Streaming vs. Movie-going: An Unending Debate
Admittedly, I was dead set on dismissing movie-going in favor of video streaming services. With the appeal of convenience over cost, being able to sip my Starbucks Frapp while binge watching ‘The Crown’ on a Saturday afternoon is enticing (being free from the shackles of work for once). However, there’s not a clear favorable distinction between streaming and movie-going.
Shook, I was. But that expected shock didn’t last very long.
It makes sense. Netflix has dominated the market for video streaming, with a whopping 118 million subscribers in 2018. And yet, people seem to forget that Netflix is only a young adult at the wee-age of 21!
And while Netflix has grown from it’s youthful days of strictly being a DVD rental service, cinemas across the nation aren’t phased the least bit by the giant’s presence in the media landscape.
Big blockbuster movies, such as Black Panther, grossed $700 million in the United States and Canada and $1 billion worldwide. Incredibles 2 grossed $606.4 million in the U.S. and Canada, earning $1 billion worldwide in the pockets of Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures.
If these big numbers have something in common, it’s that people are buying tickets and filling seats. However, in the sea of new movies released each year, a few bad apples have wiggled their way onto the silver screen for our displeasure. Films like ‘The Happytime Murders,’ earning a mere $24.5 million at the box office AND a blistering 22% on Rotten Tomatoes (you can tell I’m somewhat biased) push consumers to look for worthwhile content elsewhere.
So what’s the point? Who cares? Well, this proves two things: One, consumers will see movies giving them more bang for their buck. Two, consumers won’t go out to see movies that don’t satisfy their needs and won’t pay for poorly reviewed content. With film reviews on the Internet, it’s easier to assess which product is worth dishing out that $13.25 at Cinemark for. Of course, there will always be some bias related to movie reviews, but the general consensus speaks volumes about the finished product.
Streaming also has issues competing with live TV sporting events. The only way to watch Ram sports is through live TV or purchasing tickets to the game. Sorry folks, we can’t teleport to the stadium in real time yet. Maybe one day! Sports-ball is the one piece of video content that gets a majority of us talking. The game between Colorado State vs. Illinois State that took place this past weekend was packed to the brim with spectators if that’s any indication on where my point is going.
Sporting events support live TV viewing because it’s easily accessible to the family and/or those who can’t attend the game in person. Bust out that chip-and-dip and call up Krazy Karl’s for some delicious non-pineapple pizza, because we’re getting the family together to watch some good old sports-ball!
It fills seats similar to movie-going, only you’re filling the raggedy couch at home instead of the luxury loungers at Cinemark.
Speaking of luxury, Cinemark has done its homework.
Now offering a luxury movie-going experience at a higher cost, movie joints like the Cinemark Movie Bistro raise the bar to enhance our experience and decrease the money in our wallets! With wider screens, luxury reclined seating, IMAX, bars offering alcoholic beverages (please drink responsibly), and reserved seating, the expenses rack up pretty quickly.
These neat ideas are actually enticing to someone like me, who enjoys going to the movies regularly as an opinionated critic and film lover. But only for blockbuster movies like ‘Deadpool 2’ and ‘A Quiet Place.’ I mean, let’s be real. No one is going to see ‘Sherlock Gnomes’ and pay extra for IMAX and luxury loungers, unless you’re a parent trying to hold your child’s attention for an hour and twenty minutes.
In the downtime when blockbusters hibernate and badly rated movies dominate the market, streaming succeeds. When your Internet is hit by an outage, streaming on-demand services always surpasses live TV. Netflix and Amazon Video have multiple servers across the world, making it harder to affect a mass amount of viewers.
Live TV pulls from content companies 24/7, hence ‘live.’ But Netflix grabs from a stored collection of movies/TV shows on it’s servers.
If one server goes down, only a small number of people will experience issues in the related area. But if any sports related live TV event goes down, everyone watching will notice. And good luck trying to calm down angry sports-ball fans as they miss their favorite team #winning.
This back-and-forth relationship between streaming services and movie-going is pretty exhausting. All I ask for is for more of the stuff I like, not an essay on what’s good and bad on both sides! But that’s what a movie lover like myself gets when you double dip. Film is my passion, which makes it hard to decide which side I’m on when both offer spicy, 4k high quality content that fills my entertainment-y needs.
For now, it’s difficult to spot a clear winner in this battle. Streaming is still too new compared to live television, but is growing and will continue to ever so subtly over the next five years. We’ll have to wait for new and improved technology and the growing/waning attention spans of viewers across the globe.
Also, don’t tell Cinemark I’m somewhat partial to Netflix… it’s complicated.
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