Are movie theaters dead, or is the big screen irreplaceable?

I go to Tuesday matinees sometimes, the cheap ones, and the last three I attended had fewer than ten people in the room. Each time I sat there thinking about how the thing everyone defends, the shared gasp, the collective laughter, requires a crowd, and the crowd stopped coming. The magic people describe is a memory of 2008, not a description of last weekend. Maybe that's fine. Maybe theaters become what vinyl became: a niche hobby for enthusiasts, a few revival houses in big cities, everyone else streaming. But let's call it what it's. The era of the theater as the default is over.