In a recent op-ed article in the Architectural Record (#1 Source for Architectural Design, News and Products), Dante A. Ciampaglia wrote an article “(Don’t) Roll Credits: In Defense of the Cinema.” Highlights from the article:

When describing his recent outing to the cinema – 
The audience fed off the film’s energy, and each other’s. Two-plus hours later, viewers buoyantly filed into a lobby buzzing with activity. Moviegoers leaving one screening mingled with those waiting for another. Friends huddled over plans for the night. Strangers discussed films, books, the neighborhood. It was the kind of experience watching a movie at home can never provide. And it’s endangered.

Responding to the idea that the US is over-screened – 
America is “over-screened” only if you look at this as a dollars-and-cents issue. But there’s more to movie theaters than capital extraction. These spaces are vital social institutions and third places, as important to a functioning democracy as churches, social clubs, and school groups like the PTA. Yes, the experience of visiting a multiplex can be lousy: overpriced concessions, dirty floors and seats, and patrons more interested in their phone screen than the big screen. But when we see a movie in a theater, we’re engaging in a fundamentally communal act. We might turn out to watch buzzy Oscar bait or a new Marvel installment, but we’re also there to experience thrills, chills, drama, and comedy with other people—free of barriers, judgment, and exclusion.

Film is a democratic art. From the first silent shorts to the latest IMAX epics, movies bring people together unlike any other creative endeavor. They have evolved a lot in their more than 125-year history, but at their core they’re still cheap entertainments that tap primal feelings of love, fear, humor, sadness, and triumph and provide an outlet for our anxieties and imaginations. And from the first ramshackle nickelodeons to opulent movie palaces and shopping mall multiplexes, we’ve watched films in spaces shared with friends, family, strangers, neighbors, rich, poor, all races, all religions, all creeds.

The reminder why the Cinema is a needed place in every community - 
The smartphone is the disruptive, omnipresent gadget, attached to us like a new limb. Film is now treated as content—that gray, meaningless word that encompasses everything from mediocre TikTok videos to prestige TV. If movies are content, they’re no longer unique, and no longer need unique, dedicated spaces. Best just to stay home and tumble down the algorithmic rabbit hole. And when those purpose-built boxes designed for showing a lot of movies to a lot of people in the most utilitarian way possible close, they’re often functionally useless. These transformations have made it easier to keep us segregated, sequestered, and streaming alone.

One path forward lies in getting smarter-screened. For example, there is a crop of boutique theaters that have opened within the last decade as spaces catering to cinephiles and adventurous moviegoers. They prioritize human engagement over passive consumption and are committed to attracting people with something they can’t experience at home, be it screenings on film, encounters with directors, or just spaces for community and gathering around a shared interest – putting us in proximity with other people and a diversity of beliefs, opinions, and experiences in meaningful ways.

Corporate megaplexes have a role to play too, serving us the kinds of popcorn blockbusters that are best seen with a lot of people. But the kinds of civic-minded engagement offered by the crop of new independent theaters are the fulfillment of moviegoing’s promise. They’re reminders that to lose these spaces would be to lose something essential to our lives, communities, and culture. Movie theaters are necessary, and we need to appreciate and protect them, warts and all, before they’re “disrupted” out of existence.