Are Movie Theaters Doomed?

Written by: Julian Nowik
November 8th 2020

Revere, MA’s Showcase Cinema de Lux in Revere will be shutting down soon after 50 years. 50 years. The news initially didn’t resonate with me immediately, but upon writing this article, it dawned on me just how much time I’ve spent in that theatre. I remember seeing “Wreck-It Ralph” with my friend and his dad there when it came out 8 years ago in 2012. I remember trying not to look like I was crying at the end of “How to Train your Dragon 2” back in 2014. I remember eating chicken nuggets from the food court before watching “Storks” in 2016. The list goes on and it's sad to think about how much this theatre meant to people who had been going there far longer than I have. National Amusements, the cinema’s owner, sold the lot to Northbridge Partners who are reportedly tearing down the theatre completely and building the second Amazon distribution facility in Revere. Ultimately, while I’ll miss the theatre, it's really only a small part of the effect COVID-19 has had on movie theaters in 2020.
Of course there are many more theatres nearby than just the Showcase Cinema in Revere. While many other theatres have been struggling just as much, theatre chains like AMC have had some trouble juggling their depleting finances. AMC has acknowledged the absence of films in theatres right now but they are hopeful for the future and currently have the vast majority of their theatres open worldwide (sadly for us, that doesn’t include the one at Assembly). They recently made an agreement with Universal Studios that will let them stay open longer. All in all, AMC is doing their best to stay open and help their business survive the pandemic and I hope they do since it's my go-to theatre and I still have plenty of gift cards there.
While the future of indoor movie theatres seems uncertain, another form of film viewing has risen from obscurity. The Kowloon, an Asain restaurant on Route 1 in Saugus, decided to turn their parking lot into a drive-in movie theater over the summer and found great success in doing so. Kowloon isn’t the only place doing this and the idea has been sweeping the nation. Watching a movie from the comfort of your own car was popularized during the 1950’s and today it's a much safer way to view movies since people are outdoors and more than 6ft. apart. If COVID-19 continues to be a constant threat over the next few years it's likely we will see more of these pop up in the future, perhaps they will even begin having current movies licensed to them. As of right now, many of them are showing only older movies and while this is still great it doesn’t help the current film industry very much. It makes the drive in seem like more of a novelty or temporary placeholder for theatres than an official modern film viewing experience.
Many new films have been releasing digitally this year on services like On-Demand and Amazon Prime. This year has also proved incredibly beneficial for streaming services that have already been making original content for years. Much of this content is on par with what’s being shown in theatres and on television. The best part, it’s cheaper. No one really knows what the world will be like after the pandemic and lots of things will likely be very different, including how we watch movies. For as desperate as many industries have become, it seems like the film industry will pull through too and I’m excited to see movies in the upcoming years.