Producer Ben Silverman: Covid closures won’t kill theaters, as moviegoers like that communal experience

Producer and entertainment executive Ben Silverman told CNBC on Monday he changed his mind about the future of movie theaters as the coronavirus pandemic dragged on.

“I initially felt, in the beginning of this, that we would literally kill off the exhibition business and the traditional theatrical business,” Silverman, a former NBC Entertainment and Universal Movie Studios co-chairman, said on “Closing Bell.”

“But I’m watching people really want to go back into the real world. They want to be at concerts. They want to go to the movie theater. They want the communal experience,” added Silverman, who served as executive producer of “The Office” when the show won an Emmy in 2006. He’s now chairman and co-CEO of production company Propagate Content.

Indoor movie theaters suffered mightily during the Covid crisis as public-health restrictions limited their ability to operate at all. Then, as they opened back up, release delays meant there was a dearth of blockbuster films to attract people to the theaters. In October, Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said his movie theater company was like a grocery store that has “no food to sell.”

Earlier this month, in a positive sign for theaters, “Godzilla vs. Kong” set a pandemic record by topping $60 million at the domestic box office. The release of the film was received positively by some on Wall Street. One equity analyst upgraded shares of AMC Entertainment shortly after the film’s release, citing “the industry’s projected resurgence” as one potential tailwind for the stock.

During the pandemic, Comcast‘s NBCUniversal struck deals with theater operators to shorten the theatrical release window, allowing films to become available on demand sooner. And in December, AT&T‘s WarnerMedia said it planned to release its 2021 films on HBO Max concurrently with the movies hitting theaters.

Both moves reflected the critical importance of direct-to-consumer streaming for the movie industry, and Silverman told CNBC he believes the Covid crisis further accelerated that shift. At the same time, he said, the pandemic also revealed why cinephiles want to return to the theater once they feel safe.

“Human beings want to be together, and they want to share emotional moments together, and [there’s] no greater place to laugh, cry and love than inside a movie theater,” he said. “It’s still the best first date in the world.”

The comments Monday came one day after the Oscars, which were considered by some, including Silverman, to be disappointing from a production standpoint. Viewership reached an all-time low, under 10 million, according to early fast national numbers released by Nielsen.

One factor in the low ratings was likely the lack of people’s awareness of the movies up for the awards because of pandemic-related advertising changes, Silverman said.

“The huge marketing pushes that have existed in the movie business every single launch to get people to go to a movie theater and take an action of buying a ticket also disappeared this year,” he said. “So, they didn’t have the same marketing push, therefore they didn’t have the same awareness, therefore they didn’t have the same power to penetrate culture.”

— CNBC’s Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.