How are new technologies affecting the way in which we consume films?

A big part of the evolution in our film consumption happened as I was growing up. When I was a kid we only had VHS, then DVD and now the internet. This is how it happened through my eyes:

A big change happened in the way we consume films when DVDs were released. The change caught on really well with most families and within a few years, or even less, DVDs were replacing VHS. I think the reason for that quick change was that the difference between VHS and DVDs was massive. No more rewinding at the end of each tape, no more fast forwarding for ages to get to a particular part of the film as chapters were now introduced, subtitles were available, choice of different languages, bonus material, better sound and video quality, being able to watch films on your computer etc…all making viewing a film at home so much more comfortable.

The video market reached it's high point in 2004 with a sale of 234 million DVDs. 

(Blu-Ray, a more evolved version of DVD, was also released a couple of years ago, but I don't think that it has caught on that well, because, to be honest, I don't see that blu-ray is 'better' enough to replace DVDs.)

DVD rental shops started to be available, from which one could pay an amount of money to rent a Dvd for the night or the week, without having to buy the DVD.

Also, the TV screens in american homes, then later also in our european homes, starting being bigger and bigger because the big, thin, high definition plasma TVs were getting cheaper and are now affordable for an average earning family.

Then, the internet offered viewing of reasonable quality videos on webpages like youtube. 

People found ways to upload films in bits of  about 10 mins on youtube. I remember looking for videos like "iRobot part 1", "iRobot part 2" , 3 ,4 etc. 

I remember that some people used to go into the cinema with videocameras that they'd hide and film the movie, then upload it onto youtube and people would watch it at home instead of going to the cinema. 

As the time went by, uploading and downloading complete films from the internet became more and more common and easy, quick to do.

People figured out ways of copying DVDs and then uploading the content onto the net.

Then the same happened with TV series, you could watch a whole new season that was still unreleased in your country through the internet. The quality of these illegal films also became better and better and now it is even possible to watch newly released movies on the internet for free in High Definition.

TV channels then decided to introduce "TV Video on Demand", which enabled people to watch an episode of a TV series or films that they might have missed on their TV. This was then also accessible via the internet. E4 even has a channel on youtube, where you can watch a lot of recently played programmes on demand. BBC made bbciplayer.com, with the same concept (even for radio programmes). Since 2008, the online VoD numbers have validly increased from 6.2 million pounds to 41.2 million in 2010. Legal download of films from the internet was also available through, for ex., iTunes, who sold recent films cheaply to download onto your computer.

Since free and cheap viewing of films downloaded straight at home was now available, the video rental market has also massively decreased since 2001. 

Obviously that change in film consumption at home also completely changed the way audiences consumed films at the cinema. Why would people pay money to see a film in the cinema when they could just as well watch it at home?

Even though on the whole, going to the cinema became more and more frequent in the last 20 years (the number of cinema screens in the UK has augmented from 2758 in 1999 to 3671 in 2010, most of the new screens being multiplex), the cinemas were facing a big threat when film-viewing on the internet became easy.

It mostly threatened the money intake of films, especially as the cinema visits are a big part of the profit films make. This pushed producers to come up with a new  marketing idea : 3D cinema!!

3D had already been introduced a few years ago, but not many people liked the idea of having to wear funny cardboard glasses during the whole film etc. 

But this time, the industry introduced it right. They did the right advertising in an appealing manner and used the right films to start on, i.e. with computer animated children's movies. Kids loved the idea of seeing their heros in 3 dimensions and watching a 3D films in the cinema was an exciting, new and unique way to see a film. So more and more CGI films were produced in 3D. It became a big hit, especially for action movies, CGI and films with a lot of special effects. 

The successful reception of the 28 3D films in 2008, made producers double the number to 56 3D films made in 2009. In the UK alone, those 28 films made a total of £241.8 million pounds in 2008.

Personally, I am not a big fan of 3D films, but I understand the cinema's need to evolve in technology and I am quite curious to see what will happen to the way we consume films in the future, especially as technology is now changing so quickly.