A place to talk about the box office and the movie business, both domestically and internationally.
Original Analysis
I am new here and keep reading so many comments about how much of Gen Z doesn’t care about the theater experience or even film/television in genera. Stating that they prefer social media or events like concerts or trends.
I’m curious about everyone’s take. Is this just the older generations pulling a “old man yells at cloud” or do you think there is something to this claim?
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Imho, there is simply more competition out there for entertainment, and with economic difficulties it's harder to justify going to the cinema often as it has become more and more expensive
Streaming services deliver new movies and shows weekly. Some are high quality big budget productions too. Theatres need to compete with this by having films that people are willing to pay the extra money to go and see, ie EVENT movies
Yeah. The waters have been muddied to the point where streaming movies can have 160 million dollar budgets or higher. There’s also very few event movies these days where people have to see them right away or it gets spoiled.
Iirc it was someone who worked at Netflix who said that Netflix’s biggest competitors aren’t other streaming services, they’re video games and social media.
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, once mentioned that they not only compete against video games and social but also sleep!
Yep there’s a simple reason why people are going to cinemas and restaurants less; it’s just too expensive.
There’s more and more entertainment options to fill up the same 24 hour day. Get rid of TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and video games and a whole lot more people will go to the movies.
Gen Z here, I think it’s about 70-80% true. I have an AMC A-List subscription and go to the movies pretty much at least once a week. While I do have many cinemaphile friends, most of the ones that aren’t say that the last movie they saw in theaters was barbie. I think to get Gen-Z to the theaters it has to be A. a film that if you don’t see in theaters you’ll it will be spoiled for you (Superhero films) or B. films that you MUST experience in theaters with others (Barbie, Oppenheimer).
95% of movies released don’t fit into these two categories. The sad reality is that Gen-Z (and now more of the population) don’t like paying $25 to sit in silence for 2 hours without breaks. They would much rather order in food, be able to pause the movie and talk throughout it/scroll on their phone without paying a dime.
Unfortunately no matter how many “Anyone but You” or “Godzilla Minus One”’s we get with a good box office, the only certified hits we’ll see are IP films because that is really the only thing that gets a majority of the population to get out of their house for 2 hours and spend $50.
Elder millennial here, I think the bolded is far more of it than some like to admit. I have A-List as well, and the struggle in getting my partner out (also with A-List obviously) or even sometimes dragging myself out is simply committing to two hours of phone-free attention. This isn't GenZ specific, it's millennials just as much if not more so (and really it's everyone), but smartphone addiction and the cinema simply don't mix...and so most people have chosen phones.
Go to a concert, you'll see people that spent $400 on tickets scrolling on their phone between filming on their phone. People scream bloody murder at the sight of a Yondr bag. They'll say stuff like "what if there's an emergency!!!1"" but really it's just not having their digital pacifier handy at literally all times.
Again, very much including myself in this. I'm no better.
Sorry your comment was longer than 280 characters, so I scrolled past it /s
But yeah, I've seen so many "boomer" criticisms about Gen Z be spot on while virtually zero "ok boomer" stereotypes are accurate.
This is a big part of the problem. Attention spans really are much shorter now. But people get defensive when you frame it as a generational thing. It's all of us that have spent years with smartphones and social media, but Gen Z is just the first that can't remember a before-time. I try watching movies with my wife and three teenaged kids. They say they will, but all four of them are staring at their phone/tablets/laptop the entire runtime. I am trying to coach myself to not be annoyed by that and just appreciate that they're there with me, but I'm not all the way there yet.
Attention spans haven't changed. There are more distractions now, chief among them phones, but our attention spans are the same.
Except many studies have shown that attention spans are indeed getting shorter. Cell phones, social media, etc...train us to have shorter attention spans.
Honestly one of the reasons I try to go to the cinema as much as possible is because it forces me to be off my phone. When I watch films at home, I break up my concentration every once in awhile checking my phone but if I'm in a theatre, I don't do that and I'm able to really immerse myself. I really appreciate that aspect of theatre-going. I'm a Millenial, btw.
