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“Having a wide variety of films available during a peak time in the year also makes a difference.”
- how can i use my solution this time of year to enhance the outcome of the solution?
- What is the peak time in a year?

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“ In reality, though, nothing can really compare to the movie-theater experience, no matter how fancy TVs get or how expansive of a library Netflix attains.“
- the movie theater experience is talked about again
- how do we enhance it so that all people will come to see any movie?

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“...numbers of deciding factors for going to see a particular film, with 47% saying they decide based on whether or not a film has a strong storyline, as well as how they purchase their tickets before heading out to go see a movie.”
- If the movie is not something a person wants to see badly then they wont go to the theater to see it and spend all the money.
- online purchasing of tickets helped tremendously.

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“Out of more than 1,500 participants polled, 86% said that they were planning to see at least two films in theaters, while 34% said they would go to see four or more. With new additions like reclining seats being the most attractive amenity at 65%, about 56% of those polled also said that large screens and quality sound systems were a part of why they wanted to go to the movie theater for their viewing experience.”
- not a fast decline people are still wanting to go to the movies
- how do we make the number increase per year?

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“But in the last six months, the sequel strategy seems to be deflating.”
-if they keep putting sequels out people aren’t going to come see it.
-it gets boring and some people don’t like already knowing the plot

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“Today, buying a movie ticket is more like going to the doctor—something many Americans never do and most Americans do only four to five times a year for routine cultural check-ups.”
- Americans don’t go as much as they used to
- this helps my solution

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“movie industry has over-learned the lesson that sequels perform well at the box office and has tried to sequelize every marginally successful movie.”

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“In 2016, the film industry is on pace to sell the fewest U.S. tickets per person of any year since perhaps before the 1920s and the fewest total tickets in two decades.”

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“We can be doing more to attract those people. Millennials come to mind. We need to reshape our product in some concrete ways so that millennials go to movie theaters through their lives,” he added.

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“You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life,” AMC CEO Adam Aron told Variety.
- society is different now, no one can live without their cellphones

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“Letting kids text was another suggestion, which made it into the public view only to be quickly shot down.”
- the movie theater is not a place for phones, they have never been
- this impacts the movie experience

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“Some of the issues that were discussed included how you get millennials to come to the movies in an age where they want technology,” one high-level attendee told The Post.
- kids now don’t want to be of their phones for 2 hours

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“When you have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars, it’s easy to see why many people choose to stay home and watch YouTube videos instead of going to the movies.

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“Tickets may only average $8 nationally, but if you live in a city of any size, that goes way up, and you have to factor in that premium extras like IMAX and 3D routinely jack up the price even more.”
- plus movie snacks.

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“Less discretionary income means consumers are allowing themselves fewer and fewer luxuries like this. And when talking about young people, we’re also talking about a segment of the population that is increasingly saddled with crushing student loan debt as the cost of going to college increases exponentially”
- not just going to the movies but other luxuries as well.

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“ He’s quick to point out that expenses like growing costs of cellphones, Internet service, and cable are eating into spending money that would once have gone towards things like a night at the movies.”
- people have other things to pay for and they have a priority over going to the movies.

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Solutions - new experiences

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Millennials are cutting ties with cable in favor of streaming services. In fact, 67% of millennials pay for between one and three streaming services. This is in spite of the fact that they feel they are paying too much.

Of course, streaming doesn't just impact how Millennials are viewing TV shows. Paid streaming channels also feature plenty of long form, cinematic content. Some of this is original programming. Some is feature film content released to streaming services by studios. The convenience and low cost of this is appealing to Millennials.

Don't count cinema out though, not by a long shot. Movie theaters bring something that streaming cannot: an immersive experience. That's something that Millennials crave. According to National CineMedia, members of this generation are 50% more likely to claim movies as a passion. They are also most likely to buy tickets ahead of time, and nearly 90% aim to arrive at the theater early.

