Do older people intrinsically enjoy movie-going less than the younger population? For my paper, I would like to look into why movie attendance is so low for the older populace. When studio executives in Hollywood decide to “green light” a movie, or to give consent for a film to be made, a big factor they consider is if the film is geared towards an audience younger than 28. According the Motion Picture Association of America 2009 report, (http://www.mpaa.org/Resources/091af5d6-faf7-4f58-9a8e-405466c1c5e5.pdf) almost 50% of all ticket purchases were made by movie-goers under the age of 24, which roughly only makes up 30% of the US population. For ages 50 and over, there is a drastic decline in movie-going attendance. With a growing baby-boomers population, I am wondering if something can be done to get that segment into the theaters. Is it impossible to get older people to the theaters, or is this a segment that Hollywood has chosen to neglect due stale traditions and misunderstandings of how to market to this segment?
I want to dive in and explore through understanding customer insights what it will take to increase movie-viewing for this group. Some questions/ideas I pose include:
-Does the older population want to see a certain type of film that is not
being made, for example, drama, or with certain actors, etc.?
-Marketing might consider different channels to reach the older
population. Instead of promotions on television and the internet, they
might consider ads in newspapers or whatever other sources of media the
older population uses.
-On what occasion would a senior individual go see a movie, is it with a
spouse, friend, or grandson?
In class we talked a lot about experiences, and I think this applies to movies as much as anything else. The experience of going to see a movie is much more than just the movie itself. For an individual, it involves hanging out with friends and family, sitting in a nice, comfy chair, and eating popcorn or other sweets. And theater chains have worked to create this experience, from the very design of the building to the foods offered at the concession stands. But once again, everything in theaters today screams for the youth and modern: from the “hip” shapes of the walls, down to the employees that work there. Have you ever seen an older employee work at the theaters? I was reading an article on Vodafone, which was trying to design a cell phone for older people. In one example, older people actually said they did not want to go into the stores because all the employees there were too young and spoke in terms that the older people did not understand. The older people did not feel like they fit in with the atmosphere of the stores. While the interactions between employees and customers might be less in a theater, I think it is all these small, unconscious things that come together to create the experience.
I was at an independent theater chain in New York that showcased smaller, independent films. To my surprise, I was the only attendant there that looked under the age of fifty. Was it because of the genre of the film that was shown there? Was it because theater had a certain way of advertising to older people? Or was it something else?
I hope my research leads to answer some of these questions, or even discover new ones. How can films be marketed to older people, from the very start in the production of the film to the exhibition? In production, studios might have to open up to new script ideas or directors that speak to the older audience. Then, distribution and exhibition might have to create a whole experience that this segment would enjoy, through insights like on what occasions do older people go to the movies, or what are they looking for when they go see a film (other than the film itself)?
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