Five years ago, the world changed to the face of the Kovid-19 pandemic. What began in China quickly spread around the world, creating an international crisis like none of us experienced in our lives. What led to it was almost totally excluding trade in the center of rallies. The contact from person to person was directly dangerous, which made the closed activities with strangers, but impossible.

As a result, by March 20, 2020, thanks to the widespread orders for home stay, virtually every North American cinema throughout most of the world-was forced to temporarily close its doors. Hollywood has offered signs that this pandemic is very serious, With the film "Jameseims Bond" "there is no time to die" to postpone its global release in early Marchwhich was not a small thing. Film festivals were canceled. The box office was prepared from cinema-china across the country. It was serious, but it also had to be temporary.

Unfortunately, with time chains like AMC and Regal They were allowed to open their film doors like Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" And Marvel's "new mutants", they did it in a media landscape that was much changed. Hollywood threw a brick on the gas pedal when it comes to streaming as a future. Before the pandemic, Netflix ruled this space, with Julu and other competitors there fighting for a piece. However, by the end of 2020, we had Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max (now only Max) and Peacock, with Paramount+and others right behind the corner.

Even after the transformative was the arrival of PVOD, aka premium video on request. The platoon has been something for years, but when the theaters were closed, Studios released films that had their races in the box office, short at $ 20 for rent. It was a steep price that people gathered at home were willing to pay. When Universal published "Troll World Tour", would be a theater edition, at home on VOD in April 2020Pandora's box was permanently open. Theaters will have to fight for relevance from that point, even without the threat of a global pandemic.

By the time it was 2021, the vaccines became available and the direct threat of the pandemic was facilitated. Hollywood has begun scheduled big films, such as "Godzilla Against Kong" and "F9: Fast Saga". Unfortunately, the studio was also now all in streaming and uncertain about box office. This was evident when Warner Bros. announced that it would premiere of its entire film in the 2021 film in theaters and HBO Max on the same day. This decision, understandably, annoys the chains such as AMC. Also, do not make stars or directors very happy.

This was supposed to be reduced to selling tickets in a year when theaters needed the most - and that happened. In no small part thanks to decisions like these, recovery at the box office was very, much slower than everyone expected. Of course, the films like "Godzilla against Kong" were relatively successful, but much of it had to do with the lack of competition. At the macro level, many fewer films were released and they stayed in the theaters for shorter periods of time. It has increased the business model for theaters in a big, bad way.

That is Why did the Regal's parent company, Sinvord, had to apply for bankruptcy In 2022 (and greatly why AMC theaters are in billion -dollar solutions). Also, that is why Sony Pictures tried to buy the desired regional theater chain of Alamo Draftus in 2024. Before the pandemic, box office enjoyed record highs in 2019 when global ticket sales reached $ 42 billion. Disney only made more than $ 13 billion that yearWith an incredible nine films during that framework, they earn at least $ 1 billion. But that was then. This is now.

The box office success has been forcibly lowered over the past five years, confirmed by the fact that only nine films have made at least $ 1 billion in 2019. Meanwhile, theaters continue to hit major failures, such as WGA in 2023 and strikes strikes in 2024. That is why the domestic cashier dipped at $ 8.5 billion in 2024 after Ground encouraging $ 9 billion in 2023. Now? 2025 walks even further than last year. The days of the domestic cashier reaching $ 10 billion a year, though inflation can be behind us. This problem is also translated around the world.

Before the pandemic, Hollywood is more depending on the stable sales of tickets than China. Now? The hits in China are little and far from US films, with Chinese audiences being increasingly favoring home films. It takes even more money from the table. The audience is also far greater content for watching movies at home. And why shouldn't they be? Even large blockbusters are now available in some cases less than three weeks after the theaters first reach. The mentality "Wait for it to be followed" is really rooted, killing many of the various films that formerly found success in the box office.

That's why Only Netflix generated more income than the entire global treasurer in 2024. Streaming can produce revenue, but nothing like the DVD of the old one. VOD can certainly help change the wealth of the film, but it does nothing to help keep the lights for smaller theater chains that need a constant string of films (as opposed to terrible dry spells among hope hits).

One of the biggest problems now is even one -off, shameful hits do not happen as they were. Captain America: Marvel's brave new world will barely clear $ 400 million globally. Superhero's automatic blockbusters of $ 1 billion are no longer something. Again, it creates far less security for theaters, which only serves to further complicate things.

There is a lot of nuance here that can fill the book, but the point is that cinemas are in an indispensable position right now. Meanwhile, Hollywood is considered the idea that making flow is profitable is a difficult proposal. The fact is that the studio needs theaters to survive, and a series of short -sighted decisions have changed consumer habits, perhaps irrevocably. Theaters are now starving to death.

What is the answer? Is there any hope? Can reduce ticket prices to attract film movements to return to cinemas more often? Maybe, but tickets are far more likely to become more expensive. Maybe that makes some of the theaters Mixed entertainment centers that include everything from arcades to throw an axfor better or worse. AMC CEO Adam Aaron certainly believes Returning to longer, exclusive theater windows is a must.

What we can say is definitely that the days of the people who go to the cinema just to go to the movies are gone. The recovery that the industry hoped never came. Five years later, theaters face an uncertain new normal.