This is excluding horror and animated films from the theater experience
People still go to the theaters to see those
Horror isn’t as consistent as it used to be, and even though pretty much all horror movies are successful, they still make hardly $20 mil domestically which isn’t a very massive audience generally speaking.
Horror is cheap, and thus profitable
Ask theater owners, which one they prefer:
A. Horror films that gross $50 million domestic but is profitable for the studio
Or
B. Movies that grossed $200 million domestic but is not profitable for the studio.
I guarantee you they rather have the $200 million.
A steady stream of Blockbusters is what sustains movie theaters.
Profitability has nothing to do with this discussion. A horror movie like Tarot is more profitable than The Fall Guy, but way more people still watched The Fall Guy than Tarot. So your argument of “people will go to the theater to see [horror movies]” doesn’t make sense if you’re saying that they don’t go to theaters for other blockbusters like The Fall Guy.
People say that but what they mean is “horror has underperformed in the past few months.” I wouldn’t make big pronouncements about a major change in industry trends based on how a couple movies did.
Not recently for horror films.
Godzilla Minus One is also an IP film
YES cannot agree more lol,im tired seeing the millenials saying Gen Z arent interested in movies or going to cinemas at all lol,even the statistics show that people aged 18-24 are the majority of people going to the cinemas.Based on my experience,when im hanging out with my friends at the malls we usually will catch some movies since the cinemas always located in the malls.We usually watch IP films because we already know how the premise was.Personally,im fine with watching original movies or something without known IPs but my friends who mostly only like newer franchise films or marvel in general was always hesitant lol. I think most Gen Z are like that.
This has always been weird to me as a millenial, because most of the negative "trends" associated with how Gen Z consumes media all started with millenials.
It was millenials who avoided cinemas only making the exception for franchise\super-hero crap, it was millenials who jumped ship from physical to streaming, It was millenials that coined the term "netflix and chill" , it was millenials who first embraced social media "content" in favour of film and tv.
Im 31; I have two close friends aged 30 and 32 respectively one of them hates going to the cinema because he finds it boring and anti-social, and the other has legitimately never seen a film in the cinema that wasn't some MCU dreck or Star Wars.
Funny enough I work with a 26 year old (and older Gen Z) and the kid legit goes to the cinema weekly to catch whatever A24 dramas is screening with his girlfriend.
Maybe that's why adult movies aren't doing as good. You have people my age obsessed with kids shows still and just never moved on to the adult dramas.
Yeah, those are interesting points. For me, being unable to pause or use my phone is one of the things I like about the theatre, it allows me to fully focus on the movie without all the distractions I have at home.
Same. I love the theater for that exact reason. It can be hard for me at home to keep my phone away (I can do it, but it's hard). At the theater, though? That thing goes on silent and I'm in the movie 100%.
Now, if only they'd cut it out with forcing you to watch 30+ minutes of commercials beforehand.....
100%
From what I’ve seen, general theater going is down across all generations. But I believe the drop is actually less significant with Gen Z than other generations. The study I read was a year or two ago so it might be out of date, but the real decline in theater going is with boomers and other older generations.
Do you remember the title of that study? My personal experience at the local theater is that young people go there to have something to do socially that's cheap. Older people are rarer even though they have the income. They don't like the disrespect that has always occurred at theaters now.
Boomers are the real sit in front of a TV for hours generation. They stopped going to the movies after covid and never got back into the habit. I don't know what disrespect has to do with it.
I think it has more to do with the fact they pretty much gave up on modern media, dismissing it as a mere shadow of what it used to be. Outside of Yellowstone, a shrinking slate of procedurals and (probably) political talk shows, older people's TV time is devoted to reruns.
