Moviegoer Tastes Grew More Diverse, Pivoted Away From Blockbusters After the Pandemic | Charts

The movie industry heavily relies on blockbuster titles. In a highly concentrated market, a few hit movies capture most of the attention and generate the bulk of box office revenue. With the industry and viewership habits undergoing an upheaval in recent years, why has audience attention focused on a small number of titles? And how this has evolved, especially after events like the pandemic?

One way to analyze concentration is by examining the demand share for the most in-demand movies in a market. According to Parrot Analytics’ Demand 360, in the first half of 2024, the top 1% of movies in the U.S. accounted for 11.4% of total demand, the lowest figure since 2021. Meanwhile, the top 10% and 20% of movies generated 49% and 67% of demand, respectively.

The data indicates a decline in demand share for top movies during 2020 and 2021, the years most impacted by the pandemic. The top 1% of movies experienced the most significant drop in demand share, which continued even post-pandemic. While the top 20% maintained a similar demand share in 2024 as in 2018, around two-thirds of the total demand, the top 1% share fell by 3.5 percentage points in 2024, and the top 10% share decreased by one percentage point.

The halt in movie releases during the pandemic, particularly big-budget blockbusters that typically dominate audience attention, led to more widespread distribution of attention across a broader set of titles during those years, including older movies.

This trend is also evident in the increasing supply and demand share for streaming-released movies over the past seven years. Streaming movies reached a peak demand share of around 7% in 2023. In the first half of 2024, the share decreased to 6% of the total demand for movies, still double the 3% demand share in 2019. Despite this growth, streaming movies continue to underperform, with their demand share remaining lower than their supply share.

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