With COVID-19 finally passing and, with it, the quarantines that have long plagued the United States, a return to movie theaters is growing. With theaters like Regal and Penn Cinema opening up day in and day out, the movie theater experience is once again open to all. With the shortcomings of streaming services and the release of highly anticipated movies, it’s easy to say that movie theaters are not going anywhere. 

    Many of the anticipated movies coming to theaters have been in the making for years, some coming as sequels or continuations of past movies. With the month of October and Halloween at the end of the month, movies like Smile and Halloween Ends came into theaters for crowds of horror lovers. Other movies like Black Adam bring action and hero movies back, with other movies like Top Gun Maverick still in after a massive success in the summer. Some movies to look out for in the coming months include Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avatar: Way of Water, and other obscure movies like Violent Night and The Fabelmans.

    The reason movie theaters are doing so well is not just the new movies coming out, but the slow decline of streaming services. Services such as Disney+, HBOMax, and Amazon Prime Video have seen the start of stagnation in use, as done by a study from BusinessofApps.com. The number of users in the third quarter of 2022 has started to either decrease or stay the same, mostly due to increased prices and people returning to in-person work and school. This is also due to previously mentioned new movies being released, as more interesting movies are released on the big screen other than streaming services. 

    So how have movie theaters not gone out of business before? Why have the changes in the past hundred years not run them out of business? There have been many changes since the creation of movie theaters. Things like VHS, Blockbuster, DVDs and streaming services have all been called the last nail in the coffin for movie theaters. But these have not changed theaters—in fact, it can be argued that they have helped. Streaming services like Prime Video have started to create their own movies, and have partnered with theaters to release them in cinemas either on the same day as the service, or days in advance. This has helped drive more people to the theaters, and helped both theaters and services turn a nice profit.

    But what really drives people to go to the movies? The obvious answer is the “movie theater experience,” but what is that really? As Penn Ketchum, the co-owner and founder of Penn Cinema, would say, “I picture myself with a bag of buttered popcorn and soda, sitting in a crowded theater on opening night, having the same reaction as the rest of the crowd around me.” This experience is one of a kind. Sitting in a crowded theater for a movie is a lot different than sitting at home watching. If you’re watching a horror movie, lunging in your seat because you’re frightened at a jump scare while the rest of the crowd does as well is the experience. The same can be said about emotional parts, where the entire theater tears up at a scene, or yells and screams when the main hero wins a fight. These experiences cannot be mimicked at home, which is why people go out to experience it. 

    The movie theater is a long standing institution in the United States and arguably the world. No change in the past hundred years since the creation of movie theaters has come close to shutting them down for good. It is the experience humans crave, the same as eating at a restaurant. This analogy was brought up by Ketchum, and highlights the sentiment well. “You could make food for yourself at home, or you could go out to a restaurant and get food there, just to get out of the house, even though you have a kitchen at home. It’s for the experience, that’s what matters and it is mirrored for movie theaters,” he said. It is the same at movie theaters; you can sit at home, make yourself popcorn and put on a movie, but nothing compares to being in a movie theater. It is the experience people go for, and nothing in the world is going to change that.