Audience and Institutions Essay

Audience and Institutions Essay

5) In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time.

The way audiences consume films has changed incredibly over the years. With the rise of streaming, this is especially true. Once, people would pay to go a theater and watch a single movie. Through streaming, people can now pay roughly the same price as a movie ticket and watch as many films as they want all month. This has led to a wider audience being able to watch movies at a much cheaper price.

Traditionally, audiences consume films through movie theaters. Going to the movies is relatively pricey; the average ticket price in 2019 was $9.11. Locally, I have seen prices go up to around $11. Counting the additional prices for snacks, going to see a film could cost anywhere from $15-20. Despite the somewhat high price, many people go to theaters to watch movies because of the exclusivity of being able to watch films before they are released digitally or on DVD. Releasing through theaters has clearly been successful: Jurassic World made approximately $1.67 billion through the box office. Black Panther made approximately $1.34 billion worldwide with a theater release.

On the other side of the spectrum is digital distribution- the antithesis of theater releases. The most popular and most successful form of digital distribution is streaming. With the rise of technology, we are now able to easily access whatever movies we want whenever we want by paying a monthly fee. Streaming services have massively changed the game for audience consumption. The ease and convenience of being able to easily control your movie-watching experience is seen as more tempting than having to leave your home and sit in a theater. Streaming services aside, digital distribution has allowed for audiences to even consume media through advertisements. An example of this happening is during the advertising campaign for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. On Black Friday in 2018, after a few trailers were released, Warner Bros. put the first Lego Movie in its entirety onto YouTube as an ad that played before videos.

The ability to easily watch content wherever and whenever is a game-changer for the film industry and has proved itself very successful. Wanting to throw their hats into the ring, every big player in the film industry has developed their own streaming service. Thus, streaming has become so segmented and difficult to budget and has ultimately looped back around to being just as expensive (if not more) as a trip to the movies. Paying for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Max would cost about $37 a month without any bundles. This is a big factor in the rise of piracy. Though an illegal method of consuming media, many people flock to torrenting sites to watch films for free. Piracy is becoming more accessible to the average person who doesn’t know how to download torrents. There are websites where people can easily and freely watch movies and tv shows without any fees or viruses.

In 2020, the greatest weakness of theaters was exposed: they’re physical places. When theaters are closed for extended periods of time, the film industry suffers because studios can’t release their films. This causes a domino effect that leads into heavy delays and pushed back release dates. In fact, Disney’s entire 2020 and early 2021 lineup was pushed back out of fears that releasing those films exclusively on streaming would make them lose money. However, one movie proved the film giant wrong and is sure to become a landmark case in the seemingly inevitable death of theaters: Trolls World Tour. Solely through digital distribution, the film made nearly $100 million in its first 3 weeks. The first Trolls movie made $157 million in the box office without digital distribution. While it wasn’t as successful as the first movie, Trolls World Tour is an example of how it is possible for digital distribution to be just as successful as box office releases.

In short, the way audiences consume film is ever-changing. The film industry is at a turning point for how audiences watch films. Though it seems like an inevitable battle between streaming and theaters, both have proved that they can be successful in their own ways. Ultimately, no matter how the film is distributed, the important thing is that audiences can watch films how they want, whether it be in a theater, through Netflix, or from piracy sites.