Streaming Is Overtaking Theaters For Movie Watchers, an AP-NORC Poll Finds (apnews.com) 69
alternative_right writes: Americans are more likely to watch newly released movies from the comfort of their own homes instead of heading out to a theater, according to a new poll.
About three-quarters of U.S. adults said they watched a new movie on streaming instead of in the theater at least once in the past year, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including about 3 in 10 who watched new movies on streaming at least once a month.
Meanwhile, about two-thirds of Americans said that they've watched a recently released movie in a theater in the past year, and only 16% said they went at least once a month. The results suggest that, on the whole, American moviegoers are more likely to stream a film than see it in the theaters, a shifting tide that was only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
About three-quarters of U.S. adults said they watched a new movie on streaming instead of in the theater at least once in the past year, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including about 3 in 10 who watched new movies on streaming at least once a month.
Meanwhile, about two-thirds of Americans said that they've watched a recently released movie in a theater in the past year, and only 16% said they went at least once a month. The results suggest that, on the whole, American moviegoers are more likely to stream a film than see it in the theaters, a shifting tide that was only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
There was once a time... (Score:5, Insightful)
...when theaters were necessary, because of the tech of the time.
Today, they are dinosaurs that deserve to die.
Drive across town, find a parking space, wait in line, pay way too much for snacks, sit in an uncomfortable seat with no subtitles or ability to pause or rewind. It all sucks.
I can imagine something like a bar or restaurant that shows movies as a kinda background thing, but there is no benefit to movie theaters.
Live plays and music are a different story
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Re:There was once a time... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's subjective.
My wife and I went to see a couple of movies last year because they were big deals to us (Terrifier 3 and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice). We enjoyed the recliners, the limited edition popcorn bucket merch, the time out together, the reclining seats and the big screen.
What we didn't enjoy was the other people in the theatre talking through the movies, using their cell phones, coughing, breathing loudly, chewing food loudly, opening wrappers etc.
I'm with the parent, personally. If other people still enjoy the theatre experience then there's nothing wrong with that and theatres certainly don't "deserve to die." But there are those of us who don't consider watching a movie to be a social activity, and get extremely resentful and triggered when the presence of other people in the space pulls our heads out of the film we're trying to feel immersed in.
Re: There was once a time... (Score:2)
"What we didn't enjoy was the other people in the theatre talking through the movies, using their cell phones, coughing, breathing loudly, chewing food loudly, opening wrappers etc"
Out of curiosity, when do you go to the theater relative to the movie's release date?
I've literally never had this problem, and I'm curious if this is one of those things where the people most likely to go to the theater are also the most likely to insist going on opening weekend, and so are more likely to experience shitty crowd
Re: There was once a time... (Score:2)
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limited edition popcorn bucket merch
I'm going to hold my tongue.
Personally I like to cuddle up with my wife at home.
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There is one part of the theater experience that is not replaced by modern technology.
For many teenagers, the theater was a place they could go to hang out with their friends. The actual movie was more of an excuse, than the main attraction. Some theaters in our area have latched on to this use case, building courtyards and indoor spaces designed for hanging out...with, of course, plenty of availability of overpriced food. These theaters don't even care if people come for the movie, as long as they buy food
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Those must be some well heeled teenagers these days. The price of tickets, soda, popcorn, etc has gotten insanely expensive. I took one of my children to a local theater to see a movie a few months ago and it was about $70 all-in.
Best,
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$8 for a movie ticket. Teens don't need to buy all the rest of the crap you feel is necessary for a trip to the movies...
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You must live in a small town. In the Houston suburb where I live, matinee tickets are $15, evening tickets are $19.
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Wow! There are movie theatres in Toronto (which is about the same size as Houston) that charge $8 (CAD) per matinee ticket.
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Yes, we do have "dollar theaters" with cheaper ticket prices. But unless you *really* need to save money, you typically don't want to go inside them.
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The one in Toronto was very nice. Huh.
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A kid that works at McDonald's makes at least $11 an hour. After about 3 hours, they have enough cash to afford a night at the movies for themselves. Other fast food joints pay more, even Walmart pays more. So maybe $35 per person isn't as outrageous to them as it seems to you.
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Holy smokes. I went with my daughter to see a movie in Toronto. Tickets were $8 apiece. I didn't get any snacks, but she paid $4.50 for popcorn. $20.50 CAD is a bit under $15.80 USD. You guys are getting ripped off.
