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It’s not a secret that movie theaters are struggling.

While mega-hits like Avatar and Top Gun: Maverick are keeping the lights on, the hits are still few and far in between. According to Box Office Mojo, the domestic box office in 2024 was $8.5 billion, which is behind 2019’s $11.3 billion. In 2019 nine movies crossed $1 billion in worldwide gross. So far, only two movies have done that in 2025, Lilo & Stitch and Ne Zha 2. Theaters are struggling to catch up to their pre-pandemic numbers.

Some box office analysts blame COVID-19 for changing viewing habits, and others blame the economy. However, Warner Bros. says the problem (and solution) is simpler than people think. We’re releasing less movies, so audiences are going to the theater less. That’s why WB is calling on their competitors to make more movies.

“I look at the statistic of depending on what metric or what outlet you look at, let's say we're 19% or 20%, some have it higher, some have it lower, behind pre-pandemic box office levels,” Warner Bros. co-chair Mike De Luca says during a Substack discussion with Franklin Leonard.

“Not everybody's in my school of thought, but I'm of the school of thought that there's a deficit there because the industry has made 20% to 30% less films. From what we've seen of audiences showing up for Barbie, showing up for Wonka, showing up for Sinners, showing up for Weapons, on a smaller scale showing up for A24 and Neon films. People are showing up and I truly believe that if the studios made more that's more commensurate with what we were making pre-pandemic, you would see a rise in box office.”

“If we can get people back in the habit, the regular habit, of going to the movies, and especially younger audiences. The great thing about our business is every day a preteen, or a teenager graduates to having their own income, wanting to take a date to the movies, get out of the basement, and leave the house. We inherit a generation of moviegoers on a regular basis, just because of the way the world works. When I was a young executive in the late 80s and 90s, the pendulum shifted from Baby Boomers to Gen X, and suddenly Gen X had disposable income and wanted to go to the movies and create their own movie stars.”

“I don't think that changed because of COVID. They just got out of the habit. And of course, people needed to feel like it was safe to the movie theater. So, I firmly believe if you make more movies, more people will go, box office will go up, and the more people that get in that habit, the better it is for our studio and every studio. So that's how I arrive at that conclusion. It's a tide that can lift all boats.”

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