In 2017, American movie theater attendance hit a 25-year low. Although theatres were able to increase the prices of their tickets, the overall revenue in the industry decreased 2.7 percent from the previous year. Why is this suddenly happening?

Movie theatres used to be the most available form of entertainment for Americans, but that narrative is changing. With websites such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the need to go to a theatre is decreasing steadily. Who would want to pay $8 for a movie that they can watch for a small subscription fee weeks later? The simple answer is not many people. As more and more Americans gain access to streaming services, the reality of a successful movie theatre is hard to fathom. Along with these video applications, the young generation is moving on to new forms of entertainment.

Gaming systems produced by Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo etc. are taking over the entertainment industry. In 2017, pc and console games had a combined revenue of $13 billion which was a record number. Most games come at a price of $60, but even when a game is completely free, the company still makes money. Fortnite, possibly the most popular game ever, is free to play, but it has an in game currency that players purchase to get character skins. Fortnite has basically single handedly carried Epic Games to a worth of $8 billion. But that free approach has not been the most successful business model.

This Oct., “Red Dead Redemption 2” was released on a number of different platforms. It accumulated $725 million within three days of release, giving it the highest-grossing opening weekend of any entertainment product. The same statistic in the movie industry is met by “Avengers: Infinity War” at about 640 million.This just shows the huge separation that is forming between money in theatres and the gaming industry.

With many new forms of entertainment starting to prosper in America, the movie industry is declining. Junior Trent Kirby offered his opinion on the increase of video games in high school students.

“Going to the movies involves asking people to go, figuring out the best time, spending a lot of money etc, whereas when you get on your PS4 or Xbox, you are bound to have friends on to play with,” Kirby said.

This represents the more social aspects of gaming and the ease that online friends can communicate through. High schoolers find this convenience very appealing and makes them more likely to play video games than see a movie, opposite of the generation before us.