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There is one part of the theater experience that is not replaced by modern technology.
For many teenagers, the theater was a place they could go to hang out with their friends. The actual movie was more of an excuse, than the main attraction. Some theaters in our area have latched on to this use case, building courtyards and indoor spaces designed for hanging out...with, of course, plenty of availability of overpriced food. These theaters don't even care if people come for the movie, as long as they buy food.
Hah! Brought back memories of teenage date night. I went to many movies I didn't pay much attention to the movies. Much frisky spicy fun was had regardless.
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Did you ever take your girlfriend to a movie and have it turn out so boring that Susie [wikipedia.org] dozed off and made you miss your curfew?
Decent song. I didn't know it was banned in Boston. Funny, I always thought of it as a cautionary tale.
My personal thing in that area was falling asleep on the couch while watching TV with a girlfriend.
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Speaking of experience, I think movies just aren't as spectacular as they once were. They aren't as much of an event anymore.
I watched Fantastic Four now it's on streaming. It was okay, not as good as Superman or the original Avengers movies. But none of them were that far away from what you get on streaming now. Star Trek Strange New Worlds sometimes looks spectacular, and Pacemaker is I think a more interesting and involving story than Superman.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but it doesn't feel like movies a
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Indeed, we've seen so many of them, with such high quality, that it's old news now.
It's instructive to watch old movies, to see what people of each time period thought was good, or funny, or whatever. Few people think Groucho Marx is funny these days, but in his day, people ate it up. Hardly anybody watches shoot-em-up Westerns any more, but those were also very popular back in the day.
Part of it too, is that back then, there was an enormous difference between the experience you got at home on your tiny TV,
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My TV has better picture quality than the cinema now.
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This is true of most of us, as movie screens are typically no more than 2K (4K is starting to show up).
BUT the caveat is that a 2K image that covers your entire field of vision, is immersive, while the typical home setup, even 8K, typically only occupies only a fraction of wall space by comparison.
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For me I much prefer being able to see detail and what is going on clearly, over size. I'm one of those people who has the motion interpolation thing on low as well.
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I think that part of the problem here is that Groucho depended in part on a kind of word play that was fairly common then but is rarely used today. Most people need a moment to process what he said and they don't have the chance because there's no pause. As a classic example, "If you don't like it, you can leave in a huff. If you can't leave in a huff you can leave in a minute and a huff." If you're not used to that t
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Few people think Groucho Marx is funny these days, but in his day, people ate it up
Slapstick humor kind of went away (or alternatively, got an upgrade) with modern CGI. [youtube.com]
Hardly anybody watches shoot-em-up Westerns any more
Again, shoot-em-up westerns are all over the place, but the scenery has changed [youtube.com].
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1) When you pay to watch a movie in a cinema you (most of us at least) dedicate time for it. When you stream at home you are not that invested and it's easier to lose focus, and pick up the phone or start doing something else. This impact how streaming services make content
2) Movies that are made for streaming have a different purpose than movies that are made for cinema. Streaming services only need content, they
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But theatres do provide a big screen and big sound.
If you live in a suburb, not a big deal. If you live in a shoebox, big deal when your desired big screen TV won't let you open the door. And forget about big sound when anything above a whisper gets neighbours from all six sides banging on the walls.
Streaming is perfect, because few streaming services provide big screen or big sound worthy video or audio. Your "4K" stream is hardly better than a 1080p Blu-Ray (not a big surprise - your Blu-Ray is 2-4+ times
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When it comes to visual qualities, maybe steaming can compete if you got 4K Ultra HD, but streaming doesn't have the big screen.
And when it comes to sound, the booming audio in theaters is still better.
When it comes to cost, theater tickets are simple to purchase with an app, and streaming often require a monthly subscription fee.
And I prefer the theater atmosphere (and popcorn), even if I have streaming available.
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Also be forced to watch a half hour of commercials and upcoming attractions.
Add to that, a dweeb on a cellphone lighting up your field of view while you're trying to watch the movie.
For an added "plus", someone sneezing while sitting behind you and not covering their mouth.
I'll gladly pay to watch the movie at home.
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...when theaters were necessary, because of the tech of the time.
Today, they are dinosaurs that deserve to die.
