How To Save Movie Theaters

John David Washington and Robert Pattinson in Tenet

(Warner Bros.)

For all the questions and speculations about humanity’s sociocultural, technological, and economic future post-pandemic, no business faces a wider variety of perilous outcomes than the film industry. To put it bluntly - Hollywood’s fucked. 

Given the fact that Hollywood and other creative industries add over $500 billion to America’s GDP, it’s absolutely vital that the movie industry get this right. 

“Too big to fail” became a tone-deaf, cringeworthy phrase used to describe banks and corporations that had led us into the Great Recession and were looking for government bailouts at the expense of everyday Americans facing the brunt of said recession - but Hollywood really is too big to fail. 

It’s not just giant studios and marquee names. It’s set designers, costume designers, graphic artists, writers, visual effects artists, hair and makeup artists, food service workers, and countless other professions that need films and the sets they make them on to survive. Entire cities benefit from having movies and television shows film in their states, as they stimulate local businesses and provide job opportunities.

That’s just the movie-making aspect of the process. Not to mention the movie-showers (theaters and streaming services) and movie-goers (us). All of whom have different interests, motivations, and goals, sometimes in conflict with the other individual entities involved. 

In this piece, I’ll breakdown what the various problems are for each entity, and possible solutions that can help maintain the movie making/showing/going cycle we knew so well before the world changed.

I’ll go in order from who has it the best to who has it the worst in regards to the brave new world cinema will be forced to face when every country reopens.

1.) Moviegoers

As rich, influential, and powerful as movie studios are, it’s the people actually watching the movies that have the most power. 

For all the ills of capitalism, there is one benefit to it - we have complete control over where our disposable income goes. 

Films are made for us. Movie theaters that play the films are made for us. High definition televisions and streaming services are marketed towards us. We pay for and consume the actual content. Any content we don’t want, we don’t buy. 

There are two major problems that face the moviegoing audience, but truth be told, they’re not all that bad in the grand scheme of things.

(1) Fans will have to wait longer for delayed films to release.

As a self-described cinephile, this is beyond disappointing and annoying, but far from backbreaking. We will watch Tenet...at some point. We will watch Wonder Woman 1984...at some point. We will watch Mulan...at some point. When and where remain to be seen, but the “if” was never in question. Those films are already made, and will be seen by us. In time.

(2) The safety of going to movie theaters is all speculative at this time.

Alamo Drafthouse, the theater chain love of my life, released a comprehensive and reassuring list of guidelines for reopening. But human error is a real thing, mistakes can be made by individuals, and any break in the chain can lead to infection. Not to mention, we don’t know for certain if these measures (again, all of which sound safe at first glance) will completely prevent community spread of COVID-19. That’s not something we’ll know for sure until we learn more about the virus and wait for theaters to actually implement their changes. 

All that being said - once again, moviegoers are in the driver’s seat. If people don’t feel comfortable going to a movie theater, they don’t have to go to a movie theater. They’ll have to wait months for a streaming release, but as I mentioned earlier, those films will be seen.  No matter what the future holds, people who enjoy watching movies will watch movies.

2.) Movie Studios

As grim as things look right now, content creators and owners will have a relatively safe landing when all of this is over. 

Their immediate problems are twofold:

(1) Creating a safe work environment for future films and shows.

This includes significant cleaning/disinfecting practices, as well as providing more comprehensive insurance for employees.

(2) Making enough money back on the films that were already slated to be released this year.

Summer blockbusters cost more to make, partly because they’re expected to make more in revenue. There’s no way any film slated for this summer will make what it would’ve made under normal circumstances. At this point, it’s all about minimizing damage and trying to recoup as much as possible.

There’s another issue facing studios, and it’s admittedly tricky to navigate. 

We’re at a crossroads in our culture. Theater chains were struggling before the pandemic, and they’re facing extinction when the world reopens. Streaming is the present and the future, but studios are hesitant to go full board with the platform for several reasons.

For one, they make less money on streaming platforms. If you have 10 people in your house, and you pay a one time, $5 fee to rent a movie, that’s roughly $70 a studio loses, because those 10 individuals didn’t pay $15 for individual tickets. Trolls World Tour made close to $100 million when it was released on streaming, but (1) You could argue it would’ve made more in theaters, and (2) It effectively severed Universal’s relationship with America’s biggest movie chain, AMC, which is the second part of the streaming dilemma. Movie studios don’t want to be responsible for the death of movie theaters. They’d much rather push that responsibility onto audiences, let movie theaters die their natural death, shrug, and say it was sad, but inevitable.

Studios and theaters don’t have much of a symbiotic relationship these days, as theaters need studios way more than studios need them, but still, studios do make more money off ticket sales than they do via streaming services.

All in all though, because studios own the content, and both streaming services and theaters need that content to survive, studios will absorb most of the body blows dealt to them by the coronavirus.

3.) Streaming Platforms

Streaming platforms had quite a moment during the early stages of the pandemic, when everyone was locked inside with nothing to do but binge their content - but that ride is now coming to an end because, well, no new content is being created at the moment.

You’re only as good as your library, and with the already stiff competition of pretty much every media company releasing their own streaming service, you’re not gonna get many new subscribers if your library is thin and played out. 

