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Last year during the pandemic San Diego residents spent approximately $4,579 on entertainment, says a Consumer Expenditure Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The San Diego metro region ranked fifth in overall spending on entertainment out of 22 major metro areas based on an analysis of the data by Namechk.com. The report ranked locations based on how much of an average consumer’s annual spending went toward entertainment in 2020.
Entertainment, as defined by the bureau’s survey, includes audio and visual equipment and services; pets; fees and admissions; toys, hobbies, and playground equipment; and other entertainment spending. Anything from the bicycle you bought to the movies you rented in lieu of going to the theater counts.
The pandemic shifted entertainment habits when it shuttered movie theaters and restricted capacity at venues to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, which resulted in an overall 5.7 percent drop in entertainment spending from 2019 to 2020.
Additionally, year-over-year data reveals that annual household spending on fees and admissions to entertainment venues declined by more than half.
Despite the rise of the omicron variant and subsequent restrictions in the past few weeks, there are still signs that consumers are ready to spend on entertainment going forward.
The latest release in the Sony-Marvel franchise, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” had the second-highest opening weekend of all time. Movie-goers flocked to see the film, which was released exclusively in theaters and netted about $260 million in the first weekend.
While the bounce-back of in-person entertainment is to be determined, people found other COVID-friendly forms of entertainment last year. Consumer spending on pets, hobbies and audiovisual equipment saw a slight increase from 2019 to 2020.
For the San Diego metropolitan area, entertainment accounted for about 5.5 percent of consumer spending. That means, for a San Diego resident making an average annual pre-tax income of $110,132, about $4,579 of their $83,216 total annual went toward entertainment.
In comparison, the average consumer in the United States spent about 4.7 percent, or $2,912, on entertainment out of a total of $61,334 in annual spending.
Across the country, the Western region ranks second to the Midwest when it comes to average annual entertainment spending.
The top spenders hail from Houston where 8.6 percent, or $6,040, of consumer spending went toward entertainment. It was followed by Anchorage, Alaska, (6.7 percent), Seattle, Wash. (6.4 percent) and Denver (6.2 percent).
