While consumers understand cinemas and live music venues have been among the hardest hit industries by the coronavirus pandemic, they’re also the ones they care least about according to a new survey from Performance Research and Full Circle Research.
According to the survey of over 1,000 people in the U.S. conducted between August 3rd and 10th, around 70% of consumers understand COVID-19 has had a severe negative impact on cinemas with 69% seeing an impact on live music concerts. That’s higher than anything else including festivals and live theater (65%), airlines (61%), sit-down restaurants (57%), hotels (50%), museums (50%) and independent and non-profit arts organizations (44%).
Even with that understanding though, they are less keen to support federal relief for cinemas compared to other sectors. In fact the support for federal funding statistics are somewhat inversed from the awareness statistics. Just 51% of respondents either moderately or very supportive of cinemas receiving federal aid.
That’s better than the 36% for live music concerts, 39% for fairs and festivals, and 46% for live theater, but all lag behind sit-down restaurants (80%), museums (64%), hotels (58%), independent and non-profit arts organizations (57%) and airlines (56%). Things do pick up for cinemas when the survey says asked if it were a “matter of life or death” – the 51% support jumps to 63%.
The results come as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo this morning says re-opening cinemas is still a ‘high risk’ proposition at this time:
“I am sure there is a whole group people who say, ‘I cannot live without going to the movies.’ But on a relative risk scale, a movie theater is less essential and poses a high risk. It is congregant. It is one ventilation system. You are seated there for a long period of time. Even if you are at 50% capacity with one or two seats between the two of you, this is a risk situation and…movie theaters are not that high on the list of essentials.”
There are currently 1,386 out of 6,021 theaters open across the United States, 316 of them being drive-in theaters.
Source: Variety
