Look at what happened in Paris when they renovated Le Champo theater last year. Lines wrapped around the block for months. Not for a blockbuster, but for repertory screenings of old Godard films. You can't replicate that energy in a living room. Here's the thing. Movie theaters aren't just about showing films. They're about shared experience. That collective gasp during a jump scare, the laughter spreading through the dark, the silence after a heavy ending. Streaming kills that. It atomizes us. I get the convenience argument. I really do. But convenience isn't the only value. Some things are worth preserving because they bring people together in a way nothing else can. Theaters create community, plain and simple. And we're losing enough of that already.

My buddy runs a tiny indie theater in Cleveland. Last month, the AC broke mid-screening of The Thing. Nobody left. We sat there sweating through that Carpenter masterpiece, and when it ended, some stranger bought me a beer because we both screamed at the same part. Try that on Netflix. You're right that convenience matters. I'm not saying we chain people to seats. But you're missing what happens when you can't pause, rewind, or scroll your phone. Theaters force us to sit with discomfort, to commit to a story. That's becoming rare. Sure, economics are brutal. But we're not talking about preserving every multiplex with sticky floors. We're talking about the spaces that create those moments I just described. Some things are worth losing money over. Community shouldn't be a luxury item.

Look, I get your point about bad theaters. Nobody's arguing we should prop up the ones with broken seats and sticky floors. But you're setting up a straw man here. The rooftop screening you mentioned? That's still a theater. Just not a permanent one. And VR? Come on. I've tried it. The headset gets sweaty, the resolution's not there, and you can't grab a drink with the person next to you when the credits roll. You're right that community can happen anywhere. But theaters are the most reliable, most accessible version of that. They're the public library of cinema. Not every library book is great, but we don't shut them down because of a few duds. Here's what you're missing. Intentional gathering requires infrastructure. That's what theaters provide. Without them, you're hoping people figure it out on their own. And most won't.