"It was from a weekly visit to the cinema that you learned (or tried to learn) how to walk, to smoke, to kiss, to fight, to grieve, Susan Sontag wrote 30 years ago, in an essay to mark 100 years of film entitled The Decay of Cinema. For Sontag, the onset of the ignominious, irreversible decline of the 20th century's greatest art form was the arrival of television."
"Today it is the advent of streaming. Cinema is in a state of existential crisis. Netflix is bidding to take over Warner Bros, as the industry is still recovering from lockdown and the 2023 Hollywood writers' and actors' strikes. Leonardo DiCaprio, whose One Battle After Another received 13 Oscar nominations last week, having failed to break even at the box office, asked if people still have the appetite for movies, and if cinemas are in danger of becoming silos like jazz bars."
"Amid these anxieties over audiences' dwindling attention spans, Clare Binns, the creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, and the recipient of this year's Bafta award for outstanding British contribution to cinema, has called time on a growing trend for ever longer films. At three hours and 35 minutes, The Brutalist (2024) required a 15-minute interval. Avatar: Fire and Ash, now in UK cinemas, is three hours and 17 minutes."
Cinema faces an existential crisis driven by the rise of streaming and changing viewing habits. Netflix's bid for Warner Bros coincides with industry aftershocks from lockdown and the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes. High-profile figures have questioned audience appetite and artistic viability: Leonardo DiCaprio asked whether people still want movies and whether cinemas risk becoming silos like jazz bars; Matt Damon warned of films being dumbed-down; Mary Sweeney suggested filmmakers like David Lynch would struggle amid reduced concentration. Clare Binns has criticised lengthening runtimes, citing films over three hours that strain audiences and reduce nightly showings. Many UK independent cinemas risk closure within three to five years without investment.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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