Hearne: Beginning of The End for AMC, Theaters?

It’s kinda like it was with newspapers…

It was the beginning of the end for the Kansas City Star, Newsweek, Automobile Magazine, the Village Voice and, yes, The Pitch.

When Al Gore‘s big, bad Internet roared to life in the late 1990s, the handwriting was on the wall for most print publications. Not that everybody in the game was aware of it. Hence the Star’s sinking hundreds of millions of bucks into its fancy-schmancy new press pavilion in downtown KC.

Don’t ask me how they made the determination, but somehow or another, the newspaper’s best and brightest concluded that they would be able to harness the power of the web and keep choking out newsprint…which was the cash cow of all cash cows.

Within a handful of years their devastating miscalculation was well on its way to becoming a reality. And somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 laid off or otherwise departed staffers later, here we are.

Now let’s apply similar thinking to the latest endangered species, movieplexes.

For years I’ve been pointing out to legendary local movie critic Jack Poessiger how Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube have been taking a similar toll on theaters.

Thanks to inflation, box office grosses have risen, but you’d be hard put not to notice how few truly exceptional movies outside of the superhero genre, James Bond and the like are truly must see when they first come out.

Not only because in 90 or so days, people will be able to watch them in the comfort of their homes on giant screens with incredible pictures and sound for a fraction of the cost and hassle of dragging to a multiplex.

Movie industry giants like KC-based AMC Theatres have staved off the inevitable by morphing crowded, uncomfortable theaters into luxurious, state-of-the art movie palaces with a host of gourmet snacks, halfway decent dining choices, cocktails, beer and wine.

Again, for a price.

The even bigger nail in movie theater’s coffins are the amazing array of quality choices available thru Netflix, cable companies and other sources.

But now, just like the internet is finally pounding the final nails in the coffins of most big city, daily newspapers, the moviemakers are starting to do the same by making current box office hits like The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma available now for the stay at home crowd.

And there’s pretty much nothing that AMC, B&B, Cinemark and  Alamo Drafthouse  can do about it because thanks to the Coronavirus, their plexes are shuttered.

On one hand, the movie companies have little choice, on the other, the virus has given them an excuse to green light going what in the movie biz is called going day-and-date with their television offerings.

“Universal’s decision to release four titles for home viewing even as they are being shown in theaters marked the first time that major studio releases will appear on other platforms simultaneously. The studio maintained that the move was a specific response to a unique moment, but online commenters wondered whether this could be the beginning of a sea change in Hollywood practice.”

Trust me, this is the beginning of the end, depending on how well these movies – and perhaps more importantly – other movies that have yet to screen at movieplexes do when and if they are released.

The bottom line being, that this is something that was bound to happen regardless of these difficult circumstances. In part, as evidenced by the fact that the release time between theaters and home video viewed has been shrinking for years.

If that window goes away and theaters have to complete against home viewing?

Well, take a look at what’s happening to newspapers and magazines.

“In the past, theater owners have aggressively objected to studios bringing their films anywhere but theaters first and suggested they would be open to the idea only if they could participate in revenue-sharing,” the Post concludes.

Fat chance of that happening…