LAST UPDATE: MARCH 3, 2021
Tracking the Return to Normal: Entertainment
This tracker is part of a series from Morning Consult gauging when consumers will return to normal activities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more and sign up for alerts.
Movie theaters, concert venues and amusement parks were just some of the businesses forced to shutter their doors when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the United States in March 2020. And while some of these businesses have attempted to reopen and recover, not all consumers are ready to leave streaming behind and resume out-of-home entertainment. As vaccines are distributed, Morning Consult will continue to monitor consumer comfort in going to the movies, concerts, amusement parks, theaters and museums.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Roughly One-Third of Adults Say They Would Feel Comfortable at a Movie Theater Today: Comfort heading to the movies reached an all-time high with 32 percent of adults saying they’d feel comfortable heading to theaters today. Comfort remains highest among younger survey takers, with 40 percent of millennials and 42 percent of Gen Zers saying they’d feel comfortable returning to a movie theater. Comfort among Democrats held steady, while comfort among Republicans increased 6 percentage points to 42 percent.
- 3 in 10 Adults Say They Would Feel Comfortable Returning to Movie Theaters More Than Six Months From Now: Even as theaters in New York City prepare to reopen later this week, most consumers say it will be more than six months before they return to cinemas, though comfort heading to the movies in the next month increased 2 points from last week to 20 percent. The share who said they’d feel comfortable heading back in the next six months remained at 12 percent for a fifth week.
- Comfort With Other Entertainment Activities Reaches All-Time High: Comfort returning to museums ticked up 5 points to 38 percent. Respondents also grew more comfortable with the idea of returning to amusement parks (31 percent) and theater performances (28 percent). Adults were least comfortable with concerts, with roughly one-quarter saying they would feel comfortable attending one today.
- More Than Half of Consumers Are Streaming TV Shows, Movies: Even as comfort returning to out-of-home entertainment increases, consumers are still streaming. The share of adults who said they stream TV shows at least once a week ticked up 1 point to 61 percent, while the share who said they stream movies at least once a week increased 3 points to 54 percent. Consumers remained less enthused with Hollywood’s increased reliance on video on-demand releases, as the share who said they rent movies digitally at least once a week fell 2 points to 16 percent.
Tracking the Return to Normal
“When will things return to normal?” is a common refrain murmured within political, business and health care leadership circles. To help answer this complicated question, Morning Consult is tracking a number of key indicators in its public opinion polling, from willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine to consumers’ comfort level in returning to leisure activities such as dining out to what people are streaming during the pandemic. We’ll be updating these pages every week with new data and analysis: