screen.
Most memorable audience participation, at Terms of Endearment: at the max of the death scene, guy walked down the aisle, belched real loud, and walked out via the front exit. Real loud.
Media Giants are +$1B since pandemic. Then there's this... https://outline.com/D7tA8H
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/12/06/george-soros-appoints-chair-of-smartmatic-parent-company-to-lead-open-society-foundations/
Wrap it up, I'll take it!
"No more crinkly candy wrappers, phone screens, etc."
On the other hand, go see a movie in Japan.
You will think you're the only one in the theatre, and they are spotless.
At the end, everybody takes out their trays and trash and hands them to the people waiting with garbage/recycle cans.
And they bow to you as you leave : )
+$1B EACH! Not to mention NYT & WAPO.
Now the Big Screen (Smart TV) watches you!
Rory,
My favorite movie theater moment--thankfully as the credits were rolling and we were starting to walk out--was at Fellowship of the Ring where a couple was a few paces ahead of us and one turned to the other and said, "That was kind of a weird ending."
1984 Will you let it come?... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxlhToVMfbQ
I'm sure there were critics who said similar things about the irreplaceable social importance of the live stage, when movies first came along, and again about movies when TV first came to people's homes. The movie theaters are just another vehicle for extracting consumer cash, and that's all.
I feel more immersed in the movie when I am in a theater. Same movie at home seems more superficial and prone to distractions and familiarity.
A virtual audience? MST3000K already did that, providing the true movie theater experience.
Haven't been to a movie theater in many years. So many in fact I can't remember how many. Two reasons for it:
1) Quality of movies has been abysmal for a very long time. None has been compelling enough to make it worth the cost and inconvenience of going to a theater.
2) The movie-going experience was increasingly unpleasant. Rudeness reached an intolerable level. Talking loudly, leaving "mobile devices" turned on during the show, unsupervised squirrely kids, among others.
Thus no incentive to go to movie theaters. The author was right, other options for watching movies don't satisfy the "movie theater experience". That leaves the cinema art form in limbo.
Well, maybe the movie experience could be revived if "political correctness" dies allowing movies to rise again as a true art form, and etiquette is again routinely taught in schools.
Who am I kidding, none of that will ever happen. Film is a dead, let it rest in peace.
I like movie theater popcorn but otherwise can't think of anything I'd miss if they went away.
With 4K and home surround I don't miss the theater experience...and I was a hard core theater goer.
They probably want to herd us into theaters for the same reason they want to herd us into trains.
it's a ridiculous tradeoff, warner has lost 600 million, fox has lost a little less, disney, can't make up such a huge fall off,
When we watch a movie in a theater, the movie isn’t part of the environment; it is the environment. We’re enveloped in the movie and taken away from our humdrum existence.
Pee Wee Herman could not be reached for comment...
I like movie theater popcorn but otherwise can't think of anything I'd miss if they went away.
Flavacol, butter flavored coconut oil, just poppin' movie theater corn*, whirley pop popcorn popper. Available thru the Amazon portal...
* The just poppin' matriarch passed away unfortunately. If you find out where their corn went let me know...
"incapable of forming a collective identity"
I call BS. People already watch and comment in virtual pods. Gamers are already strong on collective identity.
Two big advantages to streaming: 1. no popcorn -- or in general, the enfer of the autres, if you catch my Sartrean drift; and 2. as previously noted by Althouse, you can stop the show.
When they announced that Wonder Woman would be going straight to HBO Max, this couplet came to me:
Wonder Woman on HBO Max
Time to face the bare facts
I tried to turn it into a whole parody, but I was supposed to be actually working, so this is as far as I got:
A long, long time ago
I can still remember how the movies used to be for real
And I knew if I had a date
After dinner it was fate
In the back row maybe I could cop a feel
But the Covid made us shiver
Social Distance drove us hither
Bad news with each last cough
I could not take my mask off.
I can't remember if I cried
When I heard about the virus tide
But something touched me deep inside
The day the movies died
But anyway, the point was: This is huge.
If movies go direct to streaming, then the movie is free on the Inter net the next day. How are you going to finace an "Endgame" level blockbuster on just monthly HBO Max fees, when many won't even see the need to pay those?
One youtube commenter made the point that even if the next Dune is great, they will never be able to fund a sequel. Not something down the Althouse alley, to be sure, but I was kind of looking forward to it..
How are you going to finace an "Endgame" level blockbuster on just monthly HBO Max fees, when many won't even see the need to pay those?
Same way we'll fund everything else- Modern Monetary Theory. So long as the script is government approved...
Anything that kneecaps Hollywood is fine by me.
My last movie theater film was Deep Throat. Gf asked to go. The movie theater experience was felt to be dangerous to her being alone apparently.
