Some people warn that the era of silver screen is coming to an end and that people will eventually lose interest in going to the cinema.
Do you agree or disagree with this view?
The cinema has been a popular form of entertainment for many decades. Even the silent films of the early twentieth century were loved by audiences around the world. Hollywood is now an enormous business and film stars like the Australian actress Nicole Kidman earn millions of dollars.
People think that going to the cinema will become out of date because of the increase in the production of DVDs and videos. It’s certainly true that we can all stay at home now and watch films in comfort. Also the cost of these films is cheaper for a big family than going to the cinema. Young people enjoy spending a night at home and watch a DVD or video. And small children adore videos because they can watch them over and over again.
However, the cinema in my home country are still full every weekend and when a new film is released we are all very keen to go and watch it. In fact, many small cinemas have been rebuilt and we can now go to large centres that have six or eight cinema screens and show up to ten different films a night. An evening out at the cinema is fun and some films, particularly horror and science fiction films, are much better on the big screen.
So it seems that we are enjoying both the cinema and the facilities that technology can offer us and that each of these has its merits. In my view, people will never stop going to the cinema but they will watch DVDs as well.
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