He applauds the work being done on the small screen. He thinks highly of the filmmakers creating it. But he continues to be a staunch advocate of movie theaters over streaming platforms like Netflix.

We are talking about Steven Spielberg, the influential director behind box-office blockbusters of Indiana Jones, ET, Jurassic Park and Jaws.

“I hope all of us really continue to believe that the greatest contributions we can make as filmmakers is to give audiences the motion picture theatrical experience,” Spielberg said while recently accepting the Filmmaker Award at the Cinema Audio Society’s CAS Awards. “I’m a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever.”

The key reason that concerns Spielberg about the future of big screen cinema is the fact that a good number of filmmakers – including Paul Greengrass, Martin Scorsese, and the Coen brothers – have begun working on movies directly for Netflix.

Spielberg’s critique comes at a time when Netflix’s “Roma” is Oscar-nominated for 10 prizes, including Best Picture and Best Director.

As someone who has made iconic science-fiction movies, I would be interested in Spielberg’s thoughts on VR experience where viewers can get a relatively better cinematic experience at home or on the move. Then you won’t have to worry about bringing audience out to theater; you can go to them. VR also creates new formats of story telling.

Sony PSVR features Allumette, a film that allows a viewer to move around in the scene; walk among the characters and get a totally different perspective. For example, you can lean and see what’s under the table, or inside a pot. It’s so incredible.

I hope Spielberg will make a VR movie someday. Though, he has, unlike James Cameron, not experimented with new formats such as 3D.