Yeah. I really miss the sticky floors, people talking, phones going off, the seats with the
damned cupholder, and the tubercular hacking a couple rows back....
With 4K and home surround I don't miss the theater experience...and I was a hard core theater goer.
that is SO turn of the century! Big Screens and Big Sounds.... folk are NOT into that anymore
Now, it's a 7 inch phone, with mp3 ear buds....
And the movie companies Wonder why no one is interested in their crap anymore
Modern cineplexes aren't much better.
With 8 screens, each screen (and sound) is about the size of rehajm's home screen.
You folk are old enough to remember back when Theaters had Truly BIG Screens
I remember when Des Moines closed their last one (2014?). I used to drive the 37 miles from Ames just to watch shows there.
"My last movie theater film was Deep Throat. Gf asked to go. The movie theater experience was felt to be dangerous to her being alone apparently."
So did it end up being a tutorial or just a tease? : )
"With 8 screens, each screen (and sound) is about the size of rehajm's home screen."
Back in the day there would be 3 or 4 screens. You could buy a single $5 ticket and stay all day...
Pre-covid, my wife and I went to the movies in a theatre, maybe, six times a year. We watched that many movies on TV (mostly on Turner Classic Movies) in a typical month. Ask me in a year whether the end of covid brings us back to the theatres. There just aren't that many movies being announced that we give a rat's *ss about, wherever they show them.
I have never cared about the "movie theater experience." In my youth that's where you had to go to see a movie. As I have gotten older technology improved and now I can see movies from the convenience of my home, pausing them as needed to use the restroom or fetch a drink or snack. As far as I'm concerned, watching movies at home is the superior experience.
Ann the cynic.
It doesn't matter if every theater experience isn't perfect and magical. It does matter that the industry, like the mom and pop diner or bar, is being actively strangled by people that don't give each shit about preserving social traditions if it interferes with their profits or the new power they have used a virus to acquire.
It's a moot point. The media giants aren't creating anything worthy of a communal theater visit.
And as Althouse has recently seen, the stuff on Netflix can't keep her entertained for 5 minutes. Their fortune is like the rising stock market...a result of easy money provided by government, not any inherent value. A misallocation of resources.
Back in the early '80s before VCRs were cheap enough to be very common, there was a video rental store in town that had booths, some small for couples, some big enough for a small family. A rented movie could then be watched in a rented booth. Popcorn, snacks, soda etc. were available. Nothing skeezy,it was family oriented or date night out vibe. I think it was less than $10.
There is nothing like 2001: A Space Odyssey in the theater. Some movies are completely different movies on the big screen.
When the house lights went on after a showing of The Lighthouse, the crowd began to slowly get up and then attempt to slink to the exits, as if we were in a circa 70s Time Square porno palace. I heard more than one "what ... the ... fuck?"
I've gotten used to streaming. During the lockdown, I have not missed the movies at all. Lady friend insisted on taking me to our first movie since DeSantis freed us -- Let Him Go. It was pretty good in parts, a B-, but certainly something I could have easily watched at home
When each newspaper and each movie studio shuts down and goes out of business, I feel elated.
Too bad for some of the unemployed, but they hitched their wagon to some of the worst people in the world.
Going to movies will be huge post Covid. People will never want to go home again. Shopping, Dining, movies, drinks and dancing. Travel, adventure, cruises. It's going to be off the hook.
You people can be depressing, you know that.
You folk are old enough to remember back when Theaters had Truly BIG Screens
I remember when Des Moines closed their last one
the one in Des Moines, was so big, that you couldn't see the whole screen without moving your eyes. It was Awesome. A space epic was Worth the drive down there to it
"There is nothing like 2001: A Space Odyssey in the theater. Some movies are completely different movies on the big screen."
Saw it when it first came out and I was but a lad. Loved it then as now.
It was a ginormous screen that took up the entire dome...
Saw 'Alien' in the same dome years later and I was the only one in the theater. It was very good...
"Going to movies will be huge post Covid. People will never want to go home again. Shopping, Dining, movies, drinks and dancing. Travel, adventure, cruises. It's going to be off the hook."
You would think...but not if the theaters have all gone broke by then and they're boarded up.
Besides, the studios are abandoning the 3- or 6-month theater exclusive model they used to have.
They are betting that they can make more money cutting out the middle man by going direct-to-consumer via streaming.
Some theaters will survive, but many will die.
https://www.vulture.com/2020/12/panic-over-the-warner-bros-hbo-max-news-sets-in.html
Wife and I saw the movie "Z" in a small theater (maybe 25-30 seats/screen) in Georgetown in '69/'70. Nice experience,so-so movie. Always wondered how long that theater stayed in business.
There are certain movies I very much prefer to see on the big screen. 2001 was mentioned but any movie that is big visually ("Saving Private Ryan", "Lawrence of Arabia"). Was looking forward to seeing the new "Dune" on the big screen, with the big sound.
