Film The death of cinema?

ThierryHenry

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Cineworld to close down all of their UK sites apparently. Unclear, but I would assume this means Picturehouse as well, which they own.


Tragic news for the employees hurt by this, as well as all the film-lovers who are going to lose out on the big-screen experience. And this is likely just the start... :(
 

horsechoker

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The future of cinema will be streaming with only a few bigger cinemas remaining open for the novelty.

Who know, maybe cinema will have a minor resurgence one day like Vinyl did this decade.
 

dumbo

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It's hard to get too animated about the death of the chain multiplex, given what they represent. However as the most visible symptom of a much deeper disaster engulfing film and the arts in general, it's pretty horrible stuff. Not to mention the individual workers who are suffering as a result. It's fecked.
 

Tiber

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Got to be honest, I would much prefer to watch a new release on my sofa without paying 4 quid for a coke. There are a few movies every now and then that gain a lot from the big screen, but 9/10 are just as good at home

Having said that, I would only welcome replacing cinemas with home streaming for a reasonable price similar to the cost of a cinema ticket, not remotely tempted by what Disney are trying to charge for Mulan

Terrible to hear about the job losses though, wild to think so much depended on one movie. Apparently they are also closing 500 cinemas in the US
 
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mariachi-19

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Got to be honest, I would much prefer to watch a new release on my sofa without paying 4 quid for a coke. There are a few movies every now and then that gain a lot from the big screen, but 9/10 are just as good at home

Having said that, I would only welcome replacing cinemas with home streaming for a reasonable price similar to the cost of a cinema ticket, not remotely tempted by what Disney are trying to charge for Mulan

Terrible to hear about the job losses though, wild to think so much depended on one movie. Apparently they are also closing 500 cinemas in the US
The future is what Disney did with Mulan.

$50 releases but the benefit being you can have as many people as you like sit with you while you watch it.
 

Dr. StrangeHate

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The future is what Disney did with Mulan.

$50 releases but the benefit being you can have as many people as you like sit with you while you watch it.
People now a days watch way more TV series than movies anyway. I feel less and less movies will be made now and focus will shift towards limited or full TV series.
 

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Gutted for the employees. And I loved taking the kids, nephews and nieces to Cineworld.
 

The Cat

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Feel for the people losing their jobs. Not so much for companies like Odeon who have been charging around 12 quid a time to watch a film around here for years as they have no competition.

These days I am more than happy to watch anything on my tv with the surround on.
 

Bojan11

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The future of cinema will be streaming with only a few bigger cinemas remaining open for the novelty.

Who know, maybe cinema will have a minor resurgence one day like Vinyl did this decade.
Nope, Cinemas will be fine once they allowed to be up and running again. Just like football stadiums.

These big companies have little faith in releasing straight to streaming services. Just look at the amount of films that have been pushed back in the last few weeks to next year. Disney have experimented it with Mulan, but they pushed Black Widow now to next year.
 

Volumiza

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Bad news about all the job losses but the cinema experience isn’t what it used to be now home systems are of such high quality coupled with myriad streaming services.

Id rather be sat at home in my own front room than feeling annoyed with other cinema goers for being noisy, irritating feckers.
 

Spoony

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Nope, Cinemas will be fine once they allowed to be up and running again. Just like football stadiums.

These big companies have little faith in releasing straight to streaming services. Just look at the amount of films that have been pushed back in the last few weeks to next year. Disney have experimented it with Mulan, but they pushed Black Widow now to next year.

Has the Mulan experiment failed?
 

Bojan11

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Has the Mulan experiment failed?
No idea.

But they pushed Black Widow, Shang Chi and Eternals all further from their original dates a few weeks back. Filming for Eternals was finished in January and it was supposed to be out this November. Now it’s been delayed to Nov 2021. So I doubt even working from home that production will take over 20 months.

I don’t think any of these companies have faith in the straight to streaming model yet.
 

Mrs Smoker

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It was a disappointing launch for Mulan, indeed.

Data gathered this weekend appeared to hold seismic news for Hollywood—specifically Disney. A report from Yahoo suggested that a shocking 9 million Disney+ users had streamed the studio’s Mulan remake in its first 12 days of release, translating into a gross of $261 million. That’s a staggering number for an on-demand rental and for an industry that’s been struggling through pandemic-related cinema closures. If Disney can make that kind of money without American theaters, does it need American theaters at all?

The only problem is, Mulan didn’t actually make $261 million in 12 days. Yahoo had misinterpreted numbers from an analytics firm that estimated Mulan’s viewership, and the firm’s co-founder clarified that grosses were more likely $60 million to $90 million—well below the movie’s reported budget of $200 million. Not only does it seem that Mulan made modest sums in the United States (though Disney has yet to release official numbers), but the movie also had a disappointing theatrical rollout in China. Another grand experiment by Hollywood in the COVID-19 era, another flop. As the end of 2020 draws near, studios still haven’t figured out a sustainable way to bring their most expensive blockbusters to audiences.
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/09/mulan-box-office-pandemic/616433/
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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Id rather be sat at home in my own front room than feeling annoyed with other cinema goers for being noisy, irritating feckers.
This. The only reason I go to the cinema is because that's the only way to see a new release most of the time. If you don't catch it in theatres, you don't get to watch it for a few months. If all films came out on Bluray or downloadable formats at the same time as the cinema release, I would literally never go, and that looks to be an impending reality.

