This piece will talk about how cinemas are putting themselves out of business and how the coming downfall could have been prevented.
So as some of you who follow me on X will know this cinema issues article is inspired by something that happened to me recently. I have a cinema card meaning I can go as often as I like for a monthly fee, and I had booked to see a film at the start of the week which I had to miss due to an emergency of sorts and go later on that same day at the end of the week. Now remember as I had to get another lot of tickets they got more of my money not less, yet the next day I got an email telling me that I was getting a strike for missing a film and if I get three of them there will be some arbitrary consequences. I challenged them on this and they said it was done to make sure the most amount of customers could view the films. Know I am not an expert on what audiences will do but I don’t think in either of the screenings I booked it would have been sold out, and I don’t think there is that mad a rush to go to the cinema anymore that there is ever a chance a screening will sell out. Which gets me down to the brass tax of what this policy is, it is a means for cinemas to attack some of their most loyal customers as in there misguided and deluded way they think that is the problem.
Cinema attendance is rapidly falling, check any number of stats and data elsewhere for proof of it, it dropped off in the pandemic and hasn’t returned, the one two three four punch of rising ticket prices, preaching, streaming and the ever increasing popularity of anime meant more and more people are staying home. Now what are cinemas to do in order to keep the lights on? They think they can sell themselves as premium luxury destinations serving food and cocktails as a means to stay afloat, if people couldn’t afford five pounds for a cinema ticket, more like eight dollars American, how can they afford to wine and dine? They think they can sell the fact that oh they have the best tech, it is the way the filmmaker wanted you to see it, no one other than the purists care about that and a lot of people have good home cinema setups now so again that isn’t getting folks in the door. They can try another tirade against piracy which won’t change or effect anything as with VPN’s its easier than ever to pirate any film you like. They are trying to police those that still come as though they are expecting a mad rush to suddenly come in as one of the cinema owners goes back in time to assassinate the founders of Netflix in utero therefore preventing the streaming future, yet all there policing does is make me not want to go to the cinema anymore. They can put on better films cater more towards anime films or niche interests that might result in new people coming or large groups for an event film, but ultimately they can’t control what gets made.
There is only one logical thing they can do, but they won’t do it. They need to lower costs, I saw something the other day from a exhibitor who said that they should charge the same prices for cinema tickets as they do live sports or concerts, raising cinema prices into thirty to six pounds a go, add about three quarters of the overall amount to that to work out the dollar price, this would kill cinema dead. Concerts and live sports are in the moment events that cannot be replicated again you can rewatch a film at home, moreover these events have a sense of community and fandom in a way the cinema doesn’t, these are activities that are milestones are major events in people’s lives, going and watching the latest Melissa McCarthy film where she poos herself falls over and it smears down her face isn’t that and it never will be.
Yes, if they lowered costs they might initially lose money however, once going to the cinema became more affordable for families or individuals they would be more likely to go more often to get the kids out of the house, they would be more likely to try new films, they would be more likely to be in the building so you could sell them some merch or food. Ultimately whether we can agree on the cause or not cinema is dying, and by that I mean audiences going to the cinema to watch films, the idea that things might one day go back to pre-pandemic levels is increasingly proving unlikely, and the one thing that won’t save cinema is to hike up ticket prices.
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