RomComs, Dramas, etc. are not worth the effort to go to a theater. Mrs. stevew and I especially like a mid to late afternoon showing followed by dinner out.
Most people I know are looking forward to getting out, to do anything. As for movie theaters shutting down, if there is enough demand they will come back.
Joe: Sure, I didn't say some theaters wouldn't take a haircut. However, it's not very hard to remove plywood unless it's in Madison, Seattle or Portland. Demand drives supply. Buy low sell high. YMMV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MYrlooqnqw
There is already ways to socialize and watch movies with your friends and strangers. I never knew till yesterday. My grand daughter asked for vr head set for Christmas. While researching I ran across this video. The app is called bigscreen. I have not used it.
I am certain that many will agree, that the theatrical experience can be singularly amazing and surprising when the audience reacts as one.
Does no one care about the death of live theater?
There is no good reason to simply abandon these cultural institutions which extend from the very beginning of Western civilization.
“Home theater” is fine enough, but we are killing something important and getting less than nothing in return.
-willie
Most of these films from Massive Media conglomerates are shown by massive chain theaters. Disney isn't showing its films in "Joe's Neighborhood Movie theater". Who cares if "Century" or the other massive theater chain goes out of business.
but of course, they will not go out of business. There are certain blockbuster films, usually action/comic book movies) that have to be seen on a big screen.
As for movie audiences. I'd say 1 out of 10 movies i've seen had an intelligent audience that laughed at the good jokes and applauded at a particularly good scene. The other 9 nine times, its some annoying character coughing through the film, or constantly getting up to go the bathroom or get popcorn or talking. Or if not that, the audience will laugh at the stupidest things. Oh, that child said "fuck" - hahaha, oh that old guy farted at a dinner party - hahaha.
This is the biggest leap of logic I've seen in a while. As if standing in line, overpriced snacks, missing segments of the film due to bathroom visits, not being able to see over the person in front (frequent when you are as short as I am), and the overall rudeness of people were not enough reason to bail on movie going. Oh no...its The Man.
FFS. And to think I took The Nation seriously in my idealistic youth.
I remember when it took years, and was an event, when a blockbuster theatrical movie was played on TV.
That was reduced to mere months by 20 years ago, and has been getting shorter since then. It was inevitable "simultaneous release" would be something attempted with the advent of streaming; Wuhan-19 merely accelerated (out of necessity) the timeline.
I hope movie theaters will thrive in the future, but it will mean a change in the business case for theaters and between them and the studios.
"My last movie theater film was Deep Throat. Gf asked to go. The movie theater experience was felt to be dangerous to her being alone apparently."
So did it end up being a tutorial or just a tease? : )
Indifference reigned all around.
What happened to all those vaudevillians who learned a few dance steps or how to juggle while rollerskating? They were replaced by a few movie stars. I guess the antiquated performers learned how to operate movie cameras or projectors. Maybe they used their outgoing personalities to sell real estate or marry well. Anyway life went on....I suppose theaters will have a rebound. Movies are an affordable date for a kid with a part time job. They serve a function for a part of the populace. I think they long ago stopped being THE mass medium. Not as dead as vaudeville or epic poetry, but a little moribund. They'll probably hang on for another generation or two. It will be a lingering but graceful death.....My sympathies are with the gym owners and their employees. Some of those trainers devoted their life to developing not just their bodies but in learning how to develop bodies. Live theaters used to close down during plague years, but they always re-opened. Nothing like this has ever happened to gyms. It might be an extinction event. Maybe not, but, for sure, they will do reduced business.
My 92 yr old aunt used to tell of going to the movies at the neighborhood theater. And how once they got TV she commented to her homebody husband, "I'm never going to get to go to the movie theater again". And that was mostly true.
But this streaming over in-theater is another elite distinction. The well-housed, home theater crowd will enjoy streaming, but going to the movies used to and likely still would be an escape from the small apartment/poor home life crowd. I know I used going to the movies as a respite when I would be new to a location after a transfer. And after Katrina, a fairly new multiplex that was on the north side of Hwy 10 in Mississippi, thus unflooded and with power, did a land office business as people sought a short few hours escape from their disaster blighted living conditions.
Independent theaters may be able to adapt with non-Hollywood fare if they market it right. Perhaps as showing massive multi-drone footage to take people away as they socialize? Movies were never good for socializing (during)
"Joe: Sure, I didn't say some theaters wouldn't take a haircut. However, it's not very hard to remove plywood unless it's in Madison, Seattle or Portland. Demand drives supply. Buy low sell high. YMMV"
More than a 'haircut.' Broke, as in out of business, along with all of the jobs associated with those theaters.
"Buy low sell high." Yes, and those properties will be sold and either turned into something else or flattened.
