Two years of day-and-date releases during the pandemic broke a century-old habit, and habits are the whole business here. Warner Bros. put its entire 2021 slate on HBO Max the same day as theaters. Families found out opening weekend on the couch beat the theater trip: no babysitter, no parking. You cant un-teach that. The industry trained its own customers to wait, then acted betrayed when they waited. Box office isn't coming back to 2019 levels because 2019 customers don't exist anymore.
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