Movie theaters, after a months-long shutdown, are back. But that doesn’t mean moviegoers have returned along with them.

More than 100 movie theaters reopened last week in the U.S., meaning that around 70 percent of theaters are now open. One would think would lead to an increase in the box office. But according to Box Office Mojo figures, the top film of the weekend, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” made just $6.7 million, with only two other films, “The New Mutants” and “Unhinged,” even crossing the million-dollar mark. The overall box office, in fact, was under $15 million for the week.

In the equivalent week last year, two different movies — “It Chapter Two” and “Hustlers” — made over $30 million, with 14 different movies making over $1 million.

While theaters remain shuttered in several major cities, including New York and Los Angeles, the box office performance indicates that a large percentage of movie fans do not yet feel safe returning to theaters, even with all of the safety measures taken by the major theater chains. Per Indiewire, in fact, theaters are “in a world of hurt.” That’s because as long as theaters were closed, they didn’t have to pay certain expenses, and could negotiate on rent. Now open, the theaters are likely to lose more money than if they had remained closed.

There are indications that the Hollywood movie studios having growing skepticism about the short-term viability of the traditional theatrical exhibition model. Warner Brothers’ superhero blockbuster “Wonder Woman 1984,” which had been set for release in July and was later pushed back to October, has now been delayed again, this time to Christmas. There was also the agreement announced in July between AMC and Universal to reduce the premium video-on-demand window to just 17 days.

Dr. Anthony Fauci made some comments last week about how it wouldn’t be safe to sit in a theater without masks for a year until after the arrival of an effective coronavirus vaccine. In those comments, which came in an interview with actress Jennifer Garner on Instagram Live, Dr. Fauci was referring specifically to live Broadway theaters, and not movies, although it’s possible that the same applies to movie theaters as well.

"If we have a vaccine that's a knockout vaccine that's 85% to 90% effective — I don't think we'll get that. I'll settle for 70% effective," Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in the interview.

"If we get a really good vaccine and just about everybody gets vaccinated, you'll have a degree of immunity in the general community that I think you can walk into a theater without a mask and feel like it's comfortable that you aren't going to be at risk."

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.