The Barbie effect: 9 million Americans return to the movies thanks to a Margot Robbie movie

This is what happens when a movie grosses more than a billion dollars. Domestically in the United States, Barbie is on track to gross $500 million and appears to be well on its way to surpassing Super Mario Bros. The Movie with $574 million to become the biggest feature film of the year. most profitable. And when a movie makes that much money, obviously a large and diverse audience is behind its success.

The Quorum site then decided to conduct its own little survey of those who bought a ticket to see it Barbie. Specifically, the site investigated whether a film was successful in bringing audiences back to the cinema.

Over the past three weeks, 1,800 people have been interviewed for the survey. We asked them the first question: do you often go to the cinema? 46% answered “all the time”, 32% “occasionally”, then 11% did not remember the last time they went to the cinema and 11% answered that Barbie It was the first movie they saw after the pandemic.

This is a very interesting statistic, especially when you do the math. At the time of posting the survey, Barbie was $450 million grossed at the box office. If the average ticket price in the United States is $11, then approximately 41 million tickets have been sold. If we take 22% of that (who doesn’t remember the last time they went to the movies and that’s why they went Barbie + those who haven’t seen a movie in theaters since the pandemic), so about 9 million people returned to dark theaters exclusively to see Greta Gerwig’s movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

A sustainable return to theaters?

But the research went further and also tried to find out what these people thought about going back to cinema. Of these, 40% said the experience reminded them how much they loved going there and that they would return more often. 45% said they would go more often but the ticket price was an issue and finally 15% said it was once in a lifetime and would need another movie like Barbie to return them. The question also had an “other” option that several people used.

Such is the impact Barbie which will be especially remembered for its ability to bring people back to the cinema. Not only has the film succeeded in bringing American audiences back to theaters, but it may also change their post-COVID habits, with those who say they’re ready to return more often. It remains to be seen whether the general strike in Hollywood will affect this progress: with all the movies being delayed and release dates being changed, it’s going to be really difficult. For example, there are no plans for a large-scale release on October 6th, one of the most desirable weekends of the year in the United States…so, moving on.

Barbie is currently playing at a movie theater near you.