Second-run cinema

The second-run house buys the title cheaply after its first run, prices the ticket low, and makes its money on volume and on concessions rather than on box office. Historically that worked because the gap between a film leaving first-run cinemas and arriving at home was months.

The shortening of the theatrical window attacked that model directly. If a title reaches home viewing a few weeks after release, the second-run slot has largely closed — the customer's alternative is no longer waiting, it is watching at home now.

The operators who adapted did so by becoming something else: adding programming identity, events, a bar, or moving towards repertory. Price alone stopped being a defensible position once the film was available at home for less.