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At the Movies

The same criticism always gets laid at Hollywood's feet – the industry isn't making movies for adults anymore. Critics claim it's why movie audiences are getting younger, and smaller – the smallest in eight years, actually. But in reality, more boomers are going to the movies than expected, so much so, Hollywood should be in the throws of a full-tilt boomer blitz.

The most recent attendance research from the Motion Picture Association of America shows a drop by the over-60 crowd, but a slight bump in the 40-59 age range. So they're still going to the movies, despite an overall shrinkage in attendance. And Hollywood is paying attention to the swelling ranks of film fans over 45.

"Sure [the baby boom] is affecting Hollywood," says Douglas Gomery, a leading authority on baby boomers and the media and resident scholar at the Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland. "Movies starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, they're obviously not aimed at kids."

But it doesn't take a long look at the movie listings to realize there aren't a lot of films like the Nicholson-Keaton mid-life romance "Something's Gotta Give" getting made every year. The industry says it's because films for adults are so much more costly than the typical teen comedy just because they require good scripts and successful older stars and directors who come with hefty salaries and expensive measures of movie-making. And the risk in making more older-skewing movies scares off bottom-line-based studio execs.

"History," Gomery continues, "says that attendance goes down after age 35. That changed with boomers. Though they're not going to the movies as much as some people would like, they're going to the movies more than history says they should."

"This is the first sizable generation to really embrace movies as more than mass entertainment, but also an art form," explains Gomery. Couple that with the enormity of this demographic, and you can understand how Turner Classic Movies not only can survive, but turn a profit.

For an indication why, just look at some of the directors embraced by boomers: Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Mike Nichols, Lawrence Kasdan.

The question isn't whether Hollywood is paying any attention to this demographic. It's how an industry so obsessed with its financial sheet can afford not to kowtow to every boomer whim.

"The numbers are definitely there," Peter Adee, MGM marketing chief, told the Associated Press. He was at Universal Pictures when that studio won the Oscar with "A Beautiful Mind," a box-office belle that pulled lots of support from older moviegoers. "The more you think about it," Adee continues, "it does seem like kind of a travesty. Why aren't we making more movies geared to an older audience?"

DVD Delight

Gomery points out that even if a film fails at the box office, it will almost always make up the difference in DVD sales. "If you wait long enough, it's very, very hard for a film to lose money."

The swelling ranks of over-45 film fans are driving Hollywood's most lucrative industry – DVDs.

DVD sales are never publicized very well. Gomery had to go to formal Securities and Exchange Commission filings to find evidence of the DVD cash cow. What he found was that the movies make more money after they leave the cinema than while on the marquee.

This generation, he contends, is pushing the sales boon. Be it through Netflix, Blockbuster or Wal-Mart (by far the largest DVD retailer in the U.S.) many boomers are opting to watch first-run movies – as well as classics – at home, eschewing the sticky-floored theater auditorium and its room full of strangers for an expensive, plush and private home theater room.

Analysts are unsure how this will affect the industry – or if the rising number of over-45 moviegoers will continue. Nevertheless, the "TV generation" is clearly not getting tired of the feature presentation like their parents did.