大流行是电影院的丧钟吗?

A 几年前在去阿姆斯特丹参加IBC的航班上, I spent a bit of time looking through the in-seat entertainment (ISE) to find a movie I'd not yet seen. 我选了一部《百家乐软件》系列的电影, so between dinner and the occasional request to stand up to allow aisle access to a middle-seat passenger, I'll admit to laughing out loud a few times and leaning toward the tiny screen to catch up on the antics of Shrek, 霏欧纳, 驴, 还有穿靴子的猫.

我一到会议中心, 我发现同一部电影要在主礼堂放映, showcasing a sponsor's highly tuned Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) projector coupled with a high-end projection screen and sound system. 我的第一反应是拒绝放映，因为 I'd already seen the movie on the ISE monitor and there's so much to explore in Amsterdam. 但我最终还是决定参加, because a few of the songs are catchy and the audio on airline earbuds—with overhead announcements, 引擎的轰鸣声, 还有边聊——还有很多需要改进的地方.

多么不一样的体验啊! 的 colors were crisp—and not just because the lights were dimmed and the DCI-compliant projector used very high bitrate compression with a wide color gamut—and the sound was immersive in a way that the ISE experience couldn't capture.

几周后，我和几个朋友看了同一部电影的DVD, and the experience was a middle ground between the ISE and the DCI-compliant projection. 一部电影，三种不同的环境，三种不同的经历.

为什么这与2020年中期相关? 截至7月底撰写本文时为止, movie theaters are still squarely in the middle of the chaos that the COVID-19 pandemic (and governmental responses to it) has wrought on the time-honored summer blockbuster movie season. Some theaters have reopened, but without new blockbuster movies to show, they've been 只能提供多年前的电影. In my area, two of the four multiplexes—one a national chain and the 其他 a second-run "dollar" 剧院已经永久关闭. One multi­plex that reopened with classic movies from the 1970s and 1980s has closed again.

这是有道理的. While there are a number of fans who might want to watch all of the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings movies in sequence over the course of a few days, 有可能 aren't enough to sustain a multiplex in the smaller towns that have relaxed movie attendance rules. 在本质上, 这些多厅影院急需新内容, since the major studios have pushed summer 2020 blockbusters to the holiday season or 2021—are competing with the home theater experience. 除了, the multiplex is hampered by the requirement that patrons wear masks and social distance, 这是, 当然, 没有必要放在客厅的家庭影院里.

All of these things put recent news about theatrical-window discussions into perspective. Multiplexes are in a perilous negotiating stance when it comes to the traditional 3-month theatrical window for movies before they are released to streaming services as premium video on demand (PVOD). 多厅影院要感谢电影制片厂提供内容, 还有AMC和Regal, 两个最大的U.S.以美国为基础的连锁电影院, 几年前，电影放映周期一般为三周, 对新鲜内容的需求更加迫切. Since most first-run theatrical release movies now show a significant drop in revenues by the second weekend, versus a decade ago when a movie could play for 4–6 weeks and generate revenue each week, 对新内容的需求为多厅影院创造了一场完美的风暴.

As I previously mentioned, new content slated for summer 2020 is being withheld until late 今年或2021年初. 但即使电影院每两周都有新鲜的内容, 目前还不确定他们能否获得足够多的观众来支付费用. 

然而，电影公司在已经“可以”拍摄的电影上投入了大量资金.“他们需要为投资者收回资金, but are hesitant to release movies in theaters that would generate lower-than-blockbuster viewership and revenue. 其中两个主要原因是担心这部电影会 被视为失败，援引投资条款，或将进一步确认 收入下降的“新常态”趋势, 反过来, scare off future investments in movies that typically take more than $100 million to produce. 

In the middle of the whole discussion is the elephant in the room about whether or not multiplexes are even needed. nbc环球发布的 巨魔的世界 之旅 直接到交易视频点播(TVOD)是这个故事工作室的胜利, at least for a film it knew wouldn't be in Academy Award contention and therefore didn't need a theatrical-first release.

nbc环球发布的 巨魔世界巡演 此举立即引起了AMC和Regal的强烈反对, with AMC saying it would no longer play NBCUniversal movies in its theaters and Regal stating it wouldn't screen any movie that didn't honor the theatrical window. While there's been a concession on AMC's part in which NBCUniversal now gets a 17-day theatrical window before the TVOD period, 其他 连锁影院加倍下注, stating that they won't play movies from studios that opt for the direct-to-TVOD approach. This explains why the battle between studios and theaters over the release of some content directly to video on demand (often as PVOD) is so critical to the viability of the optimal viewing experience that a movie theater presents.

的 reality of the pandemic—especially if it stretches out into mid-2021—is that home theater may be the only one of the three screen types to survive, 以牺牲多厅和ISE为代价. After all, if movie theater attendance has dropped, airline travel has contracted even more. But the theater is still the best place to experience movies in their intended presentation format. Size matters, as do aspect ratio and speaker placement, when it comes to true cinema-quality viewing.

当涉及到戏剧窗口的长度时, 在接下来的几个月里，电影公司将从连锁电影院获得特许权, 但他们仍有可能保留大片在多厅影院的首发. 为什么? Because the short window of time in which a freshly released movie is presented in its optimal viewing experience is one of the few ways that studios can rake in serious bank. Until TVOD proves that it can consistently do the same, studios won't likely kill off a sure thing.

 [编者注:本专栏首次发表于2020年9月号的。 流媒体 作为“英寸和方面”."]