re: How long will movie theaters survive?

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the only movie Ive seen in theaters in decades was Oppenheimer, and it was long and disappointing

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We didn't see it in the theater but I didn't like it as much as most people seem to have either.

Yep. We have a 75" TV and a surround sound system. The experience at home is close enough that it's not worth dropping $50-70 to go to the movies.

The last movie I paid to see was Predator back in 1987.

The DEI shite in movies can be annoying, but I think there are other reasons for theaters not being packed, or else venture capitalists would be trying to capitalize on that void.

You can't tell me that all these folks are just passing up on an opportunity to make money if it were that easy.

Regal just built and opened the largest movie theater in the nation by my house. It stays busy.

Give me some good Cosa Nostra movies and I'll go.

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think it’s a good idea to shoehorn political messages into their movie. While political messaging in movies is nothing new, it use to at least be somewhat subtle.

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We were just not as aware. It's always been there.

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Are you kidding?? A tranny villain??!! Nope. DOA on the filmmaker’s desk.

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He was just in drag. That's all the rage right now

Ehhh it depends. They will have to change some things up to continue to attract. They will be around for a while in the smaller cities.

Movie theaters are facing a few big issues.

They are not as cheap as they used to be, so people don't just rush out to see a movie they aren't sure about. The theaters themselves make most of their money on snacks and drinks, so aren't actually doing that well when the tickets are $10-$12 each. And for that the experience isn't all that great. The chairs are usually less comfortable than your own couch. You can't control loud or obnoxious patrons making noise during the screening. The theaters themselves usually aren't the cleanest. And there has been some high profile shootings in movie theaters in the past decade.

Movies in general are becoming less original. Hollywood has focused more on sequels and crappy, woke remakes of old franchises. So the movie theaters have mostly bad product to offer. You know it's bad when they are screening Taylor Swift concerts and re-releasing movies like BTTF just to get people to come in and buy stale popcorn.

Streaming. A lot of movies get released to streaming services. NetFlix, AppleTV, Amazon, Hulu, etc. are putting out more content than ever. Not all of it is good, but you are more willing to try a new show or new movie when there are no incremental cost to you and you can turn it off whenever you want.

The next generation doesn't seem to give a shite about going to the movies. In some ways Gen Z is very pragmatic - to them the movie theater isn't a special or exciting place - so they aren't going to bring a date or some friends there just to see a crappy movie. Also they are they are kind of odd in how they communicate, date, and socialize already by living with a phone screen in front of them most of the time. They don't have fond memories of seeing their favorite film in the theater because Hollywood has put out mostly garbage for years now. They also spent 2+ years in high school where they had to "socially distance" themselves and going to the movies was something that people just didn't do as much.

If they somehow overcome all of the above, they'd still have the major issue of real estate. Movie Theaters generally take up a lot of expensive space. The equipment that goes into them are very expensive. It's not cheap to build or maintain one. The margins are likely not so think that operators are willing to take risks on new locations or invest in older locations - which means that movie theaters will slowly fade away like shopping malls.

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Unfortunate consequence of Hollywood killing itself on a DEI sword.

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You can't make a comedy these days.

There is a very narrow range of movie types that Hollywood is willing to make these days. And that limits the product that movie theaters can provide to patrons.

It's like what happens to Ford dealers when Ford Motor Company decides that pickup trucks are not politically correct anymore and starts phasing them out in favor of shitty new EV models that share the name of a legendary product from the past.