OTT and Theaters were in a constant clash, because OTT made it very accessible to the audience that whenever and whatever movie or series you want to watch we had, in its initial period, this availability became a grave problem for the theatres.
But a survey conducted by Roku and the National Research Group in the USA found some amazing data regarding movie goers and people who still prefer watching movies on OTT platforms.
After the initial release of OTTS movie theatres and OTT platforms were always in a war, because producers and directors always wanted the vast majority to watch the movies in theatres.
Initially, “Netflix” was the first OTT platform that introduced the whole world that original movies can be watched at your home and it became quickly popular because then viewers were kind of denied to go to the theatres and watch the movie.
But the recent survey held by the USA proved this wrong, the survey says, 61% of respondents watched at least two movies in the theatres in the past six months.
Which is fair to say that more than half of them are still willing to go to the theatres to watch a movie on the big screen. The prominent examples are “Dune 2”, “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie”, the vast majority watch all these movies in theatres.
The survey also cited that 74% of people went to the theatre at least once in the same period, indicating that the theatres ain’t dying anytime soon.
40% of heavy streamers who are investing their time watching OTT, around 20+ hours a week still went to theatres at least once.
Then comes the point of clash where 45% of respondents prefer streaming new movies at home. This we can call the influence and comfort provided by the OTTs.
But, 41% of moviegoing streamers are open to both streaming or going to the theatre.
Now if we see the results then we will see that the audience who are still going to the theatres to watch new releases is high in number, it’s not only limited to the short laptop screen which the industries dreaded while it initially got introduced.
Now in the present time if we take a close look then we will see that the industries are now collaborating with the OTTs to release their movies.
It is fair to say that the viewers don’t wait for it to come to OTTs if they want to watch it immediately.
Now the originals that we see between movies and streaming platforms, we can surely say that they are now working together to reach another set of higher goals.
So it is fair to say that now the theatres and the OTT platforms are complimenting each other rather than being a rival.
Because again if we keep a keen eye then we will see movies which were initially released in theatres they collect their box office gain but as well as they are gaining profit from the streaming platforms as well.
So it is very evident to say that theatres and streaming platforms are co existing at the same time currently.
But with the rise of numerous OTT platforms it is hard to say for how long they will co exist because the tables can turn anytime.