CRISTINA TRICE / ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Just days after the school year ended and summer vacation began, USD junior Georgia Holmes returned to her hometown of Phoenix and bolted to her local theater to watch “Obsession,” a new horror movie by 26-year-old director Curry Barker. After making her way through the packed theater and finding her seat, she settled in and prepared for the next two hours of jump scares and psychological thrills. Scene after scene, Holmes was enthralled by the storytelling, directing and the connection she felt to the film and with its audience. For the first time in a long time, she felt like cinema was back.

“‘Obsession’ was absolutely amazing,” Holmes recalled. “Everybody in the theater reacted at the same time. It was just such a shared experience which I think makes it pretty special. I just remember getting up after the movie was over and I just wanted to see what other peoples’ reactions were … It was really awesome.”

The excitement of seeing a new movie on the big screen and the thrill of getting one’s favorite movie theater snack are some of the shared feelings experienced by in-person moviegoers. However, for the  first few  years after the pandemic, Hollywood executives and ordinary  film lovers alike thought 2020 marked the beginning of the slow but painful death of cinemas. 

That year, U.S. box office numbers tanked, dropping 80% from pre-pandemic numbers. Because people were confined to their homes, studios began to prioritize streaming platforms and social media as ways to engage their audience. The prevailing ideology at the time was, between the convenience of streaming services like Netflix or Disney+, and the rapid growth of social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, going to the cinema was outdated, especially for younger generations. 

With the success of “Obsession” and other recent films like “The Odyssey,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Project Hail Mary,” box office numbers have been growing rapidly. Gower Street Analytics predicts global box office numbers to reach $35 billion in 2026, the highest number since the pandemic, and just 12% below pre-pandemic numbers. Hollywood continues to break this decade’s box office records with films like “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” becoming 2026’s first billion dollar blockbuster. Even “The Devil Wears Prada 2” superseded the original film’s lifetime numbers, hitting $688 million in mere weeks.

USD junior and film studies minor Jacob Thornberry shared his thoughts on these recent statistics.

“The significance of these numbers is large because it shows that people are willing to go to the movies if they think the movies are worth it,” Thornberry argued. “Which is super significant considering people thought movie theatres were going to die due to the pandemic.”

Hollywood still made movies in the post-pandemic world, but no amount of creative drive, enthralling sequel or incredible cast seemed to be enough to get the box office numbers to what they once were. Those numbers increased slightly year after year since 2020, but it wasn’t until 2026 that people started to see a noticeable change. People of all ages and backgrounds are stepping back into theaters, but the revival of cinema is being led by one group in particular — Gen Z.

A recent report by Fandango found that  87% of  Gen Z  has seen at least one film in the past 12 months, followed by millennials at 82%, Gen X at 70% and baby boomers at 58%. The report also found that Gen Z leads other generations in the amount of trips to the cinema, averaging about seven visits per year.

Thornberry discussed Gen Z’s impact on the revival of cinema.

“I think the reason why Gen Z are the ones driving up the number is easy to understand when you look at it,” Thornberry explained. “That’s because more studios are taking chances on younger directors. For example, take Curry Barker, director of ‘Obsession,’ and Kane Parsons, director of ‘Backrooms.’ They are directors in their early 20s that were given almost no money to make a movie and ended up dominating the box office.”

Both directors began their creative journeys on Youtube allowing them to grow an audience that felt connected with their work, without having to jump through Hollywood hoops and traditional industry hierarchies.

USD senior, and frequent moviegoer, Jill Mallari shared her thoughts on the new styles of cinema emerging in Hollywood.

“Teenagers today crave original productions and concepts instead of sequels and remakes,” Mallari said. “Movies like ‘Obsession’ or ‘Backrooms’ cater to that feeling of nostalgia, with topics originating from Youtube videos or real-life issues very specific to Gen Z.”

Nostalgia played a huge role in the minds of many Gen Z individuals and their push to revive physical cinema. In addition to the reemergence of in-person movie watching, Gen Z is increasingly more interested in cultivating an analog lifestyle ­— an attempt to disconnect from an online world of constant surveillance and engagement.

Mallari discussed Gen Z’s new-found love of analog lives.

“I feel that it has a lot to do with trends, and  it  just so happens that going analog  is now a trend,” Mallari said. “People have really been getting into physical media like vinyls,  CDs, journaling, and with that, the spike of actively going to theaters.”

More major blockbusters are set to be released this year, including “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Digger” starring Tom Cruise. Many movie fans, Gen Z especially, are interested to see if the  cinema revival is here to stay, or  if analog lifestyles and reconnecting with their childhoods was just another fad.