So, why is cinema still a hit? What are movie theaters doing to create more engaging cinema experiences? Are there other factors that are sending Millennials to the theater?
1. A decided lack of recent blockbuster hits on streaming
There's a reason why you won't find last year's Oscar winning films on Netflix. As this article on HuffPost explains, streaming services charge a flat monthly fee that allows consumers unlimited access to content.

That's simply not very profitable when you consider what studios can earn from iTunes downloads, Redbox rentals, DVD and Blu-Ray sales and even second run movie theater ticket purchases. They benefit from limiting distribution channels. As a result, millennials who want to see these movies head to the theater where they get the big screen experience in exchange for their money.
2. The changing face of cinema experience
In 1995, cinema powerhouse AMC began installing stadium style seating for comfort and better views. Then, in the early 2000s theaters started adding Imax screens. However, other than these changes and the introduction of online ticket sales, the movie theater experience remained largely the same. Recently, that's begun to change in a number of interesting ways.

- Dinner and a movie: Forget about popcorn and boxes of Jujubes. Many independent and large chain movie theaters now feature hot meals and alcohol service. In some cases, theaters simply sell beer, wine, and cocktails along with a larger food selection in the concession area. In other cases, dining tables replace traditional theater seating. Table service replaces concession areas. Then there are theaters that are taking this concept even further. For example, St. Louis based MX theaters are creating custom dining experiences by offering appetizers that are custom created to complement the movie experience.

- Alternative cinema: Imagine seeing a horror movie in an abandoned warehouse or viewing a rom-com from a hot tub. Companies like Secret Cinema are taking movies out of the theater and creating an entirely new experience. Think of The Rocky Horror Show taken even further. Going to the movies can entail engaging in live action roleplay, watching a film with a live chorus singing the soundtrack or going retro at a refurbished drive-in theater.

- Independent theaters: Just like they are drawn to local bars and restaurants, millennials are also attracted to local and independent theaters. These are places they can go with friends to see screenings of older, cult classics or enjoy themed experiences such as an evening of films from a particular director or genre. Independent filmmakers often seek out local theaters. Independent theaters are also popular for screening niche films such as anime or exploitation flicks.

- Virtual reality: The future in cinema isn't all wrapped up in the traditionally passive experience of watching a movie. In order to stay relevant and adapt to future consumer demands, movie theaters are seeking to provide moviegoers with complementary experiences. On company, Dreamscape Immersive has drawn big money investors including Spielberg, AMC theaters, MGM and the WB. In the next several months the company will open up operations in several existing AMC theaters along with a dedicated location where consumers can engage in virtual reality experiences with other players that closely resemble the storytelling experience of traditional cinema.

- Cinema goes more interactive: In the eighties, kids could choose their own adventure books. These allowed readers to pick what happened next, thereby determining how the plot would unfold. Interactive cinema takes the concept a bit further. Here, audience members interact with the movie via their mobile devices. They are given the power to make choices for the protagonist and as a result control how the movie unfolds.

It's clear that streaming services have found a major audience in Millennials. However, that doesn't mean that cinema is down for the count. In its own way, each provides something that Millennials crave.

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Convenience Vs. Experience: Millennials Love Streaming But Aren't Ready To Dump Cinema Just Yet

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Millennials are cutting ties with cable in favor of streaming services. In fact, 67% of millennials pay for between one and three streaming services. This is in spite of the fact that they feel they are paying too much. Of course, streaming doesn't just impact how Millennials are viewing TV shows.

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A.
- Streaming services have TV shows and movies
- Low cost attracts millennials
- Different forms of streaming services

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B.
- Movie theater experience
- buying tickets ahead of time; people like to get to the movie theater early
- “According to National CineMedia, members of this generation are 50% more likely to claim movies as a passion.”

