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

The film industry's own prestige system still runs on theatrical. Academy rules require a qualifying theatrical run for Oscar eligibility, which means even the streamers spend millions putting their prestige films in cinemas for a week. If theaters were truly obsolete, the most status-obsessed industry on earth would have dropped the requirement by now. Instead, Netflix rents out theaters to qualify. That's the market revealing that theatrical exhibition still confers a legitimacy that a streaming premiere can't buy. The building is the credential.