GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: How Streaming Killed Quality: The Death of Hype.

Once upon a time, the entire process of going to the movies on a Friday night was an exercise in hype that began the very moment we walked up to the box office. Above our heads were long lightboards displaying all the movies playing at the threater along with showtimes. Those showtimes in blinking red were already sold-out, and so the first emotion we experienced upon arrival at the theater was FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Your pace across the parking lot quickened alongside your anxiety as you scanned the showtimes for one that was still available.

But the truth was that once you got out of the house and actually went to the theater, there was very little chance that you would go home without seeing a movie. And so if your first choice was sold out, often you went to your second or third choice instead. In this way, the hype machine for the biggest releases wound up boosting the fortunes of every other movie released during roughly the same time period. You might have been planning to see “Jurassic Park”, but wound up seeing “Cliffhanger” or “Striking Distance” instead. Back in the day, this phenomenon was what allowed studios to release more than one big movie every summer weekend without worrying if they would make their money back, and it helped to create an all-around robust and profitable movie business as the rising tide lifted everyone’s boats.

And the hype continued long after you bought your ticket. Before the rise of internet pre-sales and assigned seating, we’d wait in lines for the most popular releases. At the appropriate time, we would sprint for the first-come first-served best seats in the house. The dramatic lowering of the lights, the raising of the curtain and the eardrum-rattling Dolby Sound System ad were critical moments of theatricality too. It was all a part of a hype machine that helped make a night out at the movies feel special.

Come to think of it, the only lines I never minded standing in were for the opening night — or better yet, a sneak preview showing — of a yuge movie.