Graphic Truth: Has the box office recovered post-pandemic?

Paige Fusco

Between the pandemic and the rapid expansion of behemoth streaming services, it's been a rough couple of years for movie theaters worldwide. Box offices are slowly but surely beginning to recover, but they still aren't seeing the same returns as before COVID-19 upended life as we know it.

Summer blockbusters are off to a slow start this year, with movies like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Fall Guy” underperforming compared to past May releases (the latter is already available to rent via on-demand services in the US). Will highly anticipated movies like “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Twisters” — set to be released next month – fare better?

Are there any blockbusters you’re excited to see this summer? When was the last time you watched something in theaters? Share your thoughts here.

More from GZERO Media

Listen: What will the future of tech policy look like in a second Trump administration? And how will changes in the tech world—everything from the proliferation of AI and bots to the fragmentation of social media—impact how people talk, interact, and find information online? On the GZERO World Podcast, Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, joins Ian Bremmer to discuss the intersection of technology, media, and politics as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

- YouTube

Donald Trump had a contentious relationship with the industry in his first administration. But in 2025, Silicon Valley is recalibrating. On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer looks at the parade of tech leaders who have visited with Trump since his election win, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and moves like Meta’s recent announcement it would scrap its fact-checking program, all to get on President-elect Trump’s good side as he prepares to return to office.

President-elect Donald Trump’s silhouette is seen against a United States flag at a campaign rally in October 2024.
Tork Mason/USA TODAY via Reuters

At noon on Monday, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, capping his astounding political comeback.

A person holds a placard on the day justices hear oral arguments in a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to block a law intended to force the sale of the short-video app by Jan. 19 or face a ban on national security grounds, outside the U.S. Supreme Court, in Washington, U.S., January 10, 2025.
REUTERS/Marko Djurica
Houses are pictured in Ilulissat, Greenland, September 14, 2021.
REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Greenland wants independence from Denmark, Trump wants a stronger US presence there. How could this play out?

At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, our Global Stage panel discussion, "The AI Economy: An Engine for Local Growth", will examine AI’s growing global impact, the potential for enormous benefits to society, and the investments necessary to ensure equitable diffusion and adoption of AI tools. Watch the live premiere on Wednesday, January 22 at 11 am ET/5 pm CET at gzeromedia.com/globalstage.