Will COVID-19 end theatrical movies

[Cyke]

Is that actually true? Because I hate sharing the theater with other people. Movies to me are best seen alone, and the reason I go to the theater is because of the huge ass screen and not wanting to wait for it to be available on home video. I just want to know if I'm in the minority or not here.

Well, for me it is. Different strokes for different folks (that is, I won't try to convince anyone who likes going to empty theaters to change -- otherwise, we wouldn't have viewing times at 11am on a weekday), but there are videos online of various audience reactions to big movies (like Audience Reactions ), and those reactions are visibly shared experiences.

Plus, if big hollywood movies were made primarily for just a few viewers, we wouldn't have giant cineplexes -- they'd be focused primarily on the home market, or that smaller theaters would be more common, or that theatrical movies wouldn't take months to reach the home market. (on the contrary, some direct-to-video movies end up making $100 million+, notably those Disney sequels in the 90s).

Roger Ebert also wrote quite a bit about the effects of seeing a movie with an audience, from old favorites to blockbusters. But he's also written about movies that are too personal to see with a crowd, too. There's room for both, but big multiplex business depends on big crowds.

Don't get me wrong, I like watching movies alone and there positives (like paying better attention to details), but for more sweeping epics (Avengers, Star Wars) or comedies (Knives Out), a crowd is better for me. Something like a Christopher Nolan movie (aside from Batman) would be something I'd watch alone. Then again, something like Parasite is quiet and deliberate, but the cinematography is pretty amazing and hearing/feeling collective admiration from other theatergoers is also pretty thrilling for me.

Of course, crowds aren't completely immune -- in at least three occasions for me last year, someone's cell phone went off at the emotional climax of the movie.