Why Hollywood is not alarmed enough about generation Z

Last week, people from all over the film industry went down to Las Vegas to debate the future of theatrical experience at CinemaconThe annual celebration of cinema in person.

But while participants felt theater snacks, looking at “Superman” images and by displaying the levels of attendance, a more substantial conversation took place in the media sector.

A new investigation American consumers have suggested that for generation Z, generally people born between 1997 and 2012, traditional mediums for the narration of films and television programs have lost much of the relevance they have owned for previous generations.

The key theme that sounded on the alarm for business leaders: the way young people consume entertainment change. And Hollywood is not paying attention enough.

The threat does not come from streaming, which has been the source of a large part of the anxiety of the media inherited in recent years. Instead, it comes from social media platforms – Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube and similar – and the personalities who dominate them.

According to the report of digital media trends in 2025 Deloitte, 56% of generation Z respondents say that the content of social media is more relevant to them than traditional content, including television and films. Compared, only 43% of millennials and 26% of generation X agree with this declaration.

Likewise, the majority of Gen Zers said they felt a stronger personal link with social media creators than with personalities and television players, according to the report, who interviewed 3,595 American consumers in October.

Generation Z collectively spends more time consuming media and entertainment than its elder brothers and sisters (6.9 hours a day, against 6.3 hours for millennials and 6 hours for generation X), but less time watching movies and shows on television or on streaming services.

These preferences do not disappear, and they should be concerned about studios, television networks and even technology giants such as Netflix and Amazon, which are obsessed with the most attention than people as possible.

Another fact of life not to ignore: the growing domination of Youtube. The video giant belonging to Google in February captured 11.6% of American television, exceeding all the other distributors (including Disney and Netflix) for the second time since Nielsen began to follow this data in November 2023. The research company Moffettnathanson crowned YouTube as “the new king of all the media” in a research report last month.

“The center of gravity in youth is not Hollywood. It’s just not”, ” said Kevin Mayer, Candle Media co-founder and co-chief, based in Los Angeles, during a recent conference organized by the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. “It does not happen in the future. It has already happened.”

Mayer’s perspective is useful. Candle Media has the producer of “Cocomelon” Moonbug Entertainment and the production company of Reese Witherspoon, Hello Sunshine. He was also briefly Tiktok’s CEO, and before that spent years as Walt Disney Co. under Bob Iger.

People of Mayer’s position know that the exchange habits of the younger public are not the only threats to the entertainment industry that we know.

As we have previously written in this chronicle, the studios are hammered by a spectacular economic development which has reduced the profits, leading to massive dismissals, to uncertainty and pressure to consolidate.

Until recently, the paid television model has enabled entertainment companies to “over-monetizeThis means that their content was gaining more than it was worth it.

The practice of grouping television channels, thus making consumers pay in order to look at what they really wanted, was extremely profitable, but unbearable in front of the Internet. The music industry has taught this to the hard time, when CDs of $ 25 have given way to unique MP3s (for example, hacked), followed by streaming.

Cable and satellite television activity is now supplanted by streaming, which is less profitable.

So, how much should Hollywood be concerned about all of this? In the words of Mayer, “very, very worried”.

“Not only Hollywood becomes less and less relevant,” said Mayer, but “the time spent is less profitable.” Mayer said that there had been a “a certain alarm” on the deep secular challenge with which the entertainment industry is confronted, “but perhaps not enough”.

None of this means that young people are not interested in films or go to theaters. Recent examples suggest that when the studios turn out of films relevant to the interests of Gen Z and market them effectively, they can create massive yields.

Last weekend’s box office smash, “A Minecraft Movie” by Warner Bros. And Legendary, has shown how to exploit it from the culture of young people – in this case, the intellectual property of video games – can be paid significantly. The film, with Jason Momoa and Jack Black, reported $ 163 million in the United States and Canada during its opening weekend, More than double What most analysts expected.

Families were an integral part of the weekend missing weekend. More than half of the tickets have been sold to families together and 26% of moviegoers were under 13 years old, according to the STORE Data Company. But the public of generation Z, many of which grew up with Minecraft, were also an important segment. About 31% of participants were 13 to 25 years old, said enttelligence.

Totting in the enthusiasm of fans of the game won a huge victory, as did for Universal and Blumhouse with 2023 “Five nights at Freddy. “”

There are therefore still ways to attract young people to the cinema and other traditional forms of entertainment. There is General Zers who like to pack directory projections, Storm Letterboxd with their film newspapers and test the limits of their AMC Stubs A-List subscriptions. When they take behind something, it can become viral.

But the entertainment industry must find smarter ways to make good films and television programs that are relevant to young people today, and to market them strategically.

If you ask Mayer or his former boss, Iger, for the best way to keep the business healthy, they will say that it is to focus on quality. In other words, Hollywood must give Gen Z something to say.

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Icymi:

Number of the week

There are a lot of stock market chaos at the moment.

But my number of the week is that the value of Newsmax is worth today.

The Cable Information Network adapted to Maga did a crazy race at Wall Street last week, and that said something at a time when the stock market was in a spiral due to the prices of Trump’s “Liberation Day”.

After his first public call to public, Newsmax’s shares went from $ 10 per share to $ 279, briefly evaluating the company at more than $ 20 billion. This is a remarkable assessment for a company that lost $ 55 million in the first half of 2024 on income of $ 80 million, according to regulatory documents.

As my colleague Stephen Battaglio wroteThe company has clearly benefited from enthusiastic support for Trump fans, the network, the network promoted stock on its airwaves.

Anyway, the top did not last.

The shares closed on Wednesday at $ 52.52, down 80% of their intraday peak last Tuesday. On Monday, the action closed at $ 47.12.

“The White Lotus” gave HBO an increase in the audience on Sunday evening.

The third final season of Mike White’s famous and very debated Satirical drama Drew 6.2 million American viewers On HBO and Streamer Max, up 30% compared to the previous week, according to Warner Bros. Discovery.

The episode viewer increased by 51% compared to the final of season 2.. The next step for HBO is season 2 of “The Last of Us”.

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The latest local data, television and commercial filming of Filmlala.

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