Smaller, less spectacle-driven contenders have struggled to generate box office returns on par with prepandemic levels: “The Fabelmans” has earned a weak $3.6 million so far, while “Tár” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” haven’t cleared the $10 million mark domestically after weeks of release. Just a few years ago, those kinds of films would have at least doubled their current grosses. But the older audiences they rely on simply haven’t returned to theaters with any consistency.
If that sector doesn’t radically improve, specialty theaters will shutter, and the smaller dramas that need awards chatter to lure moviegoers will face no path forward but to debut on a streamer. Any Oscar comeback, then, is likely to be short-lived: Next year, it will be a miracle if we get even half as many movies like these debuting in theaters.
And that’s a shame, not simply because it would spell the end of a filmgoing habit that has persisted for decades, but also because streamers simply can’t match the “you gotta go see this” buzz that a theatrical release can provide. Even the most acclaimed streaming films on Netflix and Apple TV+ struggle to generate a level of conversation comparable to the multiseason shows on their services, while movies like “Tár” and “The Fabelmans,” though they may struggle financially, are among the year’s most talked about, specifically because you have to go to a theater and devote your time to them.
I was reminded of that a few weeks ago when I spoke with the actor Ke Huy Quan at an awards-season party for “Everything Everywhere.” He told me that the A24 film had finished shooting in 2020, a year when many studios cut their losses by selling films made for theaters to major streamers.
“Thank God A24 held onto the movie at a time when there was a lot of pressure to put it on streaming,” Quan said. “I was so nervous, I thought they were going to release it on Apple or Netflix.”
Instead, A24 waited to put “Everything Everywhere” into theaters this past March, and the film became a runaway success, grossing $103 million worldwide. The conversation about the movie has lingered for so long that Quan and “Everything Everywhere” are now seen as Oscar front-runners, an outcome that wouldn’t have been as certain without that incredible theatrical run to propel it.
Quan agreed, though he put things more bluntly.
“Had this been on streaming,” he told me, “we would not be here.”
