Home » On demand and in original version: cinema in the age of streaming

On demand and in original version: cinema in the age of streaming

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The shared space of simultaneous viewing, the rarefied border between social and individual experience, the big screen as an ideal place where use is transformed into experience: the darkness of cinemas, illuminated by what Ettore Scola called the “painted mirror”, it becomes less indispensable even for the most passionate cinephiles. Thanks to the mix of Covid variants, the overtaking of streaming resonates in the data released by Cinetel, which registers for 2021 a market strongly conditioned by the health emergency, between the forced closure of cinemas for 4 months (from the beginning of January to the end of April) and the new worsening during the end of the year holidays. A significant impact on the results of the Box Office: in Italy last year the cinemas recorded a total collection of approximately 170 million euros, for a number of admissions equal to 25 million tickets sold. This is a slightly lower result than in 2020 (-7% receipts and -11% attendance), which had nevertheless benefited from one of the best start-ups ever in pre-pandemic market conditions and a 71% decrease in receipts and 73% of overnights compared to the average for the three-year period 2017-2018-2019.

The scenario that is now emerging is that of pending (undated) and unconfirmed theatrical releases, while according to data from the Ernst & Young Executive Ott video Services Observatory, there are over 13 million subscriptions to the major streaming platforms available in Italy, starting with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney + (but also Dazn, Mediaset Infinity, Now, Eurosport Player, Timvision, Apple Tv + and Discovery +). Relevant numbers, which open up the digital horizon also on the transmissive front of the seventh art starting from the sofa at home.

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However, ‘Spider-man – No way home’, in Italian cinemas from 15 December 2021, has exceeded 22 million euros in receipts, a remarkable figure that reflects the outcome in the world box office (over 1.5 billion dollars) . A figure that reveals how “the adult audience and families tend to be absent in cinemas”, as Mario Lorini, president of Anec exhibitors, claims. “While those films that attract a particular audience, fans of comics or those of the phenomenon ‘Me against You’, resisted”, he continues, referring to “Me against You – the mystery of the enchanted school”, the most watched Italian film of the year with 5 million euros. The market is therefore becoming very polarized, there are few relevant successes in theaters and paradoxically the audience that is attending them is mainly a young audience. Having established the increasingly predominant role of streaming, in a context in which the customer is increasingly a user of online platforms ready to satisfy any need, how can the abandonment of theaters be assessed? Momentary? Irreversible? Progressive?

“The cinemas will not retire – argues Alberto Pasquale, Teaching Fellow in Movie Industry at Bocconi University and curator of the essay“ Netflix and beyond ”- people will come back, because the viewing in the room brings with it a natural call for sociality. Going to the cinema now involves the tension of contagion, the discomfort of wearing a mask, the need to show the green pass and the convenience of streaming from home, perhaps with good quality systems, is undeniable. Furthermore, the subscription to the platform is equivalent to the price of a cinema ticket, without the need to look for a parking space, with the possibility of watching at any time, watching, interrupting the vision at will, dwell on a single frame, access prime visions and especially in the original version, without dubbing. Nonetheless, just as TV resized the theater in its time, without making it disappear, streaming will not involve the public’s absolute renunciation of the big screen and its immersion, nor of the younger one, nor of those who are looking for a certain kind of festival film ”.

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While there are those who bet that mostly blockbusters, sequels and animated films will arrive in theaters, one cannot fail to notice the effects in relation to the variations in the methods of use of cinema. “If TV series were until recently a by-product – Pasquale underlines – now directors compete; while the screenwriter acquires importance, the figure of the critic is resized in favor of the trend topics on social media; some great films are produced by large platforms, perhaps presented right in the hall and then landed in streaming; on the one hand, the brand of film companies is diluted, on the other it is the platform itself that suggests the schedule to the user, indicating the titles according to preferences “, from Scorsese to Cuarón, up to” The Walking Dead “, which may not there is to be expected on Disney +. About the usual mantra, which is that Netflix and other platforms don’t communicate their data? “The truth – he concludes – is that the popularity index counts much more: the goal of streaming is not advertising sales, but that subscribers do not unsubscribe from the service”.

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