Some of you will remember that, a few months ago, I wrote an article with a dark prediction: theaters are dead. By chance, a few days ago, I went to the cinema again.
The truth is that they gave me tickets: for every 15 euros of consumption in a leisure center, one free admission. I didn't even look for it, just as I passed (strolled) I saw the poster and pulled out the food ticket to exchange it.
The excitement of finding myself for an unexpected gift and of recovering an activity of the "old normal" (just see how much nonsense we have endured in recent months) dropped dramatically when I saw - with faint - the offer of films that I had in front of me. to me.
In the end I settled on WonderWoman 1974, although I'm not going to make a criticism here, I advise you to take the necessary detours to avoid seeing it. Luckily it was free!
If the landscape does not change when the restrictions are lifted, even if people want to go to the movies, they will find nothing that motivates them, and logically, right now producers have zero incentives (and possibilities) to produce great films when audiences are in "I don't know, no answer".
But that of the infinite spiral, whereby since there are no good films, people do not go to the cinema and since they do not go to the cinema, they do not make good films, is another topic… for another discussion.
What brings me to the keyboard today is the experience itself. Despite having seen the film with the mask, not being able to buy anything at the bar, the seats spaced apart (one yes, one no), despite being able to see the trailers of the films that arrive, despite the spectacular sound, of the gigantic image … The magic has been broken.
It's like those young couples who separate for a while because everyone spends the summer at a different time and when they meet again something has changed and we no longer have the complicity of a few weeks ago. One of them moved in a different direction, not necessarily forward, just different.
You may have matured, or you have discovered that you are passionate about something different, or that leaving the relationship and breathing fresh air makes you realize that the freedom you enjoy now is valued more than what the other half offers you ... hundreds of things , for each something different but with the same conclusion.
It does not work anymore. Of course you can meet on the street and have a pleasant memory of those times, laugh and have fun, and come home with a smile, glad you did. But if you ask me, would you ever have a constant relationship like before? the answer is no.
I know there will be people who, as in true love, are willing to meet again and live together forever, but I, in this moment, am already in another moment.
Too many months where I can choose what I want to see, no queues, no stale popcorn, no soda. Also, for the price of two tickets, once a month, I pay various platforms that guarantee me endless fun.
To deny that platforms are scaling down their productions to make good movies are found directly on their platforms is to deny the reality.
Of course, the Disney + stick with its channel (s) and broadcast directly there and for rent on the rest of the platforms is a big culprit for the ultimate loss of interest from families in going to the movies.
Maybe if I had seen a good, very good movie, my opinion would have been different. But I don't think so.
I have experienced the transition from cinemas to multiplexes, I have seen neighborhood cinemas disappear, the price of tickets and drinks goes up as if we were stupid people who have no choice but to pay what they are asked to, listening to arguments that did not hold up.
So change does not upset me or scare me.
We all knew something was going to happen, even if it's a shame it was the pandemic that killed them, instead of seeing them squirm on the ground in agony after squeezing our pockets to the edge of breaking all romance in the relationship.
For me, the few cinemas that can be saved will be those that are centrally located, with enough captive viewers (because they can walk) to keep the doors open.
Multiplexes would do well to convert one room into a nightclub, another into a bar, another into a concert hall, etc. and keep a couple of rooms to show the films, so that they are recycled in a leisure / culture center.
And to see if in this way they find a new audience who can spend many hours in their "experience", now drinking and chatting (or having dinner), watching a movie, dancing or listening to a concert.
Because his audience, as they knew him, will mostly stay on the couch, saving tens of euros every weekend.
And I'm really sorry to be so pessimistic, but let's sing a requiem for theaters *.
* Cinemas are not movies, as record companies are not music and bookstores are not books.
