Moviegoers Highly Likely To Return To Theaters Upon Reopening, But More Than Half Will Wait A Bit, Study Suggests

EXCLUSIVE: A majority of moviegoers definitely plan to head back to movie theaters once COVID-19 quells, however, 56% will take their time.

The results were unveiled this morning in analytics corp EDO’s “Social Distancing Moviegoing and TV Habits” report which polled 6,8k respondents nationwide last week (March 24-28), largely moviegoers, on their at-home viewing habits during this quarantine time, as well as their readiness to return to the cinema.

In promising news for both exhibitors and studios, over 70% of those polled indicated that they were likely to return to theaters once they reopened, with a substantial 45% saying they were “highly likely.”

At the time same, a combined 45% said they would come back very soon, broken down as 20% returning immediately and 25% a few days later. However, 45% said they would wait a few weeks to head back to the cinema once they reopen, with 11% of respondents saying they’d wait several months.

Overall, since movie theaters closed, about 75% of those in the study said they were likely to purchase movies on-demand. Following exhibition’s shutdown, many studios had but no choice but to fast-track their current theatrical titles into the home window with such movies as Onward, Sonic the Hedgehog, Invisible Man, Bloodshot, The Hunt and more. Over Easter weekend, Universal is making Trolls World Tour available for a 48-hour rental at $19.99.

U.S. and Canadian exhibitors began closing down on March 16, and at this point in time could remain shuttered until early June. This occurred in tandem as major studios began removing their event films from the spring schedule with MGM’s No Time to Die, Disney’s Mulan and Black Widow, Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II and more.

Those polled skewed female with roughly half under the age of 35. The group largely at 95% saw at least two movies over the last six months. Nearly the entire group said that they were at least somewhat concerned about the COVID-19 epidemic.

Unsurprisingly, there was a substantial increase in at-home entertainment consumption during the early part of the pandemic according to the report, which illuminated those viewing choices greatly. Approximately 85% of those polled said that their at-home TV and movie consumption had increased to some degree since the COVID-19 outbreak began, with almost half stating that their consumption grew by 50% or more.

Close to half said that they were purchasing movies on demand from digital providers like Amazon, YouTube and Apple iTunes. Following the outbreak, traditional broadcast & cable TV saw the biggest dip in consumption among the at-home entertainment mediums when compared to on-demand movies from cable providers, on-demand movies from digital providers, ad-supported streaming and ad-free streaming services.