Death of the Movie Theater, Unless

With the continued successes of limited series productions, it’s becoming clearer that the future of compelling cinematic storytelling is in the sweet spot of 8–10 hour-long features, released in parts either at once or on schedule. Subsequently ushering in the natural death of the movie theater box office and conventional film production as we know it today.

That is, unless the gatekeepers adapt to this inevitable change quickly. It’s time to explore what may be an exciting new opportunity to convince viewers that consuming these kind of longer-form parted productions can be practical — maybe even more desirable — in traditional theater settings, alongside the simultaneous availability of at-home streaming that is widely preferred today. Some may prefer to watch all parts in theaters spread across days (or weeks, especially in the case of scheduled releases), or alternatively only half at home and the other half for those get-out-of-the-house big-screen date nights. You’ll now have the on-the-fly freedom to choose how much of a film you’d like to consume in a theater- 1 hour/part, 2, 3, or even more.

It will require studios and streaming services to establish deeper partnerships with the major theater chains, and for those chains to adopt/offer a natively integrated subscription-based model.

Regardless of the silver screen incumbents’ initiative to act, current talent will continue to transition, and the emerging talent will launch their careers on the new center stage as the entire landscape evolves to this longer-form of motion picture storytelling.