The New Age of Movie Theaters
Movie theaters have had a rough few decades. Audience attendance began to decline in the early 2000s, fueled by an increase in movie rentals and the ability to affordably buy movies.
Following that, streaming and social media sites took another bite into this metric, keeping people at home.
The industry didn’t seem to mind; an increase in the sale of ticket prices and heavy sales for Marvel and Disney films kept profits up. At least, until the COVID-19 Pandemic hit.
The Pandemic caused the industry to close, with the highest grossing film in the US that year only making 206 million dollars, and this only due to releasing in January of the year.
Since then, no year has met the 11.3-billion-dollar box office of 2019, the best year being 2023’s 8.9 billion dollars.
To lure people back, theaters have begun to change what they air. The most common example of this is rereleases. Many large theaters air old movies, sometimes daily. The Regal Cinema in Kingston is an example of this, frequently having whole months in which a different classic film is aired each day.
Fathom Events, a company founded in 2013 and jointly owned by Regal, Cinemark, and AMC, airs special events at theaters across the nation. Operas, limited releases of foreign entertainment, anime, films, sporting events, and concerts are all played in major chains.
Premium formats like IMAX, 4D, 3D, etc., now make up nearly half of the box office, with chains planning on expanding those formats to more and more smaller theaters.
Theaters are also increasingly serving food and alcohol as a way to stand out, Alamo Draft House likely being the biggest example.
New innovations have challenged the idea of what a movie theater even is. Cosm is a company that provides massive curved screens and three tiers of seating for nearly 1,700 people. While primarily sports-oriented, it has begun to increase its offering of movies and may provide proof of concept for future theaters by the movie chains.
Could this mean a new era of movie watching? Will these changes bring in new moviegoers? Only time will tell.
