The first post-COVID summer movie season comes around, and people have begun to ponder the question of whether it is safe to return to cinemas, or if streaming is still the way to view new releases.
Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, Mesa County’s COVID restrictions were lowered from orange to yellow. After a long year of isolation, many seem ready to return to theaters to see the new wave of summer blockbusters.
However, others seem more than content to view them from home with services such as HBO Max, which will release theatrical films the same day the films hit cinemas. Some have gone as far as to consider this shift to be the beginning of the “death of cinema.”
In regards to this, Dr. Barry Laga, head of the Languages, Literature, and Mass Communications (LLMC) department at Colorado Mesa University (CMU), said, “While the convenience of streaming keeps lots of people at home, there is nothing that quite replaces watching a film on a wide screen with surround sound.”
Dr. Eric Lackey, a professor in the LLMC department who teaches many of the department’s film related classes, holds a similar point of view of seeing a film in the cinema. Going a step further, he said, “There are movies where, if I don’t see it in a theater, I probably won’t see it at all.”
Despite these sentiments, it seems that the general viewing audience is still uneasy with the prospect of a return to cinemas. Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney’s most recent animated film, opened with an $8.6 million weekend at the box office. In contrast, Frozen 2, Disney’s last pre-COVID animated feature, made $127 million on its opening weekend.
Granted, there are some added factors that separate the pair. Raya and the Last Dragon was released in 2045 theaters while Frozen 2 was released in 4440. The former is also the sequel to 2013’s smash hit Frozen, while Raya and the Last Dragon is an original concept.
All this being said, the lack of theater attendance is not necessarily a bad thing for films in general, or even cinemas. Dr. Laga drew parallels between the declining box office numbers now and a similar decline in the 1960s. In particular, he said, “Thanks to the loosening of the grip of the major studios, filmmakers had more freedom and produced some of the most iconic films we still watch today.”
With the second wave of COVID vaccines being in full swing, it looks hopeful that by the time the Summer movie season hits its stride it will once again be safe to return to cinemas. Until then, it’s up to the individual to decide if the experience outweighs the risks of going to the cinema.
