Listen, I want to dumb it down in the comfort and privacy of my own home. I'm buying a 100" TV with a giant sound system and watch some stuff blow up while Vin Diesel kicks some ass.
How Going to the Movies Is Changing, in Charts
Hollywood’s new normal involves fewer wide releases, more big screens and novelty popcorn
By Nate RattnerFollow
Aug. 6, 2024 7:00 am ET
America’s box office is fighting for a comeback. A Hollywood ending still seems far off.
Young audiences haven’t returned to the movies in earnest since Covid, the number of screens in the U.S. is waning and it takes smash hits on IMAX-scale screens to sell tickets. Plus, Americans are evermore comfortable watching movies at home.
The 2024 box office was at roughly $4.8 billion as of Aug. 1, according to box-office tracker Comscore, lower than the year-to-date totals of recent years...
...meaning 2024 is on pace to be another year of ticket sales falling short of prepandemic levels.
The stakes for the industry are particularly high during the summer season, which typically makes up some 40% of domestic ticket sales in a given year.
There have been fewer wide releases—movies opening or eventually playing in 2,000 or more theaters—out this year. Just 54 wide-release films have been released so far in 2024, which is about 80% of the average number by this point in prepandemic years.
The number of screens in the U.S. has contracted in recent years as studios have struggled to rebuild consumers’ moviegoing muscle. Theater screens globally have expanded since 2020, though worldwide growth was roughly flat last year, according to research firm Omdia.
Number of cinema screens, change from a year earlier
Graphic showing the year-over-year percentage change in the number of cinema screens in the U.S. and globally. In the U.S., screen growth has been declining since 2020. Globally, the number of screens has been expanding in recent years, though growth was largely flat in 2023.
U.S.
To attract customers, theaters have begun offering novelty perks such as special popcorn buckets, in-theater playgrounds and cocktail bars. Others are trying to make moviegoing logistics as easy as possible with order-ahead concessions.
When customers do go to movies, they increasingly prefer “premium large format” and IMAX screens, both of which now account for a larger share of box-office sales than they did before the pandemic.
Share of domestic box-office sales, by theater type
Chart showing the share of domestic box-office sales from IMAX theaters and premium large format theaters. Combined, the two formats make up 14.4% of sales in 2024 through June 30, nearly double their combined share in 2015.
White audiences, who long made up the greatest portion of the moviegoing population, have been slow to return to theaters. Hispanic audiences, meanwhile, account for a growing percentage of movie ticket buyers.
Young people—those 18 to 34 that were regular moviegoers before the pandemic—have proved harder to win back.
The graphic shows Hispanic audiences make up a larger share of moviegoers in 2024 relative to 2012, and that younger audiences aged 18–34 represent a declining share of audiences over the past few years.
As more consumers opt to watch movies from home, some studios have shortened the time between theatrical releases and when movies are available for at-home rental. For many families, spending $20 to rent a new movie at home is cheaper than a theater outing.
More films are being made available to consumers at home for the first time via so-called premium rentals, rather than via streaming services.
Share of theatrical film releases, by how they were first available for at-home viewing
Bar chart showing the share of theatrical film wide releases by how the movies were first available for viewing at home. So far this year, 86% of theatrical releases have been first available at home for rent or purchase at a premium price point (meaning at least $19.99 to rent or $24.99 to buy), up from 9% in 2020.
Physical disc
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