- [Helen] This video is brought to you by Honey.
(Playful music)
What's up guys, Helen here, now here at Wisecrack
we love our movie theaters.
The huge screens, the artery-clogging popcorn,
the neon 90s carpeting, and the warm welcome
from Maria Menounos.
- So now enjoy your first look.
- [Helen] But the prognosis for movie theaters lately
has been, uh,
- Not great, Bob.
- [Helen] Given the whole plague thing,
that might feel like a no-brainer,
but it turns out that these shortfalls have actually been
years in the making.
And no one seems quite sure
how to feel about the whole thing.
With folks like director James Gunn
championing the home movie experience,
while purists like Christopher Nolan,
basically threatening to burn the whole
damned place down if his movies aren't shown on a screen
the size of Time Square's M&M billboard.
So is it time to start planning cinema's funeral or have
rumors of its demise has been greatly exaggerated?
Let's find out in this Wisecrack edition,
are movie theaters dead?
Before we get into it, I want to give a shout out to
this week's sponsor, Honey.
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And now back to the show.
Now we all know movie theaters are suffering.
Ticket sales fell 80% in 2020, the lowest tally recorded
at the box office for nearly 40 years.
It's tempting to blame this entirely on the pandemic,
and it's true that there's not enough horse dewormer in the
world to keep cinemas from feeling
the effects of the Coronavirus.
Just kidding, please listen to the FDA.
But anyway, if you draw back the curtains
and look at the full picture,
it's clear that movie theaters
have actually been in trouble for a while.
2017 and 2019 were the worst box office years since 1995.
And that's back when the worst association most of us had
with Corona was a mediocre beer. Apologies to Dom Toretto.
And while cinemas have been declining,
a whopping 200 streaming services have also been fighting
for our eyes. Now for those of us who love movies,
the notion that our local Lowe's MC 7,000 draft house
might be empty by the time we're ready to return
is pretty galling.
We all have the sort of vivid movie going memories that
just can't be created anywhere else.
I mean, if movie theaters didn't exist,
then Tiffany Haddish, would've never had the life-altering
experience she had while gazing into Nick Cage's eyes.
- I was achieving a momentous moment that I had never
experienced in my life. I might open my eyes and the eyes
of Nicholas cage are looking into my eyes super big, right?
- [Helen] And that's just not a world I want to live in.
But are movie theaters really at death's door?
Because as it turns out, it wouldn't be the first time
we've heard that particular song.
- Play it once, Sam, for old time's sake.
- [Helen] Here's what film critic A.O. Scott had to say:
"The history of cinema is in part an anthology of premature
obituaries. Sound, color, television, the suburbs, the VCR,
the internet- they were all going to kill off movie going,
and none succeeded. Cultural forms and the social
and private rituals that sustain them have a way of
outlasting their funerals."
Basically, people get upset just about every time a new form
of media comes around. Solemnly declaring
that it's killing off the real art that they already had.
Socrates was famous, amongst philosophy nerds at least,
for denouncing this newfangled thing
called written language.
He believed that it would have a corrupting influence on
young minds who would no longer have to store every line of
every epic poem in their big, old, ancient brains.
And later on, after togas had gone out of fashion
and radios had come in, parents worried that the hip,
new sounds coming through the airwaves
would distract kids from their precious reading time.
We've even already had a dress rehearsal for
the great streaming versus cinemas debate.
When television first became popular,
it was fear that no one would bother leaving their house to
see a movie anymore. And theaters responded swiftly,
introducing gimmicks, like Smell-O-Vision and 3D
to try to entice viewers back, just as modern cinemas
are counting on IMAX screens and 4DX showings
to get people in the door.
But while this might not be a new fight, it's a fight
all the same, and shots have already been fired
in both directions.
See, major theater chains have traditionally insisted
upon an exclusive theatrical window of 90 days, because
the chance to see a film right away
is a big part of their sales pitch.
And they have defended this setup pretty vigorously
in the past.
You might remember major chains refusing to show films like
"The Irishman" because Netflix wouldn't give them
a clear run before making it available for streaming.
And in the past, streaming services and studios have mostly
just taken this on the chin in the manner of old Joe Pesci.
- It's what it is.
- [Helen] But more recently streaming and studio giants
have been taking a harder line against theater chains.
Universal shifted streaming rights for blockbuster films to
kick in after only 31 days in theaters,
with an even shorter theater-only window
for smaller releases.
And Disney's done a mix of premium streaming
and theatrical release.
Warner Media's decision to put all of its 2021 blockbusters
on HBO Max has seen Christopher Nolan brand it as
"the worst streaming service."
While Patty Jenkins said all the films that
streaming services are putting out "look like fake movies."
So it's safe to say that things have gotten a little tense.
And part of the reason for all this tension is that many
filmmakers genuinely believe that theatrical experience is
key to the movie they want audiences to see.
Like Denny Villeneuve, who made it clear
that he was not stoked about his epic
space worm drama, Dune, going straight to HBO max.
"The way it happened, I'm still not happy, frankly,
to watch Dune on a television, the best way I can
compare it is to drive a speedboat in your bathtub.
For me, it's ridiculous. It's a movie that has been made as
a tribute to the big-screen experience."
Plenty of film goers feel the same way too.
No matter how big your TV is, or how fancy a sound system
you're rocking, it can't compare to the scope and quality
of a theatrical viewing.
And that can make a big difference for
visual spectacles like Dune.
