It is not hyperbolic to say that the movie theaters are dying. It’s not just the stark decline in billion-dollar pictures (only 1 in 2025 by August, against 2019 which had 5 by this very point), but also the implosion of the superhero genre before our very eyes, and just a general malaise in the audience’s willingness to entertain the mid–low budget fare anymore. So, yes, the theatrical marketplace is currently chugging along on life support (diehard fandom)… but also a special, new trend that may just be its savior: the Event Blockbuster.
You see, whereas audiences used to go see anything in the cinema, regardless of quality or even buzz, it is near impossible to generate that for any movie now. Excellent movies like Thunderbolts or The Ballerina, with stellar critic scores and audience reception, are completely flying under the radar for one simple reason… they aren’t Events!
This event, so to speak, is a general buzz, a cultural conversation shared at the water cooler or between a group of friends in an ice cream shop. Movies that are so dense with gasp-worthy moments, shocking reveals, or are just so intellectually stimulating that they demand to be seen with a crowd of people who will react, hopefully to enhance the experience of seeing the film.
Whilst of course these water-cooler films have been a staple of cinema since its very inception, there was a very distinctive and definitive shift towards this new trend in moviegoing after the pandemic. Yes, the worst kept secret of all time (the return of Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire as their respective Spider-men) whipped the internet and seemingly the world into such a frenzy that it had everyone seated in the cinema desperate to find out if the rumors were true. Spider-Man: No Way Home was such a cultural moment that viral videos of theaters reacting to both actors’ returns became a social media trend that really encouraged anyone who hadn’t already seen the glory of the 8th Spider-man movie to run to the cinema and purchase a ticket. It was a level of marketing and conversation that was desperately needed after the pandemic, and was exactly the kind of booster shot in the arm needed to re-invigorate people to go back in doors to the cinema after a grizzly year spent indoors isolating.
This trend continued in 2022 with Minions: The Rise of Gru, whereby (mostly) young men dressed up in suits to go see the latest installment of the Despicable Me franchise. Whilst this trend ended up being entirely disruptive for moviegoers trying to just enjoy the film for its own merit, it yielded box office results that many other post-pandemic releases could only dream of. With a $940m dollar gross, the suit trend for Minions: The Rise of Gru proved that Spider-Man was establishing a trend of moviegoing that was shifting towards a theme-park/cosplay convention type of atmosphere…
Then in 2023 came the biggest and most successful cinematic event of them all… Barbenheimer. Whereby Spider-Man had a roughly 60% male audience, and Minions too, being male heavy, Barbie was 69% female and Oppenheimer was 64% male. The movies were perfectly counter-programmed to generate mass frenzy for literally everyone on planet earth.
Moreover, the challenge to watch both movies in one day, the encouragement to dress up in your Barbie pink or in your Oppenheimer suit, and the actors creating fun banter/rivalry was all unprecedented and game-changing for the cinematic experience. What started as a fun joke and a silly rivalry turned out to be one of the most genius marketing strategies in recent memory, and it yielded the box office results for such innovation. Barbie earned a whopping $1.45 billion and Oppenheimer ended with a hair’s touch off $1b, with a $975m final total, to accompany its Best Actor, Director, and Best Feature Film Academy Awards.
With such astronomical success, critically, with the Academy, and with the entire population of the world, Barbenheimer built upon the success of Spider-Man and truly set a new standard for what could be achieved by creating a cinematic Event.
We have yet to see Barbenheimer replicated successfully since, but the marketplace is definitely changing to reflect this shift in consumer demand since Barbenheimer. The blasphemous lewdness of the Dune popcorn bucket, the cultural conversation surrounding this year’s Sinners, the chicken jockey trend in Minecraft, and even the encouragement to wear pink and green to see Wicked are all more examples of creating an Event. All such gimmicks have warranted success as a result.
Therefore, whilst it is true that the cinematic experience is depreciating before our very eyes, there is a clear roadmap forward to re-gain the audience eroded by Covid. By leaning into the Experience and creating an atmosphere, whether that be themed merchandise at the theaters, dress codes, or gasp-worthy moments that demand to be discussed, this is clearly the easiest way to get the casual moviegoer to even consider returning to the theaters. If theaters can lean into this new demand from the audience and accommodate this new theme-park/ cosplay aspect to the movie-going experience, perhaps they might just live to fight another day.
— Darragh Evans