80% of moviegoers afraid to return to cinema halls post COVID: PINKVILLA Report

We are in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak and in lieu of flattening the curve and stopping the ascension of a global pandemic, we are all quarantined and practising social distancing. With the extension of the lockdown in India, we all have been home for almost a month which means that the people who are usually going out, to the malls, the club or used to watching movies at the cinema hall are making friends with the furniture in their house - Learning new ways of communicating, staying productive and working.

There’s no denying that there will now be a division of time. There will be a pre-COVID era and a post-COVID one. From the way people consume news and current affairs to what they are watching has been spun around on its head.

We deployed a survey to almost 200,000 individuals through our trusted resources i.e. PINKVILLA social media pages to give us a look-see into the content and media consumption matrix and the results? They shocked us too.

We asked 200,000 people across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. and almost 80% of them would not like to watch movies in a cinema hall. 69.92% of individuals would rather wait for the movies on any OTT platforms and watch them in the safety of their own homes.

73.41% of moviegoers would not enter a theatre for at least 6 months if at all

In addition to the above data, we also asked the people to tell us a time frame when they would feel comfortable entering a cinema hall IF AT ALL. According to the data, we don’t see people perusing movie theatres for at least 6 months post-COVID.

Another find that shocked us was the fact that while we are living in a digitally savvy world at this time, the preferred medium for 76% of individuals is a TV and not any of the digital platforms like YouTube or various other OTT platforms. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Though if you delve into this decision slightly deeper, it would make sense. While OTT platforms offer you a variety, they also leave the decision to you while JUST suggesting what you should be watching. Television, on the other hand, takes the decision making clause away. They air what they have and it’s your choice whether to watch it or not. If you are stuck indoors for almost a month, decision making seems like a daunting task.

Currently, there have been 2,199,560 coronavirus cases diagnosed around the world with around 147,749 deaths reported so far.* In India, we are looking at about 13,703 cases on an increase with 457 fatalities.**

Well if this data is any indication at what’s to come in a post-COVID world, cinema halls are going to have a tough time pulling their patrons back in. What does this mean for the celluloid industry as a whole? Only time will tell.

*Data accurate at the time of this article being written. For a more detailed consensus visit the source

**Data accurate at the time of this article being written. For a more detailed consensus visit the source

(We got this information in a press release.)