Just as we're seeing in broadcast television, the traditional movie and TV economic horse races are still run, but the vastly shrunken scale of the metrics involved is truly shocking to the average industry watcher. 

Take this weekend's domestic box office race.  

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan's latest horror film, Knock at the Cabin, knocked James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water off its seven-week perch as the No. 1 film at the domestic box office ... by generating a bafflingly small $14.2 million in total three-day ticket sales. 

Consider that just four years ago, before the pandemic, another one of Shyamalan's tense psychological thrillers released in approximately the same January/February frame, Glass, had markedly worse reviews from critics but still opened at $40.3 million in the U.S. and Canada. 

In July 2021, with many theaters still shuttered amid the Delta surge portion of COVID, Shyamalan's Old still opened to nearly $17 million domestically.

And the film that launched Shyamalan into the zeitgeist, 1999's The Sixth Sense? It opened in the summer to $26,681,232, an amount that equals around $70 million in 2023 dollars, adjusting for inflation. 

Are we saying that by comparing the opening performances of Shyamalan's films, we can illustrate the demise of the global box office? Just like the four evangelically certain visitors to the Shyamalan's secluded cabin, we'll have to convince you that our fanciful declaration of the pending apocalypse is real. 

But a line has been crossed recently in terms of consumer habit -- the theatrical experience is evolving into a niche distribution avenue and will no longer be able to supply the kind of "inventory" needed to sustain wholesale strategic retreats by the major media companies. 

How about putting it this way:

According to Box Office Mojo, the top 10 releases of 2023 generated just over $653.5 million at North American theaters from Jan. 1 - Feb. 5. That's up nearly 865% from the same period of 2021, when most theaters were still shuttered.

But it's down nearly 27% from the same period of 2019 ... and off nearly 38% from the identical frame of 2018. It's gonna take a lot more than a lively Top Gun sequel to restore this distribution window into a meaningful driver of profits. 

Regal Cinemas, the second largest theater chain in the U.S. behind AMC, just declared bankruptcy and is shutting down 39 cinemas nationwide. 

There are fewer retail outlets for theatrical distribution. And cushy as their luxury recliners with cupholders may now be, there is less demand for the product, at least in the leaving the house sense. As revenue slips, exhibitors compound the problem by raising prices -- tickets averaged $9.16 in pre-pandemic 2019. That average reached $11 last year.

AMC Entertainment just revealed that it will start charging a premium for those occupying the best seats in the house. 

Next TV paid a whopping $24 to see Knock at the Cabin in Dolby immersive tech at AMC's The Grove Theater in Mid-City L.A. Friday. It was nice -- we didn't check our phone once, and Bodhi, our highly lovable lab-pit mix, didn't distract us with his nightly bark and growl at U.S. Postal Service personnel. 

(And we can't say enough good things about Dave Bautista's performance. Say what you will about Shyamalan's story constructs post-The Sixth Sense, but dude can put a bunch of actors in close quarters and get compelling performances out of all of them. Think Quentin Tarantino in 2016's equally flawed but also captivating The Hateful Eight.)

But it should be noted that the price point equaled nearly five months of Peacock Premium, a platform that will include the Universal Pictures title in its smorgasbord in just a matter of weeks. And we didn't have Bodhi to snuggle with during those super-tense cabin scenes. 

We bring this up in a digital trade journal focused on video streaming because, well, top-level decision makers at major media conglomerates are dogmatically clinging to the notion that in virtually all cases, releasing movies in theaters is still the tip of the spear in regard to their global filmed content businesses.

"Let's face it, the strategy to collapse all windows, starve linear and theatrical and spend money with abandon, while making a fraction in return on the service of growing sub numbers, has ultimately proven in our view, to be deeply flawed," Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told investors in November. 

To us, seems like linear is doing a pretty good job of starving on its own. 

Is spending up to $200 million on a film feature and burning it up in a week or two of SVOD binging really a provenly inviable businesses model? Maybe for some. But let us not forget that the company that started all this crazy "Streaming Wars" spending madness, Netflix, has truly managed to get to the other side on paid user scale, and it in fact now does generate positive cash flow on that model. 

