In recent years, movie companies have been directing their focus to creating Blockbuster movies: high-budget, mass-marketed films, designed to create iconic movies with sequels and franchises. This practice leads to film companies maximizing the box office revenue and aiming for awards.
According to John Guida in his article “Are Blockbusters Destroying the Movies?” The New York Times, companies are not taking chances on newer and younger ideas that might pose a “risk” of not winning awards or losing money.
Furthermore, in the article “How the Big Tech Monopoly is Killing Cinema” inThe Tribune, Paris Marx noted that when streaming services were just starting out, they would give out money to directors who might have been struggling, meaning they could take risks and experiment with unique films. This catered towards people who looked for movies that were different or less mainstream; however, this practice has declined in recent years.
Independent films and TV still exist, but the current media have little room for stories that don’t fit in or match their brands.
Junior Anne Drew Abanilla said she prefers older movies because of their uniqueness, and the actors who played in these movies are iconic to this day. They also stand out to her because older movies included tTechnicolor which was an early 20th-century way to process vibrant and saturated colors. A popular movie that used Technicolor was the 1939 version of “The Wizard of Oz.” The colors almost pop off the screen and offer a dream-like color-way.
“[My favorite movie is] ‘Had to Steal a Million’, 1966. Have you ever seen a rom-com heist movie? It has Audrey Hepburn in it, and art, even better,” Abanilla said.
As streaming services became more popular and accessible to people, movie theaters had to compete, and they started to become emptier and emptier. Theaters used to be the place where people could go to get out of the house and watch new, exciting movies. However, that just does not seem to be the case anymore.
“I don’t have time for the movie theaters. I watch movies like twice or three times a week,” Abanilla said.
Abanilla thinks that some students might be watching fewer movies, while some students think that the rise of streaming services actually allows the younger generation to watch more movies.
“I feel like we have a lot of access to like all the eras, like we have Netflix and YouTube. [Older movies] are not necessarily better, but they’re more simple. Movies today are more complex and make you think a lot more,” senior Hannah Lam said.
The rate of people watching movies might still be strong, but movie culture is declining, especially with the younger generation.
Younger generations have more access to movies from the comfort of their homes, much more than the older generations did. Instead of having to scrounge up money to go to the cinema, teens and many other demographics can simply turn on a streaming service from their TV, smartphone, or computer.
According to the article “Streaming is overtaking theaters for movie watchers, an AP-NORC poll finds” on NBC news, a movie ticket cost as of 2025 was $13.17, and this cost is only expected to keep rising. This rise in cost keeps many from going to the theaters in the modern era.
Another common reason that keeps people from watching movies is that many believe that most of the new films coming out are recycled ideas from past blockbusters. Math teacher at Rancho Cucamonga High School, Mr. Jared Derksen, said he thinks that there’s a sense of lost creativity seen as of lately.
“It seems like Hollywood has lost some of its creativity and it’s not willing to take risks,” Derksen said. “There’s a lot of recycling of the same intellectual property over and over again.”
Further supporting this, a CivicScience poll says that 30% of people say that the lack of interest has kept them from the theaters, with ticket prices coming in as a close second with 27%.
So whether it’s the cost or the convenience, today’s younger generation seems to prefer watching movies on their devices or at home via a streaming service rather than going to the movies.
“Part of why people don’t appreciate movies is because they want to watch everything on their device whenever they want to watch it, which kind of wrecks a certain part of you as a consumer of art,” said Derksen.
