Do movie theaters have a future?

The epicenter of the cinematographic exhibition business is to gather a group of people in a dark room where a certain audiovisual product is exhibited. There, images that tell stories are projected on a large white screen. The public comes to enjoy the emotions that these images arouse.

If it is considered that watching a film on any medium is cinema, today much more cinema is watched than ever, thanks to television and the rest of the calls display windows. The distribution window system was implemented as a formula so that the same film would not compete against itself in the different distribution channels. But as the terms of exclusivity between the different windows are getting shorter and shorter, movie theaters are experiencing some turbulent times.

That is to say, the health of the cinema is excellent. But what about the rooms?

The streaming competition

Currently cinemas are not the only place where you can watch a movie. We can ask ourselves if we have to see it in the cinema, on the day of the premiere, or if we wait to see it on other channels. The novelty of the movies is the main factor that allows viewers to be ripped out of the comfort they have at home and make them pay to access a cinema. We must not forget that the cinema is one more leisure option among many others and that the majority of the population has a very limited spending capacity for leisure.

Cinemas are once again threatened by external competition and innovation, due to the rise in popularity of streaming platforms (streaming). These new forms of consumption have crept into the film exhibition sector, seeking their own space and promoting important changes in this sector.

Video streaming platforms are currently stronger, quite attractive and have a greater capacity to seduce an audience that is increasingly fond of new technologies. Digital distribution may become a new tool to monopolize the world market.

Since 2010, service subscribers streaming have increased exponentially, while the number of viewers in movie theaters has been declining. Cinema is one of the sectors in which the future is unknown. Some point to changes in the industry and others predict the end of the showrooms.

The owner of the movie theaters

The entrepreneur of the cinematographic exhibition cannot influence the production of the films. However, he can help viewers enjoy them by offering them the best quality of service.

For this purpose, and to differentiate itself from the rest of the windowsexhibitors have been forced to engage the viewer by offering a truly superior experience at a reasonable price.

In this direction, some cinemas have a variety of options in their portfolio: large-format screens, seats premium3D rooms, 4DX rooms that have a sophisticated system of technologies, associating movement of the seats with special effects, rooms that present films with screens expanded to the side walls of a cinema – like screen X o Ice Inmersive®–.

What do the viewers think?

The results of box office receipts in Spain show and reinforce the theory that, if there are no movie premieres, viewers do not go to cinemas. Few films were released during the pandemic and post-pandemic. According to data extracted from the ICAA, quite a few were released on platforms but not in theaters. If there are no theatrical releases, people don’t come.

We have just carried out an investigation, the results of which will be published shortly, to find out what factors determine cinema attendance. We conducted a questionnaire to almost two hundred viewers in Spain to ask them if they preferred to watch movies on subscription platforms or in the cinema, and if they considered the platforms complementary or substitutes for cinemas.

Among the results, we found that 73% of respondents between the ages of 16 and 25 considered it preferable to watch a movie through a subscription platform, followed by people between 36 and 50 years old (70% opted for that option), those of 26 to 35 years (64%) and, finally, those over 50 years of age, who only marked that option as a favorite in 44% of cases.

When asking viewers if they considered that platforms could be a substitute for cinemas, 62% of those over 36 years of age did not consider them to be a substitute, while 54% of those between 26 and 35 years of age and 64% of those between 16 and 25 years old did think that they could replace them.

As for whether the platforms can be complementary to the experience in rooms, in general almost all age groups were around 30-40% when affirming that they were complementary (41% those over 50, 35% those from 36 to 50, 27% those from 26 to 35 and 37% those from 16 to 25).

This shows that, in general, those over 36 years of age find the platform formula to be complementary to, but not a substitute for, the classic movie theaters. However, the youngest bet on the platforms as the first option.

In the future, viewers will diversify with the different offers of screening windows, there will be an audience for everyone and it is not surprising that the big production companies, the majorshave decided to bet on platforms: their purpose is to get the most out of a film.

Marta Batlle Beltrán, University Professor. Dep Technology of Architecture and Manuel Mateo Doll, Professor of the Department of Business Organization

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.