Around the start of the 20th century, society as we know it became transfixed with the concept of moving pictures on a big screen. It started off in black and white only, and with no sound at all. Eventually these moving pictures graduated to color and sound, but all in all the main appeal was the long-form movie format. Movies are still created today, but there is reason to believe that it may be on the decline.
It’s not that movies aren’t popular anymore. They’re still watched by millions across the globe. However, in this day and age, they’ve taken an obvious backseat to that of hour-long TV dramas. These TV series are thriving specifically thanks to the advent of streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, which have allowed viewers to “binge” their various shows for weeks on end.
Viewers have shown that they’d much rather watch 10 episodes—or 70, for that matter—of a series within the comforts of their own home, than go to the movie theater and watch a two-hour film.
Does that mean that movies are dead? Perhaps not. But they’re definitely not the Kingpin of Entertainment that they used to be. That crown has officially been passed on to the TV series of the world, from Stranger Things, to Breaking Bad, to The Walking Dead, to Downton Abbey, to all of your favorites.