It’s a frequently heard line from a desperate executive: “theaters will always be here because it is magical to get into a room with other people in the dark.” Or some variation on that theme. But it’s not really magic at all. And increasingly the magic doesn’t work. Not at any price!

The contemporary British artist, David Hockney, who (among other things) worked with photo collages, produced (in 1983) a work entitled “Luncheon At The British Embassy”. This work can help us understand what is going on in a theater and why the magic is going away. Follow the “more” button for the details!

In Hockney’s work (it’s not one picture, it’s a collage of many taken during the luncheon), there are views from each of the seats around the table. It is clear that no one is seeing the same thing. No one is having the same experience. This is really not one meeting, but ten — or more.

That is not the commercial objective for a producer of manufactured entertainment. He wants his product to be the same for everyone who sees it. If we are talking “Shrek”, for example, then it should be “Shrek” for all who sit there and watch it. Obviously, they cannot be looking at one another; they all have to be looking at the screen. The same screen.

In order for this to be the same experience for all of us in the same room, all staring in the same direction, we can’t be distracted. So the lights are dimmed. If that’s not enough, then distractions will be drowned out by loud music and crashing sound effects and confrontational images. Pay Attention!

But the reality is that we are not all having the same experience. Just to start with, we don’t see the screen at the same angle. (To get an idea of how important that is, just look at the diagrams for acceptable viewing angles for a THX Home Theater Display — Or what about the side to side angle? Moreover, we are distracted. Our attention spans are short. The mind wanders — “what is she wearing anyway?” The audience distracts itself with whispers and the munching of popcorn. The result is that members of the audience do not all see the same thing. They were promised that they would but they don’t. The experience disappoints. By definition.

Independent film challenges its audiences to experience and think. The Q&A with the filmmaker at the end of the presentation exemplifies people thinking and talking about their different experiences. If you put an independent film, any independent film, in the same setting as “Shrek”, is it reasonable to suppose that you’ll get anything like the same result? Is independent film the kind of thing that you can package and present like a manufactured piece of mass market entertainment? (Note: the phrase “manufactured entertainment” was used by New York Times reviewers in praising the quality of the Bourne Ultimatum.) Could the theater owner ever spend enough to ensure that today’s audiences would get a more or less uniform product/experience?