As the Oscars season approaches and the titles of hit movies from the past year make their way back into conversation, a reflection on the cinema industry’s recent success is imminent.

Lately, there has been a surge in audiences rushing to the box office, and statements like “I have to go see that” and “When does that come out?” have made their comeback in conversation.

The overwhelming popularity of 2025 films such as “Wicked: For Good,” “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners” and “Marty Supreme” stand out more specifically for their popularity in theaters.

Movies like these point to a growth in popularity for the age-old movie theater excursion. In other words, going to the movies is coming back.

Since COVID-19 changed the culture of movie releases and viewership to immediate and accessible at-home streaming, theaters have had difficulty generating attendance. Many production companies began releasing films straight to platforms like Netflix and Hulu, skipping the “only in theaters” period.

The pandemic caused movie ticket sales to drop dramatically in 2020, according to nScreen Media market data, with the average number of annual ticket sales per-person plummeting from 3.73 in 2019 to 0.66 in 2020.

With theaters closed, streaming became the primary way for audiences to experience film. According to the New York Times, the number of big-screen movie theaters in the United States had decreased from pre-pandemic numbers by over 5000 in 2025.

The damage caused to the movie theater and film industries by the pandemic has made for a long recovery period as companies continue to fight for patrons.

This fight to get people interested in movies, however, is currently rivaled by the corporate fight for the already interested people to choose streaming over theaters.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos recently stated Netflix’s belief that movie theater showings for long windows of time are not “consumer friendly.” Netflix, recently entering a deal to purchase Warner Bros., is a main competitor in the battle for movie audiences.

Osagie Uzzi, UT senior and cinema studies major, said that he perceives movies skipping theaters and heading straight to streaming services like Netflix as a “money grab.”

“I just feel like theaters, the basis of theaters is all coming together as a community and actually going outside and experiencing it on the big screen,” Uzzi said.

This experience of movie-viewing as a community is a main reason movie theaters still exist at all. Viewers of 2025 films such as “Wicked” and “A Minecraft Movie” showed just how much the communal theater adds to the experience when fans arrived in costume, cheered for certain lines and ate from themed popcorn buckets.

Trends like these have always existed, but truly took off for the post-pandemic movie world after the unique “Barbenheimer” phenomenon in July 2023, taking place on the dual release date of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” Movie goers went all out with costumes according to what they chose to see, some even attending back-to-back screenings for the two critically acclaimed films.

This was a key event in the resurgence of movie theater culture, reminding the public that the experience can be fun and refreshing.

Over the past year, however, it is clear that going to the movies as a pastime is making a return. UT junior and cinema studies major Zackery Bennett appreciates this experience to a different extent. Bennett said, “I saw ‘Friendship’ at Regal nine times … just to have the different audience experiences with it, because it was a really good movie to watch with an audience.”

Uzzi cited a similar experience in his viewing of “Friendship.” He said, “ … it almost makes you laugh more and, like, enjoy it more when, like, a bunch of strangers who just love the creativity of film all come together.”

Bennett believes that most movies are created with the intention of being screened in theaters, not only for quality, but for the community. “… Besides the sound being better and the visuals always being good,” Bennett said. “Really it’s just the people. Like, I run into people all the time who I know from UT at the Regal.”

In the same ways that large corporations are trying to decrease theater viewership, they can be thanked for recent pop culture anomalies — more specifically for what franchises like “Wicked” achieved for the industry.

Since the announcement of “Wicked: Part One,” the films have been unique in their way of ruling conversations about pop culture, Hollywood stars and theater visitation.

The imagery, vocals and generally joyful nature of the “Wicked” franchise allowed for audiences to immerse themselves in a magical world for two and a half hours in the theater alongside other fans hoping for the same feeling.

Capitalization on this idea greatly contributed to the marketing of these films. By the release of the second movie, “Wicked” had secured over 400 brand partnerships that followed their pink and green aesthetic, finding their way into hundreds of stores, restaurants and advertisements.

The advertising of both “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good” acted as constant reminders that the movie was showing only in theaters, generating audiences that then remembered how fulfilling the movie-going experience could be.

As box-office hits continue to release into this year, pop culture trends of 2026 seem to bode well for this year’s theater attendance. An emphasis on reminiscence and reflection are prevalent in recent crazes, such as the “2026 is the new 2016” mania.

Theaters are classic places to find sentimentality, emotional investment and contemplation – all spot-on themes for this upcoming year. People have started yearning for distinctive, creative, long-form stories to invest in as the recent emphasis on wistfulness continues.

Several films announced for release in the upcoming year have captured these ideas perfectly, as movies that promote pre-COVID nostalgia such as “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” are intended to hit box offices soon.

“It’s something that I thought was going away, especially around the start of COVID,” Bennett said about theater attendance. “But it feels like recently, especially in the last year or two, people have been wanting to invest more in cinema.”

The world as a whole is slowly being reminded of the beauty in community. Going to the movies – not just for a bigger screen, but for experiencing emotion with a larger group of appreciative people – is returning.

As Bennett said and what many people are beginning to remember, “… It’s a completely different way of appreciating a movie when you watch it with others.”