Cinemas all over the world have struggled during the past couple of years due to a few reasons: The coronavirus pandemic, the lack of large Hollywood films being released, and streaming platforms being able to release films that haven’t been in cinemas for long.

With cinemas being closed for a couple of years because of the coronavirus pandemic, this has hit the cinema industry hard, causing a huge struggle for businesses to bounce back. The world's second biggest film chain, Regal Cinemas (owned by Cineworld), had to file for bankruptcy within the past couple of months because of the lingering issues that the pandemic left behind. The chain operates more than 100 cinemas in the UK; however, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the chain is collapsing, but instead they must revaluate its services causing possible closures in the US. The company showed that their shares have gone down by 87% since the start of 2022 which is a colossal percentage drop for such a large company.

Not only has the pandemic been a significant factor to the struggle of cinema, but so has the lack of Hollywood blockbusters. In the summer of 2022, there were only a handful of big releases, including Top Gun: Maverick and Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness. In 2022, January to August, Hollywood released 46 films and in 2019, January to August, 75 films were released. Compared to 2019, the films released this year are down by 47.6%.

Callum Patterson, former Glasgow Cineworld employee, worked for the company from September 2021 to 2022. He said: “I think cinema audiences are rising, but it depends on what’s being released, of course. As has been noted, there is now a pretty major dry spell of big blockbusters between August and November, when the next marvel movie ‘Wakanda Forever’ will release.”

Streaming platforms like Disney+ and Netflix haven’t helped with struggling cinemas. A study on “films and series streaming platforms” by the market research group IFOP, suggested that 29% of respondents said that they were less often to go to a cinema and 12% said they didn’t go to the cinema at all anymore. 54% of those who have subscriptions to streaming platforms said that they continue to go to the cinema at the same rate and only 5% go more often.

When asked if streaming platforms have or will overtake cinema, Callum said: “Streaming hasn’t overtaken cinema and won’t do so, but it’s a mean competitor. Cinema is where the blockbusters make their money the most, and it helps engender word of mouth in a way that streaming can’t.

COVID meant that streaming was necessary for the distribution of film at a time when cinema was non-negotiable, but things are improving, there will be a return to the status quo, with cinema as the main avenue where studios wish to release their movies.”

Cinemas all over the world await the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar 2: The Way of Water (both being released in November/December), in the hopes of overcoming the drought in 2022.

The trying times for cinema