Return to the Theater
story by Patrick Pugh, design Caleb Cleland, photos by Tyler Diltz
A few years ago, movie theaters were commonly packed during the weekend. But nowadays, it feels like they’re lucky if they’re half full.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed the lives of millions and brought many businesses to their knees, one of these businesses was movie theaters. However, despite the profits being worse than the pre-pandemic numbers, this once giant of entertainment is steadily seeing more profit.
The Return of Movie Goers
A Statista report reveals that 239.49 million people went to an AMC movie theater in 2023. This doesn’t sound like a lot compared to the 359 million who attended in 2019, but it’s still an increase when compared to the 200.97 million people that showed up in 2022 and is a sizable upgrade compared to 75.19 million people in 2020.
While many movie theaters have shut down in the U.S., The Hollywood Reporter has reported an increase of new theaters outside of the United States. A separate Statista report reveals that the price of concessions at movie theaters have also gone up to help make a profit with the smaller customer base, with customers willing to pay more for the “movie going experience”.
Why then are movie theaters still not making as much money as they did pre-pandemic? There are a few reasons, some of them obvious, others being more obtuse.
Ongoing Challenges
Michael Caldwell, a senior film lecturer at CWU and an ex-film producer whose work on films such as “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “Hard Candy” and “Love Jones,” explains that one reason is that “Covid broke many things in the world, and many of those things have to do with social interaction. Going to the movies is a social experience, and I think for a lot of people, they just got out of the habit.” He further expands on that idea, saying “there are a lot of people, and I would count myself amongst them, that every weekend, every other weekend, it was just, we're gonna go see a movie. Don't know what it's gonna be, but that was just part of the rhythm of life. And then covid struck, and speaking for myself, that fell by the wayside and other elements came in and took the place of going to movies on a regular basis.”
But it isn’t just being out of practice, as the Daily Wire reports that movie theaters must now compete with streaming. With the prospect of the film eventually coming to streaming either shortly after or on the same day for some big films, theaters are fighting against the convenience of streaming, which in 2023 had an increase of titles.
Something else that should be considered is that according to The Numbers, the amount of releases by the big six film studios, (Warner Bros., Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Universal) have decreased since 2020, going from releasing 87 films in 2019 to only releasing 65 films in 2024. However, “indie” studios, those being any studios that aren’t the big six, have had a large surge in releases, going from 43 films in 2019 all the way to 107 releases in 2024. However, the lack of releases by the big six have a sizable impact on film. Now it’s up to smaller studios to pick up the slack, but they don’t have the name recognition or the franchises to bring in large audiences as easily.
Why are there less releases in movie theaters from the big six? Well, one can point to streaming. Warner Bros. has MAX, 20th Century Fox puts a lot of their content on Hulu, Universal has Peacock, Paramount has Paramount+ and Walt Disney has Disney+. The only big movie studio that doesn’t have their finger in any streaming pie is Sony.
Better Movies = Better Performance
These points compound on top of the main problem and it’s as simple as it is crucial. Movie studios are just not making movies people want to watch, or as Caldwell puts it, “The best way to fix it, quite honestly, is for Hollywood to make better movies.”
This isn’t hypothetical either, as Caldwell gives an example of how “Top Gun: Maverick”, a film that was initially released only in theaters, was a huge success and made $126,707,459 in its opening weekend according to Box Office Mojo. This isn’t a fluke either, as Box Office Mojo also reports that “Dune: Part Two” similarly made $82,505,391 on its opening weekend and it also initially only came out in theaters.
Just these two examples show that, for the right film, audiences are willing to trade in the convenience of watching at home for the experience of a larger screen and better sound. Unfortunately, as some might say, this also means contending with expensive food, crying children, sticky floors and rudeness of those who can’t keep quiet during the movie.
To put it simply, no, movie theaters are not dead yet. They are, in fact, getting better and steadily making more money. However, according to data, they won’t start making as much money as they did in 2019 any time soon unless Hollywood produces more movies that audiences want to see.