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The End of the Show — Will Cinemas Survive?

It is little secret that cinemas in the UK have been through a bit of a tough time in the past couple of years. Last month, the Guardian reported that Cineworld's shares have plummeted by nearly 99% over the previous five years. Furthermore, the company is currently in around £4bn of debt. 


However, some hope may be left before the curtains draw to a close for movie theatres. The UK's box office takings from last year may have been down by 28% compared to before the pandemic, but the late 2010s saw British cinemas taking in the highest audience numbers in over half a century. Perhaps, therefore, the industry may sooner or later rebound from the post-covid slump. 


Furthermore, despite the challenges, in 2021, the country bore witness to its third and fourth most successful box office releases of all time (No Time to Die and Spider-Man: No Way Home, respectively). On top of that, according to Statista, the United Kingdom had 840 cinemas in 2019, but that number had actually risen to 860 by 2021. 


On the other hand, some have pointed to the rise in streaming services to blame for the struggles of cinemas. Last year, American filmmaker Steven Spielberg told The New York Times, "The pandemic created an opportunity for streaming platforms to raise their subscriptions to record-breaking levels and also throw some of my best filmmaker friends under the bus as their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical releases." 


Nevertheless, Rafael Lourenço, 21, a keen and frequent cinema visitor from North London, explained: "It's nice to stay at home and watch a show or a movie on TV, but there's just something magical about the cinema. The darkness, the large screen being all that you can see, the sound that surrounds you, giving you an immersive experience."


"Some things are best experienced on the silver screen."


"I think that the rising success of streaming services have affected cinemas to an extent, but not to the extent that they're dying," He added.

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