Theater Owners Chief on Box Office Downturn, Alamo Drafthouse Sale

It’s been a tough time for the movie business.

The 2023 actors and writers strikes brought production to a standstill, leaving studios with fewer films to release in theaters. That’s bad news for cinemas, which are struggling to dig out from the financial hole left by COVID shutdowns and laboring to get audiences to visit the multiplexes at the numbers they were before the pandemic. Add to that a series of commercial disappointments, such as “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “The Fall Guy” and “If,” and the industry is off to a very rough start to the summer movie season, a time of year when the box office is supposed to be booming.

Michael O’Leary, the president of the National Association of Theater Owners, knows that the cinema operators he represents through his trade group have been through a lot. But he also believes that things are turning around, noting the recent success of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and a number of potential hits, such as “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” that are scheduled to open in the coming days and weeks. If the box office can build momentum, O’Leary thinks the perception will change and the financial sector will give his organization’s members the support they need to improve their venues and grow their businesses.

The box office is down 26% year-over-year. Were you expecting there to be such a dramatic falloff? What went wrong?

Look, the impact…