A Cinema Chain Is Trying Something Strange to Bring Back the First-Viewing Feeling

Dutch cinema chain Pathé plans to hypnotize 30 film fans on November 9 at its Buitenhof venue in The Hague so they forget a chosen film and watch it fresh. Participants can pick The Matrix, Se7en, La La Land or Interstellar; hypnotherapist Victor Kraemer, a specialist for over 30 years, will lead an online session and a pre-screening group hypnosis. Pathé calls the event REWIND and says it is testing whether a first viewing can be relived, but it has not explained how it will verify that participants forgot. The experiment comes as Netflix’s 2025 U.S. and Canadian revenue reached $19.96 billion, versus $8.66 billion in regional box office receipts.