How You Can Help Movie Theaters Right Now
By Tess Farrand, Associate Content Editor
Although movie theaters have shut their doors due to COVID-19, you can still help them!
As many consumers across the country are well aware, entertainment hasn’t completely come to a halt, thanks to streaming.
However, will the move of recent titles to VOD become a trend in the future that threatens the stability of movie theater chains?
Only time will tell.
Since the idea that movie theaters will stay closed is only a rumor, there are practical things to do to help:
- Buy a movie theater gift card in anticipation that theaters will open up again soon.
- Tweet or email your favorite movie theater chain to encourage the executives.
- Share pictures of you and your family at a movie theater and tag your favorite movie chain to remind them that people do care about the movies!
- Pray that this won’t come to pass.
As a former movie theater employee, I’d argue that we’d lose so much if movie theaters stay closed.
For starters, movie theater popcorn, am I right?
Okay, but on a more serious note, going to the movies is a great way to create memories with friends and loved ones. Think back to major holidays like Christmas or those summertime superhero blockbuster movies. Perhaps a first date…
Additionally, like so many industries in our current economy, thousands of movie theater employees would lose their jobs.
Some movie theater chains also play host to special events and churches. That’s right, churches can rent out space on Sunday mornings for communal worship. If movie theaters close, several churches risk losing their space.
In a guest column for Box Office Pro, Mark Malinowski puts it beautifully:
I know the Film Exhibition Industry will weather this storm. Just like the Industry got through the Great Depression, the introduction of radio, World War II, the advent of television and the continuing technical evolution of home entertainment (home video, DVDs and now streaming). It will get through this crisis because people love the shared experience of seeing a great movie up on the big screen, surrounded by others to laugh, cry and even scream. Just like me, people also have life-long memories of seeing movies together in a theater with their loved ones.
So friend, although we can’t exactly heed the words of the hit musical movie ANNIE, “let’s go to the movies,” we can certainly hope that as conditions improve, it’s only a short time away before we can.
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