About half of Americans say they have gone to a movie theater in the past year, according to a new analysis released as the Academy Awards approach.
A Pew Research Center survey found that 53% of U.S. adults said they had seen a movie in theaters in the previous 12 months. Another 7% said they had never seen a movie in a theater.
Younger adults were far more likely than older Americans to visit theaters. Two-thirds of adults ages 18 to 29 said they had gone to the movies in the past year, compared with 39% of adults ages 65 and older.
Several other groups were also more likely to report recent theater visits. About 59% of Hispanic adults said they had been to a movie theater in the past year, compared with 53% of White adults and 49% of Black adults.
Income also played a role. Roughly 64% of upper-income Americans reported seeing a movie in theaters in the past year, compared with 57% of middle-income adults and 43% of lower-income adults.
Political affiliation showed a smaller gap. About 58% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents reported going to the movies in the past year, compared with about half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
Despite those numbers, overall movie theater attendance remains far below its historic peak.
The combined U.S. and Canadian market sold about 1.6 billion movie tickets in 2002, the highest total on record and equal to just under five tickets per person. Ticket sales declined gradually afterward but still topped 1.2 billion in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic sharply disrupted the industry. Ticket sales plunged 81% in 2020 to about 231.6 million as theaters shut down.
Attendance has improved since then but has not fully recovered. In 2025, theaters in the U.S. and Canada sold about 769.2 million tickets — roughly two per person.
Box office revenue followed a similar trend. Adjusted for inflation, ticket sales totaled about $16.4 billion in 2002 but fell to less than $3 billion in 2020. Theaters generated just over $9 billion in ticket revenue in 2025.
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