This is not an exclusively boomer thing, mind you. Gen X'ers (and even Xennials) are also well into this rerun business and have contributed to the good numbers for reissues of 20 or 30-year-old movies in recent years.
Painting with very broad strokes here… but Gen Z is said to be interested in experiences. Presumably part of this appeal would be the act of sharing this experience with people on social platforms.
I just don’t think films can be shared in the same way. You can reference a film with a meme or a quote, but the ‘theatrical experience’ isn’t that exciting to post on socials: it’s usually a run of the mill theatre, run of the mill screen, etc. Picnics, hiking, concerts, festivals, etc. all make for more interesting photos and videos, which means more engagement!
Couple that with a demolished attention span (thank you YouTube, TikTok), and the rise of streaming slop, and you’ve got a large group of people who are happy to have moving wallpaper on their TVs as they scroll.
Obviously it’s not a universal issue– Gen Z has ‘event’ films the same as any other demo. They just seem less likely to be habit moviegoers
I'm on the older side of millennial, not gen Z, and I'm starting to feel similarly. I mean, I love movies. And I appreciate the art form when it comes to the theater. But I am definitely less likely to "go" to the movies these days, in favor of going out and doing things with other people. I don't have TikTok or a Twitter. I don't share much on social media at all, outside of commenting on Reddit from time to time. I don't think short attention spans and desire for interaction is a generation specific thing. I think people are just tired of staring at screens, especially as more and more people are using them for work all day too. I think there's a kind of "virtual fatigue" that people of all ages are feeling.
And if you're feeling that, then going to an overpriced theater to watch a movie that might very well suck—since mostly big broad tentpole movies are what's playing in bigger chains—squished next to people who won't shut up or get off their phones the whole time, or missing something because you went to the bathroom, or whatever—might just not feel like a positive extension of what is still ultimately an individual experience. Who wants to set aside an entire evening, potentially pay a sitter, and go through all that inconvenience to do something you could just as easily do at home in sweatpants, except on a bigger screen?
Attention spans aren't demolished. They're the same as they've always been. The biggest problem these days is phones. They tend to pull on your attention. So, in that sense, theaters are advantageous, since (unless you're a jerk) you don't look at your phone. But people still have the same ability to sit and concentrate as they always have.
attention spans have most definitely gone down. The fact that fewer and fewer people are going to theaters at all is proof that people don’t have the same ability to sit and concentrate as they used to
Attention spans haven't changed. Fewer people going to theaters is in no way a commentary on attention spans. It means there are a lot of other entertainment options. In movies alone, people have immediate access to thousands right at home. But people still have the same ability to sit and concentrate as they used to.
Do you have a source for this?
And yet tv stories are stretched to 800min nowadays instead of a self contained 22 min story or 44min. So I disagree.
No television episode is 800 minutes so that’s a dumb argument to make. How long are the individual episodes that people watch at a time? They’re usually not more than an hour. Would you say that someone who sits on the couch and scrolls tiktok for 4 hours at a time has a long attention span?
Are we living on the same planet?
I assume so. I just don't accept widespread narratives that aren't backed up by evidence. If you look it up, you find that attention spans (the ability to concentrate on one thing) haven't changed. Mostly what's changed is our environment, and most of all phones.
So the ability for people to focus and concentrate on one thing in a controlled, studied environment is something that's been documented, but then you say that "mostly what's changed is our environment". I'm sorry, how does this not affect our attention spans? Are you saying smart phones haven't influenced anyone's attention spans in the real world just because studies show people can still use their attention spans in experiments? Does the way the real world works mean anything or do our entire worldviews have to be only constructed on peer reviewed research?
Also, even a cursory glance at the subject will show that there's numerous articles that go either way, saying that these things have influenced our attention spans or that they have not. To say that, in practice, however, smartphones have had no effect on our attention spans because they're a part of "our environment" makes no goddamn sense.
