Tom Hanks has said he “absolutely” believes cinemas will survive the coronavirus pandemic.
The Hollywood star told Collider that movie theatres will continue to be popular for “big event motion pictures”.
He added that while he thinks cinemas will continue to be successful there will be an “awful lot of movies” people will only stream at home on their televisions.
“Will movie theatres still exist? Absolutely they will,” the Forrest Gump star, 64,
told the US publication.
In some ways I think the exhibitors, once they are up and upon, are going to have a freer choice of what movies they want to play.
“But I’m going to say that big event motion pictures are going to rule the day at the cinema.”
Hanks added that while he thinks cinemas will survive the pandemic, coronavirus has caused some changes in the film industry.
“I think the sea change that has been wrought by Covid-19 has been a slow train coming,” he said.
“I think there will be an awful lot of movies that will only be streamed and it will be fine to see them that way, because they actually build and are made and constructed for somebody’s pretty-good wide-screen TV at their home.”
Hanks said that “without a doubt, we are actually into the big curve of change that I think has been due ever since people first had the ability to… pay for video on demand.”
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed back the release dates of several major blockbuster films, including the latest James Bond film No Time To Die and Marvel superhero movie Black Widow.
Coronavirus restrictions have also forced UK cinemas into long periods of closure, while some – including Cineworld – deciding to remain shut even when restrictions on audience numbers have been eased.
