There was a time not so long ago when the moviegoing experience was a big deal. It was an event. Viewers entered ornate, cavernous movie palaces and watched, along with an audience of thousands, the spectacle of a cast of thousands (real, not computer generated) rampaging across an enormous, color-saturated screen.
A couple of times during my childhood, my parents made the big deal into a really big deal by taking us to Grauman’s Chinese Theater. It happened only twice because it took years between trips for my parents to recover. By the time a third trip was even possible, we were no longer willing to be seen in public with them. In truth, they only relented the second time because we waged a tactical pleading campaign leaving them no choice but to kill us or take us to Hollywood. So, chanting some sort of futile mantra like, “They will be good. They will not fight. They will not throw up on the plane,” the parents stuffed the two of us onto a plane and headed down to Los Angeles.
We strolled the Walk of Fame and entered the 40-foot walls of the Forecourt of the Stars. There we stood in the footprints left by show business royalty, before walking past the sort-of-scary Heaven’s dogs, between the giant red columns, under the 30-foot dragon, and into the pagoda portal. All this entertainment and we hadn’t even made it to the candy counter, let alone the seats.
Today’s big deal movie experience is small and getting smaller. Technology has become the event, and the experience can fit in your hand. People watch movies on a phone or a table—or even fitted into the corner of a funny-looking pair of glasses. With nanotechnology, the day may come when I watch a movie by closing my eyes and just thinking about it. A nanobot will do the rest, while another one charges that viewing to my credit card.
While an all-digital world is rushing toward us, I’m not always read for a full embrace. I still treasure big screens, real books, the print version of the newspaper that still stokes enough ardor to suggest that print publications should be around for at least a while. And the nanobot is likely to be some years away.