After highly anticipated films such as A Colt for all occasions And Furious Although “Barbenheimer” did not generate enthusiasm at the box office, it was the animated sequel that mixed nostalgia with a good dose of emotion and thus caused a lot of excitement among audiences. Inside Out 2 followed his popular 2015 original to the top of the charts, practically guaranteeing him a billion-dollar success.
Who was responsible for making the film a mega hit? Families with children, of course, but the box office – and Disney Pixar – can also thank Generation Z.
“According to a general audience survey conducted by PostTrak over the weekend of June 22-24, nearly 40 percent of ticket buyers were between the ages of 18 and 24,” the Hollywood Reporter wrote of the film. “Teens, or those between the ages of 13 and 17, made up 23 percent of the audience.”
Especially for Gen Z audiences – who generally make less money than older generations and grew up with access to countless TV shows, movies and more on a variety of devices – it takes a lot of effort to get this generation into the movies. For moviegoers in their twenties and younger, it should be worth spending some of their pocket money.
“Obviously, this is not a generation that has lacked home entertainment,” says Walt Hickey, author of You are what you see: How movies and television influence everythingsaid Yahoo Entertainment. “They had streaming services at their fingertips that millennials could only dream of at the time.”
If you have the choice between going to the cinema or watching the film at home, and doing so for significantly less money and effort, then it has to be something you don’t want to miss.
Mia Lima, a rising senior at the University of Southern California and co-president of the Trojan Filmmakers Club, told Yahoo, “The importance of the motion picture as an event is increasing.”
However, if you can wait, “and watch it on streaming,” Lima said, you can do that too. Audiences, she added, are waiting for “something that feels like a must-see.”
FOMO is one factor that brings Generation Z to the cinema, but it is not the only one.
According to UCLA October 2023 Teenagers and screens According to the report, which surveyed 1,500 people between the ages of 10 and 24, Generation Z is also looking for content “that focuses on friendships and platonic relationships” rather than “forced” romantic relationships. They are also looking for storylines that reflect “real life” rather than unrealistic life, but are still hopeful, uplifting and authentic.
“Young people view media as a ‘third place’ where they can socialize and develop a sense of belonging,” said Stephanie Rivas-Lara, lead author of the UCLA study, in a statement. This combination was evident in Barbie last summer and probably contributed to the not-to-be-missed factor Inside Out 2.
Social media campaigns have played a huge role in generating excitement around a film’s release, helping to drive younger viewers – and audiences in general – to films like 2023’s double whammy. Barbie And Oppenheimerboth of which received awards and were box office hits.
For 19-year-old Christophe Merriam, who is co-president of the USC film club with Lima, going to the movies means being part of an inside joke or a larger cultural phenomenon.
“Barbenheimer” succeeded in doing this, he said.
“Are you going to wear pink? Are you going to go to the screening in all black? And then you watch the films back to back because that was culturally cool,” he said. “People were excited to do that or share their experience, be willing to do that or take pictures and post them on social media.”
The effect was also evident in ticket sales. According to a 2024 Fandango survey of more than 6,000 people, 40 percent of the general public saw the “Barbenheimer” double feature in the cinema on the same day. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, this figure rose to 60 percent.
A more recent example is Everyone except youstarring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. The film, released in December 2023, attracted even more viewers to theaters thanks to a well-coordinated social media campaign in which Sweeney played a key role. When she noticed moviegoers posting TikToks of themselves singing and dancing along to Natasha Bedingfield’s song “Unwritten,” which is featured in the film, the actress shared the posts with her roughly 20 million Instagram followers. And with more than 24 million views, the co-stars showed off their chemistry to promote the film.
The mid-budget film went from being a “meh” reaction film on its opening weekend to a bona fide blockbuster after giving audiences a chance to experience the film’s jokes.
“You saw that in IMAX, right?”
For some so-called “film freaks” of Generation Z, going to the cinema comes with high expectations when it comes to elements such as picture size and sound quality.
According to the Fandango survey, 71% of general ticket buyers said they saw at least one film in the premium format in the past year. Among moviegoers aged 18 to 34, this figure rose to 79%.
“When you go to the movies, you get a nostalgic feeling. And then when you get there, you can see it on IMAX, you have everything, like this huge surround sound system,” Maddi Koch, a 23-year-old TikTok creator who posts about movies, told Yahoo Entertainment. “Nobody can recreate that at home like IMAX.”
Koch, who lives in South Carolina, added: “All my friends, at least my age … always say, ‘You saw that in IMAX, right?'”
IMAX has been on a roll lately, with net profit up 33 percent year-over-year and new system installations up 67 percent year-over-year, according to the company’s April 25 earnings report.
Don Savant, CEO of CJ 4DPlex Americas, told NBC News that 4DX theaters, which feature moving seats and other cinematic effects, attract a younger audience “ages 10 to 30” who “are looking for a more immersive moviegoing experience.”
“I was there recently and Planet of the Apes: Kingdom in 4DX,” Merriam said. “I want to see the film in the absolute highest quality. I want to hear it with Dolby Sound. I want to see it in IMAX. I want to see it in 4DX.”
Branches
As for plot lines that some Gen Z moviegoers are skeptical about, “unnecessary” sex that bares skin over story is something they won’t get into.
In the UCLA survey, 51 percent of respondents wanted more platonic relationships on screen, while just under half said sex was “not necessary” in most films.
Merriam, Lima and Koch all cited cases in which sex in films seemed “forced,” “unnecessary,” and “unnecessary.”
“I feel like there are films that do a much better job of actually letting sex flow into the story of the film and how sex actually develops it,” said Merriam. “For example, even in Saltburnthere are some very explicit scenes. … But I think it adds to the overall narrative of the story. I feel like it says a lot about who the characters are, whereas in previous generations it was more traditionally, “Yeah, it’s about sex.” It is what it is. But for us, it’s just like, “Why is this here?”
Generation Z also finds the way social media use in their age group is portrayed on screen a turn-off, with current films not telling the whole story.
“The way Generation Z is portrayed is very much social media-focused, which I don’t necessarily disagree with,” Bailey Vought, 23, who works at the Cherokee Film Commission, told Yahoo Entertainment. “They tend to focus on that and be obsessed with those images, and that’s all they care about.”
However, she noted that it also “flattens” the portrayal of a generation and “doesn’t necessarily give the recognition that is due, especially with many Gen Z activists that you see in real life and on social media today.”
Koch identified a sequence in the film A man named Otto in which an elderly man falls onto train tracks and a Gen Z passerby who doesn’t help him screams, “Make a video.”
“No reasonable person would watch an old man fall onto the tracks without helping him,” she said.
Hickey sympathizes with the characterization.
“Welcome to the club. I’m part of the millennial generation, and for a whole decade, millennials were portrayed as having very flat hair – going around destroying industries, basically being too broke to function, but also spending too much on other things,” he said.
According to Hickey, it is “only a matter of time” before Generation Z tells its own stories.
