Quick Take: Movies Are Meant for the Theatres, Nowhere Else

Movies are meant to be watched on the big screen and beg to be watched in groups, so when we have a generation of movie-watchers delving into cinema through the 4 inch screens of handheld devices, I weep inside. People like watching movies of all kinds, and instead of trying to bring people to the theatre by developing worthless gimmicks like 3D, they should be creating an atmosphere that allows for the love of CINEMA, not just what’s new.

I just went to theatres to see the most classic of all theatre-films, Jaws. I was one of two people who dared to go alone, but surprisingly, even on a Monday evening there were roughly 30 people who came out for the thirty-seven year old movie. It was an amazing experience and I thank theatres like TIFF Lightbox for doing what most theatres don’t. Which brings me to my question, why don’t more theatres show older films?

I would gladly pay 10+ dollars to watch Terminator 2: Judgement Day on the big screen, or Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, etc., but I hesitate every time I have to pay 15 dollars to watch a movie in 3D. We don’t need new technology to draw us into the theatres, because 3D doesn’t make a movie any better, it just changes the texture of what we’re seeing.

What we need is the theatre to be the central hub of film-lovers. Bring us back to the theatre with great movies, movies we’d actually pay again and again to see the way it was meant to – that’s how you’ll win our hearts. I can't wait to go back and watch more, and if you're in Toronto, I implore you to go to the TIFF Lightbox and check out the older screenings. If you're not, find a theatre near you that does and bask in what so few of us are able to nowadays. 

“Show me the way to go home.”