The Future of Cinema: Will Streaming Kill Movie Theaters?

The movie theater industry, now over a hundred years old, has been an inseparable part of the film industry since its dawn. Although previously the existence of movies without theaters might have seemed improbable, the rapid rise of streaming services over the past few years has given this notion some solid ground. Streaming services are being seen as an alternative to watching films in theaters, fueling speculation that they might one day render these theaters obsolete.

This concern became even more concrete during COVID-19 when all movie theaters remained closed due to lockdowns. People increasingly turned to streaming services and adapted to streaming movies on a regular basis; raising the question that will decide the future of the film industry: Will streaming platforms kill movie theaters?

The days are long gone when theaters were the only medium for watching movies. Studios can make just as much money from streaming services, and it is more convenient. A lot of studios have succumbed to the promptness, ease, and profit of such formats, but that is a very capitalistic way of viewing art.

Art is a freedom of expression that demands to be heard or seen in a certain setting to evoke a certain feeling. Seeing a Mark Rothko painting up front will make you realize the depth and intention in each brush stroke as opposed to seeing it on a screen that will just make it look like two color blocks.

This is why even though Christopher Nolan is often the subject of memes for having a very specific preferred spot to view his films (near the front, in the middle of the third row for cinemascope ratio, and slightly behind the centerline), the statement that it makes about the art of cinema is very commendable.

However, studios continue to release their movies in theaters not just for artistic reasons or to make money but also to gain bigger press coverage, more recognition, and, obviously, a wider audience. The box office collection of a film is still the most widely acknowledged criterion for measuring its success.

Movies released in theaters have a period called the “theatrical window” where they cannot be shown on any platform other than theaters for a specific number of days. The duration of this window is decided by negotiations between studios and theater chains. However, this window has been shrinking over the years much to the dismay of theater chains.

Before COVID, the window lasted 90 days, meaning studios could release their films on streaming platforms 90 days after their theatrical release. However, when COVID hit and theaters were forced to shut down, studios found an opportunity to release films in theaters and on streaming platforms on the same day. Studios had been wanting to do this for quite a few years. Releasing films on both platforms on the same day allows studios to earn more money from the day of release. However, this also means that fewer people will come to the theaters. Theater chains couldn’t protest this move during the lockdown because most theaters were close to shutting down anyway.

After the lockdown, however, theaters couldn’t let this continue as it would incur them a lot of loss. So, studios and theaters started negotiating. Most studios settled for a 45-day theatrical window, with only Universal Studios getting a 31-day window out of the deal.

This theatrical window exists partly because studios still need these theaters for their own benefit. Apart from making money, theaters help studios ‘eventize’ a film. It makes watching a film something bigger than just entertainment. Even though some people prefer watching a movie on a streaming platform on the day it is released, these movies might not have the same appeal to a wider audience as the movies that were released exclusively in theaters first. Seeing a film in a theater full of people makes one feel like a part of something grand, which does not happen when watching it sitting on a couch. This was very evident during the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon last year when the release of two blockbusters, Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day sent movie lovers into a frenzy as they went to watch these films in groups, dressing up according to the theme of the films. A similar thing happened after the release of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a concert film that essentially gave the audience a concert-like experience while watching the movie in theaters. This ‘theater experience’ is surely something that streaming platforms cannot provide.

However, this brings up the conversation on how films need to go above and beyond and spend profusely on marketing to get people to watch them in theaters. For commercial studio films, that might not be a problem, but for low-budget films where more focus is given to creating a compelling story and the art of filmmaking itself, it makes it hard for the films to even make the cost back when they are released in theaters. Hence, some studios are opting to release these films directly on streaming platforms, contributing to the growing obsolescence of theaters. However, because of the hype surrounding action-thrillers in the last decade, largely created by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, studios’ blind focus on making blockbusters eventually resulted in compromising the quality of the script, which has led to a shift in people’s mindset towards blockbusters; people have become fatigued of ‘meaningless’ high-budget films. We can hope that in the coming years, the tendency of people to watch lower-budget films in theaters will increase, further strengthening the theater chain structure.

Streaming platforms and studios might seem to have the upper hand from the shortened theatrical window but it has not affected theater chains as adversely as one might think. AMC, the largest movie theater chain in the US, nearly filed for bankruptcy during the lockdown. However, after COVID, it has been able to produce as much revenue with a shorter theatrical window as it did in the pre-COVID days. On top of that, Universal Studios has agreed to share a portion of its streaming revenue with theater chains in exchange for their shorter 31-day theatrical window.

This theater experience also explains why people refer to some films they might not have enjoyed watching at home but found enjoyable on a big screen because some movies are meant to be seen in theaters.

When Star Cineplex, the largest movie theater chain in Bangladesh, decided to permanently close its Bashundhara Shopping Mall branch during the lockdown, many people expressed their sadness because of the memories they had there, as that place was the first movie theater experience for many of us, despite other branches remaining open. Star Cineplex did not shut down that branch afterward because of this massive response. This shows us that movie theaters cannot only be defined by their purpose; they are tied to people’s memories. People’s love for movie theaters is not going to fade away anytime soon. They are a part of our social life that we are not yet ready to do without.

The end of movie theaters is not going to come anytime soon. But there are a lot of challenges they need to overcome to make a profit. One such way is creating unique experiences through marketing tactics and starting newer revenue streams if needed. For example, Star Cineplex is experimenting with expansion and variations in its food menu.

People in the West speculated the end of theaters when VHS came in the 80s and when DVDs came in the 90s. That did not happen, after all. So there is no reason to think that it will happen now in the face of the streaming platforms. It can also be the case that studios and streaming platforms are fueling the discourse on theaters going extinct to exert pressure on theater chains so that the latter can be forced into agreeing to contracts that favor studios and streaming platforms. Whatever the case, Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Entertainment, said it best, “There’s no reason why theaters can’t coexist with streaming. People all have kitchens in their houses, but they go out to eat in restaurants.”