The rise and fall of movie theaters — and how the coronavirus pandemic might change them

A person wearing a mask walks past the closed AMC 14 movie theater during the coronavirus pandemic on May 14, 2020 in New York City.Noam Galai/Getty Images

• Movie theaters as we know them have been around for more than a century.
• However, the coronavirus pandemic has forced movie theaters nationwide to close or drastically change their policies in order to adhere to social distancing and public health and safety measures.
• Hope still remains for Hollywood, though, as many of the summer's biggest blockbusters have yet to be postponed and drive-ins are seeing a surprising resurgence in popularity.

The movie theater industry has been around for over 100 years, but unprecedented times have created a perfect storm for the demise of movie theaters.

"We should be a month into summer blockbusters, and we don't even know if they're going to show up this summer," Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, told Business Insider.

Steadily declining ticket sales and now-shuttered movie theaters and palaces nationwide have put the fates of summer blockbusters into question.

Here is a look at the rise and fall of movie theaters — and a solution that could potentially save the industry.