Me and my sisters are both Gen Z so I can give a bit of perspective. And I feel it's mostly people not understanding the issue. Going to the movies sucks when it comes to going out with friends. I don't live in the US so it's not even half as expensive as there but still you spend a bunch of money at least as much as you would spend going out to eat with your friends. You spend two hours seeing a movie where you can't really talk with your friends. Then if you want to make this an actual get together with your friends you need to organize a second activity before or after the movie to actually talk with them. The older you become the more this becomes true.
Compare this to doing the same watching a movie but doing so in your house. Here it will be vastly cheaper you can talk and comment freely. It's far more likely the movie will be well liked. And the only real disadvantage is that seeing the movie in theaters would have been more luxurious.
I will touch again a point I said in passing, another issue is that when going to theaters the danger that the movie you see is boring or doesn't interest you is far bigger. We went to see challengers last week mostly because we wanted to see zendaya in a good movie. We all thought it was okay but that's it yet we spent almost 40 dollars. Meanwhile when we saw Death of Stalin for free in our home and my sisters didn't like it we virtually spent nothing.
I don't think the issue is Gen Z not caring about artistic movies. My younger sister has seen a good chunk of the winners to best movie and she hasn't stopped talking about Poor things since we saw it in January. The issue is that selling the idea to take the risk to go see a movie in theaters it's a hard sell.
22 here and I agree to an extent. There's plenty of people at universities who are film fans and love art but the vast majority struggle to sit through a movie. Tiktok & YouTube has reduced attention spans significantly.
Also, younger people seem to care less about movie stars and more about influencers. The attention has shifted away from the movie industry hence why teen films haven't been hugely successful and have been in short supply in recent years.
Also, cinema ticket prices are insane where I live. Its only affordable to go for the big films.
So disheartening I got single recently and I’m on the dating apps (atrocious idea) and so many womens bios in the 20-29 age demo have some wannabe quirky prompt like “lol I can’t sit through a movie in one sitting! I just can’t!” Or to the prompt “we’re the same type of weird if-“ they’ll say “if it takes you 3-4 sitting to finish a single movie”
As a huge film guy I just click the X on hinge when I see that
Interesting. It's had a large effect on society as a whole it seems.
Yeah I think from one aspect streaming makes movies and TV shows more accessible but the choice overload means a lot of people end up just flicking through different things.
Attention spans haven't changed. Tiktok and YouTube haven't affected people's ability to sit and watch movies. And ticket prices are about the same as they've been for decades.
Thanks for the laugh
Odd that you laugh at facts, but glad I could help.
Ticket prices have not remained the same for decades for example.
I don't really buy it honestly. Just where I work, half of the generation z (including myself) has or recently had one of the movie passes. I think the only reason that you would get generation Z less likely to hit the theaters is due to prices.
Especially considering that Gen Z doesn’t seem to have too much trouble watching some really, Really, REALLY long films in cinemas. In fact, didn’t Gen Z contribute to some of the biggest box office hits of this decade?
Yeah, even just last year. I feel like we are forgetting entirely Gen Z movies like FNaF being very successful, despite releasing on streaming on the same day. I also would count the Hunger Games prequel as mostly a Gen Z movie and that did decently too.
Pretty much. I think what caused The Hunger Games prequel to not do as well as its predecessor is the fact that it gets very, Very, VERY slow during the third act.
Plus a lot of the growth of apps like Letterboxd is from Gen Z and young millennials. There’s definitely a subset of the demographic that’s still very enthusiastic about film at least.
But I think if you asked them where they regularly watch their films from they will probably say one of the streaming services rather than in cinemas, unless it’s a major event film like Barbie, Oppenheimer, Dune etc.
I think it helps that streaming has made film watching a lot more accessible - if you’re subscribed to a few of the services or willing to rent a film off Prime Video it’s very easy to get up to speed with the classics without spending much time or money.
Having seen some of the things, I feel like Gen Z is looking for films that look like they’re worth cinema experience - in direct term (like Avatar: The Way of Water, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Elemental (to a lesser extent), Wonka, or Dune: Part Two) or in indirect term (like Barbie and Oppenheimer).
