Exactly how MUCH did the Covid pandemic change your everyday life back in 2020?
Myself, I'd say it only changed or modified it when it had to, like whenever there were distancing rules and whatnot. But I never let it stop me from living my everyday life and enjoying the things that I enjoyed in 2019 and earlier.
Man, it feels weird to say "back in 2020", like as if I'm talking about a chunk of time that was 15-20 years ago as opposed to only four. But what's a little odd about that is the fact that in a lot of ways, that time period in our lives DOES in fact feel like it was a long time ago, doesn't it? It feels like we've progressed and gone so far ahead down the road that we don't even see Covid-19 in the rearview mirror anymore.
For that, I'm glad.
But it's wrong to think that the pandemic didn't leave some lasting changes or impressions on our North American society.
Which leads me to this week's topic.
How do you watch new movies, friends and readers? Are you a devotee of the cinema, catching the latest on the big screen closest to you? Or are you strictly a streamer, choosing to stay at home and catching new releases on Prime, Crave, Netflix, Paramount+, and so on and so on?
Because that's one of the most enduring things that we've seen in the aftermath of the pandemic. When the virus wrapped it's hands around the throat of our world, movie studios basically abandoned theaters in favor of either putting their bigger summer releases on the proverbial shelf or choosing to release it on a streaming service for a nominal fee.
It's 2024 and four years later, and that practice is still happening today. Now luckily, the studios didn't actually wait too long before reverting back to the age-old practice of releasing their movies in theaters, as by the summer of 2021, we were seeing new releases pop up at places like the Landmark or Cineplex.
But the streaming thing definitely stayed, and has continued to grow. The pandemic actually served as free advertising for every kind of "WATCH THIS MOVIE OR SHOW HERE!" service that's floating out there in the online world. In 2020, it was basically telling people, "Hey, don't wanna risk it out there? Stay home, pop some corn, grab a cold one, and watch the newest releases right there on your couch for a small fee! Don't worry about it, we got this!"
Now, in 2024, movie theaters are saying, "Hey, don't wanna stay home with the noisy kids and other distractions? Come on out and join us! Grab a popcorn, your favorite drink, and we'll even throw in a candy bar as you take a seat and enjoy the show!"
Where was I when all of this was going on in our world?
Well, for the extremely limited releases that were still coming out in 2020, I'm happy to say that I could still be found at the movie theater in Outlook. Sure, it was a little bizarre walking into the screening room and seeing garbage bags over many of the seats, which acted as 'social distancing barriers' for the time being. But hey, what was important to me was paying a few bucks to support a local business that needed all the revenue it could get at the time. You don't support something, folks, and it'll be gone before you know it.
A few years later, and nothing's changed for me in that regard. If a movie looks interesting to me, I'll catch it at my local theater. If it looks reeeeeally good, I'll probably try and catch it opening weekend up in the city. Sure, I still have a number of streaming services at home and they're awesome when I want to catch up on shows that I like or watch something unique that's been getting rave reviews.
But for me, nothing on Earth beats the entertainment-viewing experience like the movie theater. Watching a movie at home with maybe a couple of noisy kids around? No thanks. Getting into a movie and then glancing over to see your wife or girlfriend tap-tap-tapping away at their phone? Well, I never! Witnessing an awesome scene go down in an action flick and then hearing your doorbell go off? Well, that does it, this movie's ruined for me.
Sorry folks, but none of that happens in the movie theater. You can have the most comfortable couch in the world, but there's more to a movie-going experience than just where your butt ends up being planted. It's lighting, it's sound, it's atmosphere, and it's that special X factor that just makes the movie theater more attractive for some people, me included.
And when it's not the movie theater, the drive-in experience is the next best thing. I swear, I had to have been born in the wrong generation because a lot of my likes are from things that were popular a decade before I was born. The drive-in movie experience is very special in its own unique ways, too. Picking a spot where you've got a great view inside your vehicle's interior, grabbing some popcorn from the snack shack, killing time before the movie starts by taking some photos of your surroundings, or hell, maybe even reading a book before the movie opens.
Oh, what am I saying, it's 2024, you're probably on your phone before the movie starts, am I right?
Regardless, there's just something about the movie theater - whether a conventional one or a drive-in one - that brings its own unique experiences. They're special, they're fun, and for some movies, they're exactly where you need to be in order to get the full experience of some types of cinema.
And I'm currently in the works in trying to establish a *possible* drive-in movie atmosphere this coming summer, so we'll see what happens with that in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned, fingers crossed...
For this week, that's been the Ruttle Report.
