Airports are a place for waiting. Indeed, while transferring from one flight to the next or waiting to board for their final destination, people spend anywhere from minutes to hours tinkering with WiFi connections, playing games on their phone, and streaming their favorite movies and television shows on their personal tablets and smart devices.
That being said, it seems that airports and movie theaters would be a match made in heaven.
And if you look at the statistics, the demand for an increase in airport entertainment is extremely high. Yet despite this, many airports have been reticent to build theaters in terminals — until now, that is.
The Portland International Airport will soon be one of the newest airports to adopt a movie theater. To do so, the airport is partnering with Portland’s famous Hollywood Theatre, and is creating a vintage-style cinema for passengers looking for some quality entertainment during their layover.
Considering the fact that 41% of airline passengers watch movies in-flight, it seems that this latest installation would be a no-brainer. However, there are concerns regarding whether flyers will miss out on their flights due to a lengthy film.
To combat this, the cinema, which is set to open this summer, will mostly screen short films produced by local filmmakers.
The goal is to showcase the underground local arts culture that Portland is so famous for.
“The films screened at PDX will introduce travelers to the diverse array of experiences Oregon and the surrounding region has to offer,” says PDX spokeswoman Kama Simonds.
PDX’s decision to add a cinema just adds to a growing list of airports who have decided to add theaters to their terminals.
In 2014, Minneapolis-Saint Paul Internaional Airport, became the first airport to have a cinema in the United States.
Like Oregon’s soon-to-be cinema, Minneapolis’ See 18 Film Screening Room screens art house shorts crafted by notable filmmakers of the region. Additionally, the cinema runs 24/7.
