Manhattan Beach 6: The Balcony is Now Closed

I cannot recall the last time that I saw a movie at the Manhattan Beach 6, located on the corner of Rosecrans and Sepulveda Blvd. near Frye's Electronics.

And, alas, I never will. I am not surprised that the theater has decided to shut its doors for good. The movie theater industry, like the music industry, is facing an identity crisis of sorts, in large part due to technological innovations which now permit consumers to watch videos on their cellphones.

CDs, then the Ipod, have brought down the records industry. DVD sales and Red Box and Internet outlets have permitted subscribers to select the movies they want to see without paying ten dollars or more for a movie ticket.

The price of movies has risen so high, that a growing number of theaters have priced themselves out of the market entirely. All the copyright enforcement laws, state and federal, could do very little to deter boot-legging and illegal downloads. Add to the growth of personal access the declining quality of recent feature presentations, coupled with up-to-the-minute tabloid releases on the Internet and Twitter, and I am not surprised that a growing number of entertainment consumption diminished so rapidly in the past few years.

I predict that there will not be one movie theater, or multiplex, remaining in the greater Los Angeles area in the next five years, aside from the boutique marquee theaters along Wilshire Blvd, the ones where cult audiences can watch "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" or the anniversary re-release of a modern Classic like "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail."