Here’s What Most Americans Agree Will Happen in 2019

Black Panther, the first big superhero movie with a mostly black cast and black director, was the country’s highest grossing movie in 2018. Another box-office hit was Crazy Rich Asians, a movie starring, written by and directed by an all-Asian ensemble. The #OscarsSoWhite movement, which began almost four years ago, highlighted Hollywood’s long reputation for disproportionately excluding minority actors from leading roles. At the time, all but eight Academy Awards Best Actor and Best Actress winners in history were white. But this year’s box-office successes showed that movies directed by and starring more diverse casts can have broad appeal, and Americans think Hollywood will take note.

Not long ago the Sears catalog, like a pre-internet Amazon, was many Americans’ first destination for a vast array of items—a new dishwasher, clothing, a lawnmower or tools—sent right to their door. But in 2018, Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, announcing the 125-year-old company would close 142 stores in addition to the 46 already slated to close. JCPenney announced it would close 140 stores in 2017, and in 2016 Macy’s said it planned to close 100 stores nationwide. Department stores haven’t been able to keep up with online retailers, along with other originally brick-and-mortar stores that have expanded into e-commerce, like Walmart, H&M and Zara. Americans see an even bleaker future for legacy department stores in 2019.

Americans whose data has remained safe online are an endangered species: in each of the past few years, data breaches have affected hundreds of millions—if not billions—of customers. As companies and consumers alike rely more heavily on the internet, Americans are pessimistic about the safety of their data. Three in four respondents said more companies would experience data breaches in 2019 than in 2018.

Even with signs that housing prices could be headed for their biggest slowdown in years—housing prices in 20 cities grew at their slowest rate in two years—they’re far from the negative growth of a decade ago. Most Americans said it was somewhat or very likely that housing prices would continue to increase across the country.

Far from its origins as an online bookseller, Amazon has grown too sprawling to categorize. It has business in industries as varied as groceries, tech, pharmaceuticals and shipping, many of which it expanded into through acquisitions. Amazon’s biggest acquisition to date was its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Despite a revenue and profit forecast that disappointed investors ahead of the holiday season, Americans think Amazon is still feeling spendy: 78 percent agreed it seemed “somewhat likely” or “very likely” Amazon would acquire another large company in the coming year.

The number of podcast listeners has grown for the past decade. Podcast companies like Gimlet Media have raised millions of dollars in investments, and media companies have staffed up their podcast teams. But as the number of listeners grew, there was fear of a bubble: Just this year, podcasting company Panoply closed its editorial arm, and Buzzfeed laid off its podcast staff. But if podcasting companies have hit headwinds, Americans don’t think that will halt the expansion of podcasts themselves: 73 percent believed it was somewhat or “very likely” podcasts would expand in 2019.

The U.S. violent crime rate has fallen sharply over the last two decades, but the number of crimes per 100,000 residents has crept up slightly since 2014, according to FBI data. Property crime, meanwhile, has stayed down. Most Americans were pessimistic about crime in 2019 in the Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll. Just over two-thirds of respondents said it was “somewhat unlikely” or “very unlikely” that crime rates would fall in 2019.