The Demise Of The Cinema?

The cinema, a once popular pastime. Every Friday or Saturday night used to be the time you went to the cinema to catch the latest film. Heck, you may not even of wanted to watch the film, but you went anyway. A kind of social gathering.

These days however, the cinema is so incredibly expensive, it becomes more of a special treat than a random outing. This is before you take into consideration the need to buy food and drink (or perhaps buy it from a supermarket beforehand). I understand that the cinema's need to make money too, like any business, but it's saddening to think of how its become.

Is the cinema due to last for that much longer? With the onslaught of on-demand services such as Sky, Netflix and Lovefilm. Each one of these companies striving to get titles released onto their services in as short a timespan as possble after the cinema release. Plus the ever increasing capability of our own televisions at home. Bigger, louder, 3D, super HD. The additions keep coming.

Is it inevitable? Maybe not anytime soon but perhaps in fifty years from now. Will the cinema become a forgotten pastime reserved for the nostalgic?