Movie theaters will look vastly different if they survive COVID-19

Cinemas were my second home in high school. Thanks to strange family circumstances, I spent my senior year collapsing on the sofas, futons and guest beds of half a dozen friends. Since I no longer had my own room, I often found time alone in matinees after (or during) school. I’ve seen dozens of films over the course of seven or eight months.

Sure, these visits were occasionally uncomfortable when a middle-aged mouth breath sat right behind me in an otherwise empty theater five minutes after Black Swan. But I still feel great nostalgia for this time – for the cool air, the creaking seats and the dimly lit anonymity of the cinema.

Now thanks to mass closings and skyrocketing debts for theater franchises while COVID-19The future of the companies that provided me with so much comfort as a teenager is in danger. In uncertain times, one thing seems to be becoming increasingly clear: the theater industry has to change in order to survive. This is what cinemas could look like in the future.

An ongoing, active, independent theater scene

Independent theaters often have very personal relationships with their customers, and while they struggled during the pandemic, their loyal customer bases can be the key to their survival when larger theaters collapse or find new business models.

I spoke to Leslie Aberson, President of Apex Entertainment, which operates two independent theaters in Louisville, Kentucky. The Apex Theaters opened with a capacity of 30 percent and show classic films like Jurassic Park and The Goonies with considerable success.

“Based on this initial turnout, I think when [Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster film] principle opens, “said Aberson,” we’re going to see a tremendous revival in business. “

Aberson does not believe that the pandemic will lead to long-term changes in his business. He plans to have the Apex theaters busy by Christmas or early 2021, and when we talked he seemed fully confident about the future of the film as a product.

“I’m not worried about the industry,” he said. “You will not publish Tenet on PPV for God’s sake.”

Of course, such predictions depend on the rapidly changing realities of both the spread of the novel corona virus and the perception of theatergoers. It remains to be seen whether “business as usual” will be achievable in the near future, as Aberson believes, or whether more creative solutions – such as reorganized theater seating or the need for temperature tests for customers – will be required to lure crowds to tent poles for films like Tenet , Mulan and James Bond later this year.

Subscriptions to traditional cineplexes

Sure, companies like AMC hated the super affordable subscription-based app Movie passHowever, the subscription model is an increasingly popular and proven method of securing income. Some theaters in the UK have used such services for more than a decade. Last year, AMC launched a $ 20 subscription service that allows users to watch up to three films a week and as AMC cinemas – along with competitors like CineMark and shelf – When you start reopening, you can expect more to be invested in these and other services. Maybe those $ 10 a month won’t give you access to thousands of titles like other services do, but it does could You get access to a huge screen where you can watch the latest, most shining films every month.

More drive-ins

My habit of going to the cinema more than once a week was interrupted for the first time in 2016 when my wife and I had our first child and I didn’t go to the theater for a year. But when we had our second child, we decided to solve problems. We were looking for drive-in cinemas where our children could sleep and sleep in their car seats and watch Black Panther. We were lucky enough to be in a fairly rural area in Central America for the graduate school, and quickly found a driveway less than 10 minutes from our tiny apartment.

Drive-in cinemas that flourished in the 50s and early 60s are already finding a second (or third) life in the midst of the pandemic thanks to the built-in social distancing and – because many of them have survived COVID-19 – nostalgia. The model for drive-in cinemas differs from conventional cineplexes: they usually only work on weekends, in the warm months and after dark. This means that dual functions are the norm and usually only the most popular films find a home on their projectors.

Drive-ins won’t completely replace their more traditional counterparts due to their seasonality, limited seasons, and reliance on wide open spaces. (They would probably not work well in big cities.) But they will likely ensure the continuation of a form of the theater for the foreseeable future.

A tech giant takeover

It remains to be seen what exactly this will look like, but tech and streaming giants like Apple, Amazon and Netflix have either considered buying theater or have already committed to it. While corporate acquisitions are likely to go a long way in wholesale, Silicon Valley has the capital to buy fidgeting theater franchises and integrate them into their existing integrative business models – and this could dramatically realign the cinema landscape.

What would it look like? Maybe Prime members would get exclusive offers and discounts in Amazon theaters, just like with whole food. Or maybe a premium subscription to Netflix subscribers would bring “free” visits to Netflix cinemas, where algorithms set movies and seasons by region. Or maybe Disney would put large stores in their theaters and sell Mulan dolls to children while waiting in line for tickets.

This vision of the future may seem bleak to film lovers, but as Ben Fritz argues in The Big Picture – his book on the future of film – it is a future that correctly understands the priorities of media conglomerates: “Disney may have generated somewhat record profits from the films Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, as well as live action remakes of animated classics, but ultimately the film studio was about creating and maintaining franchises that sold toys and T-shirts and lured tourists to theme parks. “

Imagine the future

While the world – and many markets, including the film industry – will remain unpredictable in 2020, theater lovers and business owners at all levels will face the challenges of a post-quarantine world. Most likely, we won’t see a single answer to the problems COVID-19 has created for cinemas, but we may see a restructuring of the existing ecosystem, in which drive-ins, independent theaters, and major brand cineplexes are all important Role.

But as the independent theater president Alberson told me when asked about the future: “I have a feeling [that regardless of other changes] we will all work together more. “