I went to a titanic cinema screen in New York, and it confirmed something big about streaming

I just spent a week in the US, in the bustle of New York city, to be precise, and that's left me with something of a cultural hangover, after a decent enough time to get used to all the Americanisms of life over the pond. Whenever I go to the States, I tend to have a few small things I try to do in amongst the sight-seeing, and going to the cinema is one of them.

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Firstly, it's a great way to take a break from all the walking and standing around gawping in museums, at famous locations, and while just getting around. Mostly, though, it's a useful way to remind myself that everything really is bigger in America. The AMC cinema at the Lincoln Centre in Manhattan proves that fairly comfortably by offering up what the internet informs me is the second-biggest screen in the US, just pipped by another in California.

Still, this IMAX screen is nothing short of titanic, requiring a few escalator rides to access and easily spanning a few storeys' worth of building. I managed to catch a 70mm film reissue of Sinners, which I missed when it came to the UK, and couldn't be more pleased with my choice.

We don't really review movies here at T3, and I'm not going to start here, but suffice to say that the film lived up to its billing, and I'm a huge fan. Really, though, what stood out to me was how pristine a movie-going experience it was, and how under threat that sort of spectacle really is.

Sinners | Official Trailer - YouTube

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70mm film is a sight to behold, but it's really quite hard to get in front of. If you're lucky, big movies might release on it near you, but it'll probably be a fight to get good tickets, and you have a slim window in which to do so. If you can manage, you get some of the most gorgeous picture and sound quality any cinema can muster, though.

I'm rightly very happy with my surround sound setup, a Sonos 5.1 setup that sounds beautiful with the right choice of disc, and my LG C2 OLED is no slouch, but there's nothing it can do to compare to this sort of scale.

It's a timely reminder that Netflix's proposed purchase of Warner Bros (which distributed Sinners) could shorten the window that films like this last in cinemas even further, as well as the likelihood of them being available on film at all. Netflix is very prescriptive about what cameras its in-house originals use, after all.

I can't say that films like Sinners won't get made under Netflix, as there's no proof whatsoever of that sort of idea. Still, seeing it on such a gargantuan screen was a useful jolt to underline the fact that streaming is valuable only if it doesn't totally replace other viewing options.

Sinners will look great if you watch it at home, obviously, but I want to live in a world where I can choose to see it on a 23-metre-tall screen, too. For now, I'm lucky that we do, but I'm hoping that doesn't change anytime soon.