We took our little queen to see her first movie just about a year ago to see Frozen 2. Luckily we had gift cards for the theatre because after tickets, drinks, candy, popcorn, we were in for around $60 - $70 if I remember correctly. That's simply not a sustainable business model especially when there are a few paradigms shifting:
1. People are way more patient to see a movie down the road when it's released as a PPV from the comfort of your own home or on a streaming service of some sort because of this inherently high price tag. Yes, you can forgo any sort of concession goods (either by eating beforehand or trying to sneak in your own) but the sheer convenience of it all makes it difficult for the average consumer to decline. Especially when they're 3 and a half like here:
2. Hollywood does not want to take risks at all anymore. Sequels, prequels, remakes, ANYTHING other than paying for good original screenplays is the M.O. of the movie making business. If you can't extrapolate from existing data of movies of yesteryear to figure out the absolute bare minimum a studio needs to invest to create a film that'll generate profit, well it's way too risky in the executive's eyes. Now studios can lose millions upon millions on a box office flop. They have every right to ensure that they're going to be in the green for every production they put on. But their blindness towards min / maxing every single aspect of a movie just sucks the creativity right out, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
3. Tying into the second point, movie studios do not give a CRAAAAAAAP about the North American market. If Michael Bay big explosion movies make a billion dollars in China and bomb in the West, who the hell cares! The studios got what they wanted in their profit, they don't care where it comes from. Studios will censor, re-edit, do whatever it takes to get their movie in front of Chinese viewers, even if by doing so they're betraying the artistic merit of why they made the film in the first place.
4. Disney. Movie theatres were being kept afloat by the mouse for the last few years pre-Covid. The Marvel Infinity saga, Star Wars, animated features, Mickey has most of them. In return, theatres have absolutely no choice but to acquiesce to any and all demands from Disney in order to be able to show the films that'll get the attendance they need. This leads to other less influential studios to put out movies on releases that do not conflict with a Disney release. Problem with that is that then they're releasing their films during less popular times around the year, which causes not as many moviegoers to see it in the first place.
I doubt that theatres will be as proliferate in a few years from now. The business model of both the studios and theatres are both at odds with how accessible the medium of movies is. The more successful ones will carve out a niche and it'll be a more unique experience than it was before, but those venues will only thrive in denser urban areas.
