Cinema In Times To Come

Specialists will be replaced by software; the individual will be foregrounded.

- Samit Basu

We’ve reached the age of entertainment saturation. The sheer amount of fiction being released daily means you’ll never have the sense of being caught up again. The book, whose demise everyone has been predicting for a decade, is doing fine between digital and print. Films, another medium that’s supposedly under threat, is going to survive too—but in the process, it’s going to have to evolve.

The most fundamental divide is one we’re already seeing in action—theatres versus streaming. As we go forward, the convenience of watching films at home on large and powerful TVs will induce more people to stay away from the theatre experience with its attendant woes: traffic, overpriced food and inconsiderate audience interruptions. Studios are already biased towards releasing big-budget spectacles in theatres, relegating dramas, romcoms, thrillers and other movie genres to streaming. The megamovie experience will be even larger, and other screenings will be niche, specialized events: festivals, group binge-watches or combined film/panel meets.