Drive across town, find a parking space, wait in line, pay way too much for snacks, sit in an uncomfortable seat with no subtitles or ability to pause or rewind. It all sucks.
I can imagine something like a bar or restaurant that shows movies as a kinda background thing, but there is no benefit to movie theaters.
Live plays and music are a different story
A lot of this is true for many people. However, not everyone has a large screen TV with a big enough room for a good home theater sound system. I stream movies and also go to the theater. I pay about $7 per movie, and I avoid the theaters with uncomfortable seats. One of the theaters I go to sells me popcorn for $3. My TV and sound system is decent, but the theater still has better equipment and rooms.
Sports events still attract a lot of people willing to pay high ticket prices even though the experien
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TV Quality (Score:3)
When TVs were relatively shit-tier compared to what we have today, a 14in tube sitting on a desk... Movie going made sense.
The same cost/value of that old CRT then, now gets you 4K 65in at home. We've reached the point where it is "good enough"
Plus holyhell are snacks at the movies ungodly expensive. And the cost of the movie tickets themselves. I don't wanna spend $100-200 to take a family or group of friends out to the theater and get snacks there. We can have a more enjoyable experience here at home for a fraction of the cost with better food/snacks/drinks and enjoy things on our schedules, not someone else's. And once the movie is over, we can shift over to gaming on the same screen too!
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The Cinemark theater near me is oddly cheap. For example The Strangers Chapter 2 is $8.25 for this evening. Pre order tickets for Tron Ares are going for $13.25 for a 3d showing. But yeah a drink is gonna cost you like $8.
Re:TV Quality [and price] (Score:2)
Anecdotal evidence. Price collapse or technology improvements or something?
I wanted a new monitor. My computer desk can only hold a 24, so that is what I was looking for. Not urgent, so I was shopping around for a while--and then found a new 32 on sale for less than any 24 I'd seen. Actually a TV with HDMI ports. (There was an even bigger one for slightly more money, but at least I could figure out where to put the 32.)
Hmm... Tees is a Chinese brand... Maybe I should be wondering about a spyware discount? (
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Per the other reply to my comment, but also relevant here, my old eyes don't like small text, so I'm not trying to display lots of pages of tiny stuff, but the large display is much better than resorting to a magnifying glass.
Per your comment, I acknowledge that that having to cut the power is a bit of an annoyance, but I've gotten used to it. And I'd say it's less annoying than cutting the power on the wireless mouse.
(But have any Funny comments appeared in the discussion?)
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There was an even bigger one for slightly more money, but at least I could figure out where to put the 32.)
Hmm... Tees is a Chinese brand... Maybe I should be wondering about a spyware discount? (And I should ask if there are any reasons against using TVs as external monitors?)
Keep the television circuitry off the internet, and you should be good. I can't think of any reasons to not use a monitor. They tend not to be as fast, so gamers might take issue. I really love my 43 inch Hisense, with a 27 inch monitor sidekick.
I especially love that setup when I use my work laptop, the program I use has really small text, and scaling doesn't work well on the laptop for some reason, so it gets shown in glorious 42 inch UHD.
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With 85" tv getting under $1000, 65 inch tvs are the norm, not the exception. They have terrible color, but a lot of people are willing to trade color/brightness for size.
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Or, go to a 65 inch 4k TV with HDR 10+ or better for $1000, and you now have a better quality display than what you get in most theaters. Set up a 5.1 channel surround sound system with a $400 amp and decent speakers, and you now have a better environment for watching a movie than most movie theaters. The IMAX theaters are still worth it for the better quality, but most theaters were old and outdated back in 2020(before Covid gave them an excuse for everything being outdated).
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It's the experience with the popcorn and snacks. I only need a sharp enough picture to tell what is happening.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose, I'm very fussy about resolution. I used to be called on to do computer animations back in the day. The gorgeous stuff on the computer was horrifically abused when turned to videotape and shown on a NTSC monitor.
And ugh, the old frame by frame recording onto tape. I don't miss those days.
I know that while I was dating, the movie theater experience was fun.
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They have terrible color, but a lot of people are willing to trade color/brightness for size
You know what really has terrible color? Your average theater. They also have shitty black levels.
Enforce decorum (Score:4, Insightful)
There are lots of reasons why I don't want to go to the theater any more, but the #1 reason is people are assholes. I don't want to be around people who won't shut the fuck up while I am watching a movie, or who are playing with their phone.
