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Monday, March 23, 2026
Half of Americans Went to a Movie Theater During the Year, Study Finds
variety.com: With the Academy Awards approaching to celebrate the year’s best films, a new survey offered a reality check about moviegoing: Just over half of Americans say they set foot in a movie theater over the course of a year.
7 comments:
Jordan G
said...
The title and content of this article both surprises me, and at the same time don't surprise me. Unfortunately the second part of my first statement also makes me quite sad due to it being true. The sad reality of our world and the world of performance is that less people are going out at seeing a movie or other performance live. This is due to that fact that the younger generations of this world don't feel the pull to go out when everything can be at their finger tips through the internet and internet connected devices. I personally find this fact to be quite sad, and I hope that in the near future more younger people will start going out and seeing things live on more occasions. It was also interesting to read in this article that movie box office sales peaked in 2002, and that is because this is not the year that I would have guessed was the year of peak box office sales. I would have thought that peak movie box office sales would have occurred in the early to mid 2010s.
The difference between movie attendance and political parties is super interesting to me. What exactly makes democrats more likely to go than republicans? Art is generally something that is associated with left-leaning people, but it’s interesting that democrats tend to consume more art in general than republicans. Another important thing of note is that movie theatres are rarely packed now–I’ve seen several movies this year, and the only times they have actually been crowded were when Wicked part 2 came out, and that might’ve been it actually. I did go see a movie the other night (Project Hail Mary), and I was very much reminded why the movies are such a great experience. If the screen quality is good enough, it seriously beats out any experience you could have in your own home. The audience was also completely dialled in, which helped. Even though the movie theatres are technically dying, these past few years have been really good for movies in my opinion.
Covid really did do a number on movie theaters across America and I can see why it’s struggling to regain the numbers that it had previously. It’s not that Americans are tired of movies I think that more options have become available that lure Americans away from theatre. Streaming being the main, there are so many streaming platforms available that you don’t really need to go the theatres because movies almost always end up being on the main streaming platforms, so why spend a lot of money of tickets and movie food when you could just watch the movie at home, unless it’s a movie that really compels you to see it right away a lot of people will just wait. Prices of tickets are also a factor, movie tickets are more expensive than they’ve ever been it’s no longer really financially viable to see a bunch of movies a year
This honestly kinda makes me sad to read it because I think there's something so magical about seeing a movie for the first time on a huge screen in a movie theater, experiencing it with a live audience. I think it's still an important part of the entertainment industry, and I really hope that they don't go out of business. I feel like since I have moved to Pittsburgh and with being a college student, I have gone to the movies a lot more often than I did when I was home. Maybe that is just because the manner is so close to CMU and there are a bunch of delicious restaurants right next to it, and it makes a perfect night, and it's also inexpensive. So, as a call, it is very helpful. I do think that it is a direct response to Covid and how popular streaming platforms became during Covid and how people find it easier to stream from home.
As a frequent moviegoer, this is honestly really sad, but it makes sense because of everything that has happened since movie theatre closures during the pandemic. The integration of streaming platforms within today's society and media is probably the most common way to watch movies, TV shows, etc. These streaming services are taking over the movie theater industry by not only having a wide variety of films, but also because they produce originals that are unavailable to anyone who does not have access to that platform. This concept of releasing movies on streaming services keeps their viewers at home rather than experiencing the film at a theater. I think this is also a big factor in the decrease in moviegoers, along with the fact that movie tickets, along with concession prices, have increased over the years. I feel like movies used to be anywhere from 8 - 12 dollars, now it feels more like 15 to 20, depending on the theatre. This pricing can be inaccessible to people, especially in this economy, and would be cheaper to pay for a streaming service monthly than to pay 15 dollars every time you want to watch a movie. Though the decrease is sad, it does seem understandable due to these new streaming services that have become very prominent since 2020.
The statistic of only half of Americans going to a movie theatre is somehow both surprising and unsurprising at the same time. I was aware that moviegoing was down in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and was still in a state of recovery, but I wasn’t aware that the numbers were that low. Also, it seems that theatres are still filling at least sometimes, as films are still seeing major successes. Avatar: Fire and Ash did fairly well last year, and Project Hail Mary still has a lot of momentum moving into its second weekend. In general, it seems that concert tours are the only segment of the entertainment industry that has made a sustained full recovery, as while prices are being driven into the stratosphere by Live Nation, stadiums and arenas are still selling out around the country. The most likely impacts of these numbers will see smaller scale independent movie theatres shutting down as their audience dries up and profit margins shrink or cease to exist.
I was really surprised to see the demographical analysis within this article including race and political affiliation, but the economic differences not being the major demographic factor heavily focused on. Though income differences were highlighted and the assumed disparagement predicting the likelihood of Americans going to theaters, the economic crisis we’re going through is tied directly to the cultural aspect of this article. While Covid has significantly impacted theaters and made the task incredibly difficult to encourage audiences to go to theaters in favor of streaming, the affordability crisis and work exhaustion under the current systems has made the task of going to theaters draining to the point where many will simply chose to wait until the hype for whatever feature they’re interested in comes out on streaming. It’s interesting from a historical perspective how inaccessible feature films used to be if you weren’t able to meet the moment in theaters and how that attitude has shifted now to the inevitable streaming release.
