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After coronavirus, cinema may never be the same again | Catherine Shoard

The threat to cinemas is real. But the collapse of old business models could unleash a new wave of creativity

Ever since the first cinemas were built, film has been the great egalitarian art form. Wealthy people went, the middle classes didn’t sniff, but you could also take a date if you weren’t rich and wanted a night out. Film’s cultural function is intimately allied to price. If it wasn’t cheap, its power would diminish. This is one of the things that drew me and many others to it: going to the movies is for everyone.

That’s over. Maybe not quite yet, maybe not entirely, but it’s hard to foresee a future in which film-going as we know it doesn’t become an elite experience. Poorer people will be priced out because the best way to insulate yourself from risk is with distance. And – as with houses or airplanes or iClouds – space is expensive.

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