Gen Z is turning out for movies in large numbers, but the year’s box office still is unlikely to return to the heights it regularly reached in the past. That’s the hard fact behind the cheerleading: the industry wants young bodies in seats, but the numbers still point to a business scrambling to keep people paying for a ritual that used to happen by habit.
Who Gets Counted, and Who Gets Sold
The latest debate over whether young audiences have saved theatrical film centers on a wave of youth turnout, the rise of YouTube-born directors as bankable filmmakers, and a moviegoing culture that now looks very different from the one that once filled multiplexes by habit. The Atlantic said the cheery headlines about Gen Z and cinema largely traced back to a January Fandango survey of 7,000 adults in the United States. In that survey, 87% of Gen Z respondents said they had watched at least one film in theaters in the previous 12 months, and the average Zoomer had seen seven movies. By comparison, 70% of Gen X respondents had done the same, and they averaged 6.1 movies.
That survey pool wasn’t exactly a neutral cross-section of the public. The article noted that Fandango’s survey pool drew disproportionately from movie enthusiasts, with 5,091 respondents having gone out to see at least one film in the previous year. So the industry gets its optimistic headline, but from a crowd already inclined to show up. That’s not salvation. That’s a carefully selected audience being used to dress up a shaky business model.
Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst for Rentrak, said, "Theatrical films don’t have a future if you can’t capture the younger audiences of today, who are going to be the older audiences of tomorrow." Kevin Goetz, the CEO and founder of Screen Engine, offered a more cautious line: "I think that there’s a lot to be optimistic about, but I would not put the return of theatrical back at the feet of Gen Z," and added, "I wouldn’t proclaim victory quite yet." Pew found in a survey last summer that 67% of people ages 18 to 29 had seen a movie in the theater in the past 12 months.
The Numbers Behind the Hype
This year brought the runaway success of Backrooms and Obsession, which marked the coronation of YouTube auteurs as bankable directors and drew notably fresh-faced crowds. Even so, the box office is unlikely to return to the heights it regularly reached in the past. More people are staying at home. In 2019, the share of the non-moviegoing population was 24%, according to Vista Group, which provides analytics and software for the film industry; in 2024, that number hit 30%. In 2025, theaters in the U.S. and Canada sold approximately two tickets per capita, less than half of what they sold in 2002.
Other surveys, from sources the article described as more disinterested than Fandango, showed that Gen Z sees fewer movies than past generations of youth. Gallup data provided to the author showed that in 2007, 18-to-29-year-olds went out to see an average of nine films. In 2025, the same demographic saw 4.3 movies. Matthew Liebmann, Vista Group’s chief product, innovation, and marketing officer, said Gen Zers’ habits have started to converge with those of the general moviegoing population. The article said moviegoing used to be a matter of habit meeting spontaneity, but now patrons generally plan visits in advance and decide whether to go at all before choosing what to see.
That shift matters because it turns a once-routine public habit into a calculated purchase. The theater no longer gets people by default. It has to sell them on the whole outing, and then sell them again once they’re inside.
What the Industry Calls Experience
Theaters have adapted by adding more amenities. Bob Bagby, the CEO of B&B Theatres, said his locations now offer mah-jongg, trivia and bingo, and some have bocce and pickleball courts, while other chains have added ropes courses and axe-throwing. "I’ve seen it," Bagby said of axe-throwing. "Our insurance people said No, no, don’t do that." Penn Ketchum, the managing partner of Penn Cinema, said the Gen Z crowd wants to come in and be somewhere cool, describing a 24-tap self-serve beer wall he installed in one location as part of a $2 million renovation. He said, "They don’t want to come through a dingy, dusty, aged lobby. They want to come in from the parking lot and be somewhere that’s worthy of being in the background of their picture."
Alicia Reese, a senior vice president of equity research for media and entertainment at Wedbush Securities, said, "Over time, people have been trained to spend more at the theater when they go." Matthew Liebmann said encouraging audiences to associate moviegoing with "all the trimmings and treats" creates an "affordability misperception," which may dampen their appetite for regular visits. That’s the squeeze in plain sight: the industry keeps layering on extras, then wonders why the price of entry starts to look like a trap instead of a night out.
Gen Z may be filing into more auditoriums than expected, but the experience has been retooled around them and depends on many things beyond sitting in a dark room together as a projector rattles. The bosses want the crowd, the add-ons, and the markup. What they don’t have is the old habit that made theaters feel inevitable.