Hi, I'm Dan Pramak, and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story.

Today is Friday, May 21st.

Oil prices are down.

The percentage of vaccinated U.S. adults is up past 60%.

And we're focused on going back to the movies.

2019 was a record-breaking year for Hollywood, with the global box office hitting over $42 billion.

That's actual in-theater ticket sales, not video on demand or subscriptions to streaming services like Disney Plus.

The U.S. total was actually off a tiny bit, but still hit a very respectable $11.4 billion.

And then came 2020, and we all stopped going to the movies.

The nation's largest theater chain, AMC, nearly went broke.

One of its most celebrated boutique chains, Alamo Draft House, did file for Chapter 11.

Meanwhile, the streamers kind of tried

to capitalize, particularly HBO Max, which struck deals to distribute new releases directly to our

homes, something that angered a lot of big-name directors and actors, and caused theater owners

to wonder if their time had passed. Fast forward to today, and a lot is changing very quickly.

First, indoor mask and social distancing mandates are disappearing. So are capacity limits.

Second, Hollywood has a ton of new blockbusters coming out, many of which were originally

supposed to come out last summer. Third, conventional wisdom is that the whole new releases at home

experiment was, if not a total dud, certainly not a hit. And the guy who's largely credited with

the HBO Max part of that plan is reportedly negotiating his exit, which is another way of saying

he's losing his job. So today we want to better understand the past, present, and future of the

movie theater business with Shelley Taylor, CEO of Alamo Draft House, which remains very

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