If theaters will kick those people out, I'll go again. Otherwise I'll stay home and get almost the same field of vision with my big cheap TV.
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There are lots of reasons why I don't want to go to the theater any more, but the #1 reason is people are assholes. I don't want to be around people who won't shut the fuck up while I am watching a movie, or who are playing with their phone.
If theaters will kick those people out, I'll go again. Otherwise I'll stay home and get almost the same field of vision with my big cheap TV.
Same here. Hard to imagine whay anyone would want to go to a movie to listen to people talking on their phones, or spending the whole time texting.
I'm completely off topic here, but earlier this week I was on a ferry ride that was on the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. It was great. We had porpoises breaching, seagulls flying along with us, and even monarch butterflies hitching a ride across the Bay. Completely charming.
Probably 90 percent of the people spent the entire trip staring at their phones,
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Huh. Here (Ottawa, ON, Canada) I find most people are quiet in movie theatres and I have seen decorum enforced by having a disruptive person kicked out.
Well lets see. (Score:2)
It's not surprising (Score:1)
What your are paying for (Score:2)
Just too expensive (Score:2)
I am in a city but not in the bibgest cities in the us. And the "cheap" theaters charges $16 per seat.
So yeah, not surprised people are not going.
Cinemas? (Score:2)
Honestly not worth it (Score:4, Insightful)
I have had covid and it sucks. I was at the tail end of my vaccination cycle probably 5 months in and 20 minutes in a bagel shop was enough. Sick as a dog for a week and would have been a lot worse but I at least had some immunity.
I mean what shocked me was just how easy it was to get it. It wasn't that far after my first vaccination, might have been my second, so about 11 months in after the first round of vaccines were available. I was still actively avoiding public spaces but I just had to get an oil change done and I just hit a limit where I couldn't stand around anymore and needed to sit down somewhere and there wasn't anywhere outside the shop to sit.
These days if I'm out in public most of the time I've got a n95 mask on. I wish we had the kind of culture Asia has where mask wearing wasn't some idiot moral panic because then I wouldn't have to worry as much.
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If you think getting COVID from a movie theater is bad, just wait until you get bed bugs from a movie theater. At least COVID typically goes away after a week or so. Bed bugs do not.
Ask me why I don't go to movie theaters anymore.
some nice options this month (Score:1)
For me it started long ago (Score:2)
For me it started during the film-to-digita transition of the late 90's. Once '99 or '00 rolled around, presentation quality tanked, and badly.
By 2005 I had made my own home theater, which I still have. The presentation is cinematic in picture and sound and proportion. The only thing missing is crowd reaction, overpriced concessions and all that.
I still went to the movies 'til maybe.. 2013? Whenever Rush came out. That was my last.
One of the last film movies I saw was Brave the year before, at a local
Missing Netflix DVDs (Score:2)
But the same reasons for staying home to watch streaming now applied equally to DVDs.
I still enjoy going out to a movie occasionally (Score:2)
I don't go often, but I still enjoy the experience. I smuggle in my own food, of course!
A lot of movie theatres in my city have closed, but there are still a bunch within a 15-25 minute drive of my house, so there's not much inconvenience.
ATMOS as home (Score:2)
Lack of Quality Films (Score:2)
This is the real problem - there is very little being produced that warrants the cost and inconveniece of the cinema experience.
If im going to watch another mediocre film im not going to make a special effort thats for sure.
Son and me only avg. once to twice a year... (Score:2)
It's Not All About the Movie (Score:1)
It's the theater experience.
Go watch the movie, and not have to make the popcorn, not have to clean up the place after eating the popcorn, while a good percent of the reason for the theater is to get out of the house, not enjoy it in the house. House is almost 24 / 7 / 365 anyway, esp. if you're retired, and getting out is variety. Experiencing the movie with others, even strangers, has some value as well. And the folks that work at the movie are pleasant. Everything about going to the movie beyond a
In my day... (Score:2)
I enjoyed going to the theater. You experienced and event, blocking out the outside world, usually sharing it with certain people.
Home viewing has improved, but you still have the dog interrupt, spouses pause things, and often viewing gets split across 2-3 nights. The committment is low for better and worse.
Theater viewing has largely gone down hill. The recliner seats are improved, but fellow patrons are so much worse. Full brightness phones, rude behavior, late arrivals all seem more common than 20+ y