The Cinema Experience

Since the early 1900's, when the first Cinema devoted to showing Motion Pictures was opened in Pittsburgh, going to the Cinema became a normal weekly/monthly routine for a lot of people.

When asking people what they love about going to the Cinema, the vast majority describe the experience itself being the best reason to go. The excitement of purchasing a ticket for a movie you have been waiting a long time for, waiting to get your sweets/popcorn/drinks then taking your seat and getting prepared to watch the feature.

Personally, as a huge movie buff, I always enjoyed getting there early to catch the trailers for upcoming movies (to my partners annoyance), which is something also shared by a lot of the people I've spoken to. This always allowed me to sit and plan in advance what I was going to be seeing next as well as providing some surprises for new movies I didn't even know where getting made (the days before Internet and leaks as we know them now).

I have a vast amount of memories of my mum and dad taking me to the Cinema, at least 2 or 3 times a month to see the latest blockbuster when I was younger and I always remember the excitement building up beforehand. Plus it was always funny when my mum, without fail, would fall asleep during every film, even the ones she herself chose. I have also now got memories of taking my own children.

Unfortunately, like many other business over the last year, cinemas have taken a massive hit due to COVID-19, leading to most big movies being released online to stream or download. To me this just doesn't feel the same. The excitement has been somewhat diminished by the lack of experience. For example, I remember going to see Avengers Endgame with my partner. Myself, and other members of the audience could be heard cheering, crying, clapping - showing a multitude of emotions at what was unfolding in front of us on the big screen whilst we dug to the bottom of the popcorn bag. When we left the cinema that night, we spoke about it all the way home, how it made us feel, what had happened, what was going to happen next, which is something we have now lost.

I appreciate most people won't really care either way, they just want to see the movie, but I'm sure most will agree with the statement above, about the experience just not being the same. Can anyone say watching the next Marvel Phase at home is going to come close to what we felt watching it on the big screen?

There is so much going on in the world just now and our way of life has drastically changed. This means it is more important than ever we try and hold onto those "traditions" we had before it as best as we can and not let these experiences we enjoyed so much become another casualty.

I have followed all the release information of upcoming movies and will most definitely be one of the first in line to get a ticket and have that experience again. Hopefully I'll see you there too!