It’s time for moviegoing to get a makeover.
From selling pot along with popcorn to offering cellphone-friendly screenings, cinema owners could soon overhaul the way their customers watch films. These changes, many of them once considered sacrilegious, may give the box office a much-needed boost.
And there are plenty of people out there to entice, given that the majority of Americans these days aren’t regular moviegoers. While the U.S. population has grown steadily over the decades, there haven’t been many recent innovations drawing newcomers to the multiplex. The current crop of amenities are mostly luxe offerings that make the experience more expensive, like Imax or dine-in theaters, which could be a tough sell if the economy continues to teeter. Thanks, tariffs! Below are four ways theater owners could revive attendance.
Lighting Up Profits
Imagine how much better “Barbie” or “Deadpool & Wolverine” would be if you could see it with a bud?
Take Kev Jones, who was smoking a joint outside the AMC Times Square on a March weeknight before a screening of “Mickey 17.” “It helps to loosen me up and puts me in a sci-fi frame of mind,” he says, taking a big hit. “But honestly, I smoke before every movie.”
Jones, a member of AMC’s Stubs A-List, which allows moviegoers to attend several screenings a week for a flat fee, is a frequent guest, and he says he would come more often if he could buy and smoke pot at the theater. “How fun would that be?” he says. “They have a bar here so that people can relax and enjoy a drink. I’d love to relax on my own terms.”
Under New York law, marijuana became legal recreationally in 2021 and began being sold through sanctioned dispensaries in 2022. No movie theaters are allowed to sell weed, but according to Taylor Randi Lee, press secretary for the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, things could change.
“At this time, cannabis can only be sold at legal, licensed adult-use dispensaries or legal, licensed adult-use microbusinesses,” she says via email. “For theaters to serve recreational marijuana at their establishments, they would need either an events permit or consumption lounge license. New York State does not have either yet but plans to in the future.”
Selling weed could bring fresh revenue and new customers to theaters and set the path for other cannabis-friendly states to follow suit.
Feel Free to Text
Jessica Garcia, a college student in Michigan, loves movies but can’t remember the last time she saw one in a theater. “I just like streaming things and sitting on the couch with my phone and snacks, second screening,” she says. “If there’s a boring part, I’ll just jump on Instagram or TikTok quick until things get going again.”
Although cinephiles might object, if movie theaters want to attract younger audiences who refuse to give up their devices during the two-hour running time of most films, they might need to stop banning phones.
But it’s going to be a tough sell. Alamo Drafthouse makes a phonefree environment a major part of its advertising. AMC CEO Adam Aron canceled a plan to test cellphone screenings in 2016 after facing a blistering online outcry. “NO TEXTING AT AMC,” he tweeted. “Won’t happen. You spoke. We listened.” He also issued a full-page statement and retraction to the press, just two days after raising the idea.
While the idea might not appeal to purists, cinemas need to attract younger folks to keep theaters in business. So maybe it’s time to find some middle ground on iPhones. That could mean hosting select screenings that allow texting. That way, second screeners could enjoy themselves at the theater, while serious moviegoers would know to stay away. Another possibility is in-theater partitions that allow guests to text while not bothering other customers, which was tested by Megaplex Theatres last year.
Theaters are already struggling to prevent audiences from reaching for their devices. How much longer can they keep up the fight?
More Than Movies
Want to help Elphaba reach that high note in “Defying Gravity”? You and a dark room of strangers could have done that at the popular “Wicked” sing-alongs that theaters hosted last winter. And cinemas aren’t just offering that kind of enhanced blockbuster experience to bring in crowds beyond die-hard movie lovers. They’re also offering screenings of older films that include previously unreleased material. The goal is to find alternative types of content at a time when studios aren’t making as many movies. As part of that effort, cinemas are broadcasting sports events and concerts.
One company, Fathom Entertainment, has been a major force in bringing special events and alternative types of programming to theaters. Owned jointly by the big three American multiplex chains — AMC Theatres, Cinemark Theatres and Regal Cinemas — Fathom started as a way to engage audiences during times of the week when theaters are less busy. Last year, the company’s best-performing release was the 15th-anniversary edition of the animated movie “Coraline,” which ran in a season filled with opera performances, boxing matches and even episodic TV shows such as the religious series “The Chosen.” Ray Nutt, the company’s CEO, points to that show as an example of the sense of community movie theaters can deliver, given that people could have watched it for free at home.
“Coming out of the pandemic, everybody wanted to gather communally somewhere, and they wanted to be shoulder to shoulder,” he explains.
Nutt says the company is hoping to expand by offering even more live content. Those experiences have the potential to reintroduce lapsed theatergoers to the joy of the multiplex.
“Fathom was built as a Monday-through-Thursday business just to put butts in seats when the commercial product was slow,” he says. “That was years and years ago, and we’ve evolved. This is a growth sector of the business, no question about it.”
Increasing Accessibility
Making movies more accessible to people with disabilities or developmental differences isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also good for business. According to the nonprofit Autism Speaks, one in 36 children and one in 45 adults in the U.S. have autism, but cinemas haven’t done enough to tailor the experience to them. That’s changing — slowly. Regal and AMC are among the theaters offering sensory-friendly screenings, which dial down the volume, turn up the lights and permit quiet chatter to make customers on the autism spectrum more comfortable.
Open captions are another way to bring in audiences who aren’t able to fully enjoy the current theatrical experience. These subtitles are essential for attendees who are deaf or hard of hearing, but such screenings are inconsistently offered. A 2022 New York City law mandates that open captions be shown for at least 25% of all screenings, with a directive to stagger show times throughout the week. Other cities are considering similar measures, which makes sense, given that an estimated 48 million Americans have some level of hearing loss. That’s a lot of potential moviegoers.
At the moment, accessibility and alternative content are being more widely embraced than allowing texting or selling edibles at the movies. But given the challenges that the industry faces, maybe it won’t be long until all of these changes will be coming to a theater near you.
