Technology has been the biggest driver of change in global societies throughout the ages.
In today’s world, technology underlies most of the activities that we do.
Without technology, we would not have movies.
It was the technology of moving film that allowed the first silent movies to be made.
The demand for talking pictures helped lead to the technology of sound recording, which has since been refined to what it is today.
Audiences’ desire for ever more realistic looking pictures helped pioneer the technology of color film.
The home video allowed audiences to watch their favorite movies over and over from the comfort of their own living rooms. The technology of the Internet allowed them to access masses of new movies and TV shows via live streaming platforms such as Netflix and our own Sofy.tv.
The movie theater has been around since the invention of movies.
Since expensive equipment was required to show early movies, film distributors naturally followed the existing theater model and brought large numbers of people into halls in order to watch movies.
Thanks to the shift in behavior that arose from the mass adoption of live-streaming sites like Netflix and Sofy.tv, in recent years, we have seen more and more headlines regarding the demise of the movie theater.
Audiences in the United States can now expect to pay around $9, on average, for a single movie theater ticket. Just compare that to the monthly $5.99 membership for Sofy.tv, where you have access to more than 1,000 short movies, and you can see why audiences could be forgiven for turning away from movie theaters.
In this article, we’re going take a look at whether the movie theater really is in demise and if there anything it can do about this.
Movie Theaters: The Real Picture
The movie business is now global.
Thanks to the emergence of highly populated countries such as China and India in recent decades, more people than ever have the money to afford a movie theater ticket.
Naturally, with a global population that is more than doubled in the last few decades, there are more people than ever going to watch films in movie theaters.
Because of this, global audience numbers have actually risen over the last few decades. But what about audience numbers in established markets such as the United States?
In the United States, it is an interesting picture.
According to statistics gathered by The Numbers website, the number of tickets sold from 1995 until 2018 has remained relatively stable, though there have been yearly fluctuations, such as from the period from 2000 until 2003, when numbers grew from 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion.
However, these figures seem more to do with the appeal of the films released during that year rather than any pattern of growth.
Despite this, box office income has grown for the industry because theaters have raised the average ticket price from just over $5 to $9 during the period of 1999 until 2019.
Such a price hike has likely helped stump audience growth figures.
The other likely cause for the lack of growth in audience numbers is the advent of live streaming sites like Netflix and Sofy.tv.
One of the interesting aspects of this story is the reduction of the number of movies being released every year by the major studios.
While independent and small budget movie studios have taken up the slack by releasing more movies since 2010, the six main studios have been slowly reducing the number of movies they make.
It is almost certain that the reason behind this is the popularity of the superhero flick.
Studios now regard superhero movies as a safe bet to ensure a good profit returns on their investment.
Despite requiring larger sums of money to make (to ensure the biggest stars and best action sequences) superhero movies are a cash cow for the industry and therefore have been prioritized over other types of movies.
Overall, the picture seems clear, movie theaters are retaining relatively stable audience numbers, despite the competition from video-on-demand platforms like Netflix.
This is an impressive feat given the economics of a Netflix subscription versus that of a movie theater ticket.
However, a large part of his success certainly lies with the industries’ adoption of the child-focused business model, as used by companies such as McDonald’s.
This is when businesses market themselves at children with the basic philosophy that if a child wishes to attend, then at least one parent must also.
Such a model guarantees at least a doubling of the number of customers and therefore helps increase profit margins.
The movie industry now battling strongly to ensure that its superhero flicks get the lowest possible parental guidance ratings so that movie theaters can be filled up by families.
This model has almost certainly allowed the industry to mask falling adult attendance numbers through the ‘Disneyfication’ of the movie theater.
So the simple answer is that while audience numbers have not fallen, they have remained relatively stagnant over the last two decades.
Provided this movie theaters can keep targeting children, then audience numbers in the US are likely to remain stable for a long time as parents look to take their children on days out from the house. For this essential activity, Netflix is simply not an option.
Overall, however, these statistics and the realization that movie theaters are now locked into providing content for children and families paints a rather depressing picture of the overall state of the movie industry.
Can the industry survive it continues down this road, only time will tell.
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