All the naysayers who believe no one goes to the movies anymore, take note: "Iron Man 3" roared into U.S. theaters last week, opening to $175 million, the second-largest movie opening weekend of all time.
Maybe it's another sign the economy is turning around or maybe video streaming and rentals just don't measure up.
"People are much more into instant gratification," said Jamie Howard, general manager of the Capitol Theatre in Arlington, which used to be primarily a second-run cinema before it switched to new releases such as "Iron Man 3." "You really have to be on point to compete."
As recently as last year, it looked like theaters were facing their final curtain call. A Harris Interactive poll found that 61 percent of adults surveyed said they rarely, if ever, went out to the movies. Of those who did, 55 percent said they went less often than they did before the recession.
And with the growing number of home movie options available to people, the results seemed hardly surprising.
Just over half said they rented or bought movies on DVD or Blue-ray, 30 percent said they watched movies on demand from a cable or satellite provider, and 34 percent said they streamed movies either online for free or with a paid online provider such as Net-flix or Amazon.
The payoff for those providers has been huge. Netflix reported revenue of $1.02 billion in the first quarter of this year and announced that it had added 2 million subscribers during that period, for a grand total of 29.2 million.
"It used to be if you had a really great movie, you could hold onto it for eight or nine months," Howard said. "Now, with Netflix and all of the other alternatives, four months is a long time."
Nevertheless, first-run theaters offer the instant gratification those providers can't, she said, and it's a group experience similar to going to see a band in concert, as opposed to listening to a CD at home alone.
"People still go out to the movies because it's a night out on the town," said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, which last year reported record-breaking box office sales of $10.8 billion in the United States and Canada, or about $9.72 billion in the U.S. alone.
"Some people say it's because ticket prices have gone up," Fithian said, "but ticket sales increased by about 5.5 percent last year."
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