TV Tuesday: Home Theater

[yourlibrarian]

Quite a few movies each year are made for the TV market/go direct to streaming. At this year's Oscars there were various references to the importance of seeing movies in theaters. Is it important to you to see movies in theaters or do you prefer to watch them on TV? What about movies that continue TV shows -- do you want those to be in theaters?

EDITED TO ADD: Wikia (I will never call them Fandom) did a survey on streaming services in 2022 which has some interesting details seen in the PDF link.

a) The main things people like about viewing movies at home: the pause button (82%), Subtitles (61%), lower cost (59%) and safer than theaters (38%).

Interesting that so many people are using subtitles -– something I've been doing for years given difficult to hear dialogue interspersed with very loud action scenes. However some people must find their home environment unpleasant or inconvenient because among the top reasons people like to see things in theaters are snacks/food (44%) and comfort of the seating (36%) which I would have thought would be way better and cheaper at home. What's also curious is that although 47% cite the "shared experience" as being a draw of theater viewing, among the top things they prefer to watch at home is comedies (85%). By contrast the top genres for theater viewing are all fannish, with superheroes being the top one (50%).

(b) What do people like to do beyond just watching entertainment

Research to become an expert (68%), Discuss with friends & family (63%), write/read fanfiction (37%), buy merchandise (37%), write/read fan theories (28%), buy collectibles (27%), experiences (14%)

I've no idea what "experiences" means, but this may be one of the few surveys available that breaks down the numbers for curatorial and creative fandom activities.