Still though, as with moviegoers resting easy knowing films will be seen again, Netflix and co. can take solace in the fact that at some point, filming will resume, and they’ll be able to add more content to their platform. A platform that I stated before, is both the present and future of entertainment consumption. They’ve taken a few knocks, but like studios before them, will absorb the hits and keep it moving.

4.) Movie Theaters

It’s no surprise movie theaters have suffered the most short term and long term damage during the pandemic, and odds are most chains will not survive if they don’t drastically adjust their business models on the fly. 

We’ve already seen this with the aforementioned Alamo Drafthouse, which had to close its Arizona locations and lay off more than 80 employees from corporate alone. 

AMC is working on a deal to narrowly avoid bankruptcy, after reporting a $2.4 billion loss.

Where the problems facing the previous entities were varied, theaters essentially are facing all of those problems, plus more, simultaneously. 

Their problems are as follows:

-Needing to invest more money in keeping their employees and patrons safe.

-Waiting for studios to release big, critically acclaimed films (since even when they’re safe to reopen, no one’s gonna risk their life for a shitty film, and it’s not like those big, critically acclaimed films are all gonna drop the day theaters reopen)

-Praying studios don’t pull another Trolls World Tour and completely cut them off at the knees by releasing directly to streaming.

-All the while losing money by opening to smaller audiences. Social distancing measures will be in place. That means forfeiting X amount of seats (otherwise known as “X amount of dollars”). Many people will be traumatized by this experience and won’t be returning to theaters for a long time, if at all. People who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic won’t have the disposable income needed to drop upwards of $25 (tickets and gas) to see one movie, one time, or more money if they plan to buy food there as well. 

While the other entities have some silver linings, there’s absolutely nothing good that theaters have to look forward to. It’s all bad. An industry that was already fading due to technological advancements and cultural shifts may have just taken its knockout punch. 

I know that sounds grim, especially to fellow cinephiles, but I do think it has a narrow chance for survival; at least in the short term. 

The following is my plan for how all of these moving parts can coexist and - in the case of theaters specifically - stave off extinction (for now).

•Studios should release their summer films on streaming now, and share the profits with theaters.
This is crucial. One of the biggest movies this summer, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, is slated to have a scattered release. Meaning the film will debut overseas and essentially anywhere theaters are able to open. This is a mistake, in my opinion. In the age of social media, it won’t take long for spoilers of a film as anticipated as Tenet to make its way online, even for those largely trying to avoid such spoilers. People who have the movie spoiled for them won’t find it as necessary to potentially risk their health watching the film in theaters, and may decide to wait for it to release on streaming. But right now, with most peoples’ summers effectively ruined, and nothing to do, it would be the perfect time to release a huge film like Tenet on streaming. If Trolls made $100 million, Tenet could easily double that, especially if they put a premium on the rental price and charge somewhere between $25-30. People who were planning to see the film in theaters would’ve spent close to that in theaters anyway, and those bored out of their minds and looking for any source of entertainment would also check the film out, whereas under normal circumstances, they probably wouldn’t have. Regardless, content needs to be pushed out right now for consumption, and studios need to accept the fact that none of these films are going to make what they would’ve made. Release the films, generate excitement, and give some of those earnings to theaters to keep them afloat in the short term.

•High profile actors/directors/etc can help save the industry by making more appearances at theaters.
Directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino endorse the moviegoing experience - but it would help theaters if they and others like them did more Q&A style events as a way to bring people to theaters. Fans would pay a premium to watch their favorites in a new film and then actually get to meet them and ask them questions immediately after. Artists that genuinely care about the moviegoing experience should step up when and where they can, and make more appearances to help out their local cinemas.

•Theaters should offer subscriptions with better rewards.

Chains like Alamo and AMC already offer subscription services where you pay a monthly fee and get perks like the ability to watch one film a day, get first dibs on ticket purchases, and receive discounts on concessions and the like, but sometimes the rewards leave a lot to be desired. Getting a free soda after 10 visits isn’t exactly a “reward.” If you create more attractive incentives for people to come in, more people will join the subscription service, which means they’ll frequent the theater more often, and in turn spend more money on concessions and other merchandise. 

•Cut a deal with studios to sell exclusive merchandise.

Anything from posters, hats, shirts, collector’s glasses, figurines, or other trinkets that can’t be found anywhere else. This is a win-win for both movie theaters and the owners of the IPs being licensed.

•Make it a social event.

Add themed nights to your theater. Create contests/raffle off prizes. Make clubs. With the virus largely keeping us from seeing our friends and family, many people are itching to socialize again (safely of course). Make the theater feel more like a friendly neighbor than simply an establishment that plays movies. If people feel the theater is a part of their community, like an extended family member, they’ll feel like they have skin in the game, and would be more likely to fight to keep the place open and do something like donate to the theater if it needed a fundraiser to help keep it alive. People would have a vested interest in the continued existence of the theater. 

Those are just a few ideas that I feel could extend the lifespan of movie theaters, though admittedly, these things would only work in the short term, as just like father time, technological advancements are undefeated, and there’s no escaping the streaming platforms. But if going to the movies becomes an archaic practice, the least we can do is give it a proper send off, and fight until the credits roll.