The summer blockbuster machine is officially warming up, and if the early weekend numbers are any indication, audiences are hungry for spectacle again.
There's been a lot of noise lately about whether the theatrical experience is "dying" — a take that gets recycled every few years, usually by people who haven't actually stood in a popcorn line recently. Walk into any multiplex on a Friday night and you'll see the counter-argument in real time: packed houses, sold-out IMAX screens, and fans dressed up in ways that make it clear they didn't just stream something at home and call it a day.
What's actually changing isn't enthusiasm — it's selectivity. Audiences have become remarkably good at deciding which films deserve the big-screen treatment and which ones are perfectly fine on a couch. That's not death; that's discernment. And honestly, it's the best thing that could have happened to cinema.