LOS ANGELES — This was supposed to be the summer when Hollywood blew the doors off theaters. Stay home and stream? Not with Simba, Spider-Man, John Wick, Snowball, Buzz Lightyear, Aladdin, the X-Men and Godzilla on the way.

Instead, the film business finds itself lagging last year’s surge and facing questions about why. Some box office analysts point to 20th Century Fox, which imploded in Rupert Murdoch’s handoff to Disney and delivered three bombs in a row. Others say moviegoing has become too expensive — concessions, tickets, babysitters — especially given the growing array of low-priced at-home entertainment options that are often already part of a household’s budget.

Or is something bigger going on? “It is another sign that the broader economy is in a fragile place,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, noting that some other leisure businesses — Disney theme parks, Major League Baseball games — also had a soft summer.

From the first weekend in May to Labor Day, a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of annual movie ticket sales, box office revenue in the United States and Canada is expected to total about $4.32 billion, a 2 percent decline from the same period last year, according to Comscore.