It Betta’ Be Good
RIP to the way we went to our weekly movie trips. I can list all of the negatives about COVID-19, but there are many positives. The one positive is that we are welcoming a world of cleanliness that we knew wasn’t there before, but really wanted its existence. I don’t even remember what movies are like in a movie theater. My daughter and son are walking around reminiscing about ICEES, Popcorn, and Hot Dogs.
After weeks of no new movies and the constant postponing of movies debuting to August and now December, the largest movie made a decision to come out to streaming service – Trolls World Tour kept its marketing and dropped the movie straight to TV for a 30-day rental. This movie was incredibly successful. It was so successful that other movies followed after them. Some of the movies like Scoob! were really good, but then there were others, Capone that was really, really bad.
Two things are forever true:
More movies will be going straight to streaming service
No one is going to see a bad movie at the movies
I actually think the movies can come back with a force! The movies can come back in a few ways:
There needs to be more time between movie showings, so there can be a deep cleaning between each showing. Say goodbye to sticky floors.
All theaters should have the reclining chairs so there can be more distance between people in front and behind us.
There should be more space between families. Once a group of seats is purchased, then the seats to the right and left should be blocked off.
All theaters should have food service at the seat.
I am not sure if theaters can make money with these strict COVID-19 rules, but I do know that if I am going to risk getting COVID-19, then the movie better be great. This movie must be an Avengers Endgame event in an IMAX theater.
This now means small movies have no way to be successful outside of a streaming service. This also means there will be fewer movies at the movie theater. Marginal movies with a large budget will not thrive in a theater. The bar to have good, quality films reach theaters is there.
The largest question is if movie theaters will be willing to make less money in order to create safer movie practices. Will capitalism win or will health, safety, and wellness win?