Cinema owner Mark O’Meara was watching the Oscars in his living room when Sean Baker, accepting the best director trophy for “Anora,” made an impassioned plea for global audiences to support their local multiplex.

“I stood up and was jumping up and down. He’s talking about me and independent theaters,” O’Meara remembers telling his wife. Five years after Covid badly bruised the movie business, and two years after the strikes slowed the recovery, O’Meara needed no reminder that the industry remains seriously challenged — a fact that was illuminated during 2025’s glacial box office start. “It was an apprehensive couple of months,” he says.

This was weeks ago, in March, when theater attendance was flatlining and tentpoles like Disney’s “Snow White” and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” just weren’t inspiring enough trips to the movies. But April’s one-two punch of “A Minecraft Movie...