A Short History and Future of Watching Movies out of Theaters: Blockbuster, Netflix, and Everything Web

Movies began as a one-on-one experience here in the United States, in New York, with Edison's kinetoscopes. You put in a penny, bent over a console, turned the crank, and saw a little movie. The Brewster General Store on Route 6A on Cape Cod still has a kinetoscope - actually they acquired and refurbished an old one - in case you want to get a sense of what that felt like.

The Lumieres in Paris invented the theater, courtesy of celluloid that came from George Eastman. And the world was off and running with the unique social experience of going out to the movies. You sit with a group of complete strangers, in the dark - except for one or two people sitting next to you. You're a community for a few hours, and then it's gone. Well, maybe it's not unique. You get this in legitimate theaters and sports stadia. But, well, you get the picture.

But not as much as in public as in the last century. Big movie complexes still rakin 'em in, but the neighborhood theater is gone. Killed not so much by television, but by Blockbuster.

And now Blockbuster is facing the funereal music. There was an inch of snow on the ground tonight, north of New York City - who in their right mind wants to go out and return a tape? Netflix makes more sense. No wonder its business is booming.

But its years are numbered, too. In the end, if we can download a movie and watch with ease on a big wide screen, who wants to wait for the mail? It's not delivered on Sunday, anyway.

iTunes and Amazon and other pioneering if less legal outlets are already making inroads in Internet filmic delivery.

And so, we are headed back to the kinetoscope. Not in parlours, in our homes, but, hey, who's watching... It's easy and it's good. When it comes to movie delivery, nothing beats the speed of light.

Helpful links:

Blockbuster, Netflix, the Web?
listen to 3-minute podcast of this post

A Short History of the Movies (9th ed.), Gerald Mast & Bruce Kawin best history of the movies I know of

Brewster General Store
try the real kinetoscope for yourself, on rt 6A

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