Theater owners hope newly vaccinated audiences will help them recover after box-office receipts fell 72% last year.
Movie theaters and film studios are hoping that rising COVID-19 vaccination rates and pent up demand for new releases will reboot the industry after a devastating year. Most indoor viewing venues were fully closed for at least a year while the pandemic crippled industries including hospitality and entertainment. Now, film professionals are banking on summer blockbusters to revive the box office. For example, award-winning actor and musical creator Lin Manuel Miranda’s « In The Heights » opened in theaters this week, and is expected to draw audiences back into theaters. Actor and director John Krasinski’s hotly anticipated « A Quiet Place Part II, » currently in theaters, this week became the first pandemic-release to surpass $100 million in domestic box office receipts, according to Deadline.
