You can’t replace the movie theater experience

It’s become customary for me to watch a movie every time I’m home. I’m happier in a movie theater than most other places, and I’d rather go watch something I know nothing about, or have zero interest in, than rot in bed at home watching Tung Tung Sahur TikToks.

Over spring break, I convinced a friend to tag along for a “Ready or Not 2” screening. I knew nothing about the movie — I still haven’t even seen the first one — but the trailers interested me, and I was due for a trip to the theater.

The audience filled less than half of our showing, which I simultaneously questioned and celebrated. The movie itself lived up to my expectations, but as we walked out of AMC, I thought back to the theater experiences I had growing up.

I remembered watching a “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” re-release with a packed crowd of people dressed in costumes and carrying lightsabers on a Tuesday night. I remembered the full house of screaming fans at an 8 a.m. showing of “Avengers: Endgame,” despite it being the third day it came out. I remembered how both times I went to see “The Meg,” there wasn’t an empty seat to be found, even though it had come out two weeks prior.

“Ready or Not 2” was in its fourth day of release, but an AMC in Metro Detroit didn’t draw more than half a theater on a Friday night. I can’t remember the last time I sat in a half-full theater, let alone a packed house. Even movies I’d consider blockbusters like “A Quiet Place 2,” “Thunderbolts” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” drew less than a Midweek MACtion Miami football game.

It’s not that the quality of movies has depleted: Films like “Oppenheimer,” “Sinners” and “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once,” among others, show that there is still quality in cinema. And every once in a while, people will flock in large numbers for certain movies, like when I saw “Superman.”

The fall in movie theater attendance can largely be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2019 was one of the best years in recent history for movies, highlighted by “Avengers: Endgame,” which grossed $2.79 billion, the second-highest-grossing film of all time. Eight other movies reached the billion-dollar mark that year.

Since 2020, only 11 movies total have grossed $1 billion.

When people were confined inside and restricted from socializing, streaming services became the standard for movie-enjoyers. Films like “Coming 2 America” and “Enola Holmes” had canceled theatrical releases and went instead to streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video or Hulu.

Late into the pandemic, companies adjusted their strategy and released films simultaneously in theaters and on streaming. Movies like “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story,” “Birds of Prey” and “Space Jam: A New Legacy” came out both in theaters and on a streaming service either on the same day or within one month.

For many, the realization that they could watch a newly released film from home for a fraction of the cost to go to the theater meant there was no going back. Studios took notice, and now, multiple movies each year speed up or outright skip the theatrical release and put their films straight to a streaming platform.

Recently, “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” starring Vince Vaughn and James Marsden, joined the list of movies that skipped the theatrical release. It went directly to Hulu and Disney+ on March 27.

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The benefits of going to a movie theater no longer outweigh the comfort, convenience and cost of watching a new release from home. Studios are using this to their advantage by skipping a costly theatrical release and extensive advertising in favor of a digital home release.

However, I’ll always be a traditionalist.

The experience watching “Avengers: Endgame” was less about the movie itself and more about the packed crowd of fans screaming their hearts out at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Hearing the opening notes of the main theme from “The Batman” with my friends during our senior year of high school allowed us to spend time together one last weekend before we moved away for college. Locking eyes with my younger brother when Tobey Maguire stepped onto the screen during “Spiderman: No Way Home” as everyone around us freaked out let us celebrate what the Spider-Man movies meant to us growing up.

Watching the same movie in a room full of strangers who have a similar appreciation for the art form as you makes the theater experience worthwhile. There’s nothing quite like sharing a common disappointment at “Batman v Superman” in 2016 with a bunch of other comic book nerds.

In an era where social “third places” aren’t as prevalent, I’ll always be a loyalist to the theater-going experience. Outside of the technologies found in movie theaters like IMAX and Dolby Atmos, the experience of taking a group of friends or family to watch a new movie in a theater with a bucket of popcorn and a crowd of people just as interested in what you’re watching can’t be replicated at home.

@kethanbabu_04

babukc2@miamioh.edu