How multiplexes systematically killed the democratic movie-going experience

Even with its class divisions, the cinema hall seated everyone. A different ecosystem altogether, it was far more organic

Movie halls are shut, and frankly, I am not missing them. I am not a fan of what cinema halls have become today: swish, glitzy places with their criminally expensive popcorn (including that abomination known as caramelised popcorn); their red carpeted halls; their suave ushers who come to your seat while the film is playing to ask if you would like a snack; and their 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D and other fancy immersive experiences.

How boringly similar these places are even in the variety of experiences they promise. How divorced from the experience of the single-screen theatres we would go