The movie business is slowly recovering from the Pandemic, but it's not on the big screen where most of the action is.
Around 8 million people went to movie theaters across the US on Saturday for "National Cinema Day", when many theaters offered tickets for $3 or less.
The second episode of "House of the Dragon" was watched by more than 10 million people.
Theaters were able to get a lot of people to show up for their one-day promotion. In its 15th weekend of release, "Top Gun: Maverick" was the top-earning film.
The second episode of "Dragon" had more viewers than the first.
The numbers show the desperation of the movie business. The only other tentpoles for the rest of the year are DC's "Black Adam" and "Black Panther" and "Avatar: The Way of Water."
The movie business is in a state of disrepair. John Fithian doesn't think movie supply will return to pre-pandemic levels for another year or two.
We're in an age of blockbuster TV according to The New York Times' Ross Douthat.
It's not just the house of the dragon. The first two episodes of "The Rings of Power" were watched by 25 million people around the world. The US numbers were not broken out.
"She-Hulk", "Andor", and the third season of "The Mandalorian" are just some of the shows Disney+ is releasing.
Movie theaters lost a lot of business due to the future of "Star Wars" being mostly streamed TV. The next movie in the franchise is probably years away, as several film projects have been put on the back burner. There are at least a dozen shows in the works, including one about Obi-Wan and another about Boba Fett.
As media companies shifted their focus to their streaming businesses, the future of franchise building was beginning to take shape. TV budgets have gone up due to the battle for genre content.
The production budget for the first season of "The Rings of Power" was $465 million, making it the most expensive TV series of all time. Variety says that the first season of "House of the Dragon" will cost almost 200 million dollars.
According to Diesel Labs, "House of the Dragon" has been the top movie in social-media engagement over the last six months.
As long as it gets results, the blockbusterization of TV will continue.
Disney is making a King Kong series and Apple is making a TV series set in the same universe.
The directors of "Endagme" and "The Gray Man" are making a global spy thriller called "Citadel" that is expected to create local spinoffs, and it's costing over $200 million to make.
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