Despite the convenience that streaming movies at home provides, it significantly hurts both the viewing experience and the movie industry.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become increasingly popular to stream movies at home instead of going to the theater. While this was necessary at the time because we could not leave our homes, it’s a trend that needs to die.
Streaming movies at home is a vastly different experience from watching the same movie in a theater. At home, you have to deal with people interrupting far more often, people on their phones and the fact that it simply does not look or sound as good.
As someone who goes to the theater often, I recently saw both “Primate” and “Send Help.” I can’t imagine having the same experience watching those movies on my apartment TV. A theater provides an atmosphere where everyone is there to watch the movie and allows you to have a shared experience with the people around you.
I am not someone who is usually a fan of horror or thriller movies, but seeing both the previously mentioned movies in the theater allowed me to see other people’s reactions to the scares on screen. Seeing and hearing the jumps and gasps to the action made the experiences enjoyable and ones I know would not be possible sitting on the couch.
“Send Help” was originally meant to be a movie sent directly to streaming services, but director Sam Raimi fought for it to get made for theaters.
“I don’t mean to be a snob, but I’m designing this as an audience experience,” Raimi said. “I wanted the interaction of the theater to make it work, because I know that flavor, and I need that. I design my movies to play upon the audience in the theater. I really do. I think it’s a different approach you take.”
In addition to the improved viewing experience that a theater provides, relying on streaming services is damaging how movies are made and the industry as a whole.
A recent study from over 20 film professors found that even film students are struggling to watch their assigned films for class.
“I used to think, If homework is watching a movie, that is the best homework ever,” Craig Erpelding, a film professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said. “But students will not do it.”
If film students are having struggles watching movies, then that’s a sign that streaming is killing our ability as an audience to experience a movie without additional distractions.
In addition to changing how we view movies, it’s changing how movies are being made. Matt Damon recently acknowledged this while promoting his new movie on Netflix, “The Rip.” Films made for Netflix have to ask less of the audience because they are on their phones and can’t follow the plot.
This is very apparent, as the majority of movies made for Netflix are dumbed down compared to movies made for the theaters.
Relying on streaming to watch movies is not only killing our viewing experience and ability to follow along, but is also corrupting the movie-making process. If we want to stop this decline, it’s time we get up and go back to the theaters.
