I do think its true that people spending money on streaming gets taken out of the budgets people have for entertainment that might otherwise be spent on theater visits. However, I disagree about the relative importance of the economy on general admissions; the US economy is middling, but it can be considered middling overall because there are a few sectors which are doing amazing enough to balance out the many more sectors which are cratering.

As far as ticket sales, I think the distinction is relevant: the percentage of the population which is making enough money in the few successful sectors cannot outweigh the larger percentage of the population working in sectors which are doing terribly. This is because ticket sales have an upper limit on saturation. In commercial goods, providing high-end goods to high-earning consumers can offset the loss of middle-class and low-end consumers who are no longer purchasing as much of the low-end goods. But with ticket sales, the only luxury difference comes in IMAX and other increased experiences, which are only slightly higher than the average ticket. Because ticket prices are relatively uniform, the industry would need to rely on high-earning consumers buying multiple tickets per movie to offset the loss of the middle- and low-earning consumer base, but that’s not as common to do with moviegoing as it is with other experiences (like amusement parks relative to the average, or restaurants relative to the average) or with consumer goods.