Not to mention the in cinema benefits of more accurate
aspect ratio, improved digital resolution,
or the simple joy of seeing a film
projected on actual film reels.
But it's also about more than screen size.
The thing that really makes movie going such a sacred
experience for cinephiles, is that it's a communal activity
that connects us with others,
even if we're mostly just sitting in silence.
As scholar John Mitry writes,
"Each individual audience member is alone, by himself,
looking at the world, presented to him.
Yet, this isolation does not separate the individual
from the group. He does not communicate with his fellows,
but he sees and feels with them. If not like them,
a kind of underlying connection is established between
audience members shut up within their own contemplation.
Communication exists at the level of
feelings and fascination."
It's why it's so satisfying to hear the laughter of a full
theater, or feel everyone collectively holding their breath
at the height of a horror scene.
What's more, seeing a film on the big screen,
arguably creates a stronger emotional relationship between
the viewer and the actors.
Indeed, when movie theaters first began showing dramatic
films, early audiences were captivated by the closeness
they felt to the new stars. Far more so than they
felt with theatrical performers.
As critic Stephanie Zacharek argues,
"Big faces are just more evocative
than those viewed on a small screen."
She writes, "Seen large, a great face is both map
and mirror, a key to our own emotions- to those we may have
buried or forgotten, but also perhaps
to those we haven't yet experienced.
I've often wondered if the faces of actors aren't one of
our best means for fostering empathy."
It seems possible that we feel a stronger relationship with
the character we saw on the big screen than with one we saw
on our 13-inch laptops while simultaneously
playing Candy Crush and doing laundry.
Still, not everyone is so sold on the importance
of seeing movies at the theater.
Director and man who absolutely should not be allowed
to tweet ever, James Gunn, was decidedly more laid back
about where people saw The Suicide Squad.
He argued that movies don't last because they're seen on the
big screen and used "Jaws" as an example.
There are now whole generations who have only ever caught it
on TV, and it seems to be doing just fine.
For Gunn, a good movie is a good movie,
no matter how you see it.
The content matters, not the medium.
And even for self-proclaimed film purists,
it's undeniable that streaming services have their benefits.
Convenience is obvious, cost matters too. After decades of
chronic wage stagnation, a night at the movies
just isn't nearly as affordable for
a lot of Americans as it used to be.
But streaming has also done a lot to make cinema more
broadly accessible in other ways.
From people with disabilities that make movie going
difficult or impossible, to those who live in smaller towns
with limited theatrical options,
the rise of Netflix and Co. can allow everyone to get in on
the zeitgeist at the same time.
And Hey, this sounds an awful lot like the sort of communal
connection building experience,
that movie theater lovers champion.
And with so many people physically, geographically,
or economically excluded from the movie world when
IRL theaters are the only option,
there's no denying that streaming services have done a lot
to democratize the world of cinema.
Still, we think there's hope for lovers of
Netflix and chilling and movie theaters alike because
the truth is that the current panic about cinemas
is likely to be another false death
knell, for the most part anyway.
After so long cooped up at home,
people are seriously missing the big shared social
experience the cinema offers. And once it's safe,
you'd expect them to jump at the opportunity.
And that's exactly what's happened in China. In January,
Chinese theaters set a new box office record for
New Year's Day by taking in 92 million dollars,
which was almost double the previous record.
And China's the world's biggest box office,
so Hollywood will likely be able to keep the lights on a
little while longer based on that alone.
And there's every reason to believe the industry will make
something like a full recovery in time.
The elite number nerds at PricewaterhouseCoopers,
you know, the people who mostly correctly hand out
the envelopes at the Oscars-
- This is not a joke. Moonlight has won Best Picture.
- [Helen] have even predicted that the worldwide
box office could hit something like
42 billion dollars in 2024. And that recovery will be
bolstered by the fact that many big chains are
making an even bigger effort to seduce film
watchers back into their arms by adding things like
digital concession ordering, private theater rentals,
and better loyalty programs.
Not to repeat ourselves, is there an echo in here,
But we've been here before too.
During the 1918 flu pandemic, Moving Picture World,
a major trade paper, recommended theaters
take advantage of their closures to apply soap and water,
fresh paint, and slick up a bit in order that theaters
may be fresh and cleaned to welcome back the crowds
who will surely flock back to theaters,
eager to be entertained.
Which seems like a pretty baseline standard for any public
gathering place, but we digress.
And it seems to have worked. Folks definitely flocked
back to the movies after the 1918 pandemic ended.
It turns out if you make cinemas nicer places to be,
people are more likely to go there.
So cinemas probably aren't going to die anytime soon.
Still, the pandemic and the changing world of entertainment
have recalibrated their place in society.
Rather than occupying the very center of our popular culture
as they did back in the days of "The Empire Strikes Back"
or even "The Phantom Menace", movie theaters are now
going to be widely accepted as one option among others
for watching a movie.
For some they'll still be the only true way to experience a
movie. For others, they'll remain a pricey, unnecessary,
or even unattainable alternative to watching a Netflix film
on the couch. And for plenty in the middle,
they'll be just one platform amongst a litany of choices
for when they feel like staring at a screen.
But what do you think Wisecrack,
are we on the brink of losing something sacred
or should Scorsese and his buddies
Netflix and chill the F out?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Thanks, as always, to our patrons for all your support.
Hit that like button like it's going out of business
and don't forget to ring the bell.
- And, as always, thanks for watching. Peace.