The movie industry has been particularly hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, from production shutdowns to cinema closures. Exhibition in particular is in a precarious state as movie theaters are not only to be among the last things to open, but are also likely to lose some audience who has no desire to go back.
That’s on top of the fact that cinemas were already doing it tough prior to COVID-19. On those terms, cinemas have themselves to blame to some extent – poorly maintained theaters, under trained staff, poor quality presentations, lack of imaginative food menus, and so on. People may wax on lyrically about the magic of cinema, but there are a lot of them out there which are not good.
One person whom wants cinemas to shape up and be competitive is “Logan” and “Ford vs. Ferrari” director James Mangold. Speaking with Discussing Film recently, Mangold says he believes filmgoers are not getting the experience they come to theaters to have:
“To me, filmmaking is filmmaking. The reality is that the delivery of a movie to a smaller screen that sometimes now is not even necessarily that much of a smaller screen. The reality of theater projection has gotten so tragically bad in so many cases. The fight to put your movie in a theater that stinks and someone’s eating an enchilada next to you – half the screen is out of focus or too dim.
Theatrical has its own problems, which is that if it doesn’t make itself a sterling presentation that you cannot approximate at the home – then theatrical kills itself without any other delivery method even competing with it. When I talk to theater owners or theater chains, that’s the big thing…
…My point really is just that theatrical is a wasteland right now of a lot of s—ty delivery of movies to audiences who are paying a premium to see them on a big screen. That’s something that needs to be solved in the future.
I don’t think theatrical is dead. I’m sure there’s going to be casualties from all this and the theater chains, but I think that people wanting to go out and have a special experience on a big, big screen with great presentation of a movie that isn’t available anywhere else… is something that will continue. But I do think the kind of glory period that I came up during the 1990s, when there was really thriving independent cinema on screens in major cities, is already gone. It was gone before this virus arrived.”
The full interview is a welcome read, going into how things have changed and how with 4K images available at the push of the button in a home with increasingly larger and higher quality screens – approximating the experience at home hasn’t been easier. That interview can be read by clicking here.
