The fate of movie theaters has been up in the air for years. That’s only become more pronounced as we continue to adjust to COVID-19 and fears of public gatherings in places like cinemas. Meanwhile, streaming is primed to fill that void. It’s perhaps overly simplistic to frame this as a simple battle — movie theaters vs streaming services like Netflix — but we are watching the two film exhibition formats duke it out to some extent.
Conventional wisdom tells us box office hauls have been down because of the pandemic, and we should give it time. But Spider-Man: No Way Home shattered that perception, at least a bit. It broke records in its opening weekend as fears of the Omicron variant peaked.