Is it easy to sustain the will -- and investor support -- to lose $1 billion or more a quarter building direct-to-consumer businesses? Based on what just happened to Bob Chapek, we're guessing no.  

But we are also increasingly sure that retreats to linear models like theatrical distribution are as doomed as many of the desperate and terrified folks in the average tense, cloistered Shyamalan film. 

Peacock announced the first three original films from Universal Pictures that will debut directly on the streaming service following a major in-house distribution agreement that was signed with Universal Film Entertainment Group last year. 

Peacock carved out the rights to release titles from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Illumination and DreamWorks Animation 45 days after they premiered in theaters. The NBCUniversal streaming service also secured a handful of titles that would debut directly on the platform. 

So here are the initial three projects set to debut in 2023:

Produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill Company, the familiar felling Shooting Stars is a scripted biopic, filmed in James' hometown of Akron, Ohio. It will continue the aging basketball star's media fixation ... on himself and his own youthful rise to fame. 

It's an fruitful creative orchard James has visited numerous times before.

SpringHill emerged in the video business in 2014, working with Starz to produce Survivor's Remorse, an original series focused on an African-American basketball player, struggling to reconcile is disadvantaged youth, and all his family and hangers-on from that time who are still with him. 

James, meanwhile, was recently seen in a CGI-enabled Super Bowl ad for Crypto.com in which he plays his current iteration counseling his teenage self in his childhood bedroom. 

Academy Award-nominees Rachel Winter and Terence Winter are producing Shooting Stars alongside SpringHill. 

Also included in the initial slate: Filmmaker John Woo will remake -- and "reimagine" -- his 1989 Chinese thriller classic The Killer. 

Meanwhile, Will Packer, producer of Girls Trip, is now working on Praise This, which stars Chloe Bailey as "the newest member of a community's church choir who pushes her members in a hipper musical direction and whose involvement with an irreverent hip-hop star may kick off — or jeopardize — her own musical career."

“We know people join Peacock to watch movies, so we are constantly adding more to serve fans,” said Peacock President Kelly Campbell. “Together with the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, we are excited to deliver fresh, exclusive, original films next year to our customers in addition to the legendary Universal Pictures blockbuster films and beloved franchises streaming now.”

Over 11 previous Halloween franchise installments spanning 40 years, a lot of folks have taken their best shot at deranged hockey-masked killer Michael Myers, and he kept coming back to the multiplex every time for exclusive engagements. You know, big star. 

For Universal Pictures' 12th installment, Halloween Kills, Myers will be splitting his violent episodes in North American living rooms, with the film released day-and-date in theaters and on NBCUniversal's Peacock Oct. 15. 

Only subscribers to the partially ad-supported $4.99-a-month Peacock Premium and $9.99-a-month commercial-free Peacock Premium Plus will have access to the horror movie, although they won't have to pay any premium "PVOD" fees. 

This isn't the same thing as Universal going day-and-date with recent summer tentpoles A Quiet Place 2 or F9, both of which debuted exclusively in theaters. But with the Delta variant surging across the U.S., and Peacock subscriber growth decidedly not surging, perhaps the time was right for NBCU to try something different. 

Universal Pictures, Miramax and Blumhouse rebooted Halloween with its original heroine, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, in 2018, recasting her as mother to a next-generation damsel in distress played by Judy Greer. 

Released 40 years after the original, the rebooted Halloween broke franchise records, grossing $250 million at the worldwide box office. 

In that movie, we left off with the indomitable Myers stuck in a trap within a burning house, Curtis' badly injured matriarch whisked off to the hospital with grave injuries sustained while once again trying to bring Myers to heel. 

Yeah, so, it turns out that Greer's dutiful daughter was in such a rush to get her mother medical care, she didn't have time to confirm that Myers was, you know, dead. 

But this time Universal assures us, dude is going down. "Evil dies tonight," the studio says in its press release. 

Amazon has signed its first exclusive domestic output deal with a major Hollywood studio, inking an agreement for a portion of “Pay 1” window rights to Universal Filmed Entertainment Group titles starting in 2022. 

The agreement follows a pocket-to-pocket arrangement touted by Universal last week, in which it agreed to deliver its movies to Comcast corporate sibling Peacock 120 days after they debut in theaters. Peacock will have exclusive domestic rights to those titles for four months. 

