“Hollywood Now Drawn to Senior Set”
Oh. My. God. Can this really be happening? Via Vulture:
In the next few weeks, screenwriter Ol Parker will deliver a treatment to mini-studio Fox Searchlight executives for a sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Insiders familiar with the project tell Vulture that the principal cast “all wants to come back,” and it’s easy to see why the studio is eager for them to do so: With a production cost just shy of $10 million, its $130 million worldwide gross made it one of the most profitable films of this year. This underlined the point made by last year’s Red, which grossed $200 million worldwide on a $58 million budget with its decidedly more mature killers Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, and John Malkovich: There’s green in gray.
Now a sizeable crop of actual studio pictures are coalescing around what in Hollywood is an utterly radical notion: What if you didn’t need a huge opening weekend and could count on a slower, steadier climb? What if you aimed at an audience that loved going to the movies — was, in fact, starved, almost desperate for product — and had both the free time and discretionary income to spend on an increasingly rarified leisure-time pursuit just about any day of the week? Well, they exist, they don’t want to see loud sci-fi blockbusters, and they’re finally being noticed.
Longtime GITS readers may imagine me falling to my knees with hot tears of joy streaming down my face. And you’re right! Well, metaphorically at least.
How long have I been hammering on this: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here. Oh, so many more posts, a humble blogger crying out in the wilderness. And in this article cited above, they hit almost every point I’ve been making. To wit:
This isn’t some odd codger coincidence, says Patrick Corcoran, the director of Media and Research for the Motion Picture Association of America: “The fastest growing section of the population is over 50.” In fact, surprisingly, the over-60 crowd now far outnumbers teenagers at the multiplex in terms of buying power, but up until now, nobody has been catering to them, instead focusing on the average Clearasil user.
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“They’re a population that sort of made theatrical movie-going,” Corcoran says. “They drift away because of family pressures, but they can be driven back. The answer is not trying to hit only home runs with fewer movies, but instead try for more doubles and triples tailored for a more diverse audience.” And this demographic is a market that will balloon in the next decade. According to the U.S. Census bureau, Americans 65 and older were 10.9 percent of the population in 2000 and 11 percent in 2010, but will leap to 14.1 percent by 2020.
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Plus, this adult audience grew up going to movies; it’s an ingrained habit that they enjoy, unlike younger viewers who are increasingly indifferent to whether they watch a movie in a theater, on TV, or on a phone. And for moviegoers in their teens and twenties, movies are on a much longer list of things vying for their entertainment dollar. “[Adult moviegoers are] a market that’s easier to get off the couch because they’re not playing Xbox,” says Corcornan. “I think there’s a case to be made; it’s a market that needs movies.” And Paranormal Activity 18 just isn’t gonna cut it.
This shouldn’t be that hard to understand. I love movies. People of my ilk love movies. We have money. We have time. Your loins tingle for repeat ticket-buyers? I have seen Moonrise Kingdom three times.
Hey, Hollywood! If you agree to make more good movies aimed at us old farts, I’ll buy a fourth ticket for Moonrise Kingdom.
Can you say “Tipping Point”?
For more of the Vulture article, go here.
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