Only 34 percent of American adults prefer watching movies in a theater, compared to 66 percent who prefer watching them at home, according to a poll.
The poll was conducted by HarrisX exclusively for IndieWire and sampled 1,000 American adults between March 11-12. The margin of error is three points.
Here is the meat of it with my emphasis:
Most (53 percent) of those who do not frequent theaters cited the cost of movie tickets as a major reason; 42 percent also mentioned the cost of concessions. While those recliners were a pretty solid motivator for the theater crowd, an even larger percentage (40%) of the streaming lovers cited the “comfort of viewing at home versus in a theater” as a reason to wait.
Twenty-four percent said they’re just straight-up “uninterested.” We’re not sure what their problem is. “Concerns over sanitation and hygiene,” like COVID and the flu, keep 23 percent of respondents away. Twenty-two percent need to pee, citing the “inability to pause the movie or take a break.” (Elsewhere in the survey, 52 percent said movies should be 1.5-2 hours.)
One major problem with this poll is that there is no previous poll for comparison. What we do know is that over the last four years, the domestic box office has collapsed from $11.4 billion in 2019 to $8.9 billion in 2023. That’s about a 30 percent drop. So, let’s look at two reasons people say they have no interest in the theater experience…
A whole 53 percent say cost, while 24 percent say they simply are “not interested.”
Could it be…? And don’t start yelling at me; I’m just thinking out loud here… But could it be that 66 percent of us are looking at the quality of movies today and saying, “It’s not worth the money” or “I’m not interested?”
Upon learning 24 percent are “not interested,” IndieWire snarks, “We’re not sure what their problem is.” But I think we do know what their problem is. The product being offered today does not appeal to them. Don’t they want to know why that is?
Trust me, they do not. If they wanted to know, they would ask.
And that’s what makes this poll even more worthless… Why not ask the 66 percent who prefer not to go to a movie theater if the QUALITY of movies today might have something to do with their lack of interest?
What’s more, why not ask them if their attitude towards seeing movies in a theater has changed over the last few years and then ask why? Sure, they will watch the movie on streaming. Why not? They are already paying for the streaming service, so there’s no investment in the time required to go to the theater or the money.
You see, it’s all a cover-up. No matter how bad the box office gets, no matter how many blockbusters flop, no matter what, no one dares to say, “Maybe if your product didn’t bite the big one, you’d make more money.”
Movies made for Normal People like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Super Mario Bros., Top Gun: Maverick, Dune 2, Kung Fu Panda 4… These movies make money. The creepy DEI crap pumped out by the Disney Grooming Syndicate flops at nearly a 100 percent rate.
No one wants to watch your self-indulgent propaganda, certainly not in a theater.
John Nolte’s debut novel Borrowed Time (Bombardier Books) is available today. You can read an exclusive excerpt here and a review of the novel here.
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