Nearly 4 million people flocked to an AMC theater in the U.S. over the Memorial Day weekend, two-thirds of them to see Top Gun: Maverick, reported the theater chain Tuesday. The film's “record-setting success,” it said, “is another example of a box office that continues to show positive signs of recovery.” Led by the opening of the Paramount Pictures feature film, the domestic box office posted a 122% year-over-year increase compared with Memorial Day 2021, AMC said. Top Gun: Maverick also pushed Imax to its best-ever Memorial Day weekend box office performance, said the company in a separate announcement. The $21 million it took in was good for a 14% share of the overall North American box office, it said. "If you thought movies were dead, go see Top Gun: Maverick," said Imax CEO Rich Gelfond. "There's no way you sit in a theatre, with a huge screen and chest-pounding speakers, and come away thinking there's any other way you want to experience Top Gun: Maverick."

Inflationary pressures are spurring more than eight in 10 U.S consumers to plan fewer retail purchases in the next three to six months, reported NPD. Though 2022 general merchandise retail revenue was up 2% year over year through mid-May and was 22% above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels in 2019, “consumers have already begun to make fewer purchases than a year ago,” said NPD. “These shifts in shopping behavior will have broader retail consequences.” Chief NPD Retail Industry Adviser Marshal Cohen cited a new “tug-of-war between the consumer’s desire to buy what they want and the need to make concessions based on the higher prices hitting their wallets.” Consumers aren’t just buying less, he said, they’re also shopping less, “which means a loss of the impulse-shopping moments that are critical to retail growth.” In the first three months of 2022, consumers bought 6% fewer items at retail than they did in 2021's Q1, said NPD. Despite a 10% increase in the average selling price of the products purchased, this decline in demand sent the average amount spent per buyer down more than 2% during the same period, it said: “The 5% drop in purchase frequency of U.S. buyers is further contributing to the slowing of retail sales.” A recent NPD survey found consumers plan to look for more promotions, seek generally less expensive items, or even cut back on purchases overall in the next three to six months. In addition to those “proactive spending changes,” nearly 70% of consumers said labor shortages have caused “reactive changes” to their purchase habits in the past six months, whether that meant going to a different retailer or eliminating the planned purchase altogether, said NPD.

A “major divide” persists in employee sentiment about returning to the physical office, reported Citrix Tuesday. The digital workspace technology supplier hired OnePoll to canvass 6,500 employees in 10 countries April 5 to May 4, finding 57% relish the flexibility of hybrid work, and 69% would be willing to quit their current jobs to maintain the ability to work from anywhere, it said.

U.S. internet service costs in April were up 1.7% year over year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index data released Wednesday. It said residential phone service costs increased 6% year over year, but wireless service was down 0.7%. Cable and satellite TV service rose 0.8%. BLS said April prices overall were up 8.3% year over year before seasonal adjustment, with food, airline fares and new vehicles being major drivers of inflation.

U.S. consumers spent $13.9 billion on video gaming in the first quarter, down 8% from Q1 a year earlier, reported NPD Wednesday. Content and hardware spending decreased across all platforms, though mobile games bore the brunt of the decline, said NPD. Overall content spending in Q1 reached $12.13 billion, a 7% decrease from Q1 2021, it said, noting subscription content was the only segment to post “positive gains.” Hardware spending declined 15% and accessories16%, it said. Despite the year-over-year Q1 declines, industry spending and engagement remained significantly higher than pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, said NPD. Continued supply constraints on new console hardware helped stymie growth in the quarter, it said.

Global spending on telecom and pay TV services reached $1.566 trillion in 2021, increasing 1.6% year over year, reported IDC Friday. IDC expects spending to rise another 1.4% in 2022 to $1.588 trillion, it said. The “quick recovery” of the global economy from the slump caused by COVID-19 “resulted in additional spending growth” on telecom services, “so the total value of the worldwide market increased slightly faster than originally forecast,” said IDC. The higher than expected growth was also recorded in all technology segments except for pay TV, “which is logical because people were able to spend more time outside of their homes and therefore some decided to cancel subscriptions to TV packages acquired during the lockdowns,” it said. Spending growth last year was highest in Asia Pacific (rising 2.1%), lowest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (up 1.1%), with the Americas in between (up 1.5%), said IDC.

