Movie theaters are still struggling

Like the March Madness motto: “survive and advance,” movie theaters during Covid and the pandemic-era strikes were leaning on the phrase: “survive till ’25.”

But…As of Sunday, movie theaters have generated ~$1.34 billion at the domestic box office so far in 2025, down 7% from the same period in 2024, according to Comscore data (and 2024 was down 23.5% compared to 2019). March has been especially tough; revenues are expected to be 50% lower YOY.

Lower quality, higher prices

A big contributor to falling cinema sales stems from basic supply and demand, per analysts. Put simply: there are just fewer quality movies being supplied to theaters.

• Mid-budget category films, in particular––films that typically make between $50 million and $100 million at the domestic box office––saw a 40% decline in supply between 2004 and 2019. Most romcoms, dramas, and lighthearted comedies fall into this category.
• The only genre to see an increase in supply and total gross is horror, generating ~$54 million at the box office between January and February 2025––a 2% increase from the same period last year.

At the same time: Movie nights are getting more expensive. The average price of a movie ticket has increased by more than 68% over the past 21 years.

Looking ahead…Any hope of a revenge-arc-style industry comeback lies with still-yet-to-be-released tentpoles. Tom Cruise’s fifty-first eighth Mission Impossible, Wicked 2, and Avatar: Fire and Ash are all slated to debut later this year.