Visiting Dubai to judge on a panel for the city’s exciting Pitch in the Sky event, Euronews, Europe’s leading international news channel, spoke to Mitch Lowe, a Founding Executive at the original online streaming service Netflix, about his thoughts on the future of cinema theatres.

Lowe also spoke on the effects that Covid-19 has had on the film industry and the Middle East’s content creators and film makers and the opportunity they have to make their mark as emerging creatives in the global industry.

When asked about the challenges and impact thatCovid-19 has presented the movie theatre sector with, Founding Executive at Netflix, Mitch Lowe commented: “I'm hoping theatres will at least come back and understand that they need to evolve. You know, Movie Pass was an attempt to try to shake up the cinema [industry], to understand consumers need more than movies. Our attention span is getting shorter and shorter. We don't want to go into a theatre and sit for two hours in the dark and watch a movie. Why not have, you know, binge Thursdays, where you can watch all of the Stranger Things episodes for six hours?”

Commenting on how he thinks that movie theatres can survive the loss of revenue due to the pandemic and the change in how people are consuming film he said: “I think they have to be innovative in the content and I think it all comes down to recognizing that people do want to get out and interact socially in big groups - assuming there's a vaccine. But they don't want to just see two hours of movies. Why not have sporting events? Why not have gaming events?”

When discussing the importance of the film industry in the UAE and Middle East, and where he thinks it sits globally Lowe said:“Well, it's you know, one of the greatest things that I see with streaming sites like Netflix is this cross pollination of content. And I think with all the youth and all the creative content creators in the Middle East, there's the ability to grow a big industry of really interesting TV shows and movies that could be popular anywhere. And so, it really it comes down to, you know, really allowing the creative community to create content and distribute it.”

Telling Euronews what he thinks the future holds for the entertainment sector he said: “Covid definitely has increased people's consumption of entertainment. And I think it has helped people live through this very difficult time. I think the future is really healthy. I don't know about you, but I've had times where I started watching a series at 10 o'clock at night thinking I'll be done at midnight and then five hours later I realise there's a whole other season.” - TradeArabia News Service