What is it that makes cinema – especially Cineworld – so special?

Just how bored had we all got with Titanic on telly over the years, all three hours of it. But goodness, when it was shown again in cinemas a year or so ago for its big anniversary, didn’t it come to life. It was mesmerising, utterly gripping, truly epic. It’s been around for years, but suddenly on the big screen, somehow it was an event again.

And it’s the same with the Harry Potters. Shove them on TV and they are distinctly take it or leave it now. You switch on, you switch off. Possibly you don’t even know which one of them you are actually watching.

But wow, put them back on the cinema screen and you get the Harry Potter tingle that we all so loved all those years ago. Cineworld have been showing the films again in order as each of them reaches its 20th anniversary. We’ve just had the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was brilliant. It was dazzling. Suddenly, just like Titanic on the big screen, it was an event again.

And that’s the magic of cinema. And that’s why the latest tribulations at Cineworld will trouble so many of us.

The speculation is that Cineworld plans to close around 25 of its 100 British sites under a radical restructuring plan. Rightly, Cineworld’s response is “We continue to review our options but we don't comment on rumours and speculation.”

But clearly these are troubling times – and you feel for a cinema chain that tries so hard to get everything right. We’ve got Cineworlds at Brighton, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne and Whiteley – and it’s always a great experience. The staff are always friendly and welcoming, and even when the releases are duff (something clearly the chain can do nothing about), they are always trying to be imaginative with their programming, themed showings of linked films etc. They also have the fabulous Unlimited card which is like a membership scheme which encourages you go to go and to go again… and then again. Fabulous too are their Unlimited screenings where you get to see a film a week or maybe more before its release.

Maybe best of all are Cineworld’s secret screenings – even if they are screenings which underline the impossibility cinemas are facing. Don’t tell people what film they are going to see and they will pack out the auditorium. Announce the film and they will stay away. It’s one of life’s most baffling ironies.

And the sadness is that so often, going late afternoon or early evening, we find ourselves in nearly empty screenings. Twice within the past six months, it has been just my wife and I there. And the weird thing is that when the card comes up on the screen telling you to respect other viewers and not to talk and not to look at your phone, my wife and I still whisper to each other. Cinema does that do you.

But think of the fabulous Barbie, the wonderful Wonka… films which brought the audiences back. It was wonderful to sit amongst so many people in the shared enjoyment of a film, all together in that common pursuit. That’s what makes cinema so special, that togetherness. Show the film on your (big) small screen at home, and that specialness disappears. That’s why the news of Cineworld’s ongoing troubles is so deeply worrying. Cinema has survived so much over the decades, but you really have to fear for it right now…