I’ve written before how the earliest months of the year are terrible for the theatre experience. The Oscar bait hopefuls that weren’t good enough get dumped in February or March. The genre flicks that won’t make a big enough splash in the blockbuster summer months are also abandoned early. You’re destined to be plagued by passive, safe, lazy, misguided slogs for the opening turn of the year. Every year. It’s a bit of a shame, after an awards season high; if you’re not into any of these ceremonies, there’s still the second wind created by the celebration of the best-of-the-year picks that may have trickled into your to-watch lists. We’re likely well past everything that 2019 had to offer by now. We’re drooling at the mouth, waiting for that next cinematic feast. We’re not going to be fed by Fantasy Island or the latest The Call of the Wild take.

So, how did you check out those awards season picks? What about just the films that publications crowned peak moments of 2019’s film scene that you wanted to catch up with? That’s right. Chances are you streamed these works (if you’re not a blu-ray, dvd dinosaur like me, anyway). Let me tell you. Streaming has cured this time of year for us cinephiles, but it's only going to make these months ten times worse for the actual movie-going experience. Hell, half the reason why I am writing about this today, is because I honestly feel there is nothing else to write about, unless I shove more lists down your throat (and I want to provide a bit more of a variety here than that). Don’t misunderstand me, by the way. This is not a rant by any means. It’s just an observation. Again, we are now winning the droughts of the film year. Movie theatres just aren’t.

Let’s face it. In many parts of North America, it’s too damn cold to want to go out, fight the glacial traffic, be stuck in many layers of clothes in an overheated cinema, pay way too much for a ticket and food, and be exhausted before you even begin your film, only for the film to be atrocious (and purposefully ditched by the very studios and producers that worked on these flicks). Why do that, when you have access to so many films of your own choosing in the comfort of your own home? Once spring comes around, things will brighten up for cinemas. However, the experience is just more insufferable than ever, especially with this new access we have achieved in the last decade or so (streaming has been around for a while, but the range of works you can access now is important to note here).

It just doesn’t make sense if you didn’t take advantage of this situation. If anything, streaming giants (and studios that aren’t hell bent on the dark ages) will wisen up to this, and will make straight-to-stream works that will encourage users to hop onto the latest trend. If anything, this is already happening. Remember Black Mirror’s early release of Bandersnatch on Netflix last year? It was the event of the start of the year. Let’s not even get into the stink Bird Box made. The thing is both works were released late December, and maybe slowly gained their popularity after the awards season cooled down for a bit. Netflix and company (I point out Netflix, as these are both Netflix works) should be capitalizing right now. Putting forth some damn fine works in the deadest months of the cinematic year.

If this were to happen, you can say goodbye to the cinema experience for good (in February and March), unless an outstanding film like Get Out can break the mold (which, as proven by this particular film’s case, is possible). This is possibly something theatre chains are going to have to figure out, amidst all of the other problems they already have to work around. They can’t only be showing critically reviled, publicly dismissed works. The successes of films like Sonic the Hedgehog or Birds of Prey can only stick around for so long (as can be seen by the latter’s already significant dip in earnings). They can’t keep audiences in movie houses alone. Going to the movies is more strained than ever, especially considering the expenses.

It isn’t quite so bad now, but I foresee these months becoming extremely detrimental to these theatre chains, and they’d be wise to start planning now (if they haven’t already). All of this in the wake of Tanner Zipchen revealing he was paid in Scene Points while working for Cineplex, the kick-in-the-pants MoviePass provided users on its way out, and other infamous theatre experiences in recent memory. Yeah. It’s time to start strategizing, theatre chains, and start now.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

Streaming: Why Movie-Going in February and March Sucks Even More Now