What killed the cinema audience?

It’s 2025, and you want to go to the cinema. You don’t need to queue or pick up a ticket, it’s just on your phone. You press a touch screen to buy a popcorn and pick it up from a station when your number is shown on a screen. You sit on a chair, 2 feet away from the nearest audience member, including the person you came to the cinema with. After the film, there’s nowhere to sit and digest the art, just the funnel to the nearest exit because there’s only 10 minutes between the credits of your film ending, and the start of the ads for the next screening.

Cinemas have been facing some criticism lately, calling out how they are the reason audiences for film are dwindling. That the shift in the cinema going experience over the last 10 years has changed the activity for the worse. Ticket prices have always been high, but have cinemas actively reduced audience sizes and the enjoyability of watching a film at the cinema?

A modern screen at Odeon cinemas, featuring beds.

That final scene published a series of reports where they shared their research into the decline in attendance and linked it with a change in culture. They reported that:

• 25% of moviegoers attend at least every other month, down from 40% pre-pandemic.

• Everything is designed to process you efficiently, not create memorable experiences.

• AMC theatres doubled down on isolation with their “Luxury” Upgrade.

• Movie tickets have priced out the working class - the backbone of cinema culture.

• 61% of moviegoers now believe streaming gives them the same experience.

And this all really stood out to me because I have first hand experience of this change.

I used to work for Odeon, a large cinema chain in the UK that is owned by AMC, a large cinema chain from the US. In my time at odeon, I went from being a cinema host, scooping popcorn and selling tickets, to working as a cinema manager, and then as a coach, who travelled around the UK training teams on how to run luxury cinemas. Because in my time at Odeon, the concept of the Luxury cinema was launched and found huge popularity… before the pandemic.

This is part of the shift that That Final Scene are talking about. The luxury cinema experience is part of a bigger strategy that had the intention of making the visit to the cinema a big deal. The Treat yo Self vibes were high, and when the luxury cinemas were opened, influencers were invited to a gala to post about the experience. But did it make the cinema experience feel less magical? Let’s dive in.

The shift to Luxury

As mentioned, I worked for Odeon, a chain of cinemas that opened in the UK in the 1920s. I started working there in 2011 when I was a student at film school. After uni I worked on a lot of entry level roles, and did a lot of free work to break into the industry, but I continued working at the cinema for years, so that I had a steady income. I eventually decided to become a supervisor, then a manager, then the opportunity came up to do something different.

Odeon was bought by AMC, a US company that specialised in big multiplexes. Odeon isn’t all multiplexes, it’s a mixture of big sprawling cinemas, mid size cinemas and small, single screen art-deco picture houses. But what AMC brought in was the Luxury experience, and so Odeon Luxe was born. A handful of cinemas were selected at first to undergo a Luxe transformation - and 3 of those cinemas were in Scotland. One of them, was the cinema I worked at in Glasgow.

The main difference with a Luxe Cinema is that the seats are all electrical recliner chairs. This does improve comfort for the audience, but significantly reduces capacity: on average our screens lost 60% of capacity. Some people might see this as an advantage, because less people means less noise. The spaced out nature of the seating means you’re not sitting shoulder to shoulder with a stranger. But there’s also a sense of emptiness to the screen. There’s not the same atmosphere as a sold-out standard theatre, erupting with laughter together. Another part of the shift was to introduce a wider food selection, things like chicken, fries, mozzarella sticks, wine by the glass. But this meant longer wait times at the kiosk. Where previously you’d just wander up, get your scoop of popcorn and dispensed drink and be on your way, people were now spending half an hour waiting to get to the counter, and ordering chicken and fries that would take 10 minutes to prep. We had this constant stream of audience members showing up 15 mins before the film start time, then queuing and getting anxious and then feeling really angry, half an hour later when they were served. You’d reassure them that they hadn’t missed anything that the ads were still on, but it was impacting the audience’s mood so greatly that the luxury experience was in fact an upsetting experience for most people.

The aggression was constant and the label of luxury made people feel that they were entitled to special treatment, an expectation that the cinema couldn’t meet. Our staff were having panic attacks on shift. Most of my day as a manager was spent fire fighting and taking abuse. I had to call the police twice to report that I had been threatened by a member of the public who was potentially going to follow me to my car, because they were so raging about something that happened in the cinema. I don’t think that’s something the chain could have foreseen. But the expectation from the public was that this was a heightened experience, more prestigious than anywhere else, and they didn’t like any slight inconvenience. And since it made money, it began to be rolled out across the UK.

