The Evolution of Movies as We Know Them

This guest post is from Hotdog.com

 

For half a century, sitting in a darkened auditorium with a crowd of fellow movie-goers was the most popular way to enjoy exciting new films. As the distribution process shifted cinema to video on demand, more opportunities changed the ease of accessing flicks at home. Though the future of watching movies in the traditional sense remains more uncertain than ever before with the rapid evolution of online viewing services. We can learn where the film industry is heading by looking at its resilience over the years. 

The Dream Factory 

The largest filmmaking industry began in the United States, while international countries produced and released their projects independently. In the early 1900s, films stemmed from five studios in California - Paramount Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Warner Brothers Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and RKO. Known as "The Dream Factory," these studios oversaw every aspect of filmmaking and distribution. Their streamlined process from pre- to post-production continually churned out consistent films, even as the country faced devastating economic and political challenges. 

 As successful as Hollywood was, the original studio system faced its ultimate downfall in 1948. The Big Five Studios owned almost half of all theater chains and required independent theaters to purchase packages of B-rated projects in order to rent their A-budget films. "Blocked booking" gradually sparked legal disputes but failed to disarm the studios' power hold over the years. A landmark case between the United States v Paramount determined that the studios broke antitrust laws and needed to divest their theater holdings to encourage exhibitor competition. 

From Cinema to Living Rooms 

This move marked an impending shift in technology. Though movies encouraged people to leave the house, television also provided entertainment from their living room. Programming, however, remained primitive until the 1950s. As licensing agreements took hold, a select range of movies like "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) began premiering on TV. Fusing classic movies into another medium didn't end cinema's popularity, but the writing was on the wall. 

 In the 1960s and 1970s, television was almost in every U.S. household and opened the door to video formatting. A series of videocassettes emerged on the market – namely Sony's UMatic and Betamax. The price tag, however, was more conducive to professional settings instead of personal. In 1976, Victor Company of Japan (JVC) released their less expensive VHS Tape, which made it possible for everyday Joes to record material up to 6 hours. 

Birth of Video on Demand 

VHS Tapes became an essential part of home entertainment centers and launched video rental stores to new heights in the 1980s and 1990s. For two decades, VHS Tapes enjoyed the limelight until it faced film digitalization. 

 In the late 1990s, savvier technology arrived from Japan in the form of DVDs and DVD players. Temporarily, VHS and DVDs coincided in recording players interfacing both mediums. Eventually, the compact nature of DVDs with enhanced picture quality, special features, and the simplified ability to rewind or skip ahead outweighed the old-fashioned bulky inconvenience of VHS. 

 Just as fast as DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs skyrocketed, the early 2000s marked steadfast transitions from VHS to DVD to streaming services with the takedown of a major video rental giant. 

Blockbuster Video was the go-to destination to rent movies - first with VHS Tapes and then DVDs. But with the expansion of the internet, a competing company, Netflix, lured movie lovers with a DVD-by-mail service for a fixed monthly fee. When Blockbuster finally caught up to the same model, Netflix transitioned their subscription from DVDs to streaming in 2007 and this radical shift changed the way we watch movies forever. 

The Future of Movies After COVID

 As the age of Netflix streaming dawned, its rise to the top coincided with android smartphones and iPhones making entertainment available through apps. Anyone could watch a movie at home, school, or during a commute. 

Where Hollywood maintained a semblance of control was the time frame between theatrical to DVD release. After a newer film ran its course at the box office, it eventually moved to other physical media. But even that transitional window started declining in the early 2000s from 6 months to approximately 16 weeks as of 2020. Additionally, more subscription services emerged in Netflix's footsteps, began developing original films, and skipping over traditional releases. 

However, the biggest impact on the cinema-going experience didn't stem from video formatting or television. It arrived with the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. As most cinemas closed their doors and millions remained at home under lockdown orders, subscription services became the primary source of entertainment. While a fair number of movies were delayed for 2021 release dates, studios like Warner Bros decided to "drop" titles to their streaming services on the same day as cinema openings or bypass the latter. These divisive steps drew criticism over broken agreements and enhanced the ongoing fear over the end of cinema. 

Though the movie theater experience isn't the main draw it used to be, the film industry is striving to calibrate its chain of supply and demand. With physical activities returning, hope is still alive as studios re-adjust their plans and the general public aims to return to pre-pandemic activities. However, subscription services are certainly not disappearing any time soon. The combination of both will continue to shape how we watch movies for years to come.

The next film to be analyzed is The Mouse That Roared.