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At last nights Academy Awards, the standout star proved to be the indie film Anora, which raked in a whopping five awards on a budget of only $6 million. When director Sean Baker took the stage to accept his Oscar for best director, he used the moment to issue a call to action: a plea to the industry to reinvest in movie theaters. Watching a film in the theater with an audience is an experience, Baker told the crowd. We can laugh together, cry together, scream in fright together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together. [. . .] Its a communal experience you simply dont get at home. And right now, the theatergoing experience is under threat. Baker went on to cite the pandemic-era closures of nearly 1,000 screens as a point of concern for filmmakers. His speech reflected a mounting anxiety about Americas shifting movie-viewing landscape, which, five years out from the start of the pandemic, has been majorly altered by the growing convenience of streaming services and shortening attention spans. And, based on this year’s box office numbers, it’s unclear whenand ifthe threat to movie theaters will pass. Box office earnings stagnate in 2024 When the pandemic shuttered movie theaters across the country, fears about the imminent death of the movie theater became ubiquitous. Since then, theaters have somewhat clawed their way back from pandemic-era lows and the wide-reaching impact of 2023s SAG-AFTRA strikes, but they have yet to recover their pre-pandemic stabilityand its seeming increasingly unlikely that they ever will. In 2023, box office earnings reached around $9 billion, their highest peak since the pandemic, but still roughly $2 billion short of pre-pandemic earnings. And, according to data from the global media analytics company Comscore, revenues dropped 3.3% in 2024, down to $8.7 billion. Thats in spite of a fairly strong streak of blockbusters this summer, when films like Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Despicable Me 4 helped lure audiences into theaters. In fact, 2024 was the first post-pandemic year when overall revenues didnt improve upon the last. Meanwhile, across the country, many small theaters continue to close as they struggle to regain former audiences. Streaming and social media appease shorter attention spans Now that the dust has mostly settled from the pandemic, theres a pretty clear common denominator for Americans new movie-watching habits: The age of streaming services. Despite major theater companies best efforts to reel customers back in (including with gonzo marketing schemes like elaborate popcorn buckets), plenty of viewers have been won over by the increasing affordability of high-tech home theater systems and access to their most anticipated titles on streaming, all from the comfort of their own couch. Studios are well aware of these trends, and have adjusted their release strategies accordingly. Big players like Universal and Warner Bros. are in an ongoing process of experimenting with shorter theater-to-digital turnarounds, essentially treating the opening weekend as a kind of IPO to gauge whether a quick pivot to premium streaming could save a propertys lackluster box office numbers. Last June, Universal pulled its action flick The Fall Guy from theaters after just 17 days due to below-expected earnings, opting to offer the film on streaming instead. This strategy proved highly successful for the studios R-rated film The Northman, which flopped in theaters but became a major success on streaming. More recently, the Amazon Studios Christmas film Red One struggled at the box office but hit the top spot on Prime Video when it came to streaming. Streaming also allows studios to account for shortening audience attention spans. According to a 2022 study from Morning Consult, younger Americans are showing a preference for shorter forms of entertainment, as platforms like TikTok and Instagram popularize short-form content. In response, streaming services like Hulu and Netflix have started experimenting with recutting old movies into bite-size episodes to capture Gen Z viewers. At last nights Academy Awards, host Conan OBrien succinctly summed up this current state of movie-watching, jokingly referring to the Oscars as the long-form content awards.
