{"id":1764,"date":"2026-08-02T12:11:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2026-08-02T12:11:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:11:51","slug":"has-gen-z-saved-or-just-changed-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1764","title":{"rendered":"Has Gen Z Saved\u2014Or Just Changed\u2014Movies?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sometime after Jack Black hollered \u201cchicken jockey\u201d in 2025\u2019s A Minecraft Movie<\/em>, and before The Odyssey<\/em> drove the masses mad with aspect-ratio anxiety, Hollywood finally felt seen\u2014and saved\u2014by Gen Z. Over the past year, trade publications and mainstream outlets alike celebrated the news: Zoomers were coming of age and coming to the rescue of American cinema. Their theater attendance purportedly outstripped that of their elders; their tastes in video-game franchises and low-budget horror undeniably carried the day.<\/p>\n

Read more Taking Care of the Father Who Broke My Heart<\/a><\/p>\n

These cheery headlines largely traced back to a single report by Fandango conducted in January. In a survey of 7,000 adults in the United States, the Gen Z responses were eye-popping: 87 percent had watched at least one film in theaters in the previous 12 months; the average Zoomer had seen seven movies in that period. Compare this with Gen X at 70 percent and 6.1 movies, respectively. (It should be noted, though, that Fandango\u2019s survey pool drew disproportionately from movie enthusiasts: 5,091 of the respondents had gone out to see at least one film in the previous year.)<\/p>\n

It might seem predictable that Gen Z now drives the box office. The youngest Zoomers are entering high school (and thus making their first independent purchases), and the eldest are rounding out their 20s (and thus reaching for the next rungs on the career ladder). Many of them are in the season of life when discretionary income rises to meet peak discretionary time. But the seemingly outsize fanfare around these numbers makes more sense in light of the turmoil of the past few years. After the upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic, followed by the writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes that snarled the production pipeline, many industry observers feared that Zoomers were a lost demographic. This cohort of young adults, historically a core part of Hollywood\u2019s customer base, had come of age at a moment when there were fewer new things to watch and more reasons\u2014such as streaming\u2014to stay inside.<\/p>\n

Theatrical films \u201cdon\u2019t have a future if you can\u2019t capture the younger audiences of today, who are going to be the older audiences of tomorrow,\u201d Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst for Rentrak, a box-office-research firm, told me. Fandango\u2019s study, which was released ahead of CinemaCon, the annual convention of theater owners, told the industry what it wanted to hear: that people would continue going to the movies.<\/p>\n

But the big picture is murkier. \u201cI think that there\u2019s a lot to be optimistic about, but I would not put the return of theatrical back at the feet of Gen Z,\u201d Kevin Goetz, the CEO and founder of Screen Engine, a research and analytics firm, told me. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t proclaim victory quite yet.\u201d Although other surveys also observe strong youth turnout, the proportions are far less dramatic. Pew, for example, found in a survey last summer that 67 percent of people ages 18 to 29 had seen a movie in the theater in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

This year brought real evidence of cinema\u2019s appeal to the youth: The runaway success of Backrooms<\/em> and Obsession<\/em> marked the coronation of YouTube auteurs as bankable directors and drew notably fresh-faced crowds. Even with such turnout, this year\u2019s box office is unlikely to return to the heights it regularly reached in the past. More people are staying at home: In 2019, the share of the non-moviegoing population was 24 percent, according to Vista Group, which provides analytics and software for the film industry; in 2024, that number hit 30 percent. People who still go to the cinema do so less often: In 2025, theaters in the U.S. and Canada sold approximately two tickets per capita, less than half of what they sold in 2002.<\/p>\n

Other surveys, from more disinterested sources than Fandango, indicate that although theater attendance has somewhat recovered from its pandemic lows, Gen Z sees fewer movies than past generations of youth. In fact, the drop-off is starkest among young people: In 2007, according to data provided to me by Gallup, 18-to-29-year-olds went out to see an average of nine films. In 2025, the same demographic saw 4.3 movies. As their moviegoing frequency has fallen, Gen Zers\u2019 habits have started to converge with those of the general moviegoing population, Matthew Liebmann, Vista Group\u2019s chief product, innovation, and marketing officer, told me. In other words: Kids today don\u2019t behave that<\/em> differently from older people.<\/p>\n

