145: The Future of Cinema

What is the future of cinema in the post Covid world? This is a question the At The Flicks team are going to be asking throughout 2021. In fact we think it is so important a topic we have made it the subject of our first show of the year. Graham and Jeff from the At The Flicks team bring in two special guests to address this issue. We have Declan (our streaming expert) who talks about the role of the streaming companies during these changing times. Dec also talks about his love of both cinema and theatre and what is needed for their survival. Our other guest is Paul who has analysed the changes and raises the financial concerns about the survival of the cinema industry – both in terms of production and distribution. Make no mistake, we are at a pivotal moment. Yet, as you will hear, there is hope for the future. Things may change, however, there will always be a love for films and that unique communal way of watching them. After listening to the show, do you think the conclusions we come to are fair? Please let us know what you think and there may well be an opportunity for you to join us for one of our other shows on this topic. We would love to hear from you. While the show looks at the global cinema scene, the people involved in this podcast are all from the UK. Coming soon we have the views of someone from America who has been involved in the distribution and screening of movies. Will their view be radically different? Keep listening to find out. In the meantime, as always, stay safe. Postscript: This episode was recorded before Christmas and even in that relatively small period, things changed. As an add on to the episode, Jeff and Graham discuss Warner Bros decision to release all of their 2021 films jointly in cinemas and on streaming.