How Are Movie Theaters Going to Survive ?

If you're expecting this virus will be defeated and overcome then everything will go back to normal.

Even in a happy and healthy world with people not going as much, I don't see movie theaters going away completely because someone somewhere will always fund at least one around their city. They may even become like theme parks in which the experience becomes seldom but more treasured.

Theaters are buying time right now; eventually many of them will close if people can't go.

You also can't look at the 1918 pandemic and compare life 100 years later. So many differences. Although one similarity so far is there were no effective vaccines for the Spanish Flu...and it decided to just "go away" one day.

Imagine if it didn't? Or if the amazing modern miracle vaccine for measles didn't exist? Society would be nothing like it is today without it. (And many other creations.)

It's taken for granted...including life itself.

You can say things like, "when the vaccine comes" and "when things are back to normal", but there are no guarantees. If you're thinking from a rational standpoint then you also have to consider a new, permanent world and life in which places like theaters and bars would simply be eliminated in many locations as businesses change and adapt.

It's either that or everyone gets sick and then we'd take it from there.

Very simple breakdown: cure, get sick, or avoid. Every single thing in existence revolves around that right now.
 
NorBro said:
And who's going to pay for that?
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It's always the consumer.


NorBro said:
What's bonkers about it? Do tell.
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Risk of transmission mostly depends on the concentration of the contaminated particles per given amount of space. That makes outdoor far less risky vs. indoor (such as movie theaters) but the rating only reflects that in a haphazard manner.
 
No system is perfect. This is a guide for gatherings. It's formulated pretty reasonably with the point being to keep dozens, hundreds and/or thousands of people away from each other, especially in areas with major traffic and circulation.

Plus it supports your comments as it even separated indoor and outdoor dining.
 
DLD said:
As I posted on a similar thread, theater owners could pump more ozone into the screening rooms and put up more ultra-violet/daylight lighting fixtures in the lobby.

https://www.aeroqual.com/does-ozone-kill-coronavirus-covid-19

https://www.healtheuropa.eu/breakth...opment-could-help-kill-covid-19-virus/100409/

Naturally, there's no free lunch.

PS. That pseudo-study quoted by Yahoo is bonkers.
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Theaters could add hospital grade UVC lighting in the theaters. Invisible to humans and unlike UVA or UVB is of too short a wavelength to penetrate the first layer of skin or the cornea, so is not injurious to people. Can't cause cataracts or skin cancer.

Don't forget about wearing masks. One only has to compare the peak infection rates between Hong Kong and New York, high density cities of similar population that had their first cases show up the same day. Asians in big cities have developed a culture of wearing masks when sick to protect their fellow citizens even during non pandemic times. During the current pandemic, wearing masks in public is nearly universal and voluntary, not dictated. Peak infection rates in New York exceeded 500 per 100,000 population. Hong Kong 146 per million.
 
NorBro said:
No system is perfect. This is a guide for gatherings. It's formulated pretty reasonably with the point being to keep dozens, hundreds and/or thousands of people away from each other, especially in areas with major traffic and circulation...
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But they have doctor's waiting rooms are having lower risks than some outdoor venues. Obviously, you can take this to extreme, a 4-hour MLB playoff game with 70,000 fans vs. a dentist with no Good Housekeeping magazines in the waiting area. But, an average outdoor venue vs. an average office should be no contest.

Razz16mm said:
... Don't forget about wearing masks. One only has to compare the peak infection rates between Hong Kong and New York, high density cities of similar population that had their first cases show up the same day. Asians in big cities have developed a culture of wearing masks when sick to protect their fellow citizens even during non pandemic times. During the current pandemic, wearing masks in public is nearly universal and voluntary, not dictated. Peak infection rates in New York exceeded 500 per 100,000 population. Hong Kong 146 per million.
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I've been harping on masks since the beginning and precisely for this reason. I watched the video clips from Japan, HK and so on and always thought the US should resort to that during a flu&cold season.

When I was in college in the early-mid 80's, I was kind of/sort of friends with a group of other students. One day, we're sitting in a student cafeteria and having a little chit-chat about nothing. I think I was telling someone somethign about the life in the USSR and one of the guys in the group asked, "Oh, just curious, what did you parents do back there?" So I replied, "my father was an engineering/tool and die manager and my mom was a legal counsel. My dad is doing the same thing here and my mom works in the office at a local bakery". Suddenly, the guy's eye bug out, "Your mom's name wouldn't be Leela, would it?". I reply, "Yes, it is". And then he says, "And you're DLD!" (OK, he used my first name only) And then I yelled, "And you're Carl!"

Yup, it so happened that my mom and Carl have been working at the same office for a couple of years and Carl even once brought something to our house (it wasn't far from the bakery) but I was watching something on TV in my room and did not bother to greet some guy from mom's bakery.

