Hollywood abandons fanboys for baby boomers

In the aughts, it seemed that Hollywood's darling demographic was fanboys. They were considered responsible for the huge increase in superhero movies over the years. Now that Disney owns Marvel and the next Iron Mans and Avengers are planned through 2015, Hollywood is looking for the latest trend. Movie like Bridesmaids have given a kick to the female-driven box office, which is now fielding a number of female friendship-focused movies (like this year's Bachelorette and For a Good Time, Call...). But one demographic hasn't gotten too much credit for their steady movie attendance. They're the baby boomers and retirees who attend movies regularly. Today, THR has a lengthy piece on how Hollywood is finally taking note of the older audience.

THR points out that sometimes the differences can be parsed by region, pointing out retirement communities in Florida that have done tremendous business with Hope Springs and aging-actioner The Expendables 2. Over my years at Film Journal, I've interviewed a couple of theatre owners who revealed their core demographic was the 50+, retiree crowd. Both lean toward indie fare, though they show wide releases from time to time. I think the older market has been overlooked in part because many movies appeal to a broad demographic, so the 50+ people are just one slice of the pie. As journalists, we receive information that's broken down differently each time, either as older/younger than 25, 35, or, for a movie already presumed to have an older audience, over/under 50. That's not good information to deduce trends.

Movies like Red, Something's Gotta Give, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and Hope Springs only have older stars as draws, so when those movies succeed, people take notice, because they couldn't have been successes without the support of older viewers. But so many more movies use old-young casting, like thirtysomething Amy Adams and sexagenarian Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia. That movie drew just as many older viewers as Hope Springs, but because the movie had an age-diverse cast, it was easy to overlook the demographic breakdown.

However, the dependability of older moviegoers has a downside. Hollywood needs to cultivate those same habits in younger audiences. THR quotes Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore, who says of the boomers, "This is a group that grew up going to the movies. It was before cable TV, before the VCR...At times, Hollywood forgets them but invariably comes back and realizes how steady and dependable they are." While the baby boomer effect will last for decades, especially as people live longer and longer, there's also a young audience to consider, one that has not only cable TV and VCRs, but on-demand, illegal downloading, iTunes, Amazon, smartphones, and social media to entertain them on Friday nights.

50+ filmgoers fill the multiplex

By Sarah Sluis

This week, The New York Times pointed out that older moviegoers, who have long underrepresented themselves at the box office, are returning. During the last fifteen years, there's been a 67% increase in the number of 50+ moviegoers who report attending a movie in the past six months. Of all the reasons cited for this shift, the most important is content. Summer is seen as the season for "kid" movies, and many older viewers have more conservative standards and resent the "filth" they see on screen. The production code may not be coming back to keep sex, drugs, and violence in check, but this year's Oscar nominees and winners, in particular, highlight the kind of content that has strong appeal to older viewers.

The King's Speech, recently crowned Best Picture, was a film I knew immediately would appeal to those turned off by racy content in the theatres (in fact, it's being recut to a PG-13 by bleeping out its uses of the F-word). The movie has already crossed the $100 million mark, in large part thanks to those "once a year" moviegoers who will turn out doubly in light of the movie's Oscar win. The other nine movies nominated for an Academy Award all have appeal in the over-fifty range, even among the outliers: Inception was remarkably cerebral (unless that's code for confusing?) for a blockbuster, and Toy Story 3 drew plenty of adult audiences who know about Pixar's reputation for quality. Movies like True Grit and The Fighter, however, were the core, commercially successful and well-reviewed movies that drew in 50+ filmgoers.

The Times also draws attention to the atmosphere of a theatre--dirty cinemas with hordes of unruly teens can turn away older customers in a heartbeat. For an upcoming feature, I spoke with Skip Huston, owner of the Avon Theatre in Decatur, Illinois. His small theatre showed many of this year's Oscar films, including True Grit and Black Swan, to an older-skewing, more discerning audience. He has a staff that keeps the theatre spotless, popcorn that draws raves, and a historic "destination" cinema. Places like these show that older people will come to the theatre, if it has the right environment and a well-curated selection of films. If older filmgoers mean more adult movies and fewer dumb action films and comedies, please, fire away, but I suspect this means we're also going to be in for many more iterations of The Bucket List.