

#WATCH MOVIES IN THEATERS NOW ONLINE FOR FREE MOVIE#
Though, in some sense, the transition to streaming services may seem to make movies more accessible, these companies still want to make a profit.Ī perhaps old-fashioned desire to attend the theater is undeniably still present, and movie theaters continue to contribute a significant amount to the economy. However, Netflix announced plans in March 2022 to try and combat this, as it decreases their potential revenue. Netflix currently faces a “free-rider” problem 41% of Netflix users are utilizing the streaming service without paying by sharing accounts.

and Canadian box office reached $4.5 billion, an increase of 105% from 2020, yet still lower than pre-pandemic levels.ĭespite their popularity, the streaming service market has its own flaws. While the theater market has recovered marginally, irreversible damage to the industry is evident the U.S. In 2020, AMC lost $4.5 billion due to the pandemic while having to close all of their theaters, alongside Cinemark. While devastating to society in areas such as the economy and health, COVID-19 also had a devastating impact on the success of social industries including theaters, partly due to their closure and also the apprehension surrounding returning to theaters after lockdown. One key event seemed to have catalyzed the transition toward streaming services: COVID-19.


In other words, these newer streaming services are now challenging long-upheld studios, like Warner Bros. Netflix has produced over 1,500 originals. These streaming services - including Netflix - are now movie-making powerhouses of their own. Netflix’s subscriber base is steadily increasing, accelerated by the onset of COVID-19 in 2020. The largest premium video on-demand service is Netflix, with approximately 220 million memberships globally. In 2015, 52% of US consumers had subscriptions to one or more streaming services this increased to 78% by late 2021, highlighting the incline in demand. More and more people are subscribing to streaming services, allowing them to become a dominating social power in recent years. Thus, some may see the growing preference for streaming services as a positive change - making movies more widely available and accessible for everyone. One of the key factors of this is price: The average price of a ticket to see one movie at the theater is $11 while the price for a basic monthly Netflix subscription is $9.99. The decreasing demand for movies to be shown at theaters is due to many preferring the more cost-effective, comfortable choice to watch movies at home. The results of this showed that 41% of respondents rarely go to see a movie at the theater. Between April to May 2022, an online survey with 2,210 respondents was carried out regarding the popularity of movie theaters. However, no other alternative has had as devastating an impact to the success of movie theaters as that of streaming services, enabled by their growing popularity and power. 20 years later, in 1997, DVDs made further progress in enticing viewers to stray from theaters - with greater accessibility at home of a better quality and wider range. The idea of watching movies from one’s home was seen as revolutionary at the time. Introduced in 1977, VHS was the first step in straying from the long-term pastime of going out to the theater. However, by June 2020, the percentage of adults strongly preferring to go to the theater plummeted to 14%, with 36% preferring to stream movies. In 2018, 28% of people strongly preferred to watch a movie for the first time in movie theaters, with only 15% preferring to stream it. Whilst streaming services have been available since 2005, beginning with the founding of YouTube, their popularity has increased more steeply in the past few years. It’s important to ask: Does this show how technology is killing the traditional industries of society - or rather, does it have beneficial, innovative impacts on accessibility? This reduces the number of people who go to movie theaters to see the latest films and damages the industry irrevocably. Over the last decade, interest in going to movie theaters has been decreasing as a direct effect of the growing popularity of major streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
