Americans Spent More on ‘Wants’ Like Movies, Concerts in 2023
By Movieguide® Contributor
The MasterCard Economics Institute recently discovered that Americans spent 31% more on concerts and movies in 2023 than in 2022.
“The spending behavior illustrated what MasterCard analysts said was an example of how consumers were willing to spend their money over the summer of 2023,” Newsweek reported. “Americans spent on their ‘wants’ and contributed to a 31 percent increase of outlays on such experiences.”
This spending behaviour is contrary to what was exhibited by many in 2022, due to inflation. Movieguide® reported in July of last year:
As a possible recession looms, many consumers are looking to cut costs, and entertainment spending will likely be one of the first expenses affected, a new survey from Variety Intelligence Platform (VIP+) shows.
“With inflation at more than four-decade highs, 38% of respondents said they have begun making changes to spending on activities, such as attending concerts or going to the movies. Recreation and entertainment tied for second with travel among the spending categories that consumers projected they’d cut back on in the event of a recession, behind only eating out at restaurants,” VIP+ explains.
VIP+’s survey with Morning Consult of 2,200 U.S. adults gauged consumer sentiment shifts on entertainment spending as the economic situation worsens.
So, what are the reasons for the increase in 2023? BARBIE, OPPENHEIMER and Taylor Swift.
Newsweek reported, “This year’s summer release of high-profile movies such as the film adaptation of BARBIE and the story of the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ in OPPENHEIMER attracted scores of film lovers to the cinema.”
Movieguide® cautions against BARBIE due to its “suggestive language…adult, politically correct sensibility…feminist attacks on men, an attack on teaching girls to be mothers, and an anti-capitalist attack on consumerism.”
OPPENHEIMER also warrants caution as it “has a strong secular humanist worldview with unjust politically correct depictions of anti-communists who disagreed with Oppenheimer about nuclear policy. Finally, it has excessive foul language and two sex scenes with explicit nudity.”
However, The New York Times added that the SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE was also a hit. The family picture brought in $1.36 billion and “stunned Hollywood.”
Movieguide® celebrated its “strong moral message about brotherhood, sacrifice, and working together to overcome evil.”
Scores of concert-goers also flocked to heavily marketed tours by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and other big-name artists.
Swift’s concerts on her Eras Tour are estimated to have made about $93 million each. The Economic Times reported that the tour “is on track to earn the artist an astonishing $4.1 billion, making it the highest-grossing solo tour in history.”
But the analysts at MasterCard expect a decline in impulse-related spending next year.
“Economic growth will slow to 1.7 percent in 2024 from the estimate of 2.4 percent for this year,” Newsweek reported. “Part of the slowdown is due to the economy absorbing the full impact of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes that were instituted at an aggressive pace not seen since the 1980s to battle record high inflation.”
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