The death of the movie theater
No one goes to the movies anymore: We should change that
By SABRINA FIGUEROA — sfigueroaavila@ucdavis.edu
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I remember missing the movie theater. I was sick of watching movies on my tiny phone screen in my tiny room — it made me feel like I was going insane in a padded cell. So, no matter what, I was glad to be back in a leather chair eating cold movie theater popcorn once the theaters reopened.
However, I noticed that not everyone was as excited as I was. At first, lines at the concession counters were long, but now I can go to a movie on a Friday night with only one person waiting in line with me.
This decline began in 2001 and was further exacerbated by the pandemic, according to a study by Gallup. The effects of the pandemic have prevailed — even today, six years later, no one wants to watch movies in-person anymore.
The same data showed that the main reasons for the decrease in theater-watchers are the high costs of tickets and lack of interest in the movies shown. The high cost of tickets doesn’t surprise me;over the past six years, I witnessed “$5 Ticket Tuesday” increase to “$7 (plus tax) Ticket Tuesday,” with regular ticket prices increasing from $13 to $15 to $16 at local theaters in both Yolo and Sacramento counties. For people who don’t have the money to go to the theater or would rather spend their limited funds on something else, it’s completely understandable that they’d just watch their movies at home.
The second reason doesn’t surprise me, either — “curiosity killed the cat,” as they say — but I also don’t think it should be a reason to stay away from the theater. I’ve encountered people who say, “They just don’t make good movies anymore”; half of the time, it’s because they’ve listened to other people’s thoughts on movies before forming their own opinions. This includes friends, family, Rotten Tomatoes scores and other reviews. It’s completely diminished our interest in the new movies that come to theaters because people simply think the movies won’t be worth the price.
This is not to say that all the movies out right now are great, but it’s more exciting to figure out which ones are and are not worth watching yourself, rather than relying on the general consensus. Curiosity is something that we should all aspire to practice more; it’s challenging to walk into a theater open-minded and pick a random movie to watch without any information, but we should all try it at least once. After all, the full quote goes, “curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.”
It’s also good to keep in mind that many of the movies we see advertised are from big media companies, but not all the films shown in theaters are produced by those big companies — our options are more expansive than we think. Smaller entertainment companies produce films that are more unknown — but if you truly dig for them and keep your mind open enough to find them, you’ll eventually strike gold.
Though all this may be true, I truly do wish to see more people in the movie theaters as time goes on. The experience is incredibly rewarding, even if you end up watching a film you don’t like (or that you like but is terrible to everyone else). You’ll see people you’ve never seen before — friends, couples, families and individuals — and you’ll get to share laughter with them or even cry with them: it’s a mini community every time.
Written by: Sabrina Figueroa — sfigueroaavila@ucdavis.edu
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