Ever since the pandemic, where masking and social distancing were normal, the general public simply became comfortable with staying at-home. Dinner out and a movie turned into DoorDash and Netflix. However, the movie industry faces challenges with getting people to the theater.
Fewer people go to theaters to see movies, reduced from pre-pandemic levels due to the rise of streaming, cost of tickets and concessions, and a preference of in-home entertainment. Sales of 65-inch plus TVs have seen significant growth in recent years, with customers also buying bigger external audio systems. Consumers are recreating the experience they previously only had in theaters.
A 2024 National Institutes of Health study on adolescents showed that excessive use of mobile phones, including short-form video (e.g. TikTok ,Instagram reels, or YouTube reels), can lead to social withdrawal and affect normal social skills. Users have more trouble giving their attention to a specific task; heavy users are exposed to high-speed, visually stimulating content almost 24/7. According to Harvard Health Publishing, scrolling “triggers a dopamine-driven reward loop that keeps users engaged, often leading to ‘infinite (or doom) scroll,’ reduced attention spans, and overstimulation.” Acting as a drug of sorts, heavy users need more and more content to get the same amount of dopamine released as when they started, making short-form content difficult to turn off. Many of my peers (including myself) have phone addictions that make it difficult to focus on school related tasks. Going back to movie theaters will allow students to retrain their attention spans, enabling them to focus longer on coursework.
As much as going to the theater provides the “true movie watching experience,” does the cost and significant time investment outweigh it? A movie night for a family of four costs over $100. Here in Bloomington, we have only one theater and thus a limited selection of movies. Additionally, movies spend less time in the box office and tend to go straight to streaming platforms. There’s also a significant time investment that comes with theater-going—the drive to the theater, finding parking, the increase of trailers and buying concessions—sometimes makes me think that it would be easier to just stay home.
However, theaters bring a human connection that at-home streaming doesn’t have. Entering a theater, you become part of an audience, sharing the same experience of those around you. Moviegoers share a love of cinema regardless of their background or history. Films help us realize who we are and generate empathy for others by allowing us to see into their experiences. Going to the movie theater can provide a much needed opportunity to bring people together, as human connection is lost nowadays. As Alejandro González Iñárritu, a filmmaker known for his modern psychological dramas about the human condition said, “Cinema is a mirror by which we often see ourselves,” proving movies become especially important as human attention span decreases and human connection is lost. Theaters can’t increase their attendance by creating a better product, because they have no influence on what movies are made, so instead they must create a better experience than at-home streaming.
