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Editor's note: This article was also published in The Surveyor, YouGov America's email newsletter. Subscribe to The Surveyor for regular updates on YouGov's polling.
Who killed movie theaters? Not the youths
The bad news about movies is a steady drumbeat: The death of movie theatres is nigh. Even occasional hits can't save Hollywood.
To the degree that movies are dying, though, this doesn't appear to be another thing that Millennials are killing. Instead, a recent YouGov poll finds it's older Americans who are most likely to avoid cinemas.
64% of 18- to 29-year-olds say they've seen a movie in theaters in the past year, as have 62% of 30- to 44-year-olds. That compares to 45% of 45- to 64-year-olds, and only 30% of those 65 and older.
20% of adults under 30 say they've seen a movie in the past week, and 42% have seen one in the past month.
Most Americans say watching a movie in the theater is either a better experience than watching at home or an equally good experience: 22% say theaters are much better experiences than movies at home, 29% say they're somewhat better, and 23% say they're equally good. 10% of Americans say theaters are a somewhat worse experience than home, and 7% say they're a much worse experience. Both older and younger Americans are more likely to say theaters are a better experience than watching at home, though belief that theaters are a worse experience is slightly more common among adults 45 and older (20%) than among adults under 45 (13%).
The better Americans think the movie theater experience is compared to watching at home, the more likely they are to have been to theaters in the past year. 85% of those who say watching in theaters is a much worse experience than watching at home haven't been to a movie theater in the past year, compared to only 28% of those who say theaters are a much better experience.
Ratings are down for many of Trump's top officials
Americans have soured on many of Donald Trump's senior appointees. We asked about the same group of officials in September 2025 and again in July 2026, and among the 13 on both surveys, net approval fell for 11 of them. Net approval is the share who approve minus the share who disapprove.
Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense dropped furthest, to -16 net approval from -7, tying Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education for the lowest net approval rating among those surveyed. Jerome Powell as Chair of the Federal Reserve is the only official asked about who Americans rate positively, and even his margin narrowed, to +2 from +8.
Only two officials improved: JD Vance as Vice President and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, each by a point or two. Two more officials were asked about only this year, and both rate worse than the people they replaced: Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security sits at -13, against -10 for Kristi Noem last September, and Todd Blanche as acting U.S. Attorney General is at -16, against -9 for Pam Bondi. Americans were rating Blanche while he was still serving in an acting capacity — his nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and awaits a floor vote.
Dogged survey research
Majorities of Americans say it's OK for dog owners to post about their dog on social media, dress their dog in clothing, or let their dog lick their face — but not to dye their dog's fur, let it poop on someone's lawn, or leave it unattended in a parked car.
Those are findings from a recent YouGov poll on dog-related behaviors, which asked Americans about the acceptability of 48 different things to do with or to a dog. More Americans say 18 of the 48 behaviors are acceptable than say they're unacceptable, while for the other 30 Americans are more likely to say they're unacceptable.
Some behaviors have near-universal backing, such as including a dog in family holiday photos (91% say this is acceptable and 4% say it's unacceptable), asking to pet a stranger's dog (78% vs. 13%), or throwing a dog a birthday party (75% vs. 11%). Others are seen as acceptable by a majority of Americans, but with a sizable minority disagreeing. For example, 58% say it's acceptable to keep a dog primarily indoors, and 28% say this is unacceptable; 56% say it's acceptable to refer to one's dog and one's child and 25% say this is unacceptable.
Almost all Americans say it's unacceptable to bring a dog to someone else's home without asking first (4% say acceptable and 90% say unacceptable), to allow a dog off-leash in an area where leashes are required (7% vs. 88%), or to not give a dog its recommended vaccines (11% vs. 79%). More divisive behaviors include using a shock collar to train a dog (24% vs. 56%), not having a dog spayed or neutered (29% vs. 48%), or allowing a dog to chase squirrels or birds in a public park (34% vs. 47%).
Image: Getty
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