The new cinema experience: do you want to return to the flicks?

We can go back to the pictures next month, but Covid-19 may have changed the way we watch films for good. By Jonathan Dean

ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE CATHRO
The Sunday Times

So, all of a sudden, the question is no longer when can we go back to the cinema, but will we? From Saturday, big-screen entertainment can return, as the first cultural institutions are given a green light to let people back in. Hooray? This is great for those who have spent so long on their sofa they have given it a pet name. Fine too for museums, also able to reopen that day, which can implement a visitor flow to make social distancing practical. Watching a film at the cinema, on the other hand, is voluntarily putting yourself in spitting distance of strangers for two hours.

Last month I tweeted “If cinemas open, will you go?” Hundreds replied. “If it’s managed properly, yes, I’d bloody