I also can't remember the last time I went and it wasn't ruined by other people being loud, arriving late, lighting the place up with their phones etc. It's every time. I won't miss the experience a jot.
 

SirAF

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Got to be honest, I would much prefer to watch a new release on my sofa without paying 4 quid for a coke. There are a few movies every now and then that gain a lot from the big screen, but 9/10 are just as good at home

Having said that, I would only welcome replacing cinemas with home streaming for a reasonable price similar to the cost of a cinema ticket, not remotely tempted by what Disney are trying to charge for Mulan

Terrible to hear about the job losses though, wild to think so much depended on one movie. Apparently they are also closing 500 cinemas in the US
This 100%.
 

Jev

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I don't know what kind of setups you guys have at home but mine certainly can't compete with the big screen, sound quality and general immersion of the cinemas. A movie experience at home is incomparable to one at the cinemas in my opinion.
 

AaronRedDevil

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I don't know what kind of setups you guys have at home but mine certainly can't compete with the big screen, sound quality and general immersion of the cinemas. A movie experience at home is incomparable to one at the cinemas in my opinion.
Agreed. Some things are so much better for cinema then at home.
 

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There's no way the average person in this world can replicate the cinematic experience at home, especially as it relates to dolby surround sound 7.1. Most people just don't have or can ill afford to spend thousands on audio setup to replicate cinematic sound quality. Visual replication? Yes. But both visual and audio? I doubt it.
 

11101

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The future of cinema will be streaming with only a few bigger cinemas remaining open for the novelty.

Who know, maybe cinema will have a minor resurgence one day like Vinyl did this decade.
Probably. James Bond or some nondescript comedy? I'll watch that at home. Top Gun 2 or something that's supposed to be visually stunning, then i'll go and find an IMAX.
 

Donut

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Nope, Cinemas will be fine once they allowed to be up and running again. Just like football stadiums.

These big companies have little faith in releasing straight to streaming services. Just look at the amount of films that have been pushed back in the last few weeks to next year. Disney have experimented it with Mulan, but they pushed Black Widow now to next year.
Agreed. They would make much less money since once it’s streamed in high quality it will just get pirated and that’s it, most people will then download it for free rather than pay 15-30€ to watch it.
 

Oggmonster

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Feel for the people losing their jobs. Not so much for companies like Odeon who have been charging around 12 quid a time to watch a film around here for years as they have no competition.

These days I am more than happy to watch anything on my tv with the surround on.
The money they make on tickets isn't that much in all honesty. Most of it comes from the concessions (which I believe are currently shut so I'm not surprised cinemas are struggling.)

Cinemas won't die as there is a huge market for it, people do enjoy the big screen experience still especially for blockbuster films. In my work though we have found they are adapting, the 14 screen cinemas with a f ew huge screens and most the others seating 150+ people are probably fading out. Boutique cinemas such as Everyman Cinemas seem to be the more popular idea, less seats but fill them and the whole thing is an evening, decent food and drinks, a film in comfy chairs etc rather than sat in an often half empty screen with shite popcorn and a can of Carlsberg at best.
 

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Given the current demand of cinemas over the last few years, it's no surprise that there will be some consolidation in the businesses in the coming years. There's arguably a question of value from cinema's still, but it'll still be a viable business, just on a smaller scale.

Cineworld is more an issue of a tight liquidity position and with a market that is based on physical attendance, it'll highlight those with a difficult financial position naturally. Separating the wheat from the chaff for want of a better term.
 

Zen

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I'm not sure the Netflix model is sustainable - being in mega debt that is. These big hits need the cinema, and the companies need the big hits to give them big profits to budget everything, especially their smaller films that barely break even.

Just look at how much money Disney with their top 5 hits alone in a year - would lose if a massive sum of that is wiped out, because streaming won't make the same wonga. But then again, they could just lower the salaries.....
 

ThierryHenry

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Streaming won’t/ can’t replace the cinema in terms of either the experience or the economics for the studios.

The concern here is that the industry has consolidated into a small number of mega-corporations who have massively levered themselves up to a) buy out their competitors, b) pay their owners fat dividends. That’s then left them ludicrously vulnerable to a crisis that impacts their topline.

Now such an event is here, a number of these companies aren’t going to survive, leaving behind them a much smaller industry for the studios to sell their films into. The knock-on impact for jobs and the wider film industry is heart-breaking, and will hurt all of us who love movies.
 

