{
  "id": 6743932,
  "title": "Hollywood has plenty of movies. Why are theater screens sitting empty?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/hollywood-has-plenty-of-movies-why-are-theater-screens-sitting-empty",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-11T10:12:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91604355/hollywood-has-plenty-of-movies-why-are-theater-screens-sitting-empty"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the summer of 2025, the box office raked in $4.76 billion in North America, narrowly topping the 2013 record. Yet, despite the financial success, moviegoers are still attending theaters far less frequently than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Theaters collected 470.9 million tickets through the first 30 weeks of 2025, compared to 747.3 million tickets sold in the same period in 2019.\n\nAMC, facing a surplus of empty screens, announced plans to launch Leawood Films, a distributor dedicated to showcasing smaller and mid-sized films. AMC CEO Adam Aron explained that Leawood Films aims to bring more movies to theaters, given the excess capacity in the industry. Despite strong box office performances from major blockbusters like Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey, theaters need a constant stream of moviegoers to cover operating costs.\n\nDaniel Loria, senior vice president of content strategy at the Boxoffice Company, warned that relying solely on blockbusters can be a high-risk strategy. He cited Joker: Folie à Deux in 2024 as an example, which flopped at the box office after distributors shied away from its release date.\n\nThe gap in the market for mid-budget movies has been evident for years. The number of films grossing between $50 million and $100 million declined by 40% between 2004 and 2019. This shift occurred before the pandemic, as the home video market that helped recoup costs for these mid-budget films began to disappear. Studios increasingly focused on franchises with the potential for massive worldwide earnings.\n\nCOVID-19 exacerbated the situation, causing production shutdowns and strikes that further halted the output of horror movies, a genre that had previously thrived on lower budgets. Major studios like Fox reduced their yearly film releases after the 2019 acquisition by Disney. Now, seven distributors control about 83% of AMC's US admissions revenue, leaving theaters dependent on these distributors for the films they screen.\n\nThe separation between production and distribution, which was common in Hollywood's early days, no longer exists. Studios produce fewer movies, allocate more resources to blockbuster films, or push others to streaming platforms. Theaters struggle with their screens, staff, food, and drink orders during lulls between hit releases.\n\nLoria highlighted the absence of certain genres, such as adult dramas, romantic comedies, and R-rated comedies, which are often overlooked by major studios. These films, often straddling the line between indie productions and superhero franchises, are not finding their way to multiplexes due to a lack of distribution. While some movies find distribution and market themselves, others fail to connect with audiences, leading to significant financial losses for theaters.",
  "summary": "On August 3, AMC announced the highest-revenue weekend in its 106-year history. More than 10.2 million people had gone to AMC and its Odeon subsidiary’s theaters, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey leading the box office. It was a sign that, financially at least, movie theaters are looking much healthier than they did a few years ago. Still, the recovery is not as straightforward as…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}