How to Look at a Movie Theatre
In a creativity book, under an entry simply titled Curtains Up, director David Lynch wrote: “It’s so magical – I don’t know why – to go into a theater and have the lights go down. It’s very quiet, and then the curtains start to open. Maybe they’re red. And you go into a world. It’s beautiful when it’s a shared experience. It’s still beautiful when you’re at home and your theater is in front of you, though it’s not quite as good. It’s best on a big screen. That’s the way to go into a world.”
The importance and value of movie theatres to our society has shifted over the decades as our relationship with the art form it hosts also shifts. In the streaming, post-COVID era, when it’s common that major releases might never see a theatrical release at all and individual comfort and convenience are prioritized, the legitimacy of the very concept of theatrical exhibition is constantly in question.
So, are theatres necessary? Or are they an outdated cultural practice that we hold on to out of a romantic notion of visiting “the movies”? Why bother caring about something so seemingly endangered? What are the essential elements of a movie theatre/cinema/the movies? Darkness? Auditorium seating? The biggest possible screen, like the image above? Or just a wall, paired with a projector? What about outdoor movie theatres? Drive-ins? Those are certainly romantic.
But in an increasingly uncertain economy, audiences are reluctant to pay for that romance as freely as they once did, especially here in North America. In advertising the latest Mission: Impossible films, super star Tom Cruise placed a lot of emphasis on popcorn, heartily enjoying handfuls of the snack, sometimes in specially-branded buckets, in promotional videos and events in an effort to persuade audiences to spend money on theater concessions while they were there to enjoy his latest blockbuster.
Naturally, Cruise is doing this to further promote the version of the business that serves his interests best, but this highlights the classic tension between commerce and art found in filmmaking, but from a general consumer’s point of view. If the entire business seems designed to squeeze as much money out of you and your loved ones as possible in booking fees and expensive buckets in the service of “movie magic,” it is easy to understand the cynicism surrounding them.
The movie theater business has been steadily recovering since the pandemic, but generally speaking, audiences have two types of theatres to attend:
1. Large, corporate multiplexes like Cineplex or AMC with the latest in premium format technology (IMAX, 3D, DBOX, etc.), and a large choice of (expensive) concessions available. The now-ubiquitous presentation of “the movies.”
2. Small, usually single-screen independent theatres, like the non-profit Revue Cinema in Toronto, which play the latest Hollywood releases a bit later than the major chains and supplement their programming with special curations of genre entries, cult classics, etc. Limited choice of concessions and not as expensive, but still included to sell the idea of “the movies.”
Both of these are still subject to strong-arm policies from major companies like Disney. In a CBC article highlighting their strict exhibition rules, independent theatre owner John Roper said: “Not only do we have to play it for four weeks straight, we have to play it four times a day,” which makes it difficult to sustain business with a single screen in the house, and while multiplexes have the room to accommodate strict conditions like these, on a macro level, this excludes smaller, independent movies from being exhibited theatrically or even made at all.
This big studio market domination somewhat resembles the anti-competitive practices of Studio System Hollywood, but is that all movie theatres really can be? An expensive ritual?
In an effort to reconsider, here are a few photographs of screenings around the world:
What is in these images that is totally absent from at-home viewings? Strangers. Surrendering to the film at its pace, unable to pause or adjust its speed. In the case of the last two images, the elements. Concessions weren’t even allowed in the Cinema Trindade, which prioritized silence.
The next time you’re at a movie theatre, quietly examine your seat neighbors. Look at the way their faces illuminate in the darkness. Listen to the crowd’s reactions. What moments make them laugh, make them cry? Are you more emotionally engaged because of them?
Community has always been an integral part of of the theatrical experience, and what makes it shine as one of our most popular forms of engaging with our visual culture despite modern technologies and business interests threatening to take it away in an effort to further fragmentize society.
WORKS CITED
Kurjata, Andrew. “Disney’s Movie Dominance Has a Dark Side for Small Towns, Independent Theatre Warns | CBC News.” CBC News, CBC/Radio Canada, 19 Dec. 2017.