After that period, Amazon Prime Video will have exclusive domestic rights to Universal live-action titles, including upcoming releases Jurassic World: Dominion, The 355 and Ambulance, for 10 months. These live action titles will then return to Peacock for the last four months of their 18-month Pay 1 release window. 

Amazon Prime Video will also gain access to Universal library titles, which includes movies from the Jurassic Park, Bourne and Fast & Furious franchises. 

According to a joint statement, Prime Video will also gain SVOD rights to Universal’s animated slate—which includes Minions: The Rise of Grue and DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish—through an “additional window,” although little clarity was provided as to when that window might begin and end. 

Currently, Netflix gets Universal animated titles in the 10 months in-between Peacock’s four-month bookend Pay 1 engagements. 

Separately, Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service, IMDb TV, acquired “network” window rights to Universal’s 2020-21 slate, which includes titles such as Dolittle, The Invisible Man, F9 (Fast & Furious 9) and Sing 2. IMDb TV also gets rights to an unspecified number of animated titles from the Universal library. 

The deal marks a distribution milestone for Amazon. It previously had non-exclusive domestic arrangements with studios including Paramount and MGM, which it just bought. And through Lionsgate's Epix premium channel, Amazon has previously enjoyed exclusive international distribution rights. But the Universal deal is by far its highest profile distribution arrangement yet, although financial terms haven’t been announced. 

Coupled with that recently announced MGM purchase, Amazon Prime Video now has exclusive TV rights to some of the most popular franchises in the movie business.

And it’s another blow to HBO, the incumbent holder of Universal’s Pay 1 window rights. 

The Amazon agreement with Universal follows Netflix’s poaching from HBO in April of first pay window rights to Sony Pictures Entertainment titles, also starting in 2022. 

“We know Prime members love movies, and this new deal with UFEG will deliver some of the best films available for our customers,” said Brad Beale, Prime Video VP of worldwide content licensing, in a statement. “This new slate of UFEG films, including exciting upcoming releases such as Jurassic World: Dominion, The 355, and Ambulance will continue to build upon Prime Video’s catalog and delight Prime members, all at no additional cost to their membership.”

Added Peter Levinsohn, vice chairman and chief distribution officer for UFEG: “Recognizing that all parties would benefit from a modernized windowing structure, this new agreement allows Prime Video and IMDb TV to benefit from UFEG’s vast library and diverse content like never before."

Comcast NBCUniversal’s Universal Pictures division has reached a landmark agreement with the biggest theater chain in the U.S., AMC Theatres, allowing the film distributor to release its titles straight to consume living rooms via premium VOD rental just 17 days after their theatrical release date.

The deal culminates over a decade of rising tension between movie distributors and exhibitors, with the former increasingly anxious to establish flexibility for marginal titles. That tension has boiled over amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with theaters shut down and studios looking for other ways to monetize their titles.

The Universal-AMC deal allows the theater chain to participate in the premium VOD window.

"AMC enthusiastically embraces this new industry model both because we are participating in the entirety of the economics of the new structure, and because premium video-on-demand creates the added potential for increased movie studio profitability, which should in turn lead to the green-lighting of more theatrical movies," AMC's chief executive, Adam Aron, said in a statement.

It’s unclear as to how much revenue participation AMC will have.

Universal enraged its theatrical distribution partners at the outset of the social distancing era in March, when it announced that Trolls World Tour,The Hunt, Emma and The Invisible Man would be available for $19.99 rental on transactional streaming services like Vudu the same day they were to be released in theaters.

Universal was emboldened when a self-reported 5 million consumers rented Trolls World Tour, generating $100 million.

Universal’s upcoming film slate includes Minions: The Rise of Gru, Halloween Kills (returning Jamie Lee Curtis to the 42-year-old horror franchise) and spy thriller 355 with Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz and Lupita Nyong’o. It also has Jurassic World and Fast and Furious installments slated for next year.

It’s viewed as unlikely that Universal will ply the premium VOD strategy to bigger titles like those last two franchises—it’s more for low- to mid-budget genre films.

