Whilst on my year abroad in Paris, I have immersed myself in the city’s rich cinema culture. Home to an abundance of charming vintage nooks, Paris invites cinephiles to watch both timeless classics and new releases for as little as five euros. I have frequented La Filmothèque in the Latin Quarter, a place which has rekindled my love of cinema outings – for the same price as a pint.
My Parisian cinema experiences feel like a fleeting luxury of my year abroad. In the UK, this pastime is no longer as accessible as it once was. While the average cinema ticket costs around £10, a monthly Netflix subscription is priced at almost half that amount. With a vast library of films available on streaming services, the comfort and convenience of staying on the sofa are worryingly attractive. I have become increasingly guilty of waiting for a film to be released online, and, whilst I resent the fact that I am complicit in the decline of box office success, it is undeniable that the cinema has become prohibitively costly.
Another disheartening realisation is that box office success can be dictated by social media trends, rather than cinematic quality, or genuine audience interest. Take the Barbenheimer craze, where both films garnered exceptional attention due to an online trend. Their respective triumphs were guaranteed prior to the internet craze, but the trend amplified their reach, and united unlikely audiences. Social media holds concerning power over the popularisation of certain films, and the dismissal of others, as viral releases dominate our feeds.
The uncomfortable truth is that our attendance is being influenced by factors beyond our control; the accessibility of on-demand streaming makes ticket prices seem wasteful, and a single damning comment on TikTok from someone with enough influence can doom a film’s success. Empty cinemas are no longer a remarkable sight, as admissions are declining by 2–3% each year. Could we be moving towards their extinction?
I hope that I am being overly cynical, and that the “slow death of the cinema” is simply a dramatic way to entice readers. Since the Lumière brothers first captivated audiences with the birth of cinema in 1895, it has adapted and evolved to suit technological advances, and ever-changing audience habits. Cinema outings are at the heart of so many cherished memories, and the magic of complete immersion, and a shared audience experience, cannot be replicated by home viewing.
Something must be changed in order to protect this sacred tradition, and affordability seems to be a reasonable place to start.
Photo by Karen Zhao on Unsplash
