The idea of showing theater in a movie was born not of artists, but of entrepreneurs, which is understandable. The film version can be shown at least every day (if only the audience were interested!), it doesn’t need to be rehearsed or renewed. You can watch it at practically any time of the day or night without having to buy tickets in advance, but no one dares to say that film screenings of theatrical plays were devised merely for profit

Not even the managers of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, who, in fact, introduced the idea of theatrical film screenings into the minds of modern audiences, have said that.

As is often the case, managers talked more and more about the educational function of the endeavor: people around the world would finally be able to see/hear the best ballets/opera without having to leave their hometown. When, in the late 2000s, the British followed the Americans in theatrical cinematography, they also emphasized the educational aspect of the undertaking: provincials who had never been to the theater would now be able to see the London stage in all its splendor. To make it more convincing, the audience was shown interviews with directors and playwrights during intermissions, and sometimes invited on a virtual tour of the backstage area.

True theatergoers were at first skeptical about the theater on the screen. But over time, even they began to go to theaters to see opera and ballet. Prejudice dissipated, new technology has done its digital work: today few would dispute the fact that watching theater in the cinema is convenient (no one obscures what is happening on stage, no matter what row you are sitting in), inexpensive (tickets cost an average of 600 rubles) and fashionable. As a result, the auditoriums of some theatrical screenings turn out to be fuller than the actual theater auditoriums, and the information that the play “ran on the big screen” makes it a box office for many years to come.

But are movie distributors ready to show every play on the screen? If you look at the consolidated poster of Russia’s leading film distributor, CoolConnections, it turns out that the lion’s share of the repertoire is direct and indirect broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and the Bolshoi Theater, as well as recordings of productions by two English theaters: the Shakespeare Globe and the Royal National Theater. And if a couple of years ago in Russian cinemas you could see about twenty or thirty British premieres per season, then in 2016 their list if not reduced to one “Hamlet” with a popular favorite Benedict Cumberbatch, then noticeably narrowed. Although TheatreHD now shows French classics from the Comédie Française in addition to English hits, it doesn’t change the situation significantly.