“The theatrical experience continues to be the cornerstone of our business,” said Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “The partnership we’ve forged with AMC is driven by our collective desire to ensure a thriving future for the film distribution ecosystem and to meet consumer demand with flexibility and optionality.”

It's expected that Universal's studio rivals will push to establish similar arrangements with AMC. And it's expected that other exhibition chains will strike similar deals.

The arrangement doesn't necessarily foretell peace in our time for media companies and exhibitors.

Last week, for example, AT&T CEO John Stankey dismissed speculation that the company's Warner Bros. Pictures division might debut highly anticipated Christopher Nolan film Tenet on the new HBO Max SVOD service.

Stankey, however, did say that SVOD premiere might be appropriate for marginal theatrical releases. 

Comcast/NBCUniversal’s Universal Pictures division has reached a landmark agreement with the biggest theater chain in the U.S., AMC Theatres, allowing the film distributor to release its titles straight to consume living rooms via premium VOD rental just 17 days after their theatrical release date. 

The deal culminates over a decade of rising tension between movie distributors and exhibitors, with the former increasingly anxious to establish flexibility for marginal titles. That tension has boiled over amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with theaters shut down and studios looking for other ways to monetize their titles.

The Universal-AMC deal allows the theater chain to participate in the premium VOD window. 

"AMC enthusiastically embraces this new industry model both because we are participating in the entirety of the economics of the new structure, and because premium video-on-demand creates the added potential for increased movie studio profitability, which should in turn lead to the green-lighting of more theatrical movies," AMC's chief executive, Adam Aron, said in a statement.

Also read: Window Dissing: Has Theatrical Distribution Finally Collapsed?

It’s unclear as to how much revenue participation AMC will have. 

Universal enraged its theatrical distribution partners at the outset of the social distancing era in March, when it announced that Trolls World Tour, The Hunt, Emma and The Invisible Man would be available for $19.99 rental on transactional streaming services like Vudu the same day they were to be released in theaters. 

Universal was emboldened when a self-reported 5 million consumers rented Trolls World Tour, generating $100 million. 

Universal’s upcoming film slate includes Minions: The Rise of Gru, Halloween Kills (returning Jamie Lee Curtis to the 42-year-old horror franchise) and spy thriller 355 with Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz and Lupita Nyong’o. It also has Jurassic World and Fast and Furious installments slated for next year. 

It’s viewed as unlikely that Universal will ply the premium VOD strategy to bigger titles like those last two franchises—it’s more for low- to mid-budget genre films. 

“The theatrical experience continues to be the cornerstone of our business,” said Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “The partnership we’ve forged with AMC is driven by our collective desire to ensure a thriving future for the film distribution ecosystem and to meet consumer demand with flexibility and optionality.”

It's expected that Universal's studio rivals will push to establish similar arrangements with AMC. And it's expected that other exhibition chains will strike similar deals. 

The arrangement doesn't necessarily foretell peace in our time for media companies and exhibitors. 

Last week, for example, AT&T CEO John Stankey dismissed speculation that the company's Warner Bros. Pictures division might debut highly anticipated Christopher Nolan film Tenet on the new HBO Max SVOD service. 

Stankey, however, did say that SVOD premiere might be appropriate for marginal theatrical releases. 

Comcast has teamed up with corporate cousin Universal Pictures to tout 1-Gig broadband alongside The Fate of the Furious, the latest film from the Fast & Furious franchise, that’s hitting theaters April 14.

The promo centers on a pair of Comcast customers who are under the pretext that they are getting a sneak peek of the new film in a drive-in cinema that turns out to get a drive-out cinema. The wild ride and bleeped-out moments that ensue can be seen below:

Comcast and Universal put it all together ahead of the film premiere, and as the operator continues to expand the reach of gigabit speeds delivered using DOCSIS 3.1.

RELATED: Comcast Sets DOCSIS 3.1 Expansion, Launches 1-Gig in Detroit

"Fast and Furious and Gigabit Internet are all about blistering, excessive speed. This provided the perfect partnership opportunity to create the most extreme entertainment experience," Sherri Davis, Xfinity's senior director of brand experience, said in a release about the promo. "Rather than trying to explain how fast Gig-speed is, we showed it, capturing two lucky customers on the most fast-and-furious ride of their lives.”