Holy shitstorm Batman!
The online reactions to my post last week about the coming demise of the modern movie house have been intense and 99 percent damning. Even though the original post addressed each of the basic objections that have been raised over the past few days, I left way too much to the imagination; an ability that far too few of us exercise very much if ever based on the comments I’ve read.
No doubt the visceral reaction to the post also has something to do with the basic anxiety and anger that hangs like a threatening storm cloud over much of America and the world at present. For some, any opportunity to strike out and relieve some pain is a good one, especially online where anonymity rules and every yahoo with a keyboard feels empowered to act out without fear or conscience. But that too shall pass. (Through better, smarter implementations of technology.)
In the meantime, I’ll ignore the rabble and respond to the essential complaints.
1) Movies were made to be seen on a big screen.
No, they weren’t. The first projections of movies were played to one person at a time through what was essentially a peephole. In fact Edison, the inventor of the earliest movie technology, believed that projecting to groups of viewers at once was not financially viable. He was, of course, proven wrong, but that was the beginning of an evolutionary process that will very soon – within 10 years – see the most dramatic changes and positive improvements in the 120-year history of moving pictures.
What am I talking about? Keep reading.
2) Moviegoing is a communal experience.
Yes, for most people it is. And once the intensely increasing speed of technology has rendered movie theaters virtually extinct, moviegoers will have the option of communing over movies anywhere they want with as many people as they want – friends and strangers alike. "Going to the movies" will take on an entirely new meaning and the thought of sitting in a dark, uncomfortable theater will seem as cornball as attending an oldies show at the local Indian casino. (Please, I love Indian casinos.)
How? Keep reading.
An aside: It’s so interesting that some of my most vociferous critics concede that they themselves go to movie theaters far less frequently than they used to. They even point out some of the many reasons that bricks and mortar has, outside of any intrusion by new technology, lost much of its appeal and become more and more a hassle. Nonetheless, they feel a responsibility to defend the movie-theater-going experience to the death. Strange but true.
3) There’s been little or no drop-off in theater attendance and some specialty cinemas are having record years.
OK, but what’s your point? I’m not saying that movie-going – the social experience – is going to end. In fact, the superior viewing experience of the coming technology and its mind-expanding ability for enabling almost unlimited socialization will guarantee that content creators – especially the studios – will increase their audience dramatically and their revenues beyond their wildest dreams.
