Why Go to Movie Theaters Anymore?

By Trevor Pacelli
AMC movie theaters have been trying to keep themselves relevant by constantly playing an ad of Nicole Kidman monologuing about how magical the movie theatrical experience is: “That indescribable feeling we get when the lights begin to dim… and we go somewhere we have never been before. Not just entertained but somehow reborn together. Dazzling images on a huge silver screen. Sound that I can feel. Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” No offense to Nicole Kidman fans, but I always cringe whenever I see this super melodramatic ad that sums up everything wrong with how movies are currently advertised.

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This lame ad came out in September 2021, you know, back when the world slowly began its recovery process from the COVID-19 pandemic, the time local theaters grew desperate for customer support instead of streaming at home. So of course, AMC got the bright idea to hire a celebrity to tell people to keep going to the theater, despite them not realizing that we’re now living in times when social media has made celebrities less likable. Not to mention it takes a lot more than a rich person who lives in a million-dollar mansion to convince me to spend $10-20 on a movie outing when I could wait a few months watch that same movie on Amazon Prime. No, 3D movies won’t convince me to see anything in the theater, because they always give me a headache. A cinematic experience for me isn’t about spectacle, it’s about story, which is widely disregarded as unimportant by theaters.

Compared to ninety years ago, or even fifty years ago, the activity that happens in a movie theater nowadays is boring. So really, people are currently looking for reasons not to go see a movie in theaters; they would only go see one of the big studio releases as soon as possible to avoid spoilers while not feeling left out of the loop of what their peers are talking about. Though the absolute most successful movies of each year know there’s more that can be done to guarantee a smash-hit.

Had it not been for TikTok, A Minecraft Movie would’ve sustained the negative press it picked up from its first trailer and wouldn’t have become the biggest hit so far of 2025. The memes brought up mocking Jack Black’s trailer line, “I… am STEVE,” eventually became unironically iconic and reminded us of why we enjoy Jack Black. He’s often known for his electric screen presence, delivering every line like he’s performing a rock-and-roll single, and the trailer merely gave an appetizer for his performance.

The movie had other moments designed to go viral, like Jack’s lava chicken song that became a viral earworm just like another food-related song he sang for another super successful video game movie two years earlier called “Peaches.” Though the “Chicken Jockey” trend started by fans was the real hook-line-and-sinker—when Jack Black in the movie says the phrase, “Chicken Jockey,” the audience says it with him. Yet for the sake of virality, some audiences took this trend too far and filmed themselves leaping out of their seats cheering, tossing up their popcorn buckets, launching fireworks, and one even brought a live chicken! A lot of grief was caused for the theater workers who had to clean up the messes, but it ensured the movie’s turnaround from impending bomb to explosive success.

Hyping up crowds to see their movies is something Oscar-bait movies nowadays simply don’t care about; they’re more about playing it safe. Heck, I remember after the latest Oscar presentation, my mom complained about Sean Baker (Anora) saying in his acceptance speech for Best Director that the best place to watch a movie is the theater. She said, “Then they should make movies people actually want to see!” Studios would benefit, but audiences aren’t getting anything out of spending money to drive to a theater and watch a Holocaust survivor immigrating to America or the selection process of the next pope.

So how do you market something like Anora- a small-budget independent movie where a sex worker marries the Russian son of an oligarch until his furious family holds her hostage, claiming he married her illegally? Why might anyone want to watch it? In my mind, the methods to properly get people to watch a movie are broken down to five essential components, each designed to gradually build curiosity.

First is the poster. Anora’s main poster could be an image of a woman’s foot with a pair of male hands about to put a shackle around her ankle, reflecting the story’s darkly humorous take on the Cinderella story.

Second, the trailer. Anora’s first trailer could be a clip of Anora and her new boyfriend having fun in Vegas with the caption, “How it started,” and then right after show a clip of his family holding her hostage with the caption, “How it’s going.”
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Third, the title. Anora’s dull title should be changed to something that quickly conveys the film’s plot as well as its tone. I think better titles could be, “Miserably Ever After,” “If the Shoe Fits, Slap It,” or, “From Rags to More Rags.”

Fourth, the release date. Anora could ideally be released in February because unlike its actual October release, there’s less competition before the holiday season and young couples would be interested in seeing something like this on Valentine’s Day.

And last is the circumstances of the screening. Anora could be the perfect type of movie to screen for a midnight audience—you know, the type of crowd who would watch a weird movie while dressing up, shouting at the screen, dancing in the theater aisles, and making a mess. (Think Rocky Horror Picture Show.)

Movie theaters nowadays have so much untapped potential to speak directly to their audiences that could bring them out of their current realm of irrelevance. If studios would apply my five steps, they could give audiences something far more important than dazzling images on a huge silver screen, something harder to find at home, and that’s a sense of community.
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Trevor Pacelli is a young adult on the autism spectrum as well as the author of What Movies Can Teach Us About Disabilities, What Movies Can Teach Us About Bullying, Summer of the Fruit Virus and the illustrator of The Kindergarten Adventures of Amazing Grace: What in the World is Autism?, and the author/illustrator of Amazing Grace Goes to the Zoo.