Youth and diversity are your targets, theatre owners told

LAS VEGAS — The future of Hollywood movies is in the hands of young and diverse audiences.

At CinemaCon this week, studio executives and representatives from the U.S. National Association of Theater Owners touted the importance of both groups in growing the movie business.

Higher ticket prices helped to push the motion picture industry to a record box office total in North American theatres in 2016, but Walt Disney Studios distribution head Dave Hollis said attendance itself has remained nearly flat for a decade. The business is becoming more complicated as streaming services compete for attention.

Many of the major Hollywood studios are looking at the possibility of shortening the time between the theatrical release of a film and its availability on home video. But Hollis said Disney and its fellow studios “believe deeply that films should be seen in a theatre.”

“We have a common goal to get people to see them in your cinemas,” Hollis told the convention.

Industry executives say the focus in the coming years will be on consumers ages 18 to 39, whose attendance has grown in the past two years, as has that of diverse audiences.

Association president and CEO John Fithian said Hispanics constitute the most frequent moviegoers in relation to their population numbers. Attendance by Asian Americans and African Americans has also increased.

Millennials make up 55 per cent of frequent moviegoers, according to the association, meaning they have seen four movies in the past two months.

Hollis challenged theatre owners and exhibitors to keep aggressively competing for the attention of their young audiences.