I agree with this take for the most part. Nobody especially the younger generation wants to waste money to see a movie that could be watched at home on your couch and get the same experience as in theaters
It’s actually one of the reasons why I unironically believe that something like Pacific Rim would’ve done a whole lot better at the box office if it came out during this decade. It certainly wouldn't have lost to useless train wrecks like Grown Ups 2.
Movies like Godzilla x Kong and Deadpool 3 brought and will bring in viewers.
An 18 year old once told me their hobby was "YouTube".
Is there a meaningful difference between this and someone who spends all day watching TV?
Fewer people consider watching TV to be a hobby
Honestly? That sounds like me, especially when I was around that age. I'm not saying it's great or the healthiest, but is that really an odd idea; YouTube does provide a fairly endless production line of content that when filtered to your taste can provide endless daily entertainment, especially if you follow a bunch of channels with consistent upload times.
Jfc...
Look upon the future and despair.
I can only speak for Germany, but the data does not really back up that argument at all. About 75% of ticket sales are for Hollywood productions, so if Hollywood made movies that just aren't interesting for Gen Z, this should be visible in our data as well.
There is a yearly representative study of cinema attendance with 20k participants, and there is no decline of any sorts in the Gen Z or Gen Alpha age groups. Here the specific graph showing percentages of ticket sales in each age group (german but it should be pretty understandable. Age distribution of the entire population on the left), and here the full study. In fact the age group between 10 and 19 year olds is the largest group and has been growing since 2019. The two youngest age groups also show the largest increase in ticket sales compared to 2022. But in general there are no major shifts visible, and the average movie goer age even decreased slightly compared to 2019.
There are also some other interesting stats in that report. "Sources of awareness" for example shows a noticable, but small, increase for TikTok compared to 2022. It also shows that even in the 10 to 19 age group, movie trailers and WOM are by far the most important source of awareness still.
This also anecdotally matches up nicely with the age distribution I see at the movie theater that I work at. I am also Gen Z myself and I wouldn't say we don't care about the movie theater experience at all.
For some context: Average ticket price in 2023 was 10.90€, average concession spending was 7.40€. Minimum wage is 12.41€. We also very much have inflation since 2021.
I teach a elective high school film class. I think movie watching is becoming a hobby—the kids who watch movies (and not just passively second screen them) are as sharp on it as anyone. There are lots of them, but it’s not THE cultural currency it once was.
It’s worth noting that Gen Z is becoming far more critical of mediocre slop filled with cliches, which is why they constantly spout that “Marvel fell off”.
Films need to go above and beyond and offer big screen spectacles like Dune, Top Gun etc.
As there is more and more content, that's bound to happen. When 100 movies come out in a year, and most people only watch 20-30 of them, they're not as bombarded with tropes and cliches. When 1,000 movies/shows come out every year, and people watch 50-100 of them, they've seen it all many times.
It's kind of like how when you're a kid, you love some movies where years later you're like "wow, that was cliche-ridden crap".
I agree that spectacle can go a long way but even Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all time (as in bigger than any Marvel movie ever was). Avatar is seen as the ultimate form of spectacle and it is the highest grossing movie.
so I dont think this is a generational thing of rejecting slop. If a FNAF movie can draw lots of hype I dont think theres any argument
slop in any kind will always exist. And naturally some movies will be more appealing than others
I think the issue is that Gen Z's interests and values are starting to become more distinct from previous generations. If viewer demographic stats are to be trusted, it seems Gen Z have no interest in seeing series beloved by older generations such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Marvel which increasing skews more towards the 25-35+ viewers. Likewise Gen Z seem to value Despicable Me and Kung Fu Panda more than the Disney Renaissance as they didn't come out for the Little Mermaid Remake or Wish. As an older Gen Z my largest surprise was just how many people were shocked by FNAF and Mario being a success. Basically most of the Blockbusters and series we grew up on has now fallen out of favor, turning into the thing parents forced their kids to sit through just like Westerns and the like we're for us. Gen Z will show up to the theaters, just for movies must of this subreddit underestimates or expects to flop like Barbie, Kung-Fu Panda 4, Mario etc.
