U.S. movie-ticket sales are down 11% this year, and struggling theater owners say they have a pretty good idea why: Films are getting pulled from cinemas faster than ever so Hollywood studios can sell them for home viewing.

Theater runs for some new movies — so-called windows — have shrunk to as little as 17 days from three months just a few years ago, leaving cinema chains such as AMC and Marcus with empty seats and fewer customers at concession stands.

“When consumers get bombarded by emails from their streaming provider saying ‘watch now’ when the film is still in theaters, they get the impression that everything’s available in the home right away,” Marcus Corp. Chief Executive Officer Greg Marcus said in an interview.

Every year around this time, movie-studio executives meet with theater operators in Las Vegas for the CinemaCon conference. They present their upcoming films, and discuss the future of the industry on panels and in private. At this year’s CinemaCon, the recurring theme in every conversation was the blame that theaters pin on shorter windows for the drop in ticket sales.

The two sides have been debating how long new movies should play in cinemas for years, and especially since Netflix Inc. launched its paid streaming service in 2007. Like the cable TV industry, theaters have been pummeled as consumers spend more time streaming new movies and shows at home on big-screen TVs and on mobile phones, or scroll through short-form videos on social media.

A number of chains were bankrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced theaters to close for a time. And the business hasn’t bounced back. At Milwaukee-based Marcus last year, theater revenue was down 20% from its 2019 peak.

“The films that are the most subjected to a short window are showing the biggest declines in performance in theaters,” the company’s CEO said.

During a CinemaCon panel, Eduardo Acuna, the CEO of Regal cinemas — the second-largest chain in the U.S. after AMC — said studios that refuse to show a majority of their films exclusively in theaters for a period of, say, 45 days, leave money on the table.

“I’m a very strong proponent of a 45-day window,” said Acuna, whose company emerged from bankruptcy in July 2023 and agreed to a shortened window in 2021. “There’s all this information out there that suggests a longer window will make this industry healthier.”

Michael O’Leary, CEO of the industry trade group Cinema United, said that in France, where the law mandates films play in movie houses for materially longer, ticket sales have bounced back to about 90% of pre-pandemic levels.

Online revenue has become a growing part of the business for major media companies, which are navigating shrinking box-office sales and cord cutting at their cable networks.

Peter Levinsohn, head of global distribution for Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal Studio Group, said the revenue that movies generate from pay per view and direct sales to consumers is reinvested in production. Universal, including subsidiaries, has almost 20 movies slated for theatrical release through the rest of 2025.

Since 2020, Universal has generated more than $1.5 billion in sales from online purchases and rentals of its films including “Oppenheimer,” “Twisters” and “The Wild Robot.” The studio’s 2024 release “Wicked” has produced about $100 million in online sales, Levinsohn said, on top of the $473.2 million the film took in from U.S. and Canadian theaters.

“That ability to be more profitable has allowed us to make more movies,” Levinsohn said, stressing that a successful theatrical run for a picture means it will do better in homes later. “There’s no question that we have the biggest slate in the industry, and we’re only able to do that because of the improved economics.”

Tom Quinn, CEO of independent distributor Neon, said his company’s Oscar-winning “Anora” played for roughly 70 days in theaters, providing momentum that helped it win best picture last month. But “Anora” grossed just $20.4 million domestically, a fraction of what blockbusters can generate.

Walt Disney Co., reiterated its commitment to longer windows, with pictures such as “Inside Out 2” playing in cinemas for as long as 100 days before appearing online. Disney released three of the four highest-grossing films of 2024 and was last year’s top distributor globally with $5.46 billion at the box office.

“Walt Disney studio films play in theaters for longer than any of our competitors,” said Andrew Cripps, the company’s head of global theatrical distribution. “That’s not by accident.”