Theatres

Don’t Skip the Theatres
by Lauren Valadez

In the age of subscriptions and growing online streaming options, it is getting easier to stop attending the local movie theater. Most people are now pushing off their viewing of a new movie in order to access it through services like Netflix or Hulu, but even with the convenience of hitting ‘play’ from your couch, there is no other feeling that can match a trip to see a movie.

There is joy in arriving at a theatre and feeling the anticipation and excitement for the movie to start, especially when you have been waiting long enough to finally see the lights get dim. Everyone turns off their phone and the room begins the hush. We all know and have experienced this ritual before, but what once was so popular and looked forward to has reached a decline in our society.

The decline is likely due to the advances in access to movies now, but people do not realize that they are missing out on the value of the theatre going experience. Attending the movie theatres used to be a common pastime, and an exciting one too. They created a space for families, friends, and the entire community to come together and experience something collectively. Whether that be laughs, gasps, or tears, there is something very powerful in sharing this among others. Not only is the act of watching a movie together uniting, but so are the conversations about it afterward, which are sometimes more memorable than the movie itself, depending on the movie.

Movie theatres provide more community than streaming services ever could and although it would be so much easier to stay home and watch in isolation, it is difficult to argue that the energy of a movie theatre is unmatched. There is something electric about watching movies on a big screen with a room full of people, something that needs to be experienced once again.

Photos of people watching movie by Tima Miroshnichenko and people surprise with buckets of popcorn by Pavel Danilyuk from pexels.com

Lauren Valadez has joined this community as a columnist. She is originally from El Monte, California, but she recently moved to Central New York to attend Syracuse University. She is currently studying anthropology.