Worldwide PC shipments slipped 3% year on year in Q1 to 118.1 million units as slowdowns in the consumer and education markets dented Chromebook and tablet shipments, Canalys reported Wednesday. The category had a 12% compound annual growth since 2019 on a COVID-19 demand spike, it said. Tablet shipments fell 3% against an “exceptionally strong” Q1 2021, with Apple iPad shipments off 2% to 14.9 million. Second-place Samsung also posted a 2% decline with 7.9 million tablets shipped, Canalys said, while Amazon outpaced Lenovo to reach third place on 3% growth with heavily discounted Fire tablets, it said. Despite the Q1 declines, tablets' comeback “remains strong,” said analyst Himani Mukka. A rise in commercial deployments is helping offset softening consumer demand, but the market will face supply pressure from the Russia-Ukraine war and COVID-19 shutdowns in China, she said. Lingering tablet demand from Q4 2021 was expected to extend into Q1 2022, but the supply situation is now “likely to push backlogs into the second quarter.” Chromebook shipments, meanwhile, tumbled 60% year on year to 4.9 million units after a surge in orders from education markets in first-half 2021, Canalys said. The North American market, with 72% of global Chromebook shipments, fell by 64%, said the research firm, with HP suffering the steepest dropoff at 82%. Lenovo led the category despite a 63% unit drop, Acer moved into second place with 1.1 million shipments, down 21%, and Dell had the smallest decline, partly due to its limited presence in the education market. Growth is set to return as developed markets undergo refresh cycles in coming years, analyst Brian Lynch said. In the combined global PC market -- desktops, notebooks and tablets -- Apple took first place from Lenovo on shipments of 22.3 million units in the quarter, a 1% year-on-year bump. Second-placed Lenovo had a 12% decline to 21.1 million devices, and HP’s 15.9 million shipments, down 18%, put it in third place after a tough compare with the year-ago quarter. Dell, in fourth, had 13.8 million shipments, and Samsung had 8.8 million, it said.

Some 51% of U.S. TV content viewers subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service, down from 63% last year and 81% in 2020, said Horowitz Research Wednesday. Though 37% are paying for a subscription VOD service -- and not cable or satellite -- a 30% year-on-year increase, the overall percentage of TV content viewers subscribing to at least one SVOD service fell to 62% from 74% in 2021, partly due to a drop in Netflix subs, it said. An additional 10% have access to other SVOD services by borrowing passwords, said the research firm. Streaming subscribers reported spending an average $75.80 monthly on SVOD and/or virtual MVPD services, up $26 a month from a year ago. The share of TV viewers watching free, ad-supported services, including over-the-air content via antenna, was unchanged at 66%. Survey findings suggest churn will become a "bigger challenge" as consumers become even more cost-conscious, Horowitz said, saying 18% of SVOD subscribers are planning to cancel at least one of their services, 42% for vMVPD customers. The next phase in the maturing industry “will be a reset,” said Horowitz Chief Revenue Officer Adriana Waterston. The firm predicts more ads in free or low-cost ad-supported tiers and more consolidation of services and subscriptions.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets jumped slightly in April compared with March, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Analytics firm Toluna canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes for the board through April 19, finding 11.3% plan to buy new TV sets in the next six months, up from 11% in March and 11% in February but down slightly from 11.6% in April 2021. Consumer confidence dipped slightly in April after rising in March, said the board: “Concerns about inflation retreated from an all-time high in March but remained elevated. ... Inflation and the war in Ukraine will continue to pose downside risks to confidence and may further curb consumer spending this year.”

The average size of TVs installed since the pandemic began two years ago increased 3 inches to 47.5 inches, compared with screens that grew an inch per year in the five years before COVID-19, reported NPD Tuesday. “With home entertainment top of mind, consumers purchasing replacement TVs put more importance on screen size and picture quality than ever before,” it said. “Pandemic fueled TV sales growth drove consumers to replace TVs in order to get larger screens and better picture quality resulting in a newer and bigger installed TV base,” said John Buffone, NPD executive director-industry analyst. “With consumers spending more time at home, entertainment became a high priority, and despite higher prices, screen size and quality remain top motivators.”