As the Oscars approach, a look at moviegoing habits in the United States
With Hollywood preparing to celebrate its biggest films at the Academy Awards on Sunday, new data suggests movie theaters remain a meaningful, yet more selective, part of American life in the age of streaming.
Just over half of U.S. adults say they went to a movie theater at least once in the previous 12 months, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in summer 2025. While that figure remains well below pre-pandemic levels, researchers say it underscores that the silver screen is still popular, particularly among younger Americans.
“Going to see a movie in a theater is still a fairly widespread activity,” said Drew DeSilver, a senior writer at the Pew Research Center. “It’s something that half to more than half of people have done at least once in the previous 12 months. On the other hand, it’s nowhere near as prevalent as it was even just a few years ago.”
The survey asked adults whether they had gone to a movie theater between summer 2024 and summer 2025. It did not measure how often people attended, only whether they had gone at least once.
The highest attendance was among younger adults. About two-thirds of those ages 18 to 29 said they had been to a movie theater, compared with just 39% of adults ages 65 and older. Higher-income Americans were also significantly more likely to attend than those in lower-income households.
Industry observers say the data reflects a broader transformation in how theaters fit into American life. Instead of serving as a default form of entertainment, moviegoing has become more intentional — something people choose for a specific experience rather than convenience.
“There’s something about the experience of seeing something with a crowd on a large screen that holds a kind of special pleasure,” said Nathan Roberts, a film historian and professor of film and visual studies at Harvard University. “The fact that people are going back suggests that experience is worth going out of the way for.”
Since 2020, studios have dramatically shortened the window between theatrical releases and home viewing, allowing many films to be streamed within weeks of their debut. Rather than erasing demand for theaters, Roberts said, the shift has made the distinction between home viewing and theatrical viewing more pronounced.
“You can still wait two or three weeks and see even big movies at home,” he said. “But the people who go are going because they want something different.”
That difference is increasingly defined by scale. Studios have invested heavily in premium formats such as IMAX, marketing films as must-see theatrical events and, in some cases, re-releasing older titles in large-format screenings.
Relying on the replay
Theaters have also turned to re-releases to fill screens as studios produce fewer new films. Major chains now regularly program older movies alongside new releases, a strategy that was once limited largely to specialty theaters or private events.
“Theaters have more auditoriums than films being released,” Roberts said. “At the same time, studios are making fewer movies, so re-releasing older titles solves problems for both sides.”
Because the films already exist, re-releases come at minimal cost to studios while allowing theaters to keep screens active. Many of the selections are driven by generational nostalgia, drawing audiences eager to revisit films tied to their childhood or teenage years.
“This is a very low price point way to tap into generational nostalgia,” Roberts said.
Too much streaming
Cost is also a factor shaping how often Americans go to the movies. Average ticket prices in the United States have steadily climbed over the past decade, with many theaters charging well over $10 for standard admission and significantly more for premium formats such as IMAX or luxury seating. Concessions can add substantially to the total cost of an outing. As a result, some moviegoers are reserving theater trips for major releases or special occasions, while opting to stream smaller films at home where a monthly subscription may cost less than a single ticket.
While Pew’s survey did not ask respondents why they chose to attend or skip theaters, both researchers and analysts point to mounting fatigue with at-home media consumption.
“There’s a paradox of choice,” Roberts said. “You have so many things you could watch at home that it actually doesn’t feel good. Buying a ticket to one movie and going somewhere else feels special.”
Theaters have also adopted subscription-style pricing to counter rising ticket costs, offering monthly passes that encourage repeat visits.
Despite signs of stabilization, Pew researchers caution against interpreting the data as a full recovery. Moviegoing attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and long-term ticket sales data showed a sharp drop during COVID-19 followed by only a partial rebound.
“After the pandemic, those numbers came back up, but certainly not anywhere near where they were,” DeSilver said. “The bottom just dropped out, and even afterward, theaters never fully recovered.”
Still, DeSilver said the persistence of moviegoing suggests theaters are far from obsolete.
“If you look at the big picture, going to the movies is still something a lot of people do,” he said. “It’s just not the same kind of routine activity it once was.”
Roberts agreed, noting that predictions about the “death of cinema” have surfaced repeatedly throughout film history.
“People don’t go to amusement parks every day, but they value the experience,” he said. “The specialness of theatrical moviegoing isn’t going away — even if it happens less often.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