Because I had worked in one of the early successful cinemas, I had a lot of troubleshooting knowledge and a lot of tips to minimise disaster. I actually ended up making the training videos that Odeon use to show to new staff. In the early days of the luxury cinema, we started experimenting with kitchen/prep staff and till/server staff to try and speed things up. And this is pretty much the norm now, except the entire sale takes place on a screen, like in McDonalds. And the staff only scoop & prep. Charm has been sacrificed for efficiency. There’s no chat about what you’re in to see, or any friendliness to the experience. At each stage of the process, interaction with other humans has been reduced… But then what is the point of going to the cinema?

The Cinema Audience Social Dilemma

In the research, That Final scene noted that 61% of moviegoers now believe streaming at home gives them the same experience as the cinema. And In this day and age, watching a film at home is a very comfortable experience. You probably have a widescreen TV, a subscription service, a sound bar, ambient lighting, and a comfortable sofa to sit on.

It used to be that watching something at home was the less cinematic option. You were probably losing part of the picture because it would be cut off by the TV shape, the sound wasn’t as strong, and there were many distractions that would cut into your immersion.

Nowadays the ritual of obeying screens has completely taken over our habits. The TV dominates the living room like the screens in 1984. All the furniture congregates around it and is modified to accommodate the TVs accessories and habits. This is what Odeon felt they were up against when they introduced Luxe. The experience at home was more comfortable than the experience at the cinema, so they had to match it. But the home experience isn’t as sacred as the silver screen. It’s habitual for viewers to have something on the TV whilst they actually look at their phone. This practice is now seeping into how the media is being crafted, as streamers are aware that they are on in the background, and are actively making shows and films that work in that dynamic.

So if streaming films are dumbed down, with repetitive dialogue and simplistic storylines, the act of watching a film isn’t going to inspire you to do this activity in isolation. If my exposure to film was only in this way, I’d never understand why I’d pay more money to do that in a different space where i’m not allowed to look at my phone. But this isn’t what cinema is supposed to be. The cinema theatre is designed for you to be completely absorbed in the world of the film. And despite not being able to use your phone, or talk during the film, the experience at the cinema is a social one. In a way that you don’t get at home. I’ve had wonderful experiences in the cinema together with an audience.

There’s something about being in a room full of strangers, witnessing something grand together and processing it as a group. But you might be thinking, it depends on the audience. What if you’re in with a bunch of rowdy teens or some arsehole sitting on their phone? That’s where the experience is ruined. But that’s where if Cinema staff were vigilant in the screens, and cinema etiquette was culturally respected, making sure you weren't interrupted you’d have a better experience.

The Cost

In The Final Scene’s research they said that Movie tickets have priced out the working class - the backbone of cinema culture. I think there’s some truth to this. In my entire lifetime cinema has always been regarded as expensive. I have never live in a time period where people believed that attending the cinema was affordable. There’s several industries that all take a cut of a cinema ticket.

• The production of the film, including all the actors, crew & the cost of the camera rental and the studio to film it in.

• The distribution, managing the release, sending the film to every cinema, and marketing it.

• And The cinema, so the people running the building that plays it, who clean up the popcorn off the floor, who operate the projectors and program the film slate.

Ticket cost breakdown - Percentages sourced via MPA (Motion Picture Association)

That ticket covers thousands of people’s input. But I understand, that as an audience member, you’re looking at the cost of 1 cinema ticket, and the cost of a month of a streamer, and those are the same value. Everyone should be getting paid fairly for their work. But cinema workers are paid minimum wage, and the film industry is in crisis, with thousands of workers leaving the industry because they cannot afford to stay.

Even outside of the luxury cinema world, a cinema ticket is a high cost for a couple of hours of entertainment. And during this cost of living crisis, you might be thinking, I could buy a few nights dinners for the same price. I have an instant fix for this problem. But I do think that, in Scotland and countries like us, a. commitment to UK and Scottish made films is needed. If over the next few years there was an effort to create stories that spoke to the audience here, then we could cultivate a habit in the British public of going to the cinema to see the creativity and talent of British people. Create the infrastructure to grow the industry from within. And whether people see it in a multiplex with beds, or an old-school arthouse cinema, won't matter. The key is to make the films exciting enough to want to go, and put the money from those tickets back into our economy.

Cinema should be for everyone. Anyone should be able to switch off for a couple of hours and immerse themself in another world.

So what do you think, are cinemas the reason you audiences are viewing less films?

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