7 comments:
The title and content of this article both surprises me, and at the same time don't surprise me. Unfortunately the second part of my first statement also makes me quite sad due to it being true. The sad reality of our world and the world of performance is that less people are going out at seeing a movie or other performance live. This is due to that fact that the younger generations of this world don't feel the pull to go out when everything can be at their finger tips through the internet and internet connected devices. I personally find this fact to be quite sad, and I hope that in the near future more younger people will start going out and seeing things live on more occasions. It was also interesting to read in this article that movie box office sales peaked in 2002, and that is because this is not the year that I would have guessed was the year of peak box office sales. I would have thought that peak movie box office sales would have occurred in the early to mid 2010s.
The difference between movie attendance and political parties is super interesting to me. What exactly makes democrats more likely to go than republicans? Art is generally something that is associated with left-leaning people, but it’s interesting that democrats tend to consume more art in general than republicans. Another important thing of note is that movie theatres are rarely packed now–I’ve seen several movies this year, and the only times they have actually been crowded were when Wicked part 2 came out, and that might’ve been it actually. I did go see a movie the other night (Project Hail Mary), and I was very much reminded why the movies are such a great experience. If the screen quality is good enough, it seriously beats out any experience you could have in your own home. The audience was also completely dialled in, which helped. Even though the movie theatres are technically dying, these past few years have been really good for movies in my opinion.
Covid really did do a number on movie theaters across America and I can see why it’s struggling to regain the numbers that it had previously. It’s not that Americans are tired of movies I think that more options have become available that lure Americans away from theatre. Streaming being the main, there are so many streaming platforms available that you don’t really need to go the theatres because movies almost always end up being on the main streaming platforms, so why spend a lot of money of tickets and movie food when you could just watch the movie at home, unless it’s a movie that really compels you to see it right away a lot of people will just wait. Prices of tickets are also a factor, movie tickets are more expensive than they’ve ever been it’s no longer really financially viable to see a bunch of movies a year
This honestly kinda makes me sad to read it because I think there's something so magical about seeing a movie for the first time on a huge screen in a movie theater, experiencing it with a live audience. I think it's still an important part of the entertainment industry, and I really hope that they don't go out of business. I feel like since I have moved to Pittsburgh and with being a college student, I have gone to the movies a lot more often than I did when I was home. Maybe that is just because the manner is so close to CMU and there are a bunch of delicious restaurants right next to it, and it makes a perfect night, and it's also inexpensive. So, as a call, it is very helpful. I do think that it is a direct response to Covid and how popular streaming platforms became during Covid and how people find it easier to stream from home.
As a frequent moviegoer, this is honestly really sad, but it makes sense because of everything that has happened since movie theatre closures during the pandemic. The integration of streaming platforms within today's society and media is probably the most common way to watch movies, TV shows, etc. These streaming services are taking over the movie theater industry by not only having a wide variety of films, but also because they produce originals that are unavailable to anyone who does not have access to that platform. This concept of releasing movies on streaming services keeps their viewers at home rather than experiencing the film at a theater. I think this is also a big factor in the decrease in moviegoers, along with the fact that movie tickets, along with concession prices, have increased over the years. I feel like movies used to be anywhere from 8 - 12 dollars, now it feels more like 15 to 20, depending on the theatre. This pricing can be inaccessible to people, especially in this economy, and would be cheaper to pay for a streaming service monthly than to pay 15 dollars every time you want to watch a movie. Though the decrease is sad, it does seem understandable due to these new streaming services that have become very prominent since 2020.
The statistic of only half of Americans going to a movie theatre is somehow both surprising and unsurprising at the same time. I was aware that moviegoing was down in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and was still in a state of recovery, but I wasn’t aware that the numbers were that low. Also, it seems that theatres are still filling at least sometimes, as films are still seeing major successes. Avatar: Fire and Ash did fairly well last year, and Project Hail Mary still has a lot of momentum moving into its second weekend. In general, it seems that concert tours are the only segment of the entertainment industry that has made a sustained full recovery, as while prices are being driven into the stratosphere by Live Nation, stadiums and arenas are still selling out around the country. The most likely impacts of these numbers will see smaller scale independent movie theatres shutting down as their audience dries up and profit margins shrink or cease to exist.
I was really surprised to see the demographical analysis within this article including race and political affiliation, but the economic differences not being the major demographic factor heavily focused on. Though income differences were highlighted and the assumed disparagement predicting the likelihood of Americans going to theaters, the economic crisis we’re going through is tied directly to the cultural aspect of this article. While Covid has significantly impacted theaters and made the task incredibly difficult to encourage audiences to go to theaters in favor of streaming, the affordability crisis and work exhaustion under the current systems has made the task of going to theaters draining to the point where many will simply chose to wait until the hype for whatever feature they’re interested in comes out on streaming. It’s interesting from a historical perspective how inaccessible feature films used to be if you weren’t able to meet the moment in theaters and how that attitude has shifted now to the inevitable streaming release.
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