In all fairness, for a few brilliant films that are remembered by the public today, there are thousands of brilliant films that only bring in a few dollars of royalties each year. And even the ones you mentioned are not huge money makers anymore.
Much of the problem is in the delivery of the product to the market. Movie theaters need a different social setting than the one they’ve had since the beginning. That is, the theater pays the box office to the film distributor, and makes its money from concession sales.
They need some other means to draw in the crowds, who can then “also” watch a movie.
Well the drive-in has made a bit of a comeback in some areas but Obama is doing his best to kill American car culture.
Meanwhile when older films play a revival screening (and least from my experiences), they draw a packed house.
At home, you might pause the action awhile to take a call, or go walk the dog, or for whatever. And you and your spouse/friends may talk during the movie. And that screen is no “exact” replacement for a real movie screen and a projected film print.
So the act of GOING to a movie needs to be an event again, rather that just 2 hours of drudgery to be “the first” to see the latest film that really wasn’t as good as the ads played it up.
A double feature is one way to make a night out of it. Or an “event” film. It can be an older epic (with an intermission for snacks, phone calls, cigarette break, restroom, etc) or something else (there are single “broadcast” concerts at some theaters (all screenings on the same night across the nation), but too often those are just public screenings of some forthcoming DVD product.
I may be wrong but I don’t think that A Christmas Story was a box office hit when it came out. I think I may have seen it twice. And then not for many years (I may not have even remembered the title).
But it built a following.