• by Wayne Friedman , August 20, 2020

Confidence in the return of movie theater customers to theaters is slowly growing, according to a new survey.

Seventy-four percent of more-cautious moviegoers will be ready to return by around the middle of September, according to a study by social movie ticketing app service Atom Tickets. This is up from 59% in a previous survey.

In addition, 40% are ready to return to seeing movies immediately, up from 25% a month ago -- while 15% said they would wait until there is a vaccine for COVID-19. Just under one percent (0.8%) said they never plan to return to theaters. 

The Aug. 17 survey came from over 16,000 U.S. digital moviegoer responses.

The top concerns in going back to the big screen are social distancing and mask-wearing.  Thirty four percent said having space -- empty seats between occupied movie theater seats -- is a key condition, and 30% said mask wearing is important. 

In addition, 85% moviegoers say they plan to wear a mask even if it is not required by the theater or local government.

A number of movie theater chains that were closed for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic are now looking to slowly open, restricting the number of patrons in theaters. 

AMC Theaters, the largest U.S. theater chain, will soon open, offering potential theatergoers a strong incentive to come back -- charging just 15 cents per ticket -- the average ticket price for movies in 1920.