Entertainment has never been easier to experience from the comfort of your living room, between the proliferation of affordable 4K TVs with theater-quality features and the abundance of streaming.

As the costs of concerts and movies rising, consumers have every motivation to stay home. But audiences are choosing supersized entertainment that pulls them off their sofas and into stadiums, theaters, theme parks and other immersive attractions.

Stadium concerts averaged 56,272 tickets sold per show in 2025, up 11% from the previous year, even as the average stadium ticket price climbed 18.3% to $216.13. Live Nation venues are on track to host close to 75 million fans in 2026, an increase of more than 10% from 2025. Premium cinema continues to grow in 2026, with ScreenX and 4DX generating a combined $70 million at the domestic box office during the first half of the year, up 26% from 2025.

The ongoing post-Covid-19 return to live entertainment helps explain the rising numbers, which might still be attributed in part to pent-up demand.

But five years after vaccines became widely available, the appetite for supersized entertainment also seems driven by forces ranging from evolving technology and the scarcity of physical experiences in a world of unlimited digital content to our basic desire to experience something alongside other people.

Supersized Entertainment Is Showing Up Everywhere

Technology is helping entertainment companies turn the venue itself into part of the show. Giant LED displays, sophisticated projection, immersive audio, automation, digital effects and advances in stage and ride engineering are making experiences possible that would have been difficult to create even a decade ago.

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Stadium Concerts Turn Tours Into Theatrical Spectacles

Superstar tours increasingly resemble traveling theatrical productions, made possible by advances in video, lighting, sound and stage design.

Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball continued into 2026 with a giant Gothic opera-house set, enormous video walls, pyrotechnics and elaborate choreography. Luke Combs’s 2026 My Kinda Saturday Night Tour uses a massive 360-degree stadium stage with moving lighting trusses and a technically complex production designed to reach fans surrounding him on every side. His March show at Allegiant Stadium drew 70,900 people.

Premium Theaters Break The Boundaries Of The 2D Screen

Premium formats push cinema far beyond the traditional 2D frame. IMAX combines enormous screens with specialized cameras and projection;........

© Forbes