Donna Langley, Chairman and Chief Content Officer of NBCUniversal Studio Group, was interviewed during one of Kering’s Women In Motion talks at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The senior executive didn’t flinch when the first topic of discussion was the precarious current state of the theatrical business. “What we’re experiencing across the whole media landscape are trends that were really put in motion before the pandemic, but were accelerated,” she said. “So we’re seeing a shift in consumer behavior, which is driving a lot of rethinking and reshaping of our business.”

Without mincing words, Langley said, “Theatrically, the global marketplace is down about 20% from 2019 to now. And we don’t really think we’re going to recapture that. It’s okay. I think as an industry, we can withstand it.” This was not the pitch she made during CinemaCon in Las Vegas last April and may mark the first time a senior executive at a Hollywood studio has publicly put forth the idea box office will not return to 2019 levels.