EDITORIAL: The ‘democratic art’ is in danger of becoming less so
Over the decades, movies have been hailed as a small-d democratic art form.
No matter your station in life, you could purchase a ticket and crowd into the same movie theater as everyone else. Whether you were young or old, rich or poor, educated or not, you could still thrill to the same images unfolding across a vast movie screen, from Humphrey Bogart bidding Ingrid Bergman farewell on a foggy airport runway in “Casablanca” to Harrison Ford outrunning a boulder in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Moviehouses have traditionally not been walled-off temples of high art in the way museums or symphony halls have been – you can pay for admission and laugh, cry or hold your breath, all while sipping a soda and munching on popcorn and candy.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Americans who frequently left their houses to see a movie in a theater was nowhere near what it had been in the halcyon days of the 1930s and 1940s, and those who did were being tempted to skip the trip and luxuriate instead on their couches and watch movies from a streaming service on a big-screen television. In the three years since the first coronavirus lockdowns, the situation has only gotten worse. The amount of revenue collected by the movie industry in 2022, when adjusted for inflation, was off by 45% compared to 2019. In one 2022 poll, almost 60% of American adults said they rarely or never went to a movie theater. Some chains have filed for bankruptcy, and some locations have permanently closed, including the multiplex at Washington Crown Center in South Strabane, and the six-screen theater at Uniontown Mall.
How exactly do you lure audiences back to theaters when, for many, the habit has been broken as a result of COVID-19? That’s a good question. The theater chain AMC, though, seems to have decided that rather than trying to bring in more customers, they’re going to wring more money out of the ones they still have.
Early last week, the company unveiled a plan that would have customers pay more for seats in the middle of the auditorium. Presumably, those are the seats with the best sight-lines. They would pay less for a seat in the front row, right in front of the screen, and a “standard” price everywhere else. In a nice bit of corporate-speak, an AMC official said in a news release the plan would “more closely align” the company’s seat pricing with other entertainment venues, and offer “experienced-based pricing.” It’s started this weekend in New York, Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., and is supposed to be in place at all AMC outlets by the end of the year.
However, making movie attendance more complicated and pricey would seem to be a surefire way to get people to skip the “experience” altogether. Elijah Wood, the actor best known for his appearances in “The Lord of the Rings” movies, took AMC to task in a tweet: “The movie theater is and always has been a sacred democratic space for all, and this new initiative would essentially penalize for lower income and reward for higher income.”
There are too many spaces now where Americans are separated by income, from the sports arena to the concert venue. Let’s not make the movies another one.