There is a strange phenomenon happening in the world of movies these days.....and, no, it has nothing to do with the controversy with Martin Scorcese's Netflix film "The Irishman" being funded by the streaming service, playing for a very limited time in theaters and the going back to Netflix for maximum streaming consumption (they hope, as the budget for the epic Mob drams is around $150 million and there isn't a DC or Marvel character in sight).
I'm instead referring to several episodes of a 20 plus year old sitcom that will be playing in select theatres over the Thanksgiving holiday. Yes, "Friends" will be clogging up some screens at your megaplex (I'm betting on theater 26 myself) very soon. They're all Thanksgiving themed episodes so that's something, I guess. No new content. No restorations. Nothing different that what you're streaming or shows up on your dusty DVD box sets. I'm not much of a fan of the show but if my local theater was showing 6 episodes of one my favorite series (i.e. "Seinfeld") I wouldn't go out of my way to rush down to catch them at the cinema. Why? Because it's everywhere else....at little to no charge. And, besides, Kramer looks spooky enough on my 42 inch TV. I think I would have one of those Mary Hart induced seizures if he was as large as Godzilla trampling through Tokyo.
I could blame this on millennials who supposedly breathed new life into this show and "The Office" but I think these shows are comfort food for people who think life is getting a little too dark these days. Understood. And I will watching the box office totals for this Fathom Events stunt to see if this actually starts a new trend. But I will not be watching a decades old sitcom on the big screen no matter how hilarious it is to hear Matt LeBlanc uttering the phrase 'How you doin.'
