Why do you go to the movies? Ask anyone and they will tell you it’s the magic, escape and romance of the theatrical experience. Dazzling images beamed straight into hearts and minds.
But that’s old hat, we’ve heard it for decades and it doesn’t give many clues to the contemporary decline in movie theater attendance.
So, a better question: why don’t you go to the theater? And, among Hollywood’s largest demographic, 18-34 year oldswhat keeps Chapman students away from — or coming back to — the silver screen?
“Everything has gotten more expensive, and that includes movie tickets,” said sophomore psychology and theatre double major Campbell Hicks.
As Napster did for the music industry, higher prices at major theater chains, as well as independent cinemas, is thanks to the proliferation of streaming services and video-sharing platforms. To account for the excess of entertainment outside of theaters, ticket prices have been raised and Hollywood studios have invested in the production of streaming and internet content.
“There’s a lot of media I can consume without having to go to the theater. It’s kind of rare that there’s a movie that comes out where I am fiending to see it,” senior theatre major Gabby Denny said.
Indeed, there is a question of quality, but is it really the movies themselves keeping seats empty?
“You could point to the culture of blockbuster filmmaking right now. A lot of people are getting tired of the same franchises that keep getting iterated on,” said senior film and media studies and philosophy double major Carol Liddle. “I think a lot of people fell out of the Marvel loop. There was a time where everybody was rushing to go see ‘Endgame,’ but now it feels way too drawn out.”
Beyond blockbusters, the quality of medium-budget filmmaking is also a concern for Liddle.
“The only things that we get are like random studio stuff that gets made like ‘She McKay,’ that screens for two weeks and then just sort of falls out of theaters and gets put on Disney+ or whatever,” she said. “And then the Marvel movies stay in theaters for like three months. There’s no in between.”
The theaters, then: monolithic, lonesome palaces of cinematic exhibition, built like art deco cathedrals for aliens to find and marvel at once humanity is long gone. Do they simply not cut it anymore?
“Post-COVID, there’s been a shift towards wanting to do things at home instead of going out. You talk about, like, the collapse of third spaces in general: cafes are seeing a lot less business, people are just wanting to do whatever they have to do at home,” said Liddle.
For Hicks, COVID also remains a major factor in the decline of theater attendance.
“I think, especially for our generation, there was a critical period where we were supposed to be in the theaters and experiencing that third space, but we were stuck inside,” she said.
Six years on from its start, the pandemic continues to quietly shape modern behaviors, especially media tastes and consumption habits.
“I think a lot of people now will be multitasking while watching movies,” said Hicks. “Lots of times, people play, like, a video game while watching a movie, and that’s pretty frowned upon in the movie theater.”
But if homes continue to become the dominant place for the enjoyment of movies, will theaters perish? Students are more optimistic than one may expect.
“I think for as long as movies exist, theaters are probably going to exist too,” said Liddle. “Studios are really making movies for the theater (and have) an incentive to keep theaters open, because seeing a movie like ‘Dune’ on a laptop is going to land a lot flatter than it will in a theater. So even just for pure financial reasons, I feel like they’re gonna be open for as long as the big studios are.”
In a world of smaller, individual screens, the grandeur and hyperbole of the movie theater remains an awesome spectacle, ensuring that movies will continue to be an art form of great cultural importance.
“I definitely think that there’s a lot of benefit to being in a theater. The movies that I’ve seen there, I definitely can’t experience them the same way when I watch at home because it’s very experiential. It’s a different environment,” said Denny. “It’s like theater: theater has been around since ancient Greece, and it’s still a thing, and it’s not gonna go away for a while, because even with modern technology, AI can’t replicate human performance.”
Regardless of what movie theaters will be like in a hundred years, students can agree that cinema’s relevance depends just as much on the habits of the moviegoing culture as on the larger machinations of the film industry.
“I think it will become more indie and it will become more underground. It’ll be something cool kids like to do, because it makes them cool,” said Hicks.
By and large, what gets people in theater seats is the social element, however muted it is by the darkened house lights and vow of silence.
“If a friend were to invite me to go see a movie next week? Absolutely. I would be in the theater. No questions asked,” said Hicks. “Maybe people are just spending more time in the dark, alone and they don’t want to go do it somewhere else.”