DP/30: NATO Comm Chief Patrick Corcoran

The return to movie theaters continues and National Association of Theater Owners' Patrick Corcoran took some time to chat with David Poland about how exhibitors are seeing things at this point.

Shot via Zoom, July 2022

[joeldheath]

I am so tired of this "the theater is so much better" canard. It just isn't. Sure, it's a different experience and you may personally prefer that experience but that doesn't make it universally superior. It's clear that consumers prefer the flexibility to be able to watch at home so much that we have trade groups for theaters feeling the need to shout from the rooftops how much people love the theater. If the theater was such a superior experience, you wouldn't need to tell us what our opinion should be, we would just agree with you.

The only reason I see movies in theaters is because the movies are made unavailable by unnecessary release windows. If you have to limit consumer choice to get people into theaters, they clearly don't prefer theaters. No one is clamoring for movies to show back up in theaters once they get released to streaming but people are asking for streaming day-and-date.