How old do you think Gen Z are? The oldest Gen Z would've grown up with Raimi Spider-Man and the Star Wars Prequels, the youngest Gen Z would've grown up with the MCU.
I'm part of the oldest Gen Z, I'm 25. Younger Gen Z have very different interests than us as we are more similar to the Gen before us like most early gens are. Now we are the outlier.
I'm right around your age too and that's exactly why I delineated between younger gen z and older gen z.
This is ignoring that Gen Z heavily grew up in Marvel and likely saw Star Wars and Disney Renaissance movies growing up
Like what Gen Z person doesn't know Lion King or Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella?
Indiana Jones didn't do well because the movie was dull and Disney can't do pulp storytelling. Barbie and Mario are also both old brands, and first time gimmicks on screen (like first time on screen or first time animated)
That’s strange, I agree with most of what you’re saying but from my view it was Gen Z that was more supportive of The Little Mermaid remake but it’s interesting that experience was probably different in your eyes
I don’t think The Little Mermaid not doing so well has much to do with that.
The Little Mermaid remake made $569m. Kung Fu Panda 4 made $520m. In raw numbers more people went to see The Little Mermaid, even though it was a failure while Kung Fu Panda was a success.
Also, I don't think people were surprised that FNAF and Mario were successes, but just how big they were.
I don't entirely disagree but what makes Kung-Fu Panda worth mentioning is its success heavily comes from Gen Z audiences. 67% of those who seem Kung-Fu Panda on release were between 13-24 years old according to Deadline. https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comments/1balosd/audience_scores_and_diversity_demographics_for/
Considering The Little Mermaid is considered an all-time classic to almost be met by the likes of a considered very mediocre Kung-Fu Panda movie says a lot and though demographics are not available for it regarding age I'd bet those who grew up with the movie ex. Gen X/Millenials would be a main base for the remake as opposed to Gen Z.
We either love it more than previous generations or barely care at all outside big event films. Applies to all forms of media though. The Internet gives us options to like whatever niche we want, and thus everything becomes a niche.
I think interest in the medium (feature length movies) is down in general but especially among Gen Z. The entire format just doesn't seem to appeal to them anymore. Probably a combination of short form entertainment being more popular (TikTok, Youtube), the steaming era killing theatrical distribution and one franchise completely dominating an entire decade of movies. The pandemic was the final nail in the coffin.
I was born in 1998 and I go to the cinema at least twice a month. But yeah I see many people of my age who are not passionate like me and I would like if they start to consider cinema too 😅
I think theaters are going to move back to what they were in the 70s, or at least a version of it; not having thousands of theaters in every single neighborhood, but the ones that are in more exclusive areas with nicer amenities (food delivery, a bar, recliner seats, etc) are going to be the ones that stick around. A lot of the common megaplexes with regular seats in normal towns are gonna shutter because the experience just isn't that much better than watching it at home, especially if it's something other than a major blockbuster and you end up watching it shoved into some tiny side auditorium on a crappy, non-letterboxed screen. That doesn't feel like an experience worth paying $50 for.
It is definitely different but I wonder how much of it is because of the MCU. Event movie after event movie racking in billions and billions for a few years there. A generation has been conditioned on event movies, and now there are barely any. Gen Z love going to the cinema as much as anyone but a lot of casual movie goers have been conditioned to wait for a good reason to. Especially when it costs a bit and money is worth less and less
Took my gen z sister in laws to the metropolitan museum of art and they couldn’t stop talking about how boring it was afterwards. Not just some random art museum, it’s one of the world’s best and has tons of cool artifacts etc. As well.