Covid-19 certainly did a number on the movie industry as a whole. Production shut down completely and very few movies were released in theaters if at all. Now that is all behind us (we hope), theater owners are looking forward to getting some more behinds in their seats. But has Covid conditioned us to stop planning on going to the movies? That is the question posed by Whip Media who surveyed U.S. consumers in April 2021 and April 2022 to gauge their feelings about going to theaters or wait and watch the new movies at home.

In 2021, 90% of the survey takers said that they plan to return to theaters (at some point). In 2022, this number dropped to 75% who said that they plan to return to the theater this summer. Also in 2021, half of the responders said that they would be more willing to purchase a home viewing of a title that they are “on the fence about seeing” rather than paying to see it in a theater. This year, that number jumped to 75%.

The survey found that franchise films and sequels continue to attract theater goers while viewers still prefer to watch family and smaller films at home. For instance, when it comes to the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, 77% of surveyors said they would prefer to watch Thor in the theater versus 23% who plan to watch it at home. Thor is followed by Jurassic World Dominion (70%), Top Gun: Maverick (52%), and Jordan Peele’s Nope (46%) as the movies viewers most want to see in theaters. The movies that respondents prefer to watch at home include family-oriented titles such as DC’s League of Super-Pets (80%), Minions: The Rise of Gru (72%), and Lightyear (61%) topping the list. They also prefer to see the biopic Elvis (72%) and the horror film The Black Phone (70%) at home.

Methodology: The findings are based on a survey of 1,722 TV Time users from April 15-17, 2022. Results have been balanced to reflect US census population gender and age (13-54).

Main Image: Pixabay