Cinemas Join the Internet Makeover of American Cities
With more reasons to stay home, consumers will need to be lured with fewer, but more luxurious venues.
The same old popcorn won’t be enough anymore.
Photographer: Erik Voake/Getty Images
As cities struggling with a surge in apartment and commercial vacancies think about their post-pandemic futures, one disruption that's likely to benefit them is the shift happening now in the movie industry.
There have been signs for awhile that Hollywood was experimenting more with direct-to-streaming for big budget movies, but Warner Bros.' announcement that it would release all of its films on HBO Max in 2021 at the same time they go to theaters shows that the new era is here. This may represent the end of the movie theater industry as we're used to it, but represents an opportunity for cities.