The reason I bring this up is because Carl, who went on to get his Masters in English and is now teaching at a college in California, never missed a day of work. If he was sick, he'd still show up. Flu, cold. It didn't matter. And it was considered a sign of dependability. It was a very small office. Everyone had his/her tasks and he didn't want to let other people down. Even as he was sneezing and coughing up a storm. My mom'd tell me about him. We'd laugh. We probably shouldn't have laughed and his boss should have told him to go home.
 
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Yeah, Americans don't prioritize our health much. ("Just take a pill and power through!")

All this talk of "oh, but 30-60k Americans die from the flu each year anyway" has got me thinking maybe we should have sick folks wearing masks normally to get that number down.
 
ahalpert said:
... All this talk of "oh, but 30-60k Americans die from the flu each year anyway" has got me thinking maybe we should have sick folks wearing masks normally to get that number down.
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My point precisely.

Eric brought this up conceptually a while back that we know what the number is and are willing to tolerate it. Car accidents, cancers, infectious diseases. But, really, we shouldn't tolerate these numbers unless there's a legitimate attempt to keep those numbers as low as possible without being detrimental to others.
 
Back in February I went into our weekly engineering dept. coordination meeting, typically about 30 minutes long, six people in a 16'x12' conference room. One of us had the sniffles, wasn't coughing or sneezing, but four out of the other five of us came down with his head cold within three days. Normal talking spreads as much aerosol droplets up to 12 feet as sneezing or coughing do. Fortunately it wasn't covid. If the infected person had worn a mask, the rest of us likely would not have contracted it.
 
I love going to the movies but I also sometimes wonder if we are working very hard to try to save a dying industry anyway. Like trying to save the horse and buggy when cars started to become more common. At some point we need to let the industry transform how its naturally trying to transform.

It may be time to rethink how studios create and distribute content. I'm a little biased because we have a toddler at home and ever since she was born we hardly ever have time to go to the movies without it turning into a $60 babysitter night on top of the movie tickets, snacks, dinner and so forth. Kind of nuts when we can watch a movie together snuggled up on the couch when our daughter goes to bed. Yes it impacts the economy and that's just the reality of a changing industry some things will shut down and in their ashes something new can be born.

I don't think theaters will be gone forever. Eventually somebody will buy up the rotting shells and fire them up again. How long that will be is difficult to say. Covid sticks with us because we as a society let it stick with us. Half the country still thinks its a hoax or not as bad as the flu. Its that good ole American "don't tell me what to do" attitude that is going to make Covid-19 our reality for some time to come.

Its not all bad for us. The majority of people on here and in the indie industry likely were never going to put out a theatrical release anyway. Streaming was always the future for most of us and now that is even more true. I worked for a production company that did live streaming years ago and now people are finally taking it seriously and it is quickly becoming the new norm. Even if a few here were lucky enough to have some theater exposure it likely wasn't a massive bill payer for them.

Streaming is the future pandemic or no pandemic. Maybe we are just taking the theaters off of life support and letting them go so we can now focus on where video has been headed anyway. Studios can make money off of streaming. Netflix makes a ton of money. Disney+ would make more if they had newer content people actually wanted. Amazon Prime seems to be doing very well. Not sure its the billion dollars like Disney gets per year now and that's sad I guess but studios need to get creative and find a way to better monetize the content.

I also see this as an opportunity for video to be taken more seriously as we now face limitations of selling and marketing face to face with people. Online advertising and video are now king. We run to YouTube to learn, laugh and be lazy. Every company still alive needs to step up their video marketing game big time to compete in this new world where web and video are pretty much it.

Video is far from dead. Just the early 1900's distribution concept of film may be on its last leg.
 
ahalpert said:
Yeah, Americans don't prioritize our health much. ("Just take a pill and power through!")

All this talk of "oh, but 30-60k Americans die from the flu each year anyway" has got me thinking maybe we should have sick folks wearing masks normally to get that number down.
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I was having this exact argument with a person I went to high school with. she asked me why then don't we wear masks flu season as an argument as to why its silly to wear them now. I told her that yeah we probably should be. It helps and anything that helps reduce the number should be considered. We would save a lot of lives and prevent a lot of paid/unpaid sick time at home for 2-3 days if most of us did not catch the flu every year. I mean its cool that most of us survive it but its kind of ridiculous that we do very little to prevent getting it in the first place. Most Americans still go to work with the flu because they don't have a choice. We are a society of sick people getting each other sick on a constant basis.
 
Thomas Smet said:
It may be time to rethink how studios create and distribute content. I'm a little biased because we have a toddler at home and ever since she was born we hardly ever have time to go to the movies without it turning into a $60 babysitter night on top of the movie tickets, snacks, dinner and so forth. Kind of nuts when we can watch a movie together snuggled up on the couch when our daughter goes to bed. Yes it impacts the economy and that's just the reality of a changing industry some things will shut down and in their ashes something new can be born.
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Yeah, we just had our 2nd kid and since I became a dad I have gone to the cinema just once, to see The Force Awakens, which was a big disappointment for me. (I know I'm in the minority and that most people liked it. But I felt like it was a remake of A New Hope masquerading as a sequel, and with too much fan service.)

