The future of cinema: what can we expect?

Cinema is dead — that claim has been circulating for at least fifty years. First television was supposed to kill it. Then home video. Then DVD. Then streaming. And yet: after every assault on its existence, cinema has recovered, adapted and proven once again that there is something fundamental about watching films together in the dark. But what will that cinema of the future look like?

The COVID rupture and the recovery

The pandemic of 2020–2021 was the greatest existential crisis in the history of modern cinema. Chains closed for months. Studios released films directly on streaming. And audiences discovered that watching at home was more comfortable than many had expected.

But the recovery was remarkably strong. Top Gun: Maverick (2022) proved that audiences will flock to cinemas en masse for the right film. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Barbie and Oppenheimer (2023) confirmed the rebound. In 2023, global box office revenues crossed $33 billion again. Cinema is alive.

The polarisation of the market

The cinema market is polarising. On one end: mega-blockbusters so spectacular they can never be fully replicated at home. On the other: intimate drama films, documentaries and indie films for a smaller but devoted audience. The middle ground — the $30–60 million drama film that once formed the backbone of cinema — has largely migrated to streaming.

This has consequences for cinema programmers. It is becoming increasingly clear which films belong on the big screen and which are better suited for home viewing. And more and more cinemas are specialising: the arthouse house for one end of the spectrum, the multiplex for the other.

Premium formats: bigger, better, more immersive

IMAX is the most successful premium film format in the world. The larger screens (up to 26 metres high), better sound systems and higher resolution create an experience that simply cannot be replicated at home. Films specifically shot for IMAX — such as Nolan's films and many MCU productions — deliver a fundamentally different experience in IMAX.

Beyond IMAX, other premium formats are on the rise:

• Dolby Cinema: ultra-high resolution, Dolby Atmos sound, HDR imagery
• 4DX: moving seats, water sprays, added scents — immersive for action films
• ScreenX: 270-degree projection across three walls of the auditorium
• Laser projection: replaces traditional lamp projectors, offering consistently sharper images

Luxury and comfort: the cinema as an experience

One of the clearest trends is the upgrade of the cinema experience itself. Recliner seats, in-seat food service, smaller but more comfortable auditoriums — cinemas are investing in comfort to offset the advantages of watching at home.

In the US, the "dine-in cinema" concept is already widespread: cinema auditoriums where you can order a full dinner while watching the film. In Europe this trend has been slower to catch on, but here too we are seeing more and more cinemas use luxury as a differentiation strategy.

The philosophy: if the cinema cannot make the film itself better than home viewing for a mass audience, it must make the overall outing better. The cinema as restaurant, as social space, as event.

The release window debate

Traditionally, studios waited 90 to 120 days after a theatrical release before making a film available on streaming — the "theatrical window." Streaming platforms pushed for shorter windows; cinema chains resisted. After the pandemic, a new equilibrium has emerged: most major films have a window of 30 to 45 days, some blockbusters 45 to 60.

This means cinema is losing its exclusivity period — but also that the urgency to see a film in theatres is greater. "See it now, because in six weeks it's on Netflix" is a marketing message that works.

Immersive and hybrid experiences

The cinema of the future is experimenting with formats that go beyond "watching a film in a dark room." Immersive cinema — where the audience walks through a set with actors performing around them — is a growing niche. Secret Cinema in London is the most famous example: screenings of iconic films in fully built sets, where audiences literally enter the world of the film.

Augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality open other doors. While a VR cinema experience at home is already technically possible, the collective dimension — a hundred people experiencing the same thing at the same time — remains the unique advantage of the physical cinema.

Cinema as a cultural institution

In the Netherlands and Belgium, cinema holds a distinctive cultural position. Subsidised arthouse cinemas, film houses and small venues fulfil a function that no streaming platform can take over: the curation of what is worth seeing collectively. In that sense, cinema programmers are cultural mediators — they decide what their community gets to see.

That role will only become more important in the future. In a world of infinite content, the work of the programmer — the selection, the context, the presentation — is a valuable service. The cinema is not just a screen. It is an editorial voice. And that is something algorithms can never fully replace.