Show time: Cinemas hope for blockbuster comeback

LACONIA— The pandemic and a surge of new streaming services has made the future of the traditional movie theater uncertain, but local venues like Gilford Cinema 8, Meredith's BarnZ's and Tilton's Smitty's theater have managed to survive. As the summer block buster season hits and COVID-19 cases have decreased, local theaters are cautiously optimistic.

“It (COVID-19) backlogged a lot of good movies that the studios didn't want to release so we've got a slew of great movies coming out all summer,” said Albert Waitt, operations manager of Smitty's Theater in Tilton.

During the height of the pandemic, video streaming subscriptions increased by 26% to a total of 1.1 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association. Movie studios also allowed some new releases to be streamed in living rooms across the world, a sea change in the industry. 

Such a drastic shift forced theaters to get creative with their show lineups once their doors were back open.

“We showed some legacy content, like the early Jurassic Parks, we did a Harry Potter series, we played a lot of independent movies that we could get distributed,” Waitt said. Theaters also cut back on hours, offered socially distanced seating and new health protocols to make guests feel safer.

Despite all the extra steps, modifications and creative screening ideas, Waitt stated that many theaters couldn't have survived without outside help.

“The government came through with the Save Our Stages Act which subsidized live music venues and cinemas with money to stay afloat.” Waitt said. “It hung on by a hair. If the government hadn't stepped in there would have been a lot of closed theaters across the country.”

Since then, theaters have witnessed audiences come trickling back into the seats, and hopes are high thanks to upcoming summer blockbusters.

For local Oscar-winning screenwriter Ernest Thompson, the home streaming experience is a tough opponent for traditional movie theaters.

“The notion of sitting in your own living room in your chair by your fire watching a movie is more attractive to having to go out and go to a theater,” Thompson said, stating that he wouldn't want to be in the theater business personally, but has appreciated recent innovations.

“I think it's great a theater like BarnZ in Meredith has gone out of the way to make adjustments,” Thompson said. “If you go there you can sit in a comfortable chair that's like your living room. I think that's a huge adjustment on their part to make it a more intimate experience.”

“Most films I get involved with are much more modest, lower budget, more applicable to streaming, that's where the future of the industry is,” Thompson said, citing this year's Oscar winner for best picture from Apple's streaming service. “You noticed 'CODA' won best picture. It's the first streaming film to earn it.”

While more artful, narrative and character-driven films have come to dominate home viewing, there's still a few genres that are still popular in traditional theaters: big budget superhero franchise and action films where big screens and big sound are at the forefront of the experience. These are the entertainment behemoths local theaters are pinning their hopes on for the summer.

“A couple I'd point to are 'Top Gun: Maverick,' the 'Top Gun' sequel, slated to come out Memorial Day weekend,” Waitt said. “We think that's gonna be huge, and 'Lightyear' is coming out in June which is like the Buzz Lightyear origin story. I think those have a good chance to be two of the biggest movies of the year.”

“So this summer we're looking at huge movies like 'Dr. Strange,'” said Kayla Locke, a manager at Gilford Cinema 8. “There's a new Thor movie coming out so we're looking forward to those.”

Locke became a manager just about one year ago, right in the middle of the pandemic. During this time, the theater modernized its advertising tactics and, so far, that decision has managed to keep the doors open.

“We opened back up in late May last year, started advertising in June,” Locke said. “We ended up getting a whole social media platform with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, just putting ourselves out there saying we're open. We've been keeping up with it since then.”

Even though it's possible to watch a lot of new releases from the comfort of one's living room, some audiences still yearn for the theatrical experience, even if it's just as an excuse to get out of the house.

“Coming out of the pandemic right now, whether the virus is around or not, people are kind of tired of being cooped up and they are really enjoying being back out and doing things,” said Albert Waitt, director of operations at Smitty's Theater in Tilton. “Going to the movies is one of those things they're really glad to get back to.”

Despite the current direction of the industry, Thompson thinks that theaters aren't quite out of the race.

“I think we're in a big switch in our culture right now. I think the notion of the shared audience experience will never go away. Its been going on for 3,000 years," Thompson said. "Not that it's going to be completely horse versus automobile, but if we have this conversation in 10 years, I won't be surprised if movie theaters start to go by the wayside."