Final answer:
The correct statement about the survey situation is that the population is the total number of people who go to the movie theater, and the sample is the first 50 people who entered the theater (option 4).
Step-by-step explanation:
In the given situation, a survey is conducted at a movie theater in Wayside where the first 50 people who entered the theater were asked about their favorite type of movie. Here, the population refers to the entire group of individuals that the survey could potentially cover, and the sample refers to the subset of the population that actually participates in the survey.
The correct statement in this context would be: The population is the total number of people who go to the movie theater, and the sample is the first 50 people at the theater. This is because the survey could hypothetically be conducted on all moviegoers, but practically, only the first 50 people who enter are surveyed.
To ensure the accuracy of the survey results, the chosen sample should ideally be random and representative of the broader movie-going population in Wayside. This would allow for generalizations to be made about the preferences of the overall population based on the responses gathered from this sample.