One big problem with malls, IMO, is that they’re losing their variety of store types. Pretty much every mall used to have chain stores that sold books, music, electronics, toys… now a lot of those chains are gone, and nothing’s come in to fill that niche. Some of this, like record stores and electronics stores, is due to technology, but also during and after the Great Recession, a lot of them either went under or got bought out by other chains that only operate larger storefronts in shopping plazas. There's only so far you can get with nothing but clothes, cellphone providers, and a Bath & Body Works.
You'd think that would just leave more space for locally-owned independent shops, but the problem with that is renting space in the mall can be a pain in the ass. The mall generally dictates when you have to be open, which means that you have to be paying staff to be there on days and times when you know they're going to be standing around bored and aren’t going to get any traffic. Not to mention I assume the rent paradoxically gets higher with more empty storefronts that still need to be heated/cooled. I can see how for a lot of people, it would be more worth it to just go for the space in the shopping plaza or some weird little storefront downtown, because you'll have more control over things.
Kind of a shame because malls are one of those things that, in theory, should be extremely successful.
To piggyback off of this, the whole notion that an individual with no professional training could create their own website rather than upload content to a corporately-owner-and-moderated platform. I think we're almost there.
It's kind of crazy how quickly websites have followed the technology trajectory of cars and other electronics where it's gone from something your average joe might tinker with on the weekend, to something that has so much added complexity that most people take one look at it and nope right out.
Anyway, to answer the main question here: Movie theatres.
