The Sad Reality Of Netflix Owning Their Own Cinema

Making movies and owning your own theater? Why, that's illegal! Not this week, it isn't.

Paris Theater, New York City
Untapped New York

You’d think it would be illegal to make your own movies and own a movie theater, right? Well, it kind of is… or should that be "was"... but that’s not stopped Netflix from doing just that.

While the ‘white knight’ angle of this story is that Netflix has stepped in to save the last single-screen cinema in New York City – that being the Paris Theater – there’s also a more eyebrow raising element to this tale.

Up until last week, the so-called Paramount consent decree was in place. That ruling made it illegal for film studios and production companies to own the very cinemas that would be showing their pictures.

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As of this past Friday, however, a motion was filed to rescind said ruling. And just like that, Netflix jumped straight in to purchase the Paris Theater in a move that many will see as the on-demand juggernaut finally being able to get their in-house productions finally widely available to cinemagoers.

To many, the irony here is that the rise of Netflix and such similar streaming services is often viewed as being one of the final nails in the coffin for the big-screen movie experience. After all, if a film is going to be available from your own home in a matter of weeks or months, is there really such a rush to check that movie out during its limited cinema run?

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In order to highlight the demise of movie theaters, 2017 was the worst year on record for US ticket sales. Last year represented a mild increase in that record low, yet there is still clearly a major problem for cinema chains and, more worryingly, for independent theaters.

Added to this, Netflix has previously taken umbrage with the amount of time that films remain in cinemas as they encouraged a quicker turnaround that would see films landed on their own platform at a quicker rate.

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So while the snappy headline of this story is Netflix rescuing New York City’s last surviving single-screen cinema, the grim reality is that Netflix and other such services are one of the biggest reasons why these theaters have been struggling so badly.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Chatterer of stuff, writer of this, host of that, Wrexham AFC fan.