Movie theaters have been around since 1905 and for a long the primary way people have consumed movies. It is normal for movies to rerun on TV or purchase DVDs after they have been out for a while, but that was always a secondary consumption of movie. But, in 2007 Netflix introduced streaming to the world, which for it was mainly about being able to watch TV any episode, at any time. As time went on more movies started popping up and soon enough Netflix became a place for movies too. Jump to modern day, streaming expanded with many more services popping up by big entertainment companies with modern movies even coming to streaming earlier, sometimes even skipping the theater or releasing as an exclusive to the platform. Now more than ever it begs the question, will streaming kill movie theaters? No, there is no way theaters are dying now, but they will coexist with streaming.  

       Modern streaming became so accessible and especially during Covid, streaming spiked in users and grew exponentially. However, because of the pandemic movie theaters took a break and shut down in business for a bit. This led many people to believe movie theaters would eventually be shoved out of business by streaming. Not just that though, the world has seen drive in die before, a used to be a popular form of movie consumption. However as time went on, more forms of movie consumption became popular and theaters became more luxurious. Drive In’s kind of became outdated and eventually almost all of them shut down; now if you come across one it’s almost vintage or a gimmick. There are people who believe streaming will do the same thing to movie theaters. For a bit during COVID movie theaters just shut down, it was too much of a health risk and then streaming grew. However after COVID, movie theaters began to open again, and when people thought they would never get back to normal numbers, they broke records once again. Spider-Man: No Way Home, released in 2021, had one of the second biggest opening weekends ever, right when COVID was dying down. (Mendelson).

    First of all, streaming has its own variety of issues. Just how theaters have their downsides, so does streaming. Streaming now has a huge issue of availability of certain movies. There are so many different services that all have different movies between them where movies constantly leave and move to different services. If it does have the movie you're looking for or not on the service you're paying $11-$16 dollars a month for. If you want to watch that movie then you would pay for another service. Movies get juggled around so much on streaming services where it is so inconsistent that things stay long term. 

    Also money is another issue of streaming. Budgets for these streaming only movies are so uncertain and unpredictable. They can change so much that it can be hard to make the film in the first place if the budget is always changing or not known. The average budget for theaters and streaming is $65 million, however producers who release for theater have more control of the budget as it is more about the company producing the movie rather than the streaming service. Not to mention the film creators are not paid great either. Streaming operates by making money off subscriptions and not individual films, so these film makers are not seeing as much money back then if their film was on the big screen.

        Next, movie theaters have seen a resurgence after COVID and are reaching and exceeding their normal numbers again. While COVID theater attendance dropped 4%, they have gone up 50% since COVID. Not fully back to normal attendance numbers but definitely when it comes to individual movies, records have been broken. Movies are starting to move back into theaters. The theaters are rather profitable for movies. Also during COVID, people were not allowed to leave their homes, but now they can again, we are reaching an era where streaming is not on its own but movie theaters have truly entered the competition. Movie theaters are an experience, there is more to it than just sitting down and watching a movie, and can be about an adventure with friends or a fun day out. In certain cases, movie theaters can even be cheaper than streaming for those who are not looking to watch movies all the time but want to only see a few. 

      Some people may argue with the closing of 39 Regal Cinemas across the U.S. and the fact they are filing for bankruptcy is a sign theaters are failing. However other theaters are succeeding immensely and recovering. Regal blamed a lack of movies people want to see, but at the same time theaters were doing very well and movies like Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 have had major success in theaters. This was simply because Regal failed as a company and a business. 

      Theaters and streaming are different. They both have plus sides and downsides. We are now entering a world where people will choose how they enjoy their movies and there are perfect reasons for both forms of entertainment, but theaters won’t be leaving any time soon.