Since around the 50’s, the movie theatre has become an American staple, truly just a place you could go and enjoy yourself with either some friends, family, or even by yourself. But with new streaming and video renting services, you don’t even have to leave your house to enjoy your favorite blockbuster hits. Big companies like Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu have been taking huge chunks out of revenue right out from under theatre companies.

These services, like Netflix and Hulu, offer something that theatres just can’t compete with – convenience, options, and price. When movies initially release, they only stay in theatres for certain amounts of time and eventually will be shuffled out of the showing rotation as other movies inevitably come out. So, this means that even if there were a movie that appealed to you, you have a very small window of time to be able to see it in theatres. With streaming services, however, once they appear on the application they’ll remain for extended periods of time and could be watched and re-watched as many time as you want with no additional fees. Not only this, but streaming services also offer vast arrays of content available for streaming. For instance, Netflix has 4,335 movies and 1,197 shows currently available. The typical movie theatre, however, only has around 10-15 movies showing at a time. In addition to this, for the average price of about one movie ticket, one could have already bought a month-long subscription to Netflix or Hulu.

More convenient and accessible services are not the only factor contributing to the recession we’re seeing in the movie industry. It’s also very simply that the content just isn’t that appealing nowadays. Why would anyone go out of their way, spend twenty dollars, and leave the comfort of their own house to see some crappy movie? Well, the average person simply wouldn’t. The only saving grace for the theatre industry today is that illustrious so-called “Movie-Theater Experience” that you really just can’t get anywhere else. Unless, of course, you’re willing to shell out thousands in order to create your own in-home theatre, but really who has the money for that?

In essence, it’s only a matter of time until the theatre industry inevitably goes under. Although it may be something many will feel sad and reminiscently nostalgic about, change needs to occur under the name of progress.