Is Cinema Dead?

In recent years, cinema audiences have declined due to television showings of films becoming much more frequent. One such as example of this are the Sky Movies chain of channels, showing older established films and the more recent ones. For example, why pay to see a film when it is possible to wait for about a year and see it free of charge? Another factor which may be destroying cinema is films on dvd/blu-ray. People may feel that they have to make time for an outing to the cinema, whereas dvd/blu-ray is something so commercially available that people may find it easier to pick it up in their weekly shopping and watch it anytime.

On the other hand, some may argue that watching films on a standard TV set and not on the big screen could be classed as 'missing out' on the cinema experience. When a film is so widely advertised through television, posters on the sides of buses ect. the hype is created, exciting cinema-goers. It could be seen as lazy to wait for months afterwards to see a highly-hyped film, deciding on reviews weather to see it or not instead of taking the risk of spending money to see something.

Another thing that I will draw attention to shall be advertisement towards cinema, as I briefly mentioned above. A film can be marketed in so many ways e.g. TV advertisements, posters, taglines, TV spots, trailers in cinemas, interviews with cast and crew members, Internet and feauttretts on the likes of sky movie channels. It is impossible to avoid the 'in your face' factor that big films have as they will be seen everywhere.

However, in the same manner, DVD's are also marketed in this way, making them just as 'in your face' as the cinema releases. Also, many major films see releases in the USA weeks and months before they set foot in the UK and other countries, leaving them open to be found for free on Internet torrent sites, where they can be watched at any time. Food in cinemas often costs a fortune and many cinema do not allow outside food in their screen rooms, which may encourage audiences to get food 'on the cheap' at shops and snuggle up to a film a home. 2nd hand stores also offer films at much, much cheaper price.

For some films, however, this can be seen as a good thing because if they are unsuccessful at the box office, it doesn't mean that they will continue to be unsuccessful once a DVD/Blu-ray/video format is released. One such example of this is 'Waterworld' (1995). Having a budget of $175,000,000, it was only able to reach a gross of $88,246,220 in the US during its time in cinemas, and even managed to score a Razzie award for worst supporting actor (Dennis Hopper). However, the film went on to do much better once it was released on VHS and DVD.