Source: Ted Gioia
Reed Hastings' 2020 proclamation that theatrical exhibition was obsolete became a self-fulfilling prophecy in reverse. By making the case explicitly, he crystallized the cultural stakes around cinema in a way that activated both filmmakers and audiences to defend it. The irony runs structural: a streaming platform's dismissal of theatrical didn't accelerate cord-cutting but triggered a resurgence, where the conditions Hastings cited as cinema's death knell—economic crisis, climate anxiety, social fragmentation—became exactly the reasons communal viewing felt necessary rather than quaint. The response was a return not born from nostalgia but from recognition that some experiences still require a room full of strangers.