Movie Theaters Will Be Different After Coronavirus, and That's Okay

Across America and the world, movie theaters are presently sitting empty. The legendary silver screens that lit up and brought countless stories to life for generations are dark as patrons stay at home, turning to streaming and on-demand to get their movie fix as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage on. It is a difficult time, but it's one that will eventually change. The world will come out on the other side of the pandemic and while no one knows what exactly that will look like there's one thing that we can bank on: movie theaters and movies themselves may look a bit different in a post-coronavirus world, and that's okay.

One of the biggest possible changes that we'll see when the movie theaters open up again are the theaters themselves. When businesses begin to reopen, it's all but guaranteed that there won't be quite as many theaters open in a post-coronavirus world as there were before. If there are fewer theaters, how they operate will, at least in the short term, be different as well.

Some reports have suggested that social distancing protocols will need to be in place until 2022 if a vaccine for COVID-19 isn't found. That would mean that theaters may limit the number of tickets sold for any given show, block off seats in auditoriums or even remove them altogether, reducing the number of people who can be in any one screening and ensuring they stay far apart.

There's also the matter of the movies themselves. Blockbusters will still be a draw, of course, but moviegoers may be a little reluctant to flock to theaters en masse right away. Big movies like the Marvel films, for example, have huge budgets. A reluctant audience and fewer seats/screens very well could see what, before COVID-19, was a sure-fire billion dollar hit bring in much less at the box office. Movies may be entertainment, but it's still an industry and studios don't want to lose money. The post-coronavirus world may see studios more willing to put out promising smaller films with lower budgets that could still do well a "shrunken" theater scenario as opposed to big-budget gambles.

It all sounds almost alien, but it's honestly okay. While no one will be happy for theater closures and the loss of jobs that go with it, the idea of more open space in auditoriums isn't a terrible one. The experience of going to the movies, at its heart, is a very intimate experience. Certainly, there's something to be said for watching truly iconic moments in a darkened theater with hundreds of others, but the actual experience of the movie itself is a personal one -- and who hasn't fantasized about having the arm rests all to yourself? If some of the bigger chains end up shuttered, it leaves the possibility for the rise of more independent theaters, which themselves are a unique experience when it comes to going to the movies.

If the post-coronavirus world sees a change in what types of films are offered, that's okay, too. Fundamentally, movies are about stories and not all stories have to be "big" in order to have a serious audience. That's something we've seen even while we're all staying at home thanks to Arrow star Stephen Amell's science fiction film Code 8. The small budget indie film recently became the most popular film on Netflix. It's definitely an indication that audiences are interested in smaller films that tell big stories.

However, the exact changes play out, all we know is that going to the movies will be different in the near future. Once the stay at home orders are ended and people start going back to work and back about what passes for a new normal in their lives, things will not be the same as they were before. But as long as the theaters open their doors and those screens light up again, the magic of movies won't be over. Things will be different, but as long as they simply are it's going to be okay.