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C.
- no recent blockbuster hit on Netflix, Hulu, etc.
- Changing face of cinema experience
~ Dinner and movie: “Many independent and large chain movie theaters now feature hot meals and alcohol service.”
~ Alternative cinema: “Companies like Secret Cinema are taking movies out of the theater and creating an entirely new experience.”
~ Independent theaters: “These are places they can go with friends to see screenings of older, cult classics or enjoy themed experiences such as an evening of films from a particular director or genre.”

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D.
- Technology
~ Virtual reality: “In order to stay relevant and adapt to future consumer demands, movie theaters are seeking to provide moviegoers with complementary experiences.”
~ Interactive movies: “Audience members interact with the movie via their mobile devices. They are given the power to make choices for the protagonist and as a result control how the movie unfolds.”

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There has been a lot of talk that the movie industry is in trouble as box office totals dipped last year and younger have tended to stray away from going out to the movies as much as they once did. According to one theater executive, there's a very simple reason for this trend: going to the movies costs too much and young people don't have much money.

Movie attendance in the coveted 18 to 39-year-old demographic has steadily been taking a nosedive over the past five years, and there have been a number of reasons given by analysts for what many perceive as a lack of interest. Talking to Variety at CinemaCon, Gerry Lopez, the CEO of AMC Entertainment, gave a different explanation, saying:

I have seen no indication whatsoever that there's less enthusiasm. I have seen changing economic conditions.

Many have blamed decreasing movie attendance on things like the always-growing popularity of video games, increased digital and on demand options, and the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. While that may be part of it, Lopez had other ideas. He's quick to point out that expenses like growing costs of cellphones, Internet service, and cable are eating into spending money that would once have gone towards things like a night at the movies.

Other factors also play a large part in this trend. Across the board, wages have flat-lined in recent years, and even declined in some cases. Less discretionary income means consumers are allowing themselves fewer and fewer luxuries like this. And when talking about young people, we're also talking about a segment of the population that is increasingly saddled with crushing student loan debt as the cost of going to college increases exponentially. A recent study cited in the Variety piece indicates that the average graduate leaves school with more than $28,000 in loan debt. When you have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars, it's easy to see why many people choose to stay home and watch YouTube videos instead of going to the movies.

Not to mention that going to the movies is also becoming an increasingly expensive endeavor. It's not exactly the cheap date it once was. Tickets may only average $8 nationally, but if you live in a city of any size, that goes way up, and you have to factor in that premium extras like IMAX and 3D routinely jack up the price even more. And how many of you out there have paid six bucks for a watered down soda or greasy back of popcorn lately?

People in this age bracket are obviously still going to the movies, but with greater competition and a growing number of entertainment options at their disposal, and increasingly limited resources, they're becoming more and more judicious with what they spend their money on.

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Why Young People Stopped Going To The Movie, According To Theater Owners

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There has been a lot of talk that the movie industry is in trouble as box office totals dipped last year and younger have tended to stray away from going out to the movies as much as they once did.

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Hollywood has a problem with millennials.

While AMC Entertainment quickly jettisoned the idea of making theaters more phone-friendly this week, the desperate move hinted at a growing issue for the movie business - kids just aren't going to the movies as much.

Despite a slew of superhero sequels and fanboy comic book movies hitting theaters, the number of frequent young moviegoers declined last year, according to the industry's latest figures.

The number of ticket buyers ages 12 to 17 fell to 5.3 million in 2015, down from 5.5 million in each of the two previous years. That figure is also down from 6.3 million in 2012, according to numbers from the Motion Picture Association of America.

Last year's 3.6 percent drop came even as theaters across the country catered to teen moviegoers: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2," and "Antman," to name a few.

There was an even bigger drop-off among moviegoers ages 18 to 24 years. Over the past three years, that group fell by more than one-third, to 5.7 million last year, down from 8.7 million in 2102.

The "millennial problem" was a big topic at a powwow of studio heads and exhibitors convened by IMAX boss Rich Gelfond ahead of this week's just-concluded CinemaCon, where Hollywood convened to talk about upcoming and past films, industry insiders said.

