Humans’ are a lazy bunch! Always looking for ways to make things easier and more convenient. With technology advancing at such a fast pace, it’s no wonder business is booming for App entrepreneurs. From Just Eat to Uber, these online services have proven massively popular and prey on our desire to make life simpler. Also I think it’s fair to say that until the Netflix came onto the scene, a vast majority of people have watched a pirate movie at least once (and i’m not referring to Pirates of the Caribbean).
Saving the money it costs to buy a cinema ticket or DVD and our reluctancy to venture out after a busy day makes streaming services appealing to the viewer. Of course, nowadays there are plenty of affordable streaming services you can use to watch thousands of films and television programmes without leaving the comfort of your sofa and pyjamas.
“Netflix has an estimated 14 million paying subscribers in the UK, with rival Amazon’s Prime Video at 12 million and Disney at almost 5 million.” – The Guardian, 2022
With content so readily available at the touch of a button, cinema auditorium’s getting emptier and emptier. The graph below demonstrates that since the expected dip in sales during the 2020 pandemic, in 2021 the box office only managed to make back under $7 billion from ticket sales, a drop of nearly half from their pre-pandemic profits of approximately $11 billion in 2019.
In the film industry, things become unfashionable fast and are replaced by something newer and shinier- but is it time to let cinema die and allow streaming services take hold? Let’s weigh up the pros and cons of both types of viewing experience…
Cinema:
Pros:
- Bigger screen and better picture quality.
- Immerses you in a film, without the distractions of mobile phones and the outside world.
- Allows you to experience surround sound the way the movie director intended in the sound design from around 10 speakers.
- You share reactions and moments with the rest of the audience just like in a theatre play.
- It’s a day/night out.
- It feels exclusive, seeing a film before anybody is able to see it at home which makes it a special experience.
- Different experiences are available: 4D, IMAX, Superscreen.
- Cinema’s often offer unlimited membership cards, in which you pay a monthly subscription fee to watch as much cinema as you like.
Cons:
- Its expensive- in my local cinema you can usually be looking at spending £15 per person.
- Other audience members can be annoying, and encroach on your personal space. The main culprits are: the backrow snogger, the noisy popcorn cruncher or the smelly one who needs to take a shower.
- Projectors are often not calibrated to their best quality, with brightness levels cranked down a notch to save money.
- Films are usually presented in 2K and not 4K, whereas some televisions now display a 4K picture.
- I could buy a meal in a nice Italian restaurant for the price of a popcorn and drink- cinema snacks are pricey!
Streaming:
Pros:
- It’s convenient- 1000s of films and television programmes in the comfort of your own home, at the touch of a button.
- You can bing-watch television series all in one go.
- Content is divided into genre categories, to help the viewer decide what to watch and algorithms give suggestions for Films & TV shows they might enjoy based on what they have already seen.
- Production budgets are high for brand new original content. Netflix, alone invested $17 billion on content in 2021.
- There are currently over 200 streaming services available including Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO max, Now TV, Discovery Plus….
- You can choose a streaming service based on your taste. If you like documentaries you might choose discovery plus and if you like British dramas, you may subscribe to Britbox.
- Subscription prices are often as little as £6.99 a month.
- The infamous “backrow snoggers” mentioned before can now “Netflix and Chill” at home instead of hindering our time at the cinema.
Cons:
- The viewing experience is limited by the smaller size of screen.
- You could never match the surround sound of an actual cinema auditorium (without splashing out lots of money at least).
- Different services have different content. It’s easy to slip down the rabbit hole of overspending on multiple streaming services, just so you are able to watch what you want.
- Buffering and online faults- your binge watch of Squid Game could easy be interrupted by broadband problems.
- It’s easy to be distracted away from a Film or TV programme by our mobile phones, washing machines and general day to day life.
- Ever had that problem where the sun bleeds through the blinds and onto the TV screen?… yep I thought so, don’t have that issue in a dark cinema!
- Streaming services are different to public service broadcasters in the sense that they don’t show any live programmes or news.
It’s easy to recognise positives and negatives in both viewing experiences but if I had to keep one or the another, my vote would be for cinema! For me there is something special about seeing a film in a movie theatre, its the only place I feel properly immersed in what i’m watching and the popcorn crunching and yes… even the back row snogger is part of that theatrical atmosphere that makes it what it is. The cinema is like a sacred temple for movies and is the right place to show off all the money, hard work, creative craftsmanship that went into making the film. To me watching a blockbuster like Avatar on the small screen, is like taking Vincent Van Gough’s Starry Night from the gallery and hanging it on the bathroom wall.
WILL HEXTALL 