The Decline and Fall of the Movie Industry

[mystery-ak]

November 24, 2025
The Decline and Fall of the Movie Industry
By Arthur Schaper

When was the last time you watched a movie in an actual movie theater?

It seems like a banal question — doesn’t everyone go to the movies?

That used to be the case. When I was in high school and even in college, I took time to watch movies at the local theater whenever I could. I didn’t have my own VCR (DVD player) until I was 25 years old, and even then, I rarely borrowed movies from video stores (or the library).

I loved going to the movie theater. Sometimes I would see two movies a day, when several second-run theaters started opening up. The public could watch a blockbuster movie, just a few weeks later, at a cheaper price. I remember paying as little as $1.00 to $2.50 a movie, and the concessions were cheap, too.

I stopped going to movies for the same reason I stopped watching T.V.: the Internet.

After the 2016 election, I spent more time writing blog posts, articles, and social media. I didn’t need T.V. to get news because of the Internet, too.

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[Fishrrman]

The last film I went to a movie theater to see was "Brother's Keeper" in late 1992 or early 1993 (so long I can't remember).

I can safely say that I won't be going out to the movies again.

That doesn't mean I haven't been watching at home. Sat/Sun is "movie night" (usually split viewing between those two nights).

These days, I watch on the Mac and a 27" 4k display. As good or better than the 40" tv downstairs.

I was previously on a multi-year project to watch as many anti-communist films as I could find, including some obscure foreign ones. Finding some of them can be difficult -- you have to try grabbing them from foreign, perhaps dodgy sites. But sometimes one has to do, what one has to do.

More recently, I've been concentrating on disaster/apocalypse films. This past weeked I found and watched "The Shape of Things to Come", 1979 film. That one wasn't all that great, but had never seen it, so it was "on the list"...

[Smokin Joe]

The last ones I went to see were Cars and one of the Lord of the Rings Movies. Cars was fun (with Mrs Joe and our granddaughter), but I had just come in from a well and slept through all the grand vistas of the Lord of the Rings show...

It just got too expensive to go for a while, and then, there was the internet.

It seemed like if you waited a couple weeks they were on TV anyway.

The other problem was the preachy stuff, not just subtle themes in the show but in your face "message" stuff that wasn't even thinly veiled. When Disney supported Mandella in their anti-apartheid movie, that was enough of that.

[Timber Rattler]

Rogue 1 with my son.  After that, nothing we were interested in wasting our money on.

[MeganC]

The last movie I saw in a theatre was probably "Titanic". After that I'd go with my parents and see movies in screening rooms. My folks worked in Hollywood.

[berdie]

The last movie I saw in a theatre was probably "Titanic". After that I'd go with my parents and see movies in screening rooms. My folks worked in Hollywood.

Titanic was the last theater movie I went to as well. I was interested in the special affects.

Although I prefer to watch the old movies, I will occasionally watch a new one on tv. Last week I watched the movie version of Wicked. Excellent musical but unimpressive movie, imho. Besides, there was commercial break every 5 minutes or so.

[mountaineer]

We went last week to see Nuremberg*, after which Mr. M observed that it probably was only the 5th movie we'd seen in a theater in our nearly 30 years of marriage. I think the others were The Passion of the Christ, 1917, They Shall not Grow Old and a documentary about Joan Benoit Samuelson (Mr. M is a running geek).

*Russell Crowe was very good as Hermann Goering, incidentally.

[Wingnut]

I can't remember the last time I went to see a movie in a movie house.  Might have been Forrest Gump.  Don't care if I ever set foot in one again. 

[libertybele]

We still have a gift certificate to the movies that we've never used.  It was given to us just before the pandemic and theaters closed up and some went out of business.  It's a shame.  We used to be able to see first run movies for $4.99 a ticket during the afternoon.  It was enjoyable and got us out of the house. Those were the days.

Mel Gibson is making another movie "The Resurrection of the Christ" and "The Resurrection of the Christ Part II" -- coming out in 2027 ... we likely just might venture out to see those. We've seen the "Passion of the Christ" a couple of times and it was a fantastic movie.  Not a peep from anyone in the audience during the movie and quite a round of applause when it was over.  Likely "The Resurrection of the Christ" will be as good.  It's not due to come out till '27, so I anticipate it's going to be another fantastic movie.

Mel Gibson is an excellent actor and filmmaker.