On missing the movie theater

I haven’t been to a movie theater in over a year. In a way, I’m living in the future. For years, pundits have said that the future of entertainment is in the home. The future is a wall-mounted flat-screen TV streaming the latest movies and TV shows while I lounge on my couch with my dog in my lap and stray kernels of popcorn spilling into the couch cushions. The future is free from waiting in lines for tickets, from walking across sticky theater floors, from hearing the collective gasp of an audience after watching a murder or an explosion or a passionate kiss. The future is now.

Screw the future. I want the past. I miss going to movie theaters. I miss paying too much for soda. I miss the ritual of getting ready and picking a seat and trying not to jam my knees into the guy in front of me, of walking out of the movie talking about what we liked and what we didn’t and hearing other people discuss the same things. Honestly, I don’t think I knew how much I missed it until right this second as I’m writing about it. I am having a minor emotional experience…don’t worry, it’ll pass.

Obviously, not going to the movie theater is the least of the things people are giving up during the pandemic, but I think it’s the one thing I’m looking forward to doing again the most. I can picture myself, right now, buying a ticket to a movie that’s at least halfway decent — say that solo Black Widow movie — sitting down in my seat with my Milk Duds (or Raisinets if I’m feeling wild), and letting out a sigh of relief that could too easily be mistaken for something entirely different a few seats over, in the dark. It’ll be like shrugging off twin pails of water after climbing a mountain, or un-balling my fists after clenching them for months straights. I cannot wait to sit down in a darkened theater, look up, zone out, and get taken away. It’s a simple pleasure, but one I miss very much.

Watching movies at home is a simple pleasure, too, but one that lost its charm after a while, once it became clear that it was going to be the only option for the foreseeable future. It’s endurable — if the pandemic did anything, it’s show people that they can live without a lot of the things they thought were necessary — but I’m very eager for it to be over.

I’m betting a lot of people are in this boat with me. We’ve heard a lot of talk about studios deemphasizing movie theaters after the pandemic is over — just look at Disney releasing movies straight to Disney+, or Warner Bros. making their entire 2021 slate available on HBO Max. But as necessity is the mother of invention, interest is the mother of marketability. Once people are able again, I predict a mass exodus out to the theaters, with studios quickly lining up to take advantage of it. Show old movies again! Give ’em to us in 3D, in IMAX, in Smell-O-Vision, whatever, so long as we have them.

In a strange way, going to the movies is a communal experience. That might sound odd given that it involves sitting quietly in a darkened room full of strangers to whom you’re not supposed to talk. But even if there’s no verbal communication happening, you are sharing something with those people. If a movie is good, you’re crying and laughing together. You can feed off each other. If a movie is bad, you’re still crying and laughing with them, just for different reasons.

A night at the movies can be like a party for introverts. As an introvert myself, I actually haven’t done too badly during the pandemic — I’m perfectly capable of keeping myself entertained with books, games, movies and TV and checking in with loved ones over the phone or Zoom…but even I have limits, and right now I would give up a kidney to go back to the theaters.

Let’s hope it won’t come to that.