Iris Murdoch once wrote, “The theater is an attack on mankind: to victimize an audience every night, to make them laugh and cry and suffer and miss their trains.” This excerpt is from her 1978 award-winning novel The Sea, The Sea that still captures why cinemas were created – to captivate audiences emotions and take them on a never-before-seen-journey.
For more than a century, movie theaters have served as a social gathering place, a place where you could consume an artist’s creativity and passion on full display on a big silver screen with impeccable sound. “Human beings evolve to tell stories for a reason. It is what makes us human. It is that we make art to tell stories about living as humans and learning from each other,”says Kelsey Morse, a theater teacher at Horizon High School.
However, for the last five years, a shift has occurred that was prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic that brought about the rise of streaming services. They are easy to access, cheaper than going to a theater, and allows viewing without leaving your own home.This was not an option for generations prior, for Gen. Z it was not just available but quite appealing. This is due primarily to Gen. Z’s decreased interest in socialization.
The article “Why Americans Stopped Hanging Out—and Why It Matters” written by Dereck Thompson of The Ringer cited research showing that from 2002–2022, face-to-face socializing reduced by 45%. This has had a noticeable effect on the box office. In 2019, the box office made $42.5 billion, but with COVID and streaming in 2020, it fell to $12.4 billion based on reports from Deadline. It rebounded in 2023, to $33.9 billion , but did drop again in 2024 to $30 billion as reported by Deadline.
This is very significant, as for the first time in years there’s a genuine concern of whether the box office could ever actually bounce back. If it didn’t, the question became: what would happen if streaming overtook it? It’s a lot more plausible than it seems.
A personal survey of 66 people, found most said that movie theaters cost over $30 per person per trip, and about 32% didn’t feel like it was worth it. Many also complained about poor sanitary conditions. When asked filmmaker Neal Betters, who’s worked with 50 projects over 28 years, warns that this kind of shift could disrupt the industry: it’s “ultimately going to have an effect on the entire industry.”
Colorado University filmmaker Jack Brown, who’s made 26 short films, states “ I want to make projects that are meant to be viewed in the theater because that is the most immersive way to experience a film.” He fears that if streaming wins, studios will begin to overlook original stories in favor of guaranteed franchises. ”If streaming overtook movie theaters, we would rarely see any original
Sawyer Brown, another Colorado University filmmaker offers a new perspective, saying “As a filmmaker, I intend for my films to be seen in theaters one day, but as of right now, at home for convenience for viewers.” He warned that streaming risks demoting films to background noise “The art of filmmaking will start to become unappreciated… instead of going to a special place to appreciate art.”
At the end of the day, theaters must change in order to survive. Whether that be to be more sanitary, lower prices, or whatever they have to do. For now the ball is in theaters’ court, and now we just have to sit back and see what they do with it.
