Film legend Tom Hanks has eased fears that cinemas could become a thing of the past in the post-Covid world.
A surge in streaming during lockdown has cast doubt about what will happen to theatres in the years ahead.
Viewers being able to watch movies from the comfort of their homes, some suggest, means a grim future for the box office as people get a taste for staying home.
But Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan star Tom says cinemas will survive once the world eventually gets back to normal.
“A sea change was due, anyway. It was coming,” the acting great said.
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“Will movie theatres still exist? Absolutely, they will.
“In some ways, I think the exhibitors, once they’re up and open, are going to have the freedom of choice of what movies they’re going to play.
“Big event motion pictures are going to rule the day at the cinemas.
“Watching them at home on your couch actually might diminish them somehow in their visual punch,” he added. “But the sea change that has been brought by Covid-19 has been a slow train coming.
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“I think there will be an awful lot of movies that will only be streamed, and I think it will be fine to see them that way because they will actually be built and made and constructed for somebody’s pretty good widescreen TV at their home.”
Tom was talking during an interview with Collider to promote his new film News of the World.
The movie follows him as a war veteran who must return a young girl who was stolen by natives as an infant.
“‘News of the World might be the last adult movie about people saying interesting things that’s going to play on a big screen somewhere, because after this, in order to guarantee that people show up again, we’re going to have the Marvel Universe and all sorts of franchises,” he adds.