By LINDSEY BAHR and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are more likely to watch newly released movies from the comfort of their own homes instead of heading out to a theater, according to a new poll.

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About three-quarters of U.S. adults said they watched a new movie on streaming instead of in the theater at least once in the past year, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including about 3 in 10 who watched new movies on streaming at least once a month.

Meanwhile, about two-thirds of Americans said that they’ve watched a recently released movie in a theater in the past year, and only 16% said they went at least once a month.

The results suggest that, on the whole, American moviegoers are more likely to stream a film than see it in the theaters, a shifting tide that was only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Convenience and cost are both factors for many people who can’t find the time to go to a theater or pay the increasingly high price for a ticket.

Sherry Jenkins, 69, of New Jersey, turns to streaming for all of her moviegoing needs.

“It’s much more convenient,” Jenkins said. “I can watch anything I want, I just have to wait a month or two after the movies are released because they usually go to streaming pretty quickly.”

Streaming is more convenient

In the post-pandemic era, films end up on streaming services more quickly. In 2017, a 90-day exclusive theatrical window was common. Now, theaters are fighting for an industrywide standard of 45 days. For studios, the strategy seems to be different for every movie. This year’s best picture winner, “Anora,” had a 70-day exclusive theatrical window. “Wicked,” meanwhile, was available to purchase on demand only 40 days after opening in theaters — and that was a case in which the film was, and continued to be, a box-office hit. It was also profitable on streaming.

There is some overlap between theatergoers and people who opt for streaming — 55% of U.S. adults have seen a new movie in a theater and skipped the theater in favor of streaming at least once in the past year — but only watching new movies on streaming is more common than only going to the theater.

Some in the film industry believe that movies that start in theaters still have more cultural cachet, but Jenkins doesn’t see it that way.

“The studios now are so closely affiliated with the streaming services,” Jenkins said. “There’s really no logic behind why some skip the theaters.”

The last time she regularly went to the movie theaters was, she thinks, about 20 years ago. But as a tech-savvy retiree, there just hasn’t been enough of a reason to make the trek to the theater. A subscriber to Acorn, BritBox, Paramount+, Peacock, Netflix and Hulu, Jenkins doesn’t even see the need for cable anymore.

“People tell me, ‘Oh, you have to go to the theaters and see ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ” Jenkins said. “But my TV is 75 inches, and I’m comfortable. I’m at home.”

The cost of movie tickets is a factor

Maryneal Jones, 91, of North Carolina, said she likes to go to the movies but finds them too expensive.

“There’s some movies I would like to see, and I say to myself, I’ll just wait until they show them on TV or I’ll go visit a friend who has those apps,” Jones said. “But I just don’t want to pay 12 bucks.”

The average cost of a movie ticket in the U.S. is $13.17, according to data firm EntTelligence. In 2022, it was $11.76.

Jones does not subscribe to any streaming services, but she also sees more movies in theaters than many others. She estimates she sees about six to eight a year. Recent films she’s watched in the theater include “The Life of Chuck” and the French romantic comedy “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.”

The AP-NORC poll also indicates that streaming may be a more accessible option for lower-income Americans. Higher-income adults are more likely than low-income adults to be at least occasional moviegoers for new releases, but the gap is smaller for watching movies on streaming instead of going to the theater.

Younger adults watch more new movies, especially on streaming

New movies are more popular among young adults, regardless of how they see them. But streaming is more of a go-to for the younger generation.

Slightly less than half of adults under age 30 say they watched a recently released movie on streaming instead of going to the theater at least once a month in the past year, compared with about 2 in 10 who watched a movie in the theater with that frequency.

Eddie Lin, an 18-year-old student in Texas, said he mostly watches movies at home, on streamers like Crunchyroll, Hulu, HBO Max and Prime Video, but will go to the theaters for “bigger things” like “A Minecraft Movie,” which is the biggest movie of the year in North America.

“A couple of my friends wanted to see it,” Lin said. “And there were the memes. I felt like the audience would be more interactive and it would be enhanced by being there with, like, a bunch of people.”

While streaming will continue to be formidable competition for audience attention and dollars, there has also been rising interest in the value of seeing certain films in IMAX or on other premium format screens, whether it’s “Sinners” or “Oppenheimer.”

The North American box office is currently up more than 4% from last year, but the industry has struggled to reach pre-pandemic levels of business. Compared with 2019, the annual box office is down more than 22%.

“I used to go more when I was younger, with my family, seeing all the Marvel movies up to ‘Endgame,’ ” Lin said. “I like movie theaters. It’s an experience. For me, it’s mostly a time thing. But I do feel like a certain charm of watching movies in theaters is gone.”

