In 2007, Netflix made a bold decision—to shift from mailing DVDs to digital streaming. Today, this is the primary way we watch…almost everything. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic (I know, I know—who wants to go there?—but hear me out!), streaming became an easily accessible way to consume media, providing a much-needed escape. It’s true that streaming is convenient and contributes to our desire to burn through material quickly. But is this harming the cinema industry? If not, what is?
Attention Spans
It’s no secret our attention spans are…unwell. Streaming introduces a level of easy access that has trained our brains to expect automatic results from anything we consume. Along with this, many social media services, including TikTok, have introduced 2x speed options, making it so that now more than ever, we are subject to an expectation of immediate content. Now, the expectation is this: if you can’t say it in under a minute it’s not worth listening to.
Another aspect that TikTok introduces that we haven’t considered? Entire movies are being uploaded to Tiktok; they’re uploaded in 52 parts that you have to go to the user’s account to watch, but some are just uploaded in their entirety. Ayo Edebiri and Hailee Steinfeld recently poked fun at this exact phenomenon on stage at the Golden Globes, and I, for one, felt a little called out.
Honestly, it’s a little disappointing how much easier it is to pay attention to these TikTok-formatted movies sometimes…a little dystopian? Like, here! Free movie! Just sit there…on the smallest screen you own…looking through the comment section and refusing to actually engage with the material you’re watching on an intellectual level. But wait! After you’re done, return to your For You Page and watch a video so mind-numbing that it’ll give you whiplash!
A little bleak, isn’t it?
Affordability
Let’s be honest: a big part of why young people aren’t going to the theater is because it’s frankly too expensive. I mean, the tickets themselves are $15 alone, but if you want popcorn, a drink or anything? You’re easily spending $30 per person. And not everyone can afford that, especially not as consistently to keep the theater alive. Sure, there are programs like AMC Stubs A List, where you can buy a subscription and see four movies a week, but that’s not sustainable for everybody, and I’m kind of tired of pretending it is. These programs are often not marketed enough to people who are actually interested in them. Not to mention that not everyone has AMC theaters in their area, and local theaters often have trouble bringing in a clientele base.
The cinema has become a luxury, and one that is struggling to justify itself in the face of streaming, binge culture and rising prices.
We’re Conditioned to Accept Low Quality
Streaming services, Netflix in particular, have become known for creating and looking for scripts that prioritize audiences who spend most of their time on their phones, in the kitchen, doing anything but giving 100% of their attention to the movie they’re supposed to be watching. Not only does this go back to our lowered attention spans, but it also shows a real fault in the movie industry. We’re slowly learning to accept less and less of the media we consume, and that allows really good content to fall through the cracks.
Think of all the live-action remakes people complain so much about. Some of them (The Little Mermaid and Aladdin come to mind) were genuine reimaginings of stories we’ve come to love that brought something new to the table. But the market quickly became oversaturated with movies that no one’s asking for, while genuinely original stories seem to fall to the wayside. (Hoppers is a good example of an original movie that Disney just released.)
And original stories are doing well! Think of the success K-Pop Demon Hunters had, and that was a movie that was hardly promoted at all. We are, by no means, starved for new stories, but rather starved for the industry to treat them with the respect they deserve.
So, What Should We Do?
This question has two answers depending on who you’re talking to. On the one hand, if you’re in the movie industry, then you need to consider how you’re promoting the movies you want people to see. Cinema has become one of the only industries obsessed with its own commercialization, largely at the expense of quality storytelling. The crisis in the film industry is a flaw in its structure.
Think of the big successes that the movie theater has had in recent years: Barbenheimer summer, The Eras Tour premiere—even as far back as 2021! I remember being in the theater when Spider-Man: No Way Home came out, and the audience reactions were electric. Sinners generated some of the best conversations surrounding a film I’ve seen in my personal life in a while.
We need to platform stories people want to see. In other words, to make a good picture, put the audience back in it.
I urge students to think critically about the content that we’re consuming. The movie theater is one of the only places that we have nowadays that challenges us to spend long periods of time without touching our phones. In the world that we’re in, I firmly believe that this is critical to being a more enlightened person.
Also? It gets us out of the house. It gets us interacting, talking and thinking.
We need to bring back the theater as a space where we can convene and interact with stories instead of a commercialized space where everything is about profit or getting the most praise during awards season.
For Gainesville Residents
In and out of UF’s campus, there are many opportunities for you to see a movie! UF has several film societies, and if you’re not into the Regal Cinemas around town, the Hippodrome has a beautiful program as well!
Overall, I urge you to make the effort to see a movie. Any movie. I promise, two hours of being off your phone and engaging with a story you’re unfamiliar with will put your brain to work. It’s a muscle, just like anything else, and you need to stretch it, especially in the age of people using chatbots to replace actual thinking (and drinking water, but I digress) and a student culture that sometimes feels like it prioritizes grades, or how ‘hard’ it looks like you’re working, instead of your learning.Going to the movies is a social activity as much as anything else. Even if you’re going by yourself, you can talk to people about the movies that you’ve seen and share different takes. There are many film classes even at UF that teach you how to do this productively. Seriously, if you can spare the extra cash and you’re interested in seeing a movie, I strongly recommend going to the theater. And if you can’t spare it (which, trust me, I know the struggle), just challenge yourself! Next time you watch a movie on Netflix or another streaming service, turn your phone off. Put it in a different room. Treat it like you’re in a theater, and I promise you, you will genuinely feel a little smarter for doing so. Your brain will thank you!