ThierryHenry

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Given the current demand of cinemas over the last few years, it's no surprise that there will be some consolidation in the businesses in the coming years. There's arguably a question of value from cinema's still, but it'll still be a viable business, just on a smaller scale.

Cineworld is more an issue of a tight liquidity position and with a market that is based on physical attendance, it'll highlight those with a difficult financial position naturally. Separating the wheat from the chaff for want of a better term.
Consolidation has already happened. Cineworld and AMC (Odeon) are on the precipice as their owners bought out the competitors to gain as much scale as possible to improve their negotiating leverage with the studios. Both companies may now go under as a result.
 

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I'm sure boutique cinemas will be fine as they offer a unique service and generally appeal to affluent like-minded types (like me). The one in my city is reopening at the weekend and there's barely any tickets left to sell.

I wanted to go and watch La Haine on Thursday - so not a new release - but all I can get is two seats on the front row.
 
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marktan

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Cinema's aren't going anywhere, the debate has been had numerous times with the rise of streaming and yet Cinema revenues and profits have been resilient. You can't replicate that experience at home, and people generally want to go out and have experiences and a cinema is one of the few places you can do so easily in cities.

Cineworld are in a bit of bother though, they were already heavily loaded up on debt, now protracted shutdowns to a pandemic will not be helping things at all. Worst case scenario though if they do go under, they'll probably get bought out of bankruptcy and be re-born since all that infrastructure they have is valuable. Hopefully the re-born company will do a decent box of fresh nachos instead of the package sauce crap that they do.
 

Mystry

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I work in a cinema and it's not been great these past few weeks. We've moved to reduced opening hours during the week. Saying that we just had one of our busiest days yesterday. Feels like Tenet has actually screwed us if studios are deciding to pull films based on it's performance. I don't think it would have done that well under normal circumstances because of the type of film it is, unlike bond or wonder woman which people would come out for. We're showing some teen film called after we collided and every showing is doing really well so I think it's a matter of having the right films.
 
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Covid has accelerated change that was going to happen anyway. In the same way as flexible working and working from home.

I can see the same thing happening with cinema unfortunately.

we are a far more insular society, swapping socialising for Netflix.

I would expect a large amount of cinemas to close permanently. There will still be some demand, but can’t imagine it will ever get back to what it was.

I’ve got a Cineworld card, and have been a couple of times since lockdown has been lifted, and it’s been dead.
 
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There's no way the average person in this world can replicate the cinematic experience at home, especially as it relates to dolby surround sound 7.1. Most people just don't have or can ill afford to spend thousands on audio setup to replicate cinematic sound quality. Visual replication? Yes. But both visual and audio? I doubt it.
the problem is not that people can’t replicate the experience, I agree with you.

The issue is that a large proportion of people are happy to watch a film on their phone or iPad and don’t care about the experience. It’s disposable. Watch it, move onto something emerge.
 

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Probably. James Bond or some nondescript comedy? I'll watch that at home. Top Gun 2 or something that's supposed to be visually stunning, then i'll go and find an IMAX.
Just put some decent headphones on and sit closer to your telly :)
 

luke511

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If a company dies it will just get replaced by a new one, cinema will thrive as it always has once this is over.
 

Rado_N

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My problem with the cinema is mainly other people.

I was planning on going to one of those Everyman Cinema places for the new Bond movie, that seems a much better model to me.
 

Tiber

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I don't know what kind of setups you guys have at home but mine certainly can't compete with the big screen, sound quality and general immersion of the cinemas. A movie experience at home is incomparable to one at the cinemas in my opinion.

I don't have an 80 inch TV and surround sound, but i'm not convinced I really need it for most movies. Every now and then something like Star Wars comes out which gains a lot from being seen on the big screen, but for most movies? Id be totally fine watching it on my perfectly ordinary TV from the comfort of my living room and with supermarket priced snacks.

The biggest issue with a shift to streaming is the greed of movie companies, I am exactly the sort of person who should be paying Disney to watch Mulan at home, but the price they charged was absurd. Little wonder it bombed.
 

horsechoker

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The biggest issue with a shift to streaming is the greed of movie companies, I am exactly the sort of person who should be paying Disney to watch Mulan at home, but the price they charged was absurd. Little wonder it bombed.
That price model was ridiculous, it would have been better to charge around the cost of a cinema ticket for one time viewing of the film. Disney still would've made a lot of money and people save money by not driving/taking public transport to the cinema and by buying snacks at a reasonable price from the supermarket.
 

luke511

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that’s very optimistic. People’s habits are changing, and changing permanently.
There will always be studios making films, that end up getting heavily advertised everywhere, creating the need to watch the newest big hit film on the big screen. Going to the cinema will always be a good way for a couple or family or a group of mates to get out the house and do something, I don't think that'll ever change. Hypothetically If Cineworld and Vue go bankrupt and fold, that opens a big opportunity for an up and coming cinema company to take over the market share when this is all over, and there'll always be that company waiting to fill in.