There’s a new ad that plays before every movie at AMC theaters. After 30 minutes of movie trailers, a Dolby Cinema promo (yes, the projector is still on), and an ad for AMC’s reward program, Nicole Kidman appears on the screen and explains what makes the AMC theater experience so special. “We come to this place for magic,” she says as she enters an empty theater. She talks about the “indescribable feeling we get when the lights dim and we go somewhere we’ve never been.” At the end of the monologue Kidman announces AMC’s new tagline: “AMC Theaters - we make movies better.”
But nothing she says relates to AMC specifically. She doesn’t say anything about AMC A-List, the reclining seats, or the signature cocktails at MacGuffin’s bar. Instead, she talks about the dazzling images on the huge silver screen and the sound you can feel. Change the tagline and the ad could be used in Cinemark, Regal, or any other theater chain anywhere in the world. In fact, in the UK, this exact advert, Kidman included, is used for Odeon. This isn’t a commercial for AMC as much as it is a post-pandemic plea to return to the movie theater, any theater, where movies feel “perfect and powerful.” AMC would like you to believe that going to the theater is the correct way to watch movies and any other kind of movie-watching experience is inferior. Oh, but also please use the On Demand menu in the AMC app, because renting movies on my phone is also a perfectly fine way to watch them, I guess.
We’ve been getting bombarded by this kind of messaging from both theaters and filmmakers. Gal Gadot begged fans to see Wonder Woman 1984 in theaters last December - before vaccines were widely available - in order to get the “full movie experience.” Christopher Nolan, who put immense pressure on theaters to re-open during the height of the pandemic to screen Tenet, went on a tirade after learning of Warner Bros’. plans to stream its new releases on HBO Max throughout 2021, saying, “Their decision makes no economic sense and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.” More recently, Dune director Denis Villeneuve compared watching Dune on TV to driving a speedboat in your bathtub. When the sequel was confirmed last week, Villeneuve said that a theater-only release was non-negotiable for him.
The Hollywood machine has a century-old investment in movie theaters, and there’s no denying that the shift towards streaming has had and will continue to have an enormous economic impact on the industry. I don’t pretend to know the extent of the impact streaming will have on the film industry, but I do know as a member of the audience that it doesn’t concern me in the slightest. I don’t care about the messy contract disputes Scarlett Johansson has with Disney. If Christopher Nolan is mad at Warner Bros., that doesn’t have any impact on where or how I’ll watch his movies. They understand this, of course, so they’d like to convince us that we don’t actually want to watch movies at home. It’s like driving a speedboat in your bathtub, after all. Come to AMC Theaters, we make movies better.
But does anyone really believe that anymore? It was certainly true for a long time. When tube TVs were 24 inches max and sound bars didn’t exist, there was something lost between the big screen and the VHS version of movies. But is the theater experience today really that much better than what you can get at home? On the other side of this is Samsung, Bose, LG, and Roku selling us 65-inch OLED displays with sound systems that can make the walls shake. I’ve invested thousands into my home theater - am I only meant to use it to watch The Bachelor?
Before Nicole Kidman explains the magic that happens when the lights dim and we’re transported to another world, everyone has to watch a 90-second reminder to act like human beings and show some goddamn respect. Stop talking, put your phone away, don’t make a mess. Please don’t ruin the movie for everyone around you. Even still, people ignore this. When Kidman says we’re “not just entertained, but somehow reborn, together” I can’t help but notice she’s sitting all alone.
After a year without going to the movies, I didn’t suddenly forget everything I like and dislike about the cinema. I’ve had a lifetime of theater experiences, and I weigh up all of those every time I decide whether or not I want to watch a movie at home or see it on the big screen. Sometimes I go to the theater - three times just in October, in fact - but sometimes I don’t want to spend the time and gas driving there, buying expensive snacks, and sitting with a legion of inconsiderate people. Sometimes I just want to watch a new movie on my massive TV on my luxurious couch, take bathroom breaks when I want, and hold my cat, and no celebrity is ever going to be able to convince me that I’m missing out.
I know what the theater has to offer, I’ve been going there my entire life. I’ve had incredible experiences and miserable ones. I cheered when Captain America lifted Mjolnir in Endgame just like every other nerd there, and I’ve also dealt with dirty screens, chatty audiences, and people who just can’t stop farting. I watched Wonder Woman 1984 on TV on Christmas Day 2020 and it was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in my life, but it was a lot more fun to watch at home where I could openly mock it surrounded by my family. I saw Tenet in the theater and couldn’t understand what the hell anyone was saying, but when I watched it again with subtitles on it made more sense. Not a lot more sense, but some.
There’s nothing sacred about the movie theater experience anymore, despite what celebrities and self-proclaimed auteurs would have you believe. The theater has as many advantages over streaming as it does disadvantages, and whether you see a movie on the big screen at the cinema or the slightly less big screen at home is purely a matter of preference. If it were up to me, every movie would be available to stream the same day it hits theaters. Ideally the filmmakers would be compensated fairly as well, but I’m honestly not that concerned about people who make more money on one movie than I’ll ever see in my life - for them, buying a luxury speedboat to drive in your bathtub would probably be a cheap party gag.