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Movie theaters are “empathy machines,” and that’s why streaming services will never replace them for Warner Bros. Pictures bosses
With streaming and home entertainment on the rise, WB says theaters are “empathy machines,” and that’s why they’ll never go away
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As technology marches on, home theaters have become more advanced. The seats are comfier than ever, the televisions and sound systems would make our ancestors faint, and thanks to streaming services, we have a huge selection of films to choose from.
Yet the movie theater experience lives on.
While box offices haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic numbers, recent trends like GentleMinions and Chicken Jockey have created cultural moments centered around the theater experience. From entire auditoriums gasping and cheering when Captain America wielded Thor’s hammer in Avengers: Endgame, to singing along with Huntrix during screenings of KPop Demon Hunters, the experience just doesn’t hit the same way at home.
If you need proof, try shouting “chicken jockey” alone in your living room. It doesn’t pack the same punch as it does when you’re doing it along with an excited audience.
According to Warner Bros., these communal moments are the reason why the theater experience is so important. It’s not only fun, but it connects us with strangers during times when we might feel isolated.
“I think that Hollywood, and just cinema in general, and foreign films as well, are empathy machines.” “Warner Bros. co-chair Mike De Luca says during a Substack discussion with Franklin Leonard. “When you sit in a theater with 300 to 500 people that you don't know, who all laugh at the same joke, or jump at the same scare, or cry at the same scene, it's an empathy machine, and you feel something in that collective human experience of letting a storyteller tell you a story passively.”
“You're not getting up off your couch to eat, or go to the bathroom, and then restart the program, you don't have a controller in your hand. You kind of make a deal as a moviegoer to sit there, be passive, let someone tell you a story, and there's something about it happening in the communal setting, which I think is why movies are sticky, and can create new movie stars, and can create cultural conversations, because you're an active participant in getting out of your house, going to the theater, and buying the ticket. It's almost like you feel like you're an investor in that experience.”
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