James Cameron Says Watching Movies in Theaters Is a Sacred Experience and Prays They Survive
It’s been nice to get back into theaters and watch movies again! Things are slowly getting back to normal in that aspect and I hope that they survive in the post-pandemic age. As you know, theaters struggled over the past year, and some of them didn’t even make it out alive, such as Arclight and Pacific Theaters.
Director James Cameron recently appeared on The Tonight Show, and he talked about his hopes for the survival of movie theaters. He explains that movie theaters are a sacred experience and prays that they make it out of this alive.
“Everybody makes a big deal out of [the box office battle], but the truth is what we really need to focus on is getting back to theaters. Hopefully, we can still have movies like that, Endgame and Avatar and the big Marvel movies and all that, movies that are able to make $1 billion or $2 billion.”
Cameron goes on to say, “Open up the theaters so Avatar 2 can make a billion bucks!” But, I wonder if movie theaters will be at a place again where certain movies can make $1 or $2 billion again. As much as I’d like to see theaters get back to that, I honestly don’t think they will. With the way the distribution of films is changing with streaming services and PVOD options, I think a lot of people might just opt to watch at home. The filmmaker then adds:
“Let’s pray that movie theaters are still there after this pandemic and after this shift towards streaming, not that I have anything against streaming. There’s great writing and great shows in [streaming], but let’s remember that movie theaters are a sacred experience for all of us. Let’s get back out there when it’s safe to do so.”
I love the movie-going experience and I feel the same what that Cameron does. I don’t think movie theaters are going to die, but I think the days of billion-dollar box office runs are over. What do you think?