Death of Cinema

Hunter Campolo, staff writer

Ten years ago, a movie ticket was eight dollars. Today, It’s 24. That’s three times more expensive than it used to be, but fear not, for $24 a month, one can get any movie they want on Netflix. Except for the movies on Paramount+, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Disney+. Those are all about 20 dollars a month separately. Most new movies and TV have all been primarily moved to streaming services, and adding just 3 of those up costs about 60 dollars a month, which is unreasonably expensive. Add ESPN to watch sports, its even worse.   

This wasn’t always the case, competition used to be evenly split between way more streaming services, like peacock, apple TV, Starz, until the billionaires attacked. For the longest time, Everyone has been trying to control as many different IPs as possible, so everything can only be watched on their platform. Recently buying Warner Brothers (WB) for $82.7 Billion, Netflix now owns more of everyone’s favorite iconic series like Harry Potter, looney tunes, and the ENTIRE DC universe, along with HBO and HBO max. They’ve also stated that they want all new movies to only be in theaters 14 days maximum. Because of this, every streaming service is panicking, trying to swallow up as many companies as possible. Paramount even launched a counteroffer for WB, a $108 Billion all cash offer, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Since failing to steal WB, paramount has filed many lawsuits accusing Netflix of having a monopoly.    

These companies know that owning media is important in the current digital age, so they’re trying to own it all, and force people to pay monthly to get them too. With so many different movies and shows on different platforms, it gets too expensive to have them all, and all of them are making their own exclusive media. Want to watch Severance? Amazon Prime. Disney movies? Disney+. Stranger Things? Netflix. Not only is it too much to pay for, it’s too much to keep track of. DVD’s are starting to look like a better alternative now, society has almost gone backwards.   

    “I enjoy going to the theater, but still I have to stream sometimes” said Brooks Eddy, a senior at Innovation Academy. People still want to go to watch movies, but it’s too expensive to do consistently, and it loses more and more appeal every time a new movie is released only digitally.