Bahr reported from Pittsburgh.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,182 adults was conducted Aug. 21-25, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg News

The Trump administration launched investigations into imports of robotics, industrial machinery and medical devices, setting the stage for fresh duties as President Donald Trump moves to expand his tariff regime.

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The Department of Commerce is conducting the probes under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, according to Federal Register notices. The inquiries started on Sept. 2. Under the law, which allows the president to tariff goods deemed critical to national security, the department has 270 days to deliver its policy recommendations.

The newly announced probes expand the potential sectors that could be exposed to tariffs, as Trump looks to encourage domestic manufacturing in key industries by hiking the cost of imports.

Investigations into imports of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, aircraft, critical minerals, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and other products are currently ongoing. The Trump administration has already used the law to impose levies on automobiles, copper, steel and aluminum.

Any levies resulting from the industry-specific probes would come in addition to Trump’s country-based tariffs, though some major economies such as the European Union and Japan have struck agreements to prevent the charges from stacking on top of one another.

The trade authorities are also seen as a backstop for Trump, should those sweeping tariffs on dozens of economies imposed under emergency powers be struck down by federal courts. The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a challenge to those tariffs, which have already been declared illegal by two lower courts.

Tariffs enacted under Section 232 can be more long-lived, even through changes in presidential administrations, though they take longer to implement than the duties Trump implemented under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The new probes reflect some Trump administration officials’ concern about U.S. reliance on foreign countries for a range of medical consumables, including syringes, sutures, catheters and gauze. The Commerce Department will also scrutinize trade in personal protective equipment, such as the gloves and face masks that became ubiquitous during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The newly announced medical-equipment probe will not address prescription drugs, biologics and other pharmaceuticals, which already are being examined as part of the Commerce Department’s separate investigation.

The inquiry into robotics and industrial machinery will focus on computer-controlled mechanical systems, milling machines and stamping and pressing machines widely used in factories, according to the register notice.

(With assistance from Laura Curtis.)

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A proposal to brand a new type of federal Pell Grant as “Trump Grants” has sparked pushback from Rhode Island lawmakers who want the program to retain the name of its creator — the state’s longest-serving U.S. senator.

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The name change is currently tucked inside a House spending bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for the upcoming fiscal year.

Rhode Island’s congressional delegation this week argued that the proposal would “erase Senator Pell’s name from a program that has uplifted generations and replace it with a President whose record on education is defined by cuts and dismantlement is a profound insult to that legacy.”

Here’s what you need to know.

Pell grants have long been a fixture of federal student aid

Created as a way to promote access to education, Pell grants are special scholarships reserved for undergraduates and other students with the most significant financial need. Rhode Island’s longstanding former U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell, a Democrat, was pivotal in getting the program enacted in 1973.

Through the program, lower-income Americans can currently receive up to $7,395 annually for roughly six years. Unlike loans, the grants generally don’t need to be paid back but often don’t cover the full cost of college. According to the Department of Education, $31 billion in Pell grants went to approximately 6.5 million undergraduate students in fiscal year 2023.

With new tweak to Pell Grant program, controversy erupts

Under the massive tax and spending cuts package that President Donald Trump signed into law in July, the Pell Grant program was tweaked to include a new grant called the Workforce Pell Grant. Starting next year, students enrolled in eligible career training programs can now receive Pell grants as long as they are in “in-demand industry sectors or occupations.”

A separate House of Representatives appropriations bill has since proposed renaming Workforce Pell Grants as “Trump Grants,” a change Rhode Island’s congressional delegation objected to in a letter released earlier this week.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Gabe Amo and Seth Magaziner said Trump’s record on education includes efforts to dissolve the federal Department of Education, freeze federal funding for education and research, and pressure schools to roll back initiatives like those focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“These grants should remain rooted in the legacy of Senator Pell, whose name symbolizes opportunity, integrity and the belief that education is the cornerstone of a strong democracy,” the two Rhode Island congressmen wrote.

Who was the father of the Pell Grant program?

Claiborne Pell was a quirky blue blood who represented the smallest state in the country as its U.S. Senator for 36 years, the longest ever to serve in the role.

FILE – Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell, (D-R.I ) shown Feb. 17, 1981 in Washington. (AP Photo/ Charles Harrity)

Pell, the son of a New York congressman, was first elected to the Senate in 1960 and quickly became known as an unabashed liberal who prioritized eliminating financial barriers to higher education — even as a descendant of early New York landowners who lived among the old-money families in Rhode Island’s affluent Newport.