But before parenthood ended my life as I knew it, I had Moviepass and I was going to the movies like 8+ times/month. To hell with people saying it's just as good to watch a movie at home. You'll never be overpowered by the image and sound like you are in a theater. You won't get your screening room pitch black. It's a different relationship to the movie and the aesthetic experience. That's why horror fans keep showing up to theaters. Because they (not me) want to be scared, and it's harder to get scared seeing it at home (I think).

Yeah, cinemas may decline or disappear due to economic forces. But no one can convince me that watching at home is an equivalent experience.
 
ahalpert said:
Yeah, we just had our 2nd kid and since I became a dad I have gone to the cinema just once, to see The Force Awakens, which was a big disappointment for me. (I know I'm in the minority and that most people liked it. But I felt like it was a remake of A New Hope masquerading as a sequel, and with too much fan service.)

But before parenthood ended my life as I knew it, I had Moviepass and I was going to the movies like 8+ times/month. To hell with people saying it's just as good to watch a movie at home. You'll never be overpowered by the image and sound like you are in a theater. You won't get your screening room pitch black. It's a different relationship to the movie and the aesthetic experience. That's why horror fans keep showing up to theaters. Because they (not me) want to be scared, and it's harder to get scared seeing it at home (I think).

Yeah, cinemas may decline or disappear due to economic forces. But no one can convince me that watching at home is an equivalent experience.
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I totally agree but theaters being the exclusive may have to end as we know it. I can't help but think if there was an alternative that studios may make even more money with each new release. I know myself and tons of other new parents would pay to see a lot more movies if the option was there. Yeah it may hurt theater profit margins because they only really make money on snacks but how many people go to movies and never buy any snacks anyway? In theory you could cut out all those people and the theaters would still make just as much as they are now.

The studios may take a hit due to a family of four only paying once to stream but they could get that many more people to pay to stream it so it may balance out.

Either way the reality is now without streaming they may all suffer because we don't know how long this will last or if it will happen again in the near future or will the virus show up again in people that have it years down the road. While I could totally watch a movie with a mask on I can't eat popcorn and drink with the mask on so theater chains may suffer even if people do show up again.

Another fascinating resurgence during the pandemic has been drive in movies. They are totally killing it right now and more may open up if this carries on longer. I'm all for this because its less overhead cost for a drive in theater and it add a new adventure aspect to a new generation that has never seen movies like that before. Drive-ins have slowly been making a come back as a unique way to see movies vs the cramped stinky theaters full of morons talking/farting/kicking. Snacks can still be sold and its vastly safer to consume said snacks in ones own car. They may be the solution to save the theater experience. Some indoor theaters will always be around but maybe we don't need ten in one city competing with each other. Especially when they are all the same cost and don't really provide a huge amount of tangible differences from each other. The speciality ones like the ones with waiters that serve pizza and beer will have their place but to be honest most theaters are just boring clones of each other. They try really hard to one up on each other by providing recliner seats, or slightly less crappy popcorn but in all reality there is little reason to have that many competing theaters.
 
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Kind of relevant...always wondered why Star Wars never got a hat tip (even though there weren't many in there).

 
Thomas Smet said:
I was having this exact argument with a person I went to high school with. she asked me why then don't we wear masks flu season as an argument as to why its silly to wear them now. I told her that yeah we probably should be. It helps and anything that helps reduce the number should be considered. We would save a lot of lives and prevent a lot of paid/unpaid sick time at home for 2-3 days if most of us did not catch the flu every year. I mean its cool that most of us survive it but its kind of ridiculous that we do very little to prevent getting it in the first place. Most Americans still go to work with the flu because they don't have a choice. We are a society of sick people getting each other sick on a constant basis.
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I think there's a cultural element to wearing masks, too. I work for a Japanese company and they supply surgical masks to employees regularly. This was before Covid. Whenever someone got the sniffles, on went the mask...
 
scorsesefan said:
I think there's a cultural element to wearing masks, too. I work for a Japanese company and they supply surgical masks to employees regularly. This was before Covid. Whenever someone got the sniffles, on went the mask...
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I'm cutting a travelogue style video for a client, shot over a year ago in Shanghai and Tokyo and I'm surprised by the amount of people who were already wearing masks .
 
Batutta said:
I'm cutting a travelogue style video for a client, shot over a year ago in Shanghai and Tokyo and I'm surprised by the amount of people who were already wearing masks .
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I used to work for a Japanese company, and the first time I was in Tokyo, many years ago, I was surprised by the number of people wearing masks. I thought they were all trying to keep out the smog, but my co-worker told me that in Japan, it is customary for sick people to wear masks to protect others from getting sick. When you see how crowded the cities are, especially in the subways, then it makes sense. And Eastern cultures generally have more respect for others.

So when the pandemic hit, most people already had masks, so it wasn't as big a change as in the West.
 
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