When it seems that movie theaters are trying to take a deep breath and breathe, especially as they see the streaming crisis looming in the distance, the experts speak up. And although there is a certain optimism, the industry is not so clear that cinemas can survive in a situation like the current one. There is something that must happen and that will be the only thing that can save the big screen.
Cinemas, no matter how difficult the situation gets, there will always be. It would be strange if we found ourselves in a world where movie theaters have closed entirely. But what worries experts is that cinema will end up becoming a niche hobby, something that only those in love with this practice do and not just any type of person. If that happens after so many decades of being a standardized hobby, it would be something that would be lamented throughout the world.
The situation can be improved
This year 2024 is not having bad results for the box office, but the global forecasts are that the figures will remain a little behind those obtained last year. And that is something that is surprising, since the general thought among the most optimistic indicated that what would happen would be different. It was thought that the improvement would be gradual and that, year after year, the numbers would increase. Unfortunately, the problem of cinema is still valid and there does not seem to be a solution at hand.
For movie theaters or even small independent theaters that are still surviving, that’s a problem. There are some large chains that are exploring the sale option because they see that recovering the figures of the past is an impossible mission. In other cases, they are crossing their fingers that the situation will take a radical turn and recover a panorama more similar to that of before 2019. But, for that to happen, two things have to happen.
There is only one solution
The first of those two things is that streaming continues to decline. This is something that is happening and it does not seem like it will change. The large companies in the sector have seen that they could not continue spending millions and millions on filming that, in many cases, did not give them, by any means, the audience figures they expected to have. For their part, platforms such as Disney+ or HBO Max have clearly verified that they could not continue favoring streaming over movie theaters, since it was an action that was making them lose money.
Therefore, the streaming part, especially now with accounts with ads, seems more than confirmed to fall by its own weight. This will give movie theaters a chance and, if they have that “solution” we talked about, they will be able to move forward. As experts conclude, what movie theaters around the world need is very simple: more movies.
The big chains are asking Hollywood studios to return to the routine of producing many more films and to make projects of all types of budgets. Not only do they want to have the blockbusters that everyone wants to see on the billboards, but they need lower budget films, deep stories, comedies and any other type of film that interests the public. Because they are seeing that, right now, what is happening is that super productions end up collapsing the box office, facing each other and, in many cases, not achieving the impact that is expected of them.
They want the era of almost exclusively million-dollar blockbusters to end and for theater schedules to be more similar to those of 10 years ago. That will do two things for theaters: capture the interest of a wider range of people and, of course, multiply their revenue. Meanwhile, some industry representatives respond to theaters that they should not worry, since there are plenty of films on the way. Even so, there remains some doubt as to whether they have understood the concept of the petition or if, on the contrary, what will happen is that blockbusters will continue to be faced without respite.
