Speaking of Streaming

I saw this article in The Verge yesterday: Steven Spielberg is worried what the success of streaming means for theatrical films. This quote is from his speech at the Cinema Audio Society’s CAS Awards this past weekend.

... he’s specifically dedicated to a theater-based cinematic experience as “a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever.”

In yesterdays blog post I mentioned that convenience often wins over the media experience. For the most part I really belive that is true, but I certaily hope Spielberg is correct, and the theater experience does not go away.

I guess he said something like this last year at the CAS Awards:

Spielberg echoed a similar thought at the CAS Awards, emphasizing that, for all the high-quality content streaming services are producing and regardless of the quality of people’s home theater setups, “there’s nothing like going to a big dark theater with people you’ve never met before, and having the experience wash over you.”

So what does the data say about this? This quote is from IBISWorld:

Over the past five years, the Movie Theaters in the US industry has grown by 3.1% to reach revenue of $18bn in 2018. In the same timeframe, the number of businesses has declined by -0.2% and the number of employees has grown by 4.1%. (Movie Theaters Industry in the US)

I would not be surprised to see attendance start to drop over time, and the market to face some contractions. That said, I am hopeful that the experience can continue to get better through technology innovations.

~ Rick

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Technology and LifeRick CartwrightFebruary 20, 2019Movies, streaming, Movie, Film