End of an era: how streaming services are killing movie theaters

By Lauren Montano

The scent of buttered popcorn fills the air, the laughter of the audience ringing in your ears, along with the unparalleled movie watching experience that only comes from attending the movie theater. An experience that, no matter how much money is spent, or how much content is on their app, streaming services will never be able to replicate.

Weekly trips to the movie theater with my dad are some of my most cherished memories. It was a way for us to bond, and to spend time together after a long week of work and school.

He would always let me pick the movie, no matter how interested he was,  just so we could spend time together.

For the movies I was the most excited about, he would buy me a souvenir cup. I’ve kept all of them to this day. Going to the movies with my dad played a large role in developing my love for film today.

Movie theaters are a way for people like my dad and I to come together and share a experience. The most recent movie my dad and I saw together was Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City.

Despite Anderson’s popularity, my dad and I were the only ones in the theater, besides a couple that sat a few rows in front of us.

The empty theater took away some of that magic that comes with seeing a movie on the big screen. There was no laughter, no excited talk before the film started, just an empty atmosphere that made me feel that something was missing.

In a time where technology reigns supreme, streaming services have allowed easy access to thousands of movies and TV shows from the comfort of the viewers home.

Streaming services such as Netflix, Max, and Hulu have allowed viewers the convenience of paying a monthly fee to binge watch as much as they want, without leaving their couch.

The easy access and relatively cheap prices for mountains of content has undoubtedly made our lives easier, but at the cost of a once beloved and cherished industry: movie theaters. 

There’s nothing quite like the movie theater experience. The big screens, roaring speakers, and the shared experience between the audience. Over the last century, movie theaters have become a fundamental part of society.

Seeing a movie in the theater transports the audience to the world projected on the big screen. However, the eruption of streaming platforms have taken over homes and are a threat for the theaters to be wiped out.

There are a lot of factors streaming services provide that endanger the once beloved movie theaters.

Streaming platforms are now directly competing with movie theaters as well as the big production studios. Streaming apps release exclusive content that is not played in theaters, with many movies going directly to streaming instead of having a stint in the theaters.

We can see a substantial decline in movies having a theatrical release, therefore narrowing the already limited options in a theater as well as offering viewers exclusive content from the comfort of their homes.

Another factor is the easy access and convenience of streaming services. Viewers no longer have to leave their homes to see a movie, which can provide the viewer with numerous movies at any time, whenever they would like.

Theaters are needing to raise prices to attempt to match the comfort levels of a home and enhance the overall theater experience in order to survive. This means price hikes for tickets and concessions, which can further deter people from getting off their sofas to come to the theater.

Having the comforts of home and snacks at much lower costs, fewer and fewer people are interested in going to the theater. 

Films on streaming services seem to lack the cinematic quality that a theatric release has. The movie’s quality seems to decline with each new Netflix original movie added to the platform for the sake of making quick money.

We are rapidly seeing the decline in the quality of movies as they enter streaming platforms for the sake of the company wanting to distribute movies to the platforms as fast as possible, to rake in as much profit as possible. 

My dad and I still go to the theater, but our visits have became less frequent. I even find myself being drawn to the idea of watching a film from the comfort of my home.

Each time we go to the theater, there seems to be less and less people in the audience. But occasionally, a movie will come along, and everyone will flock to the theater opening night, filling the seats. There’s an experience that comes with attending a movie theater that streaming services will never be able to replace.