"Some of the issues that were discussed included how you get millennials to come to the movies in an age where they want technology," one high-level attendee told The Post.

Participants pointed to the high level of social media engagement "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds had in advance of the film that helped make it a hit with young moviegoers.

Offering movies in formats they can't get anywhere else - such as promoting the bigger-screen IMAX format, for instance - was one idea floated.

Letting kids text was another suggestion, which made it into the public view only to be quickly shot down.

Earlier this week, AMC Entertainment said it would launch an experiment to allow youngsters to keep texting while they watch movies.

"You can't tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That's not how they live their life," AMC CEO Adam Aron told Variety.

But by Friday, the theater chain had backed off the idea after a backlash by consumers.
Aron also hinted at the millennial problem.

"There are pockets of consumers who do not see as many movies as other segments," he said. "We can be doing more to attract those people. Millennials come to mind. We need to reshape our product in some concrete ways so that millennials go to movie theaters through their lives," he added.

In the meantime, studios hope to attract youngsters by teaming super heroes, such as Warner's "Batman v Superman" and Marvel's upcoming "Civil War," which features both Iron Man and Spider-Man.

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Millennials are killing the movie business

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Hollywood has a problem with millennials. While AMC Entertainment quickly jettisoned the idea of making theaters more phone-friendly this week, the desperate move hinted at a growing issue for the movie business - kids just aren't going to the movies as much.

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The sequel machine has, in the last few years, merged with another strategy to deliberately roll out new episodes of comic and fantasy universes, like Marvel, Star Wars, and X-Men. Twenty years ago, in 1996, none of the 10 biggest films were sequels or superhero movies. Films based on comics accounted for just 0.69 percent of the box office. The top-grossing movies included original stories like Twister, The Rock, Ransom, and The First Wives Club. The top-grossing film in 1996 was , an original screenplay by director Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. (One of the most highly anticipated movies of 2016 is Independence Day: Resurgence, its sequel.) This year, out of the 371 movies released, 4 superhero films- Captain America: Civil War, Deadpool, Batman vs. Superman, and X-Men: Apocalypse -accounted for 29 percent of the total box office. In the biggest picture, Hollywood is in the business of telling stories that people want to see, and when people go to the movies, by and large they want to see sequels of their favorite heroes.

It's easy to cherry-pick the sequels that have flopped in the last six months. It's far harder to argue that sequels, as a strategy, are finished. In 2015, six of the top 10 (and 11 of the top 20) films were sequels. In 2016 so far, it's the exact same story: Six of the top 10 (and 11 of the top 20) films are sequels.

The problem for Hollywood isn't that audiences are ignoring sequels. The problem for Hollywood is that audiences are ignoring everything that isn't a sequel, adaptation, or reboot. The market for films based on stories that aren't already famous is threadbare. These sort of stories exist in entertainment, but consumers, and particularly young consumers, are looking for them outside of darkened theaters.

Every year, the MPAA produces a detailed report on the North American moviegoing audience. There are two data points in the latest survey that should scare Hollywood.

First, Hollywood, like every media industry, relies on its power users. Ten percent of monthly filmgoers buy half of all movie tickets. The celluloid loyalists are young, heavily concentrated among people between 18 and 39. (This group is especially valuable because they're more likely to buy expensive tickets to 3-D and large-screen-format films.)

But Hollywood's young fanatics are getting less fanatical by the year. The good news is that Americans younger than 18 and older than 40 are actually watching more movies than they were five years ago. But the most important demographic to Hollywood, 18-to-24-year-olds, is also abandoning movies faster than any other group.

What are these young people watching if they're not going to the movies? Well, they're not watching more pay-TV television. They're not reading more newspapers. Their attention is pouring into mobile devices and apps, like Netflix and premium cable apps (where many Hollywood auteurs have decamped), YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat. In the last five years, as young people have trickled away from movies, mobile has taken attention share from every other major category.