Hot tip: I suggest you buy lots of stocks in companies that own indoor malls. That Amazon thing is just a fad.
Thanks Joe!
I'm not sure "Jaws" or "Alien" would be nearly the same at home as on a big screen with a couple hundred other people. Then again, if those movies were made today, they'd be fucked over with so much PC crap they wouldn't be worth the trouble to stream, let alone go see them.
I grew up in a time when every child was expected to learn a musical instrument. We were kinda poor, as if that even exists in America, but we had an upright Piano in the living room. My sisters were schooled in playing it. I got a clarinet. WTF. A clarinet? It wasn't rented. It was bought and paid for! Dad liked the Big Band thing. My Dad worked 6 days a week. He had tea in the morning at 7:30a. Not coffee. Worked until dark. He bought a Piano and a clarinet for his kids. On Saturdays he swung by the house at 4pm to pick me up so I could go and 'help' him with the last jobs. Starting at 8 years old, I was an apprentice Carpenter. (I wasn't much help) but by 16 I was a Carpenter.
Ann. You grew up then. Did you have a musical instrument. I wanted a guitar or drums, but I was born just a little before that was acceptable. Got a clarinet, though.
Lower middle Class. Mom sometimes hid from the milkman when he came to collect, but we had a f'n Piano, and a f'n clarinet.
---Our humdrum existence! It's the big screen that makes us feel like the little people out there in the dark. [AA]
Does it? Or do we identify with those larger-than-life figures up on that screen, stuck in a reality we can see very clearly in every shot?
The latter, I think. Movies in the theater enhance the art, magnify the experience, and cause us (when it has ended) to reawaken back to those others in the same crowd as us. We have all shared a big experience and been, at least in some small way, changed by it. Changed for the the hour and a half, at least; more likely for the day, in some cases for the week, or, in the rarest cases, for longer.
It's not just the big screen...
Gigantic speakers and surround sound make a big difference too.
"I might want a more sophisticated crowd — with a few really smart hecklers."
What you'll get is that guy on the laugh track with the really weird laugh that goes on after everybody else has stopped. There is a little bit of artificial intelligence being developed, but mostly its artificial stupidity. It's at least as stupid as the real thing, and a lot cheaper.
This thread is a bunch of folks in their 60's discussing how a bunch of twenty-somethings will get their entertainment in the future.
We don't have a clue. I wouldn't be surprised if all they watch is Tik-Toks on their phone, with no patience for anything more involving.
This guy in his 60's sad. Tried to see a film the last night before covid lockdown but misremembered start time and hate to enter after feature has started. It was a cheap second run theater but I still prefer such an experience to my nice flat screen.
Bunkypotatohead said..."I wouldn't be surprised if all they watch is Tik-Toks on their phone, with no patience for anything more involving."
Coincidentally, I said something similar this weekend about my 50-something self. GF and I were trying to find something to watch on Netflix, Prime, and elsewhere, and nothing was grabbing us. It's also been years since either of us saw a movie in a theater, for any of a number of reasons already cited by other commenters. We ended up bouncing around some YouTube videos and other short forms of entertainment. We even spent some time talking with each other. Crazy, I know.
If the market doesn't support movie theaters, it means people don't want them at the price they are charging.
It's been prohibitively expensive to go to the movies for family entertainment for a long time. I suspect soaking single people is not working out, either.
It would help if the studios actually made movies worth watching on the big screen, or at all for that matter. I truly cannot remember the last time I was in a theatre -- fifteen years ago probably. I've not had a television in many decades, and I've never streamed a thing.
The content is so very rarely any good that I longer even bother attempting to discover something good in the mountain of dreck.
Some people prefer physical books. Mostly old people and librarians. The youth, and non-librarians, go for ebooks and, more likely, audio books. Podcasts for current events.
The AMC movie chain which is the big one in my area is mostly owned by a Chinese conglomerate , Wanda Group. When I happened to find that out, even pre Covid, I didn't feel real interested in supporting their investment.
Like many commenters on this post, I have not been to a movie theater for at least ten years. The experience sucks due to sitting with noisy and intrusive strangers for 2 or more hours, not being able to visit the restroom or smoke without the risk of missing an important scene, and the cost is very high if you go in the evening (like ten dollars a ticket or more, plus the overpriced snacks). My husband and I, primitives that we are, watch movies on our laptops. We don't even watch them on our TV's because we don't smoke in the parts of the house where the TV's are.
The only reason I can think of to go to a movie theatre is for 3D movies, which I don't benefit from anyway due to having double vision and very poor depth perception. My older son and his wife liked the comic book character superhero movies but I am not a fan of those. I think the last movie I saw that was worth a big screen was "Out of Africa". And with Hollywood insisting that every movie be "multicultural" including random female and BIPOC characters let me just say "no thanks".
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