It's the same situation as with Disneyland back in the 90's. Cheep, don't spend, don't pay.
I went to see Man of the Year at my "old" theatre. The one where they demoted me to floorstaff because I could only work 1 day, nevermind that I worked projection for 18 years.
But, they have some kid running the shows and the 2 of the 5 films are scratched. If I spent 100 milion on a film and I went to a theatre where the movie was out of focus, out of frame, the sound sucked, the seats were broken, and there were black scratches down the middle of the image? I would be more than pissed. I would be very suprised to see that happen if it was a studio run theatre. I've been in the projection room with the studio folks for those special research screenings and they are very anal about everything. They actually stopped doing the screenings at the theatre I worked at because of its condition.