The summer movie season is back.
With theaters shut down from March to August last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, movie studios pushed many of their biggest releases to this summer.
But while a large portion of theaters in the US are back open and movies are being released, Hollywood looks nothing like it did a year ago.
Media companies like Disney and WarnerMedia reorganized around their streaming businesses during the pandemic. Warner Bros. rocked Hollywood when it announced it would simultaneously release its entire 2021 film slate to theaters and WarnerMedia's streaming service, HBO Max. Disney is doing the same with some of its biggest titles this year on its own streaming platform, Disney+, though at an additional $30 cost for subscribers.
Paramount's parent company, ViacomCBS, launched its expanded version of CBS All Access in March, called Paramount+, and plans to release "A Quiet Place Part II" to the service 45 days after it hits theaters on Memorial Day weekend. And Universal has struck deals with some theater chains, including the world's largest, AMC Theatres, to shrink the theatrical window from the traditional 75 days to, in most cases, just 17 days.
In short, consumers have more options than ever to watch Hollywood tentpole movies this summer. To see how people were feeling about heading back to theaters, and what movies they were most anticipating, the television-tracking app TV Time conducted a survey, from April 28 to April 29, of 1,904 of its users in the US (the results were balanced to reflect US census population data).
Of the summer movie releases, consumers were most anticipating "Black Widow" in theaters. 68% said they would prefer to see the movie in a theater and 32% said they would prefer to watch it at home.
Marvel's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," which will close the summer movie season when it debuts over Labor Day weekend, followed with 64% preferring to see it in a theater. There aren't plans to release the movie simultaneously on Disney+, though its theatrical window will be just 45 days (Disney hasn't finalized whether it will go straight to streaming after that or if there will be a typical home-entertainment window, a Disney representative told Insider).
Warner Bros.' "Space Jam: A New Legacy" was the movie consumers would most prefer to watch at home at 69%. The only Warner Bros. release that a majority of survey respondents preferred to see in a theater this summer was "The Suicide Squad." Warner Bros. movies have dominated the box office so far this year, but that could change as competition from other studios heats up.
Family-friendly titles generally skewed toward the "at-home" option, including "Space Jam," as well as Disney's "Cruella" and "Jungle Cruise." If parents have access to Disney+ and HBO Max, they may choose to skip the theater.
The survey also found that 28% of respondents had already been back to a theater or planned to as soon as they reopened in their area. 10% said they had no plans to return to theaters.
Below are the summer movies included in TV Time's survey, ranked by how excited respondents were to see them in a theater (versus at home):