I agree with a lot of the settlements in here. I for one used to go almost every week to the movie theater. It did not really matter what kind of film it was, just as long as something interested me, that I would go watch it. I don't know if it's me getting older or anything like that, however a lot of movies lately have not been interesting to me. I know people like to go with the we need to support original films but if they don't look good, for me personally, I don't care if they are original or not.
So yes maybe I am more picky than I ever have been and when I actually go to a theater. Yes some big spectacle films need to be seen on the big screen, I have no argue with that whatsoever.
As somewhat of a solution to this problem, not sure it can actually work, however I wonder if they can do what some of the sports leagues have started to do? They have a tier pricing system. Basically when a big rival comes in, the prices are higher than say if a team that nobody cares about comes into town. For those games the tickets are much cheaper
I get movie studios won't go for this, but to me if you buy two tickets at a cheaper price it still makes up for the one ticket that they won't sell anyway
So yes I think the combination of more ways of watching movies than ever, the no need to see a non spectacle film on a screen anymore, money issues, less free time, and other things really hurt the non-franchise films
I even think the lack of bankable movie stars have caused this to happen too. Before you could just say let me see an Arnold film, or Tom Cruise film, or Will Smith film and that's all you would need. Nowadays though that's not enough to get people to go to a theater