[LINK] Cinemas are dying

[Karl Schaffarczyk]

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> On 5/1/21 11:02 pm, Stephen Loosley wrote:
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> > 'There will be no more cinemas' ...
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> The cinema is an odd idea: you travel to a location and sit in a dark
> room with a lot of strangers, eat expensive popcorn and look at a video
> screen which is not effectively any larger than the one in your home.
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Yer, I think there's a bit more to it than that.

Cinemas have - in-general - survived home cinema setups, microwave popcorn,
Netflix and other streaming, YouTube, Video pirates, and even things like
their own failed efforts into 3d movies etc, etc

The 'romance' of cinema is first about, well, romance! it's a chance for
teens to hide in a darkened room away from parents and other authority
figures all while seemingly carrying on with an innocent activity. For the
less romantically inclined it's a getaway from the everyday - homes are
still close to the drudgery of cleaning dishes, screaming kids, washing
which needs to be pegged out.
Of course it's a great place to leave the heat behind on a hot summer's day.
In terms of the survivability of cinemas, I'd like to put forward that when
there's good movies, cinemas do well, and when there is more humdrum crud
on the screen, they do less well. Marketing budgets also have a big effect
here - eg marvel universe films.
The streaming argument is bunk - a few years back cinemas screened doctor
who at the same time as streamed on BBC iPlayer, ABC iView, etc etc
https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=the-day-of-the-doctor-to-be-shown-in-3d-in-cinemas-worldwide/#_
m
Yet it was still commercially viable. Why? fandom / content / communal
experience

Further to that, many cinemas screen really old movies. Limelight in
Tuggeranong in the ACT regularly screens nostalgic movies including Grease,
Dirty Dancing, and other sing-along classics.

Cinemas are still a long way off from being dead.


> Now add to this is the risk of contracting a deadly disease: why would
> you do that?
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Yet still people go to cricket, pubs, yacht clubs, and cinemas!


Karl