By Luis Rosario
Staff Writer
The last movie I saw in the theaters was “Get Out,” and the only reason I went to see it in theaters was because I couldn’t stream it online. It seems like movie theaters are dying. People now have third-party apps and websites to watch movies for free while they’re still out in theaters.
Instead of studios trying to fight this and trying to get more people in the theaters, it seems like they’re finally giving in. Studios like Fox and Warner Brothers have discussed offering a video on demand service for movies two weeks after they’ve been released. They’ve discussed charging $50 for two weeks, and $30 after the film has been in theaters for a month. People have always pirated films and now have a legal alternative to going to the theater. It seems safe to say that theaters are on life-support. But it’s not dead yet. Let’s be heroes. Together we can save the movie theater.
Going to the movies is an experience. Viewing a movie should be an event, not something you do at 12 a.m. right before you go to bed. A movie is art. There are directors, actors, cinematographers and many more people who put extensive hours to see their vision come to life.
Actors are musicians, directors are maestros and together their vision comes to fruition. Regardless of the genre, watching a movie is an intimate experience. Thoughts, ideas and accounts of past events are being shared. The theater isn’t a big, dark auditorium for no reason. It’s designed that way to create a trance and a one-on-one relationship between viewers and the film. There are no distractions, no pausing to talk on the phone, just a collection of moments waiting to be shared.
Movies are released in theaters for a reason. The sounds, colors and the feel of the movie are best when seen in a theater. When movies are shot, they’re filmed with digital, film or 3D cameras. The quality is at its best when seen on the big screen. The rustles of leaves, loss of breath and roars of dinosaurs are sculpted for the speakers in the theater. Hearing Mike Myers walking in from the door in the distance should be scary, you should hear the steps creep up on you as if you were in the room too.
The enemy of movies, the spoiler, has become the theaters’ most trusted ally in the fight against streaming. Waiting for the movie to come out on demand, if studios adopt that, or waiting for a good stream, opens the door for spoilers. Everyone mindlessly scrolls Twitter and Instagram daily, and each time you swipe, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable for a spoiler. Watching movies when they come out virtually kills the spoiler. Spoilers can’t ruin your experience if you’ve already seen the movie.
