People aren’t going to the movies at anywhere close to the numbers that Hollywood hoped, prompting studios to postpone more big releases.

LOS ANGELES — “Tenet” was supposed to mark the return of the movie theater business in the United States.

After five months of pandemic-forced closure, the big movie theater chains reopened in roughly 68 percent of the United States by Labor Day weekend, in large part so they could show the $200 million film, which Warner Bros.

Theaters remain closed in New York and Los Angeles, the two biggest markets in the United States and the center of Mr.

Box office analysts also noted that “Tenet” is a complicated, cerebral movie with little star power; a frothier, more escapist offering may have had an easier time coaxing people back to cinemas.

Whatever the reason, the bottom line was strikingly clear: People aren’t going to the movies at anywhere close to the numbers that Hollywood hoped, and things are not expected to improve in the near term.

Studios are postponing big movies again — “Wonder Woman 1984” retreated last week, prompting at least three studios to convene meetings on Monday to discuss how to proceed with other scheduled releases — leaving theater owners without much new to offer for the next two months.

“The markets we are missing are key markets where Chris Nolan movies have really performed well in the past.” Mr.

“We’re learning that markets being opened, cinemas having safety protocols and studios releasing movies are all tied together,” John Fithian, chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said in an email.

“Open markets need safe cinemas, movies need open markets, cinemas need movies.

The company, based in Texas, operates about 5,977 screens in the United States and Latin America.

Andrew Cuomo has given no specific time table for when movie theaters can reopen, coupling them with other large-crowd places like concert venues and amusement parks, while allowing bowling alleys and restaurants to resume indoor operations.

“Governor Cuomo has done a great job getting it under control, but we really need him to give cinemas the same thought that he’s given to the restaurant industry and let us resume operations.”.

If those markets don’t open, and the studios get skittish, theater operators may have to take some dramatic steps to weather the storm.

Yet he says the international performance of “Tenet” — it has brought in $177 million worldwide — illustrates that if the United States can get its public safety issues under control, people will start going out to movie theaters again