A Majority Of Americans Are Still Wary Of Going To The Movies.

A Majority Of Americans Are Still Wary Of Going To The Movies.

Posted on by Matt Root
Americas still don't go to the theater

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” continues to break records at the box office. However, despite an increase in COVID cases, more than half of American customers say they are still hesitant to go to the movies.

According to Morning Consult’s weekly consumer mood surveys, Americans’ moviegoing comfort levels have been around 50% since October 2021, after peaking at 55 percent on July 4 last year. And the most recent results are far higher than the low of 12% of respondents eager to see movies in theaters at the start of the pandemic in April 2020.

According to Morning Consult research, the COVID increase caused by the omicron version had just a little impact on consumer willingness to return to the movies over the December holiday season. Comfort with going to the movies was 47 percent for the week of Dec. 30, unchanged from the week before, after slipping 4 percentage points from 51 percent on Dec. 19.

Age Doesn’t Matter

Younger moviegoers, who are a key demographic for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” have regularly expressed their willingness to return to theaters: As of Dec. 30, 61 percent of millennials and 58 percent of Gen Zers said they were okay with viewing a movie in a theater.

Overall, 19 percent of U.S. consumers polled by Morning Consult said they presently attend movies in theaters, while 18 percent said they intend to do so within the next month and 9% said they want to do so within the next 2-3 months. About 8% want to return to the theater in the next six months, while 19% say it will be more than six months. Around 28% said they didn’t know or didn’t have an opinion.

Meanwhile, according to Morning Consult, Americans prefer going to the movies to going to an amusement park (42 percent), a theater play (41 percent), or a concert (35 percent).

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a rare bright spot for movie theaters in 2021. The year’s total domestic box office income was $4.4 billion, down 61 percent from the previous year when COVID forced the industry to a halt in 2020.

To date, Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has grossed $627 million in North America and a whopping $1.37 billion worldwide, surpassing 2018’s “Black Panther” ($1.34 billion) to become the 12th highest-grossing film in history.