Ebert said in an interview with Time Magazine, " With their focus on films aimed at the 18-25 demographic, the big exhibition chains are alienating older filmgoers and failed to grow and diversify their audiences."
As always, the word on the street is indeed the movie studios are bent upon pushing the young’uns demo to the max while ignoring the potbellied but wealthier and more numerous boomer audience.
Is Ebert right? And if so, why? Aren’t there actually far more older adults in America than there are young people anyway? And dont the adults have more money? Then why are the movies geared to the young?
I would challenge the assertion that the age range is that high. Most movie seem to me to be aimed at the 13-18 demographic, R ratings notwithstanding.
I’d suggest that the R ratings are good for business at that age range. Even though theaters are not supposed to do it, they sell lots of tickets to kids under 17 and that rating just brings 'em to the theater in droves.
I’m not sure that the assertion about them being geared mostly to 18-25 year olds is correct. This view may be due to vividness of commercials. But if it is true, my suspicion is that it is due to the following:
They are highly social, and therefore prone to go to movies in groups/large numbers
They are highly social, and therefore likely to spread word of a movie quickly
They have a lot of time to see movies compared to other age groups
They are looser with their money and thus prone to seeing movies more frequently than other groups
They are not demanding of high quality, and are thus less likely to talk negatively about a movie
They are not demanding of high quality, and thus production costs are lower
As an aggregate, they are a group that engages in high levels of consumption, and are therefore likely to buy a lot of movie-related merchandise like DVDs
You can make movies that appeal to an older demographic, you can make GOOD movies that appeal to an older demographic, but you can’t make the older demographic physically go to the movies.
Movies like Frost/Nixon, A Beautiful Mind, Flags of Our Fathers, etc. are all critically acclaimed movies that appeal to the older crowd but they are far from boxoffice top earners like Dark Knight, Shrek, Spiderman.
Part of that is that the older moviegoers will go to quality movies even if they are not aimed at them (e.g., The Dark Knight). As a rule, younger moviegoers will not go to quality movies that are not aimed at them (e.g., Frost/Nixon).
Another factor is that adults are more likely to have a good entertainment system of their own. Even my mediocre setup (in the sub-$500 range) is preferable to a movie theater* and when I can buy a DVD for the same price as two movie tickets, it seems silly to go out.
On the other hand, if you’re a college student living in a dorm, your best option for watching DVDs is likely a laptop.
I might not have top notch sound or a giant screen, but my chair is comfortable, I can pause a three-hour movie to go to the bathroom, and I don’t have to fight traffic to use it.
It has been at least ten (maybe 15-20) years since my wife and I went to a movie theater more than twice in a year. We have neither the patience nor the time nor the money. That includes the one or two that were so bad we walked out of them.
(I can get a surefire half-week of daydreams from one $1 lottery ticket, or I can gamble 3 hours and $10 on a movie ticket. Which is the better way to spend the entertainment budget?)
That said, I do plan to be at the 12:01 AM showing of Star Trek two weeks from tonight.
I’m 52 and I love a good movie. I also have no intention of ever going to see another one in the movie theater. Why?
The sound is just out of control and is geared to wisper, wisper, BLAST, BLAST, BOOM. I just cannot tolerate it. Painfully loud.
The crowds are rude.
In only a few months after the ‘opening weekend’ I can buy or rent the movie and see it in the comfort of my own home, under my own prefered conditions.
Why should I feel the urgency of needing to see it on the opening weekend? They are all available for home viewing very soon after release.
Movies are aimed at 18-25yos not because they control the most money, but because they spend it the most recklessly and are the most susceptible to marketing and trends. In other words, it’s not about drawing the big money, it’s about drawing the easy money.
Maybe because they don’t have to hire a babysitter to go out, like many 26-45 year olds? Or they don’t have to be at work in the morning?
And all this talk about how 18-25 year olds have poor choice in movies is garbage. Every age group has terrible taste in movies, it’s just that a larger percentage of young people actually go to the movies, rather than the subset of older people who enjoy quality cinema.
My friends and I would just love to go to movies if we could find something that appealed to us. We are in the age rage of 54-90. We have the money to spend. Give us something with Redgrave or Dench and we’re there in a group.
The movies we want to see don’t have to be terribly expensive to make. But give us something meaty or intelligently romantic or witty and we’ll give it a chance. Don’t count us out on fantasy or science fiction either, but there has to be more than special effects.
I saw Dr. Zhivago over twelve times and travelled to the dinkiest little theaters to see it whenever there was a showing. This was before videos were available.
Last week was the Nashville Film Festival. One of my friends in her fifties paid over two hundred dollars for an open ticket and went to at least twenty new films in one week.
Why can’t studios show these films on just a couple of screens in multiplex theaters while the kids are in school and then return to their blockbusters when the kids are out?
Give us the right movies!
The exact same thing can be said of eighteen year olds. Why wouldn’t older people want to get out with friends to see movies just like eighteen year olds? So many of my friends are widows who live alone and appreciate a chance to get out of the house and socialize. Lunch and a movie is perfect.
And that’s because the movies are generally made for someone in that age range. I have a sneaking suspicion that “If you build it, they will come.” (Another movie I saw multiple times in theaters – twenty years ago this summer.)
Some do, but most of the time they still don’t make any money. I saw The Class at a local theater before the evening shows switched to more popular movies, and I was the only person in the theater. If you want quality movies, move to a city that has a large enough population to support a marginally popular independent art cinema. Nashville, for example, has the excellent Belcourt Theater that shows great movies year-round. It’s like complaining that my small town doesn’t have any great vegan-friendly Bosnian take-out.
