In the second quarter of 2020, AMC Theatres, the world’s largest movie theater company, posted a staggering $561 million loss as most theaters remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with catastrophic losses, AMC began looking for alternative revenue streams.

"We could see a change in the way we make and market movies," Subodha Kumar, a professor of marketing and supply chain management, said in an interview with Lifewire. "Innovations are coming. We're seeing a fundamental shift in this industry."

Kumar, who teaches at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, says streaming services were already making inroads into the theater world before the pandemic, and that trend has accelerated now.

In late July, AMC struck a historic deal with Universal Studios to shorten the exclusivity period for the studio’s films from the standard 90 days to 17. Now, Universal Studios films can be released on streaming services in just three weekends.