Big Screens, Big Comeback
What is entertainment? For years, it was the sight of dimming lights, sound of laughter across an audience, and smell of buttery popcorn. Entertainment was not just watching a movie – it was the experience itself. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, this experience faced an unprecedented challenge. With social distancing and health concerns, many individuals stayed home and forgot about theaters altogether. This explains why movie theaters reported alarming records of low attendance and ticket sales during the pandemic.
Now, five years later, entertainment is at a turning point. Theaters are now working to reestablish what entertainment means. In one case, several recent studies by Statista explore whether the big screens are making a big comeback.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, over one billion movie tickets were sold within the United States and Canada. This massive number helps prove how important moviegoing was to Americans. With over a billion movies watched, individuals participated in the immersive experience that a home setup viewing experience cannot replicate. By having a shared, immersive experience, audiences are able to laugh, cry, gasp, and be shocked together. Yet, by 2020, this number significantly decreased to just two hundred million. Due to this decrease, some movie theaters were forced to lay off employees and, in some cases, close altogether. If it had not been for the end of the pandemic, entertainment itself may have been forced to find a new home.
Have things changed? Despite these challenges, recent data shows that members of all generations demonstrate an increase in movie theater attendance. In 2023, 14 percent of American Gen-Z members reported an increase. On the other hand, Millennials and Gen-X members reported between 10 percent and 18 percent increase. While these numbers are hopeful, they highlight the importance for theaters to draw in mass audiences and appeal to all after the pandemic.
One movie theater chain actively working to engage all generations is Cinemark. Founded 1984, one of Cinemark’s missions is to provide extraordinary out-of-home entertainment for all demographics to create an experience unlike any other. Whether it is through Cinemark XD, Luxury Lounge chairs, or D-BOX motion seats, each aspect of the modern viewing experience is designed with a comeback from the pandemic in mind. Not only is going to the movie theaters a tradition, new technology has made it a new experience altogether.
As of 2024, Cinemark operates 497 movie theaters worldwide with more than 5,500 thousand screens. The mission of Cinemark, and many other movie theaters, remains clear: enrich lives, build community, and transport people to new worlds with the power of cinema. By enriching, building, and transporting individuals, theaters everywhere are proving that entertainment is not
fading. Instead, it is growing back to how it was before the pandemic.
Though the future is uncertain, there is one thing that remains clear. There is something unique when watching a film the way the creators intended – on the big screen. The high-quality visuals, shared emotions, and unmistakable scent of popcorn are unable to be replicated. As shown by Cinemark and Statistica, this is why members of all generations reported an increase in movie theater attendance despite how the pandemic once hindered entertainment.
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