The power of the over-45s
p2pnet.net News:- “Steve Beeks, president of Lions Gate Entertainment, discovered the power of the over-45 set with the drama Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin,” says USA Today.
“It showed on just 383 screens (wide release is considered 500 or more) and earned just $6 million in theaters, but it sold about $17 million in DVDs.”
In other words, one of the reasons the studios are seeing declines in attendences is because mature adults are staying away from the movie houses, preferring to relax at home and watch the show in comfort.
“Older “adults are buying 10% more DVDs now than they were at the end of 2004, says the story, citing Karen Shinoda, 54, as a typical home viewer.
She says she missed Ray, “because of the cost of going to the theater, and I was unemployed at the time”.
But for $15, “she picked up a copy on DVD a few months after the film opened in theaters. That’s about half what she would have shelled out on a movie ticket, popcorn and drink, gas and parking."
Don’t even mention the hoots and howls and sticky floors and big hair and all the other delights of going to the movies.
Most releases are available for about four months after opening in theaters, says the story.
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See:-
USA Today – Older audiences pass on theaters, July 5, 2005
July 5th, 2005 at 5:19 pm
I’m about 20 years off from that demographic, but I hate the cinema equally as much. Amen to Limewire.
July 5th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
Don’t you mean amen to Bittorrent
July 5th, 2005 at 8:09 pm
Why not call it piracy as the reason of falling ticket sales? Thats what the mega-corps have been doing all along. More and more, those surveys not actually sponsored by the cartels are showing the real reasons why. Cost and unfriendly business practices to the customer are the main reasons. Increasingly, those same media corporations have been raising the prices one way or another to increase the bottom line. Unless they come up with a whole different scheme, the customer is telling them it is too expensive as it is now and they are voting with their wallets. Since they haven’t been able to increase the ticket price to the customer, like most media corporations their answer to it has been to put up ads. This change has done nothing to increase customer attendance but rather it has resulted in yet another turn off. Duh!
Getting into schools to “educate the young” isn’t going to cure that sort of problem. It is an economical problem and a business practice problem, not a theft problem. They have done nothing to endear the customer to their products by the acts of financial terrorism. I don’t watch tv anymore. Nor do I pay for the programming packages in monthly fees either. The constant rerun mentality that passes for tv programming practices in todays market is a major turn off. Why should I pay to see the same movie over and over again? It does little good to umpteen channels if the majority are reruns. That is a good example of whats happening. The dropping out of the customer for other things instead. There are no laws that say a potential customer has to purchase. That has always and will remain the reason why the customer is king. They choose, not the media, what they will spend their money on.
More and more I find that I am not as interested in the offerings of the commercial media. It is a huge money waster.
I am a decade older than the survey mentioned and yet I find that I am right in there with the rest of the survey in what I do, if I do. Going to rent a movie is much the same way also. If you go regularly, the choices are very limited. This too is controlled by the media corporations as to what is on the shelves when dealing with the likes of Blockbuster. I find more and more I am going less and less. Honestly, I don’t miss it. That attitude of going tapered to nearly zero when the MPAA started sueing folks. Up to that point, not only did I go regularly to the rental of movies, I also purchased dvds regularly. However, I dropped out of that when the lawsuits started. I will continue to withhold that money in spend on such items as I don’t believe what they are doing is right and I vote with my wallet. No matter what an industry shill says, that is the one thing they can not do is pull money out of your wallet. You have to do that yourself. I refuse to do so!
July 5th, 2005 at 8:52 pm
I’m six years older than the given demographic and I’m doing exactly the same as the previous writer. I think that it would probably shock the cartels if only they knew exactly how many previously loyal and long standing customers they are alienating with their ridiculous OVER reactions. The thought of giving more money to them fills me with revulsion, especially when I think of how many genuinely needy people there are in the world.
July 5th, 2005 at 11:48 pm
When my parents got into their 40’s they pretty much stopped going to the theater, prefering VHS rentals (and now DVD’s ever since they got a player). Cost, comfort, and the fact that it’s just too much hassle to stand in line were their main reasons. These days I couldn’t get them to go even if I were driving and paying lol. They used to take me as a child quite often though, in the old days.
Now that I’m getting older (in my 30’s) I’m finding I much prefer my home theater over the move theater as well. The experience, which was fun when I was younger, just isn’t the same anymore, and I really am sick of two major things; the running commentary from other folks in the audience, and the crying misbehaved kid that should have been left at home with a babysitter. Price has never really been a big issue with me. Anways, these two types of audience folks seem to be at every movie I’ve gone to in the past few years. With releases coming to DVD so fast these days, there just isn’t much of a good reason to go to the theater anymore unless it’s something so awesome I just can’t wait to see it.
July 6th, 2005 at 1:35 am
http://p2pnet.net/story/4593
July 6th, 2005 at 11:33 am
Very well said. I’m about 13 years younger than the demo graphic, but I feel the same way. They are finding out that people are not going to put up with their abusive tactics so the consumer is hitting them where it hurts the most: The Bottom Line. That, above everything else, will get results from corporations.