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The sequel machine has, in the last few years, merged with another strategy to deliberately roll out new episodes of comic and fantasy universes, like Marvel, Star Wars, and X-Men. Twenty years ago, in 1996, none of the 10 biggest films were sequels or superhero movies.

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It looks like the generation of Netflix and Hulu also like to step outside of the house every once and a while.

A recent study conducted by Fandango shows that the films millennials are most excited about this month are Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Others that made the list include films that will release in theaters nationwide such as Pitch Perfect 3 and The Greatest Showman along with more independent films such as The Shape of Water and The Disaster Artist.

And while this is fun information, perhaps the more important results from the study show that millennials are actually planning on seeing these films in the theater. Out of more than 1,500 participants polled, 86% said that they were planning to see at least two films in theaters, while 34% said they would go to see four or more. With new additions like reclining seats being the most attractive amenity at 65%, about 56% of those polled also said that large screens and quality sound systems were a part of why they wanted to go to the movie theater for their viewing experience.

The study also dives into the numbers of deciding factors for going to see a particular film, with 47% saying they decide based on whether or not a film has a strong storyline, as well as how they purchase their tickets before heading out to go see a movie.

Much like the summer, the November/December movie season is usually packed with interesting and exciting films. But even with big hits this past summer like Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming, the blockbuster season still fell behind in terms of overall box office numbers. Therefore, if millennials do show up to the theater this month as the study predicts based on the polls taken, then the December turn-out could be just the thing to boost this year's overall numbers, showing that there is still an interest amongst young people in going to the movie theater.

This interest in going to the theater, however, is not too surprising. Often it's assumed that with the convenience of streaming platforms and new innovations to home-viewing experiences, those of the millennial generation would prefer to simply stay home rather than going to see a film elsewhere. In reality, though, nothing can really compare to the movie-theater experience, no matter how fancy TVs get or how expansive of a library Netflix attains. For now, the original and the best way to see a movie for the first time is seeing it in a theater. And as movie theaters continue to remodel and make additions like recliner seats, they become a more comfortable and enjoyable place to be, which really makes a difference in their appeal when deciding whether or not to go.

Having a wide variety of films available during a peak time in the year also makes a difference. This December happens to a month rich with movies for all sorts of audiences. Star Wars being the most anticipated film for the millennial generation is something interesting in and of itself because it speaks a lot to our current era of pop culture, and how a franchise such as Star Wars is able to make its way to the forefront of a new generation. None of us thought Star Wars would be going away anytime soon, but the fact that the new series has such an impact on millennials, as the original trilogy did years ago for its generation, is a fascinating correlation.

Still, while some things between generations remain the same, others differ immensely. Only 5% of millennials say that the star of a film is the main factor in their decision-making process on whether or not to go see a movie. During the Golden Age of Hollywood and beyond, star power was something that attracted people to the theater most. At a time when trailers gave away the entire plot of a film, so long as there was a Cary Grant or an Ingrid Bergman figure in the film, it could be a sure bet for success. To say that celebrity status now doesn't play the same role shows a shift in this period of movie-going. This percentage doesn't diminish the fame and success of current popular actors, but rather is a positive sign that this generation is open to seeing films with talented new faces as well. And in part, it's probably due to the fact we have more accessibility to films than ever before, which in turn leads to audiences watching more content, whether it stars someone they know or don't know.

At the end of the day, these numbers are just statistics compiled from polls, but they do point to trends that help shine a light on what theaters and filmmakers are doing successfully to encourage movie-going. As a pastime activity or a livelihood, watching films is important. Why and how we do it matters for the future of filmmaking, and studies like this can play a part in directing it forward.

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New Study Shows That Millennials Are Still Interested in Going to the Movies

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A recent study conducted by Fandango shows that the films millennials are most excited about this month are Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Others that made the list include films that will release in theaters nationwide such as Pitch Perfect 3 and The Greatest Showman along with more independent films such as The Shape of Water and The Disaster Artist.