(Especially when the main casualties of the streaming meltdown wind up being the non-guilty parties: the filmmakers.) And having to worry about the box office as if the entire art form is on the line based on the returns for Bullet Train is less than ideal. Of course, no one feels entirely happy that so many studios’ go-for-broke investments in streaming are blowing up in their faces.

Maybe that ends up cheapening the experience of watching movies to the point where the work doesn’t seem as urgent or valuable? Hey, maybe there’s a downside to envisioning streaming platforms as tubes from which people consume undifferentiated content, whenever, so long as it’s new.

The future of theaters remains uncertain, but our critics are cautiously optimistic. Fans of Top Gun: Maverick, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and RRR happily embraced the insides of cineplexes after avoiding them since the pandemic (or, for some, even earlier). Fans of Prey, Disenchanted, and Glass Onion bemoaned the full theatrical releases that could have been. Netflix and several of its competitors took a financial hit in 2022 meanwhile, certain audiences expressed exhaustion with the idea of watching movies at home as the default option. This year, the iron grip that streaming has held on our culture seemed to have loosened a bit. Photo-Illustration: Photo Illustration: Rowena Lloyd and Susanna Hayward Photos: Courtesy of the Studios

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