Top Five Reasons Audiences Are Not Returning to Movie Theaters

1) TOO-MANY ADS. If the movie is scheduled to begin at 3:00, that is traditionally when the trailers begin. Nowadays, the trailers do not begin until 3:10ish, followed by another half-hour of trailers. Don’t get me wrong: trailers can be fun, but thirty minutes might be a bit much. In addition, when the theater plays commercials for products in the middle of the trailers, like Dean Winters’ fun Allstate Insurance ads, it begins to feel like you’re at home, watching regular TV for free, rather than sitting in an expensive movie theater. To be clear, this practice, and I know movie theaters need the money that comes from these advertisements to stay in business, is not a new phenomenon. Case in point: Matt Damon’s somewhat annoying 2021 crypto ad. It’s just getting to the point where you don’t want to arrive until the trailers are mostly over.

2) MON EY. Full disclosure: I was born in 1992. I remember when movie tickets were $5. Today, a single movie ticket costs around $11 for a general admission, first screening of the day ticket. Plus, that’s not including the $2.19 convenience fee that comes with using a service like Fandango. Speaking of Fandango, and I just learned this today, they charge a $0.74 “charitable donation” fee. What’s going on, Fandango? After searching Fandango’s website, I don’t see a way to opt out of that charge. This is not me trying to be cheap and not give to the less fortunate. It’s that Fandango, a company that is in business to make money, is going to deduct these charitable contributions on their annual tax forms. Yes, I understand that nothing gets cheaper, but always more expensive. I would just rather, and will from now on, show up super early, go buy my tickets at the box office, go do something else in the meantime, and avoid these insane fees. No, Fandango does not get my business any longer.

3) THE INTERIOR. I know that they were probably less comfortable, but I miss the pre-pandemic days where movie theaters had standard chairs that didn’t move, and no footrests. Yes, this does sound like an odd critique. However, when there were more seats in the theater, the tickets did not cost so much because there were more seats to be filled. Also, and not everyone does this, but when people put their footrests up all the way, that inevitably leads to someone walking back to their seat, who will trip over that footrest, and cause a big commotion during the exciting part of the movie. Let’s not even get into how the leather seats annoyingly stick to my bare legs in the summertime.

4) PEOPLE. There has always been, and always will be, an annoying person who talks in the movie theater, a person who bring a child to a movie that the child is way too young to watch, or something to that effect. However, this phenomenon of being overly rude in a movie theater seems to have become worse since the pandemic. During lockdown, nobody went to the theaters. We all stayed home and binge-watched whatever would keep us all the sanest for the longest. Now that we’re all allowed to rejoin society, we seem to have lost all our manners. For example, audiences loved singing along during the Wicked movie. That’s fine if it’s a sing-along screening of the film, but not during a regular screening. That’s just being annoying, especially because no audience member has Cynthia Erivo’s pipes, nor do they know all the words to every one of the songs they’re inevitably going to try and “sing.”

5) STREAMING. During the worst of the pandemic, people became accustomed to having the newest movies available to watch at home. Even though movie studios have mostly moved away from releasing their movies to theaters and for streaming purposes simultaneously, movies are still available to watch at home, sometimes a few weeks after their theatrical debut, which is much sooner than what was once traditional. Before the pandemic, a movie might not be available to watch at home for 4-5 months after the movie opened in theaters. Now, the movie will probably be available to stream for $19.99 on some streaming platform a few weeks after the movie’s theatrical window begins. This practice of releasing movies on streaming and video on-demand services so soon after its debut in theaters is killing movie theaters because, even though $19.99 may sound like a lot of money to spend on watching a movie at home, it’s not. When you factor in the time, energy, and resources it may take to get to the local movie theater itself, whatever concessions you might be suckered into buying, it’s probably actually cheaper to watch the movie at home.

CONCLUSION: Despite the annoyances I feel from incessant and repetitive non-trailer advertisements, my occasional filmgoers, and the rising costs of concessions and tickets, I will never stop going to see a movie in a movie theater. Going to a multiplex and watching a movie in a dark theater with people around is a deeply meaningful experience. When people all come together, despite our differences, all to be entertained or moved in some way by the same idea or experience is a feeling of community that is truly magical. Going to the movies, whether it's for something serious or funny, exciting or terrifying, remains some of my best, lifelong memories. It’s impossible to compare the experience of watching something in a dark, loud room with no other distractions to watching something at home, during the daytime, with your phone and other distractions nearby and think, “I’d rather see (fill in the blank) at home.”