Read more A Rodeo That Reminds Me of Home<\/a><\/p>\n

The numbers point to a broader behavioral shift. Moviegoing used to be a matter of habit meeting spontaneity. Teens loitering at the mall, couples on a date, friends gathering for a night out\u2014these groups reliably showed up at the multiplex and would pick a showtime once they were already in the door. Today, patrons generally plan their cinema visits in advance, and the question of what to see has collapsed into the question of whether to go at all.<\/p>\n

Once moviegoing went from routine hangout to major outing, theaters had to adapt. Many have, over time, diversified their offerings. In a phone call, Bob Bagby, the CEO of B&B Theatres, rattled off a cruise line\u2019s worth of activities now offered at his various locations, including mah-jongg, trivia, and bingo. Some locations have bocce and pickleball courts; other chains have added ropes courses and axe-throwing. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it,\u201d Bagby told me, of the latter. \u201cOur insurance people said No, no, don\u2019t do that<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even the core elements of the cinema experience have changed. If you\u2019re going to get people to look up from the screen in their palm, you have to offer the biggest one possible. If seating is reserved, it needs to be\u00a0 sumptuous. (One theater-chain president told me that its recliners had heating and <\/em>cooling settings.) If there\u2019s going to be dining, you might consider rolling out a multicourse prix fixe menu\u2014or at least an array of hot options.<\/p>\n

If your lobby is being treated like a special destination, it should also look the part. \u201cThe Gen Z crowd wants to come in and be somewhere cool,\u201d says Penn Ketchum, the managing partner of the theater chain Penn Cinema, describing the 24-tap self-serve beer wall he installed in one location as part of a $2 million renovation. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to come through a dingy, dusty, aged lobby. They want to come in from the parking lot and be somewhere that\u2019s worthy of being in the background of their picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over time, \u201cpeople have been trained to spend more at the theater when they go,\u201d Alicia Reese, a senior vice president of equity research for media and entertainment at the financial firm Wedbush Securities, told me. This is a boon for theaters, because concessions have much higher margins than the films themselves. Moviegoing now comes with an air of occasion. In an era of screen abundance, Hollywood has tried to differentiate the theatrical release by creating an artificial sense of scarcity and transience. The industry has borrowed the tactics of touring artists and fashion drops, promoting limited premium-format screenings and slinging special-edition popcorn buckets. But encouraging audiences to associate moviegoing with \u201call the trimmings and treats,\u201d Liebmann said, also has drawbacks: It creates an \u201caffordability misperception,\u201d which may dampen their appetite for regular visits.<\/p>\n

Gen Z may be filing into more auditoriums than expected these days. And even if they\u2019re doing so less often than their predecessors, and even if their seats are bigger and squishier and spaced less densely than before, their presence certainly ensures some kind of future for the theatrical model. But when you consider the experience that\u2019s been retooled around them, one that depends on so many things beyond sitting in a dark room together as a projector rattles, it\u2019s hard to shake the sense that the pictures have gotten small.<\/p>\n

Read more Fauci\u2019s Return to Capitol Hill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a more complicated reality beneath the cheery headlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nHas Gen Z Saved\u2014Or Just Changed\u2014Movies? - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1764\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Has Gen Z Saved\u2014Or Just Changed\u2014Movies? - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s a more complicated reality beneath the cheery headlines.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1764\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-02T12:11:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1764#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1764\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"Has Gen Z Saved\u2014Or Just Changed\u2014Movies?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-02T12:11:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1764\"},\"wordCount\":1328,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1764#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/9ff5d40c573ae5e06a7bfc4dfab880ff.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1764#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1764\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1764\",\"name\":\"Has Gen Z Saved\u2014Or Just Changed\u2014Movies? 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