our lifetime or, at least, most of them. And that will be a sad day for me. I’ve had so many great movie experiences out in theaters over the years ranging from seeing movies that were meant to be seen on a big screen to movies that sparked collective audience gasps and laughs to partying at midnight shows of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I agree with you that too many people behave as if they are home on their couches instead of in a movie theater with other people. I’m lucky to still have two local independent movie theaters in which audiences generally behave well. One is the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) that is, first and foremost, a live theater and performance art venue but also has four movie screening rooms. BAM movie audiences tend to be people who are used to going to live performances and generally behave similarly in movies. We even applaud.
Seriously though, it is no longer easy to see every movie that comes out in a year in a theater in NYC. Some open for a week or so in one or two theaters and then disappear. We have a very short window of opportunity to catch a movie in a theater. I’m looking at you, Netflix! Once movies no longer have to open in any theaters to qualify to contend for the Oscars, I think most theaters will die.