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John Yang:

The Academy Awards are just around the corner. And Hollywood's big night this year comes as what it means to watch a movie is changing. Theater box office receipts have bounced back from the darkest days of the pandemic, but they're still below what they were before the fear of COVID Empty theaters. And more people say they prefer seeing a movie for the first time at home on a streaming service than say they'd rather see it in a theater.

Matthew Belloni is host of The Town podcast, which looks at the inner workings of Hollywood. Matthew, everyone talks about Box Office, theater business, getting back to pre-pandemic numbers, but has so much changed in viewing habits and technology, that the whole industry is just going to look different?

Matthew Belloni, Host, "The Town": Absolutely, it already does look different. And even when people say we are back, we're not really back. The gross receipts for 2022 were down about 30%, 35% from 2019 pre-pandemic, and that coincided with about a 30% reduction in the number of the movies that went to theaters that year. It's going to be a little bit better this year. So the hope is at the Box Office will bounce back a little bit more. But we are not in pre-pandemic levels. And the question is, will we ever go back to that? Because it's pretty clear that audience habits and preferences have changed and they want to watch more at home.

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