And David Burge tweets one of the many ways in which this is true:
I’ll go back to movie theaters when they install pause & rewind buttons.
To be boringly pedantic, this wouldn’t make things any better, because presumably, in a cinema, everyone would have to have this right. Burge’s idea only makes sense if I have this facility, but nobody else does. But if everyone has it, nightmare, for everyone else. I know, he was only kidding. He identifies a real and serious problem, then cracks a joke about how it could be solved, which he knows wouldn’t work.
Aside from the above insoluble problem, the other insoluble problems with regular cinema type cinemas are: “home cinema” screens have got massively bigger, better and cheaper in recent years; “home cinema” content is infinite and chosen by you; home is much easier to get to from home; home is a much nicer place. And I’m sure there are several other totally deal-breaking drawbacks to “cinema cinema” that I’ve not mentioned because they’re so obvious I couldn’t even think of them.
And the number one advantage of watching a film in the cinema is that there are no pause and rewind buttons.
If you watch a film in the cinema you are forced to watch it right through, in one sitting, at the same speed it was intended to be watched, while concentrating on the film and nothing else for the whole time, without distractions. In many ways this is good.
Until about ten years ago, seeing a film in the cinema was clearly a technically better experience. in those days, I went to the cinema a lot, whereas in recent years it has only been for special occasions. Now, if you choose to spend a thousand quid or plausibly less for a decent home setup, you can watch pretty much any film at home with a similar quality experience to what you will get in a cinema. Since this has been so, I only go to the cinema on special occasions, often when there is socialising involved. (I used to go to the cinema by myself a lot).
I’m not sure when I will next go to see a film again in a cinema post-covid. Possibly never. It will be interesting to see how Hollywood adapts to this. Are they finally going to release their biggest releases for home viewing on the same dates that they release them for cinemas? I don’t know. Neither do they, I suspect.
The ability to eat and drink whatever you want, and at a fraction of the price, was the first advantage that came to my mind.
And I’m sure you can imagine some of the benefits of home cinema when children are involved.