At the age of 64, with a career spanning more than four decades, actor Tom Hanks can safely be considered one of the elder statesmen of Hollywood. Tom Hanks has seen a great many changes in the entertainment industry over the years. In an interview with CinemaBlend, the actor stated his belief that the next big change has arrived in the form of online streaming.

"A sea change was due anyway. It was coming... The sea change that has been wrought by [the global health emergency] has been a slow train coming. I think there will be an awful lot of movies that will only be streamed and it will be fine to see them that way because they are actually built, made and constructed for somebody's pretty good widescreen TV they have at home. And there will be other movies that will be playing in that window, and people will flock to them in order to see them on the big screen while they have the chance. But without a doubt, we are actually in the big curve of change that I think has been due."

After WarnerMedia recently announced that they will be streaming all their upcoming movies online at the same time as their theatrical debuts, the film industry became deeply divided over the issue. Long-time Warner partners like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve openly lambasted the company for not respecting the theatrical experience and insisted that laptop screens will never be able to replicate the impact of watching a film on the big screen. But Hanks believes it is not the size of the screen that is important, but rather the content of the film.

"When I was a kid and the ABC Sunday Night movie played the first half of David Lean's Bridge Over the River Kwai in 1:3:3 with commercials, I was still convinced that it was one of the greatest motion pictures I've ever seen and it was as primitive a display as possible. It may have even been in black and white. I don't think we had a color television the first time and you had to watch the second half on Monday night. That didn't take away from my enjoyment. Now of course with Netflix and other streaming services, we have the ability to sit and watch a movie anytime we want to on our couch. If the movie is really great and engaging, you can still come away from that experience thinking that was one of the greatest motion pictures I'd ever seen. I experienced that just recently with [the HBO show] Chernobyl."

Despite starring in some of the most popular big-screen offerings from Hollywood in the past few decades, Hanks appears to have made his peace with the fact that cinema halls are going to lose a significant chunk of the audience to online streaming platforms. It will be interesting to see how many of the actor's colleagues will be taking a similar approach, and how many will continue to fight for the theatrical experience. This news arrives courtesy of CinemaBlend.