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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. When assessing home price momentum, it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings could suggest a market that is heating up. Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has returned to pre-pandemic levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 30 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic levels have, generally speaking, experienced stronger home price growth over the past 30 months. How does inventory look in 2025? It looks likeassuming nothing dramatic changesmost states will see rising active housing inventory this year. National active listings are on the rise (up 27.6% between February 2024 and February 2025). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some sellers markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyers markets. Nationally, were still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (23.1% below February 2019) and some resale markets, in particular big chunks of Midwest and Northeast, still remain tight. Here are the recent historic totals for inventory/active listings in February, according to Realtor.com: February 2017: 1,151,120 February 2018: 1,045,153 February 2019: 1,102,660 February 2020: 928,343 February 2021: 464,919 (overheating during the pandemic housing boom) February 2022: 346,511 (overheating during the pandemic housing boom) February 2023: 579,264 (mortgage rate shock) February 2024: 664,716 February 2025: 847,825 The map below shows the year-over-year percentage change in active housing inventory by state. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
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Arthur Johnson has lived in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward for nearly three decades, long enough to appreciate the trees that filter pollution from the big ships traveling the nearby Mississippi River and that offer shade on sweltering summer days. When Hurricane Katrina roared through two decades ago, it wiped out 200,000 trees across the city, including many in Johnson’s neighborhood and several in his own yard. The city has struggled ever since to restore its tree canopy. Those efforts will be set back by the U.S. Forest Service’s decision in mid-February to terminate a $75 million grant to the Arbor Day Foundation, which was working to plant trees in neighborhoods that might not otherwise be able to afford them. The program is the latest victim of a drive by President Donald Trump‘s administration against environmental justice initiatives. In New Orleans, part of the money was going to the environmental group Sustaining Our Urban Landscape (SOUL), which has planted more than 1,600 trees in the historically Black community but has now paused plans for another 900. Those are trees that largely low-income residents otherwise couldnt afford to plant or maintain, said the 71-year-old Johnson, who runs a local nonprofit, the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, that has helped SOUL with its work and done some tree plantings of its own in the area. You’re not just cutting out the tree, the environment with such cuts, said Johnson. If those trees arent replaced and more arent continually added, it really takes a toll on the sustainability of the Lower 9th Ward and its community. The benefits of trees are vast. They capture stormwater and replenish groundwater. They help clean the air in polluted areas, improve mental health, and cool air and surfaces of the built environment, especially during heat waves that are growing more intense and frequent with climate change. One study by the UCLA Luskin Center found that shade can reduce heat stress on the human body from 25% to 35% throughout the day. And much research shows that low-income and communities of color have fewer treesand are hotterthan better-off neighborhoods. The Arbor Day Fund’s grant was part of former President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, which sent $1.5 billion to the forest services Urban and Community Forestry program. In a February 14 email canceling the grant, the Forest Service wrote that the award “no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities. But Dan Lambe, the Arbor Day Foundation’s chief executive, said the projects weren’t just going to serve disadvantaged people. They were going to benefit every member of the community, he said. In total, 105 nonprofits, municipalities, and Indigenous organizationsfrom Alaska to Florida to Mainehave lost funding for critical environmental projects, the foundation said. This was an opportunity to make a really meaningful impact on peoples lives, so its been disappointing,” Lambe said. The Forest Service didn’t say if other recipients of the $1.5 billion forestry investment also had grants terminated. In a statement, its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the agency was following directions to comply with Trump’s executive orders. Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure, businesses, and resources they depend on to grow and thrive, remains a top priority for the USDA and the Forest Service, the agency said. For SOUL in New Orleans, losing the grant means they don’t have the money to water trees already planted, and they’ve had to drop plans to hire three people. Another $2.5 million grant is on hold due to the federal funding freeze, and founder and executive director Susannah Burley said the nonprofit’s survival is uncertain. Its annual budget is a little more than $1 million. We kind of are lost because we dont know if we should be planning to close our doors or if we should be planning for next season, she said. For others who were set to get Arbor Day Foundation money, the loss is not existential but still devastating. In the city-county of Butte-Silver Bow in southwest Montana, forester Trevor Peterson was going to use a $745,250 grant to buy chain saws, rigging gear, and other essential tools, remove up to 200 dead or dying cottonwoods, and plant as many as 1,000 trees as part of a decades-long effort to replenish trees cut to make way for copper mining. He wanted to help organize large community events focused on education, hoping to impart the knowledge necessary for future stewardship of the urban forest. We will now have to go back to the drawing board to determine where to go from here, he said. Jackson County, Oregon, was awarded a $600,000 grant to replant trees after wildfires in 2020 destroyed thousands of homes and charred more than 60,000 trees. The town of Talent lost two-thirds of its trees. The nonprofit Oregon Urban Rural and Community Forestry, founded in the fires’ aftermath, fought for years to get a single dollar, recalled Mike Oxendine, the group’s founder and director. The grant money from the Arbor Day Foundation was being used to help low-income and disadvantaged mobile home park residentsamong the hardest-hit by the firesidentify and remove hazardous trees badly burned or killed, and replant trees for shade and cooling. This is a rural red area that needs it badly, said Oxendine. We hit temperatures that exceed 110 degrees every summer now. We go through massive droughts and were always prone to wildfire here. The loss of funding will create a tremendous burden for the organization, he said. The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment. Dorany Pineda, Associated Press
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