“Movie theaters are done. The biggest chain in the world will likely shutter permanently next month and the others are likely to follow suit.”
Is this generally expected? I know the pandemic has a done a number on them, but are movie theaters really expected to disappear forever?
Most of the chains in my area have gone under and won't reopen, and it's difficult to see anyone getting investment for new ones any time soon - even if they came back to 100% of what they were before the pandemic, they wouldn't be a great investment.
Smaller theaters showing older movies will probably pick up, though... places where you can have a beer and watch Casablanca or a 1970s war movie, that kind of thing.
When people see dramatic headlines about businesses shutting down, they fail to look ahead at those businesses eventually getting replaced with new ones to match rising demand.
I, personally, don't believe that the film exhibition format will go completely away. I think it will return to being owned by the major studios with a sprinkling of localized art-house theatres in cities that can support them.
Basically, theater buildings are already built. Projectors are already installed, and film reels are out there. Even if the big studios decided that all new movies are going straight to streaming, the back catalog of amazing movies is HUGE: I would happily go several times a year to a nice theater that showed the old classics. I saw 2001 last year, projected from a 70mm print, and it was fantastic (even though the incompetent AMC theater couldn't get the house lights shut off for the first half)
Eventually, nearly everyone will have some level of immunity via either natural-infection-and-recovery, or explicit vaccination. (The latter is certainly better for avoiding death or serious complications.)
Even if that immunity fades somewhat with time, as seems to be the case with other 'common cold' cornoaviruses, it'll typically be re-boosted by either a mild survivable case (from circulating virus), or explicit re-vaccination. So at some point – probably no later than 2022 – people will be behaving mostly as before, because the ongoing impact of COVID will have shrunk to be similar to traditional colds/flus.
It sounds like just wishful thinking(regarding firefly), but I'd love to be proven wrong :) a firefly reboot would be great and many people have wanted this for a long time, the problem is its been way too long and alot of sci-fi fans may have forgotten or just don't know about it, the show was cancelled 18 years ago so most 20 somethings have no idea what it is.
Two tickets and a popcorn - for a single movie - is more than a monthly subscription to HBO Max.