Pell was a multimillionaire who often wore old, ill-fitting suits and sometimes jogged in a tweed coat. He also had a deep fascination with UFOs and extrasensory perception.

Pell devised legislation that Congress eventually enacted in 1973 that began providing direct aid to college students. At the time, the funding was called Basic Education Opportunity Grants, but eventually changed to Pell Grants in 1980.

He also helped establish the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.

When asked his greatest achievement, Pell always was quick to answer, “Pell Grants.”

Pell died in 2009 after having Parkinson’s disease. He was 90.

By ADRIAN SAINZ, Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — When President Donald Trump created a task force to fight crime in Memphis, his order included the deployment of the National Guard and various federal agencies to, among other goals, enforce federal immigration law in the Tennessee city.

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One of the departments included in the Memphis Safe Task Force is Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That has some Latinos worried that the surge will be used to target them at homes, schools and where they work as part of Trump’s plan for mass detentions and deportations of immigrants around the country.

Sandra Pita, a mother of six who is a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, said she and other Hispanic people in Memphis fear that their friends and relatives, even those who are legally in the U.S., could be caught up in the crackdown.

“My concern as a Latina is they will be targeting people with brown skin color, Black skin color, even my children who are citizens, and the children of other mothers who are born here in Memphis,” said Pita, who was born in California.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young speaks about the deployment of the National Guard to the city during a news conference Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP)

Mixed reactions to National Guard presence

Opponents of the deployment call it an unnecessary move and a federal occupation of a city that instead needs more funding to address poverty and other drivers of crime. Supporters say it’s a welcomed infusion of law enforcement personnel that, despite recent improvements in crime statistics, still needs help battling violent acts such as carjackings and murders.

“This is no occupation. It’s an investment,” Tennessee state Sen. Brent Taylor, a Republican who supports the deployment, said during a recent GOP rally.

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee has said publicly he would not expect more than 150 National Guard members to be sent to Memphis. Lee has not officially signed an executive order to deploy members yet. An unknown number of officers from other agencies, from federal immigration authorities to drug enforcement agents, would also be involved.

Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, has said he didn’t ask for the deployment and doesn’t think it’s the way to reduce crime. In his weekly newsletter released Friday, he said he spoke with officials in Washington who said the National Guard in that city served as “eyes and ears on the streets, more like a large-scale neighborhood watch than frontline police officers” who worked to beautify the city and address homelessness, which he said would help Memphis as well.

Still, data from the federal operation in Washington shows that more than 40% of the arrests made over the monthlong operation were related to immigration, an Associated Press analysis found.

It’s unclear when National Guard troops will arrive, though officials have said it could happen within a week.

The governor’s consent to the National Guard stands in sharp contrast to Democratic leaders in states like California and Illinois, who argue similar deployments undermine local authority and inflame tensions. The president has also suggested he could send soldiers to New Orleans, another majority-Black city led by Democrats in a Republican-leaning state.

Sandra Pita, at podium and on screen, speaks at a Memphis City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Local groups prepare for immigration enforcement

Roughly 10% of Memphis’ population is Hispanic, according to Census data. Since Trump took office in January, community groups have been educating Memphis’ Latinos about their rights and what to do if they are approached by agents questioning their immigration status.

These organizations have handed out small red cards with instructions in English and Spanish, such as people should avoid opening their doors to agents who don’t have a warrant and not sign anything without a lawyer present.

Other groups are working to inform residents on social media about real-time law enforcement activity that could involve immigration operations.

Mauricio Calvo, CEO of Latino Memphis, said he recognizes that crime is an important issue in Memphis, but he does not support the National Guard deployment. Calvo said he was surprised that many Latinos he’s spoken with approve of the deployment, and he worries that some people don’t understand the implications.

“I don’t think they understand the potential consequences on racial profiling and actual deportations,” Calvo said.

Calvo pointed out that a former prison in the rural town of Mason, located east of Memphis, has been turned into an ICE detention facility with hundreds of beds.

“I’m afraid this could rapidly pivot into large numbers of detentions for immigrants or people who look or sound like immigrants,” he said.

Casey Bryant, a lawyer who works with Latino immigrants, said she is concerned that some National Guard and law enforcement agents could be unfamiliar with immigration law.

“It could cause a lot of chaos and confusion and has the potential of depriving people of their due process rights in the immigration context, and probably also in the criminal context,” Bryant said.

Immigrants should be ready for possible run-ins with law enforcement, including making preparations for their families if they are detained and contacting a lawyer who could help them, Bryant said.

“Everybody is trying to prepare for how to live with this kind of presence,” she said.