Duncan Lay: No pressure, but it’s up to Australia to save cinemas

America respects our money as much as its own. Australia’s box office bucks may be the difference between a return to relative normality and more streaming, Duncan Lay writes.

Okay Australia, it seems like it’s all down to us to save cinemas.

It has been an incredibly frustrating 18 months for movie fans.

When our cinemas were open, the US was closed and there was very little being released. Then the US reopened and new movies began to flow – but we went into lockdown.

Along the way, we have seen production houses such as Warner Bros and Disney switch their focus to streaming.

This has seen what used to be two distinct money-making phases for movies – cinematic release and home release – squeezed into one.

So no more double-dipping, where many people would watch a movie at the cinema and then rewatch it at home on digital download, streaming or – if they really want to go old school – DVD or Blu-ray.

Simultaneous streaming releases means there is less chance of double-dipping than if you invited a pack of coughing anti-vaxxers to your fondue night.

It has meant Black Widow was unable to hit the $US200m mark in its home country, which is a poor result for a Marvel movie.

Warner Bros, which is releasing all its movies on HBO Max at the same time as in the cinemas, has seen basically all of its shows tank at the US box office.

There is hope from the US.

Andy Serkis and Tom Hardy (right) at the fan screening of Venom: Let There Be Carnage on September 14, 2021 in London. Picture: Tristan Fewings/Getty

Shang-Chi And The Ten Rings, which is the first of the so-called Phase Four Marvel movies, looks set to be the first post-pandemic film to get through the $US200m barrier.

Now the House of Mouse has agreed to release all its remaining 2021 movies at the cinemas first.

Meanwhile we have seen Sony trying to persuade people to watch Venom 2: There Will Be Carnage at the cinema by claiming it is the only way to see its “shocking” end credits scene.

But of course the contents of said end credit scene are all over the internet, making it about as much of a surprise thrill as getting a pair of socks for Father’s Day.

Spoiler alert! I won’t reveal it completely but let’s just say a character could appear who’s just a few letters away from Rider-Nan.

Anyway, all that doesn’t disguise the fact only a small portion of America has returned to the cinema.

Mainly because their vaccination rates are only about 60 per cent and people would naturally rather order a jumbo bucket of rat turds from the candy bar than sit next to an anti-vaxxer who’s oozing Covid from every pore. But we can make a difference.

I certainly plan to explode out of the blocks and into the cinema as soon as possible.

As well as the movies listed above, I need to see Dune, The Eternals, No Time To Die, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Matrix Resurrection.

America respects our money as much as its own. Our box office take may be the difference between a return to relative normality and more streaming.

And besides, it’ll get us out of the house.

And after nearly four months of being locked up, that’s a bigger treat than a choc top that’s been languishing in a cinema freezer since 2019.