Movie Theaters are Dying, and I’m Not Taking it Lightly
Heartbreak used to feel good in a place like this...
I grew up going to the movies. Almost every Saturday night, the Golden family would pile into the car with homemade popcorn and pre-bought candy stuffed into purses and pockets (we never ever got the real deal at the theater. Too expensive), head to Tinseltown, buy our tickets on-site (buying ahead and reserved seats were not a thing in the late 90s and early aughts), and jockey for the perfect set of four seats in the theater. We usually showed up at least 30 minutes before previews even started to ensure we didn’t get screwed with shitty seats and had enough time for 1-2 pre-show bathroom breaks. We’d hunker down, adjust our purses and coats just-so in our seat, and try not to devour all the snacks before the show began.
Once I was old enough to go to the movies with friends, a whole new world opened up. Co-ed groups in a big dark theater trading stolen kisses, flirting over tubs of popcorn, and the occasional school slut giving out hand jobs in the very back row in the darkest corner was how weekends were spent. Everyone “met up” at Tinseltown, whether you were seeing a movie or using it as a rendezvous spot and ultimately walking over to the nearest local chain restaurant to become every server’s worst nightmare, ordering bottomless Dr. Peppers, one order of fries to share amongst eight people, and throwing straw wrappers at your crush across the booth.
In my adulthood, I discovered the sheer joy of going to the movies alone. I was 28 or 29 when I took myself on my first movie date, and I remember leaving the theater on cloud nine. I would dress up real cute like I was taking myself on a date, get popcorn and a big ass glass of wine, and settle in. What a revelation to realize you don’t need anyone else at the movies — it’s about you, your snacks, and the plot unfolding on the massive screen in front of you. Going to see a movie alone quickly became a favorite pastime of mine, and I wore it like a badge of honor. As a Dallas girlie living in a vanilla sort of city, it made me feel so cool. Like New York or European cool.
I’m feeling incredibly nostalgic for these times lately because, just last week, Dallas announced the closing of one of my favorite movie theater chains, Alamo Drafthouse. It has five locations across the metroplex, and every single one is shutting down. Then, shortly after that, another beloved chain called Angelika Film Center announced its immediate closure of their suburban location, which makes me worry that its second location (which is literally five minutes up the road from me) will be next.
Movie theaters are dying, and I’m not taking it lightly.
COVID changed so much, but sometimes I forget just how profound the changes are. I will always hold a very special, very twisted place for that time in my heart because it’s when I met and fell in love with my husband in a quiet world without distractions, but it upended business and entertainment culture as we know it. Every restaurant and grocery store you frequented had no choice but to get on on board with delivery and pick-up or they met their demise; remote work and the once-elusive Work From Home days became the norm; instead of meeting up for a happy hour drink to catch up with a friend, Zoom dates were scheduled. Entertainment was no exception either. Whereas straight-to-DVD movies used to be considered pre-determined bombs, brand new releases headed straight-to-streaming, and we got used to it.
Our very own living rooms replaced Tinseltown. Our lived-in couches and big comfy chairs became the best seats in the house. Finally, we could raid our own pantries for movie snacks without having to stand in line and overpay for popcorn drenched in chemical (and oh-so-delicious) butter and a soft drink the size of our femur. If we suddenly needed a pee break mid-movie, it was no big deal. We had total control over our home theater with the ability to pause for bathroom breaks, if someone had a mid-movie question, or a phone went off. It was nice.
But I still missed the movies. Miss them, actually. Once the world opened back up, we definitely made our way to a fair share of shows. We paid stupid prices for a “double” glass of wine or bottle of beer, shared greasy, delicious popcorn, and ooh’ed and ahh’ed over the recliner chairs in the theater. We had fun figuring out the math equation of what time to see a movie so we could seamlessly roll into dinner (dinner and a show!).
Our reignited love for the movie theater only lasted so long, though. Once the initial excitement and relief of the world “going back to normal” passed, we found ourselves opting for our at-home “movie theater” rather than spending the money and time for an outing to an actual theater. I’m not sure what came first: the dwindling down of big box office hits that drove people to the theater, or the exponential rise in made-for-streaming and straight-to-streaming movies. Perhaps they happened all at once. Regardless, I found myself cancelling movie theater plans and requesting ticket refunds more often than we were actually following through. It was so much easier to stay home, save the money, and watch something readily available on one of our seven streaming services.
All this to say, I’m fully aware that I’m part of the reason why movie theaters are failing. We all are. Without our patronage, they can’t stay alive. But perhaps this is just the way of the world now. Streaming came in and steamrolled the necessity of movie theaters in many ways. COVID made even the most social cinephiles accustom to staying home for entertainment and, with complete control over their environment, snacks, seats, and unlimited intermissions, who could blame them?
But I miss the movies so much, and watching beloved theaters close is a sign of the times I wasn’t prepared for. Because as expensive as it can be to go, as shitty as some seats can be, as annoying as it is when people whisper through the previews or forget to turn their phone volume off, as cold as they make those theaters to the point where you wish you’d brought a blanket…
Going to the movies is magic.
Go see a movie this weekend. For me.
XOX,
EGM
I used to work in the movie business and still know a lot of folks that do. Just for your own peace of mind, movie theaters were dying before Covid. All of this is a result of corporate greed by studio executives. They started removing funding to theaters because there was overhead to their upkeep and once Covid happened, they discovered a way to streamline their revenue through streaming which has literally no expense to them.
Their greed is permeating Hollywood. Aside from the strikes over AI, the studios opted to not bring productions back to the US in order to hurt those that participated in the strikes. Most US workers are losing their homes, livelihoods, and some are losing their lives over this. My best friend has been in Thailand working on a show for 9 months because it’s cheaper for the studio to film there.
I don’t know what’s going to happen but the greed that is emanating from studio execs seems to be killing the movie and tv business.
I couldn’t agree with you more I miss the movies and also went solo a few times and it was great! I’ve been to the theatre 2 times since the P. I miss it! When my kids were young it was our New Year’s Eve tradition to go.