Does Streaming HELP Theaters?

PLUS: You Will Never Stop Buying New TVs

Author

Steve
September 17, 2024

Greetings Hollywood tech nerds!

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Does Streaming Help Theaters?

There’s a widespread assumption that the streaming model is ultimately bad for the theatrical exhibition business, including from the author of a certain newsletter! Variety provides an article suggesting it might be more complicated via a survey with some fascinating data:

Around 61% of total respondents had seen at least two movies in the theater over the past six months, which increases to 74% when including those who have been at least once. While medium (10-20 hours a week) and light (less than 10 hours a week) streamers were more commonly those paying the theater multiple visits, even 40% of heavy streamers (20-plus hours a week) still went to the theater once.

Wow, interesting! Tell me, from whence did this survey and its participants come?

…a new survey conducted by Roku and the National Research Group suggests streaming doesn’t automatically drive consumers away from movie theaters, as many assume. Under the right circumstances, the relationship between the two industries can even be a symbiotic one.

Conducted in January 2024, the online survey consisted of roughly 2,200 U.S.-based consumers 18-64 who watch at least one hour of streaming content a week. Some 1,900 respondents were categorized as “moviegoing streamers,” which included those who had seen at least one film in the theater within the past year.

Ahh there it is. This is like writing “a new survey conducted by Willy Wonka suggests candy doesn’t automatically rot teeth, as many assume!”

Aren’t you pre-biasing your survey by asking “moviegoing streamers” about how much going out to the movies is impacted by streaming? They already told you they like doing both! Why don’t you commission a survey of beer-drinking basketball fans to see whether they like going to sports bars?

The most apparent conclusion that Roku and NRG found? “Streamers are moviegoers, and moviegoers absolutely love to stream,” said Summer Salazar, Senior Manager of Media & Entertainment at Roku.

Well, yes… but not all streamers are moviegoers! Did you need a survey to tell you if someone would see The Fall Guy in the theater if they knew it was going to be available on streaming just over two weeks later?

Unsurprisingly, the biggest factors behind why consumers prefer to stream over going to the movies are cost and convenience. Some 62% of moviegoing streamers cited price as the top reason for streaming a movie at home, followed by the ability to watch on one’s own time (59%) and being able to pause and rewind (45%).

That said, these same consumers can be convinced to go out to the theater if a given movie offers enough of a unique experience. Half of moviegoing streamers said some movies simply need to be seen on a theater screen, while nearly as many cited social gatherings and quintessentially theater perks such as popcorn as key motivators. “Barbenheimer” is the biggest recent example of people going to the movies for the experience itself.

None of this should be surprising to readers of this newsletter. And indeed, it’s all pretty self-evident. You don’t have to be a genius to puzzle this stuff out, and as my Aunt Joan always reminds me: I am no genius!

The problem is that there is little intentional movement towards any of these outcomes. “Barbenheimer” wasn’t a brilliant marketing ploy cooked up between Universal and Warner Bros., it was WB counterprogramming a Christopher Nolan movie because he went to Universal. “Barbenheimer” was a meme that emerged online because the tenor of the two films was so different and thus made for a fun double feature. Studio marketing didn’t come up with that, they were too busy using ChatGPT to conjure up imaginary trailer quotes.

Hollywood, streamers, and theatrical exhibition can absolutely bring audiences back in to the movies, but it’s going to take coordinated, intentional effort, and avoiding panicking if the first weekend’s box office is below expectations. If you want audiences to think it’s special, you have to make it special!

You Will Never Stop Buying New TVs

I briefly wanted to touch on this report on the future of 8K, specifically its estimates on how it will figure into TV purchases in the US:

The report identifies a range of potential opportunities for 8K, which represents four times the resolution of 4K and 16 times that of Full HD.

But TV in the U.S. market might not be one of them, at least not anytime soon. Separately, the latest research from the Consumer Technology Association projects that 8K for the home will remain a specialty, premium large-screen device for the foreseeable future.

The percentage of homes with 4K TVs was just under 50% only a few years ago and I’m guessing it’s likely somewhere around there now. There won’t be any rush to buying an even more expensive TV when people are still fine with their older HDTVs. Adding another new TV format? Forget it!

Frankly, in order to sell more people on better resolution TVs, there needs to be more discussion on how bad UHD content often looks. A good example is found within in the bizarre AI-assisted re-scans I previously covered. Additionally, I also watch a lot of UHD content on streaming, and it is frankly shocking how awful the compression is on some of these services. I won’t mention any names but there are some incredibly bad UHD transcodes on a streaming service that starts with the letter “P.” The sad part is: it’s both of them!

Readers, what’s your experience been with UHD streaming? I would love to hear from you: [email protected]

Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:

All about Canon’s newest cinema camera. (link)

Ed Zitron excoriates the “Subprime AI crisis.” (link)

2024’s box office was surprisingly good! (link)