Movie after movie has fallen short in theaters this fall, but studios aren't waving the white flag on all of them. PVOD, streaming, licensing, and a litany of other factors over years are all factoring into the equation. Things used to be so simple. A movie opened in theaters, and if its total box office was lower than what it cost to make and market it, minus the half theaters took, we could easily call it a flop . It was dead in the water. Some were worse than that and were true bombs ,