After the Bell: What would really make it always ‘better on the big screen’?

There is something terribly disappointing about watching a big movie on my phone. Something that seems almost designed to make the experience quite useless.

I’m not talking about dramas or TV shows I’ve seen before (I refuse to travel without all of the episodes of The West Wing on my phone – you never know when you’re going to need them), but movies that are designed to visually impress.

And you’d think, when I get home, I could watch whatever claims to be a blockbuster on a bigger screen.

Well, due to an investment made towards the end of the last Rugby World Cup, the screen we use at home is not, by any definition of the word, small.

When something like the latest James Bond or Top Gun Maverick suddenly becomes available on streaming, I almost look forward to seeing it.

But the experience of watching those two films, on a nice screen with not-terrible sound, was also disappointing.

I don’t know about you, but my home tends to be a (wonderfully!) busy place. Despite trying to lock the cats away and the dogs outside and giving the children unlimited time on a screen of their choice (don’t judge!) we still could not get through either of these movies without about five interruptions.

Some of them were self-inflicted – refills don’t happen by themselves, and it was a mistake to have my phone in the same room as the movie.

But others could not be helped – a strange noise outside, the dog barking oddly, one of our too-many cats doing something cute and my ice melted.

It did make me reminisce, sort of, about the era when I used to go to a cinema.

Last night, the CEO at the Vukile Property Fund, Laurence Rapp, told [The Money Show](https://omny.fm/shows/the-money-show/tongaat-hulett-secures-rescue-deal-vukile-lifts-dividends-expands-to-italy) that they’d refurbished quite a big part of the East Rand Mall. Basically, they took the cinemas out and put in all sorts of other things.

Rapp says that before this was really “dead space”, and what they have there now is doing very well for them (one of their new outlets is a Dis-Chem. I sometimes think that if you built a Dis-Chem on Marion Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Edward_Islands), within about a week Wikipedia would have to remove the word “uninhabited” from its description).

He says the same thing is happening in their malls in Portugal – basically cinemas don’t act as a draw anymore.

But – and how interesting is this? – in Spain it’s completely different. “It’s about the culture,” he says. “In Spain it’s a good family night out to go to the movies and a meal.”

Spain and Portugal, in case you had forgotten, are geographic neighbours (but not on Fifa’s ranking in this World Cup – Spain is at 2 and Portugal at 5 – the ranking was done before Cape Verde held Spain to a draw).

You should never tell them this, but their cultures are also quite similar, so it’s fascinating that the movie habit is more durable in Spain than it is in Portugal.

I wonder if there could be something small and technical that’s responsible.

Perhaps Spain has realistically priced popcorn?

For as long as I’ve been alive people have complained about the price of snacks in a cinema. I get that it’s a captive audience, but you can only rip off people for so long.

When I ask younger people why some of them still go to the cinema, I think the answer lies in the social aspect. If you’re a teenager, a movie (as expensive as it is) is still a great place for a first date. The reason is obvious: you don’t have to actually talk to each other for the whole time. And for a group of people running on a permanently low social battery, that’s incredibly helpful.

I know one young person who I think likes going to the cinema because she can get a slushie there. You know, the iced drink that comes out of a machine (I’m informed the combination of flavours is the one to get – try it at your own risk).

I wonder if this might hold the key to the future success of cinema.

What I’d really like is something I can’t get anywhere else. I don’t mean good service, I can get that in many places. I also don’t want a cinematic gastronomic experience, I can get cheaper and sometimes better popcorn from my microwave.

What I do want is that most elusive of things: peace. Space to watch one thing without being distracted.

I’m really looking for an experience where I can lose myself in something. I’m happy to do it with other people, that’s part of the magic.

But I don’t want to be bothered.

So perhaps what someone should try is a cinema where, after I’ve paid for my popcorn and perhaps something slightly stronger than a slushie, I have to hand my phone in at the door.

Where no one can get in without passing over all of their devices. So that none of us is distracted.

Now, two hours without being interrupted. With no distraction, no phone, no other sources of light and noise.

That’s an experience I would pay for. DM