I became obsessed with movies at a young age. I also remember going to see “The Towering Inferno” (1974) with my dad, when I was nine years old, and instantly falling in love with the whole process of filmmaking. I was eager to learn how the magic was created up on that big screen.

Throughout the 80s and 90s I would go to the cinema at least once or twice a week — it was a way of life for me.

My mom bought me an 8mm movie camera when I was around 10 years old and I began making short movies of my own. Then I would spend so many of my days in the cinema, dreaming that one day, my films would be up there, for all the world to see. All of that because I was in awe of the cinema experience — the huge screen and the incredible surround sound. I was a captive viewer, in the dark, glued to the movie and able to totally escape from reality — at least for a couple of hours anyway.

Things changed, of course, technology changed — for the better in most cases.

PHOTOS PROVIDED An example of a fancy home theater is shown.

But in later years, as prices went up and restrictions meant that I could no longer watch three screenings in a row, without paying three different times — yes that was a real thing back then — I started to go less and less.

In recent years, as recently as 20 years ago, with the revolution in TV picture and sound quality, and the explosion of cable TV and its vast new content availability, viewers, including myself, were slowly coaxed back to movie watching on TV. Video rentals had peaked and, once digital broadcasting and streaming had come along, they began to wane altogether. Or as in the case of Blockbuster Video, they disappeared completely.

Netflix began the revolution that started a whole new way of watching movies, first of all matching cinema quality sound and vision, then taking over and improving on it.

At first, I was skeptical that home viewing could ever be better than the cinema experience, but now, hard as it is to admit, I agree. Being able to watch the latest, most recent cinema release at home, in 4K and Dolby Atmos surround sound, and at a fraction of the cost of an evening out at the local cinema, certainly makes sense, doesn’t it?

But does it? There’s an old saying that one should “Be careful not to bite the hand that feeds you.”

In terms of movie production in general, I actually believe this to be true as it is box office revenue, ever since the beginning of cinema going, that has enabled the technical and artistic process to continue and get better, which, in turn made the cinema going experience better for each individual. Movie making exists in a very fragile ecosystem and always has and, as such, many studios have flourished and then died as a result of declining box office receipts.

Others, in order to survive, have had to adapt, and even merge and co-produce in order to remain strong.

In 2019, worldwide cinema attendance was at an all-time high with a record $42.5 Billion in gross box office returns. Dominated by ‘Disney Studios’ with seven out of the ten top grossing movies that year — “Avengers: Endgame,” (2019) sitting securely on top of a record breaking $31 Billion Grossing studio to date — the excitement of the cinema going experience was obviously stronger than ever. Despite the huge pull of TV streaming and the promised luxury of home viewing, people were going back to the cinema in their millions.

In preparation for this upswing in attendance worldwide, studios were planning ever more franchises and promising that “the best is yet to come” for cinema goers everywhere.

Then COVID hit in early 2020 and the movie world was left devastated. Social distancing and the need for self-protection from infection became the number one priority for everyone which, of course, meant that going to the cinema became just about impossible.

As a result, box office revenue slumped to $12.4 billion for that year and cinema, in all its capacities, would never be the same again. Well, up until now that is.

In 2024, the total was back up to $30 billion, heralding a strong comeback worldwide, but in a different world from 2019.

International studios have since flourished, particularly from South Korea and China, and even streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney certainly have profited from the stay-at-home preferences of the past couple of years.

However, they are venturing back into producing cinema movies and seeing the potential for a return to lucrative box office gains once again.

Indeed, Netflix has been producing some successful cinema releases in the past few years, many becoming Oscar nominated too.

However, they just invested in a huge budgeted production with Marvel Studios veteran directors, The Russo Brothers — “The Electric State” — which has an estimated $320 million production budget, and they have released it only through their streaming platform — a huge risk considering that a movie needs to return more than twice its budget to break even, let alone make a profit. That is, of course, through the traditional worldwide cinema release process. But streaming is a different entity and far less expensive at the distribution phase, but it will still need to make a lot of money back which, in this case, can now only come through its monthly subscription revenue. Watch this space for my future look at that.

One example of the changes that have taken place since COVID, in terms of worldwide cinema dominance is that, just a couple of weeks ago, for the first time ever, a non-American movie has surpassed the $1 billion mark to sit on top of the worldwide box office. “Ne Zha 2,” (2025) A 100% Chinese made movie, has grossed over $1.9 billion at the global box office (99% domestic receipts and only 1% from the rest of the world, USA included). That is almost five times the gross of the next biggest movie of the year so far, “Captain America: Brave New World,” (2025) with $403 Million, which, for sure, has sent shockwaves through Hollywood and Disney Studios in particular.

Chinese movies such as “Water Gate Bridge,” (2022) “Hi Mom,” (2021) “Detective Chinatown 3,” (2021) and “The Eight Hundred” (2020) were all figured in the top ten box office grossed movies in the world in their respective years. Japanese animation, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,” (2020) became the first time in history that a non-US movie topped the annual worldwide box office — albeit due to COVID decimating cinema going all over the world. But still, a sign of things to come. With all this in mind, it is worth noting that, although stay-at-home movie watching has reached an all time high, considering everything I have discussed here, cinema going is back on the rise. Despite the increased costs to the viewer it seems to be settling back in to stay and that is a good thing to be sure.

As I stated earlier, movie making is produced within a fragile ecosystem, a huge employer worldwide and each movie in itself employs hundreds of professional workers in all aspects of its production.

People, of course, have to be paid and so a profit has to be made. Despite the stories of the $100 or $200 million mega productions hitting all the headlines, most movies are within a $20 to $50 Million budget range. When you consider, within that, there might be nearly 300 people employed, then you can begin to understand why a movie will cost that much.

From script to screen, there are so many costly points of production that, if carefully and methodically prepared and executed, then everyone wins, and if that movie makes around $125 million at the box office (roughly 2 and half times its budget) then profits can be put back into the next movie, then the next.

This all makes economic sense, much as any business would do, but when a movie runs into the area of a $200 to $300 million budget then it will need to make back $600 to $700 million in order to be even considered a success, and that then becomes a risky venture.

Of course there are the winners in this area, the “Star Wars” franchise, (1977 to Present) the “Avatar” franchise, (2009 to present) the “Harry Potter” franchise (2001 to present) and, of course the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, (2008 to present) are a few of the success stories. But there have been many disasters too.

Netflix’s “The Electric State,” (2025) as I mentioned earlier, is being released into uncharted waters with its huge budget of $320 plus million and only being available to view on the streaming platform.

Netflix has responded by saying it is not too worried about how much it has spent as its costs are calculated in a different way from regular box office returns. This makes me think that due to how hard it is to determine monetary success through these streaming services, and the fact that there is no specific data readily available regarding viewer to revenue ratio (This is something that Netflix has been able to keep under wraps since its beginnings) perhaps we will never truly know if “The Electric State” well ever be categorized as a success or a failure.

For me though, at the end of the day, I am a true cinema fan and follower and, although I am not able to get to the theater anywhere near as much as I would like to these days, my fondest memories of movie watching have always come from being in that darkened theater, sound all around, eagerly watching with every part of me, as that sheer magic unfolds before my eyes.

So, is the cinema experience dying? Well, I think that it isn’t so much dying but is in transition as the world changes and the viewing experience is evolving technologically fast and financially crucial to its survival.

I will always go to the movies, so will millions of others around the world, but now I think differently from how that starry eyed,13-year-old did — well, maybe not that much differently I suppose.