Movie theaters are in trouble. Gen Z is here to save them.

Yahoo

4 days ago

Streaming might be dominant entertainment right now, but young adults are seeking real-life community at the cinema.
When young people turn out at the movie theater in droves, they make headlines for flinging popcorn and screaming. Accused of being antisocial homebodies, some theaters have tried to lure them off their couches and into their seats by letting them keep their tiny beacons of light and distraction out during phone-friendly screenings. Some say they're willing to turn their hallowed halls into amusement parks with bowling lanes and roller-coaster-esque 4DX screenings, all to boost their offerings and keep the hallowed tradition of theatergoing alive in the digital age.
But as ticket prices rise and at-home streaming options proliferate, what if Gen Z is the movie theater industry's greatest hope?
According to a Yahoo News/YouGov Survey conducted May 22-27, 2025, Americans surveyed say they prefer to wait to see a new movie when it's available on streaming (61%) rather than seeing it in theaters (23%). But young adults under 30 are the age group most likely to head to the cinema, according to the poll. About half (49%) have seen a movie in a theater in the past six months, and 60% in the past year. And when a new movie comes out, respondents under 30 were the most likely to say they'd see it in theaters (31%) vs. waiting for it to become available on streaming (53%), compared to adults 30 and older.
So what's enticing them to put their phones down, travel to the theater and give the big screen their attention for a few hours? 54% of Gen Z-ers surveyed said they want 'an experience I can't get at home.' More than half of poll respondents under 30 said an interesting plot (56%) and lower ticket cost (55%) could persuade them to get their butts in seats too.
'The most coveted demographic'
Though assumptions about Gen Z's affinity for phones and hatred of spending money might lead some people to believe that they might not love theatergoing, it's actually an organic part of the young adult experience. George Huang, a filmmaker and professor at UCLA, tells Yahoo it makes total sense that younger generations are more likely to go to the theater than their millennial, Gen X and boomer counterparts. They typically spend less time fretting about work, kids and taxes, Huang says. And Hollywood knows this.
'The most coveted demographic has always been young adults … economically, they have the most spare time,' he explains. 'And movies, in comparison to sporting events or live concerts, are still the cheapest ticket around.'
Young audiences are also 'trendsetters and cultural arbiters of cool … and let's face it, who doesn't want to be cool!' Huang adds.
'A decline in Hollywood films'
Studios have long had an eye out for young adults. Susan Doll, a film historian who teaches at Ringling College of Art and Design, tells Yahoo that the industry has prioritized reaching young moviegoers since the 1980s. In the years leading up to that decade, the artistic ambitions of legendary filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola led "to excesses in budgets and shooting schedules," which corporate conglomerates that bought film studios weren't particularly fond of. As a result, new executives focused on budget control and commercial franchises to boost profits. They noted the financial success of 1975's Jaws and 1977's Star Wars, and a 'fascination and then dependence on blockbuster movies' began.
Executives also took note of the fact that young viewers would go to the theater to see movies like 1978's Superman and Halloween multiple times, creating a fan base that would carry over to sequels and series.
'These beloved films tended to be viscerally sensational, relying heavily on action, fast pacing, and special effects. They were also uncomplicated, and without irony or moral ambiguity,' Doll says. The young demographic then became the primary demographic.
In Doll's opinion, the 'dominance of formula, the adherence to genres driven by expensive special effects, the embracing of the clichéd heroes played by costly stars and the acceptance of costly marketing strategies … please a young demographic, [but] the end result is a decline in [the quality of] Hollywood films,' she says.
'This generation of moviegoers ... is really smart'
Still, the industry needs money to survive, and box office numbers don't lie: Audiences are flocking to see movies made for the youngest theatergoers. Five of the 10 biggest films at the domestic box office in 2024 — Inside Out 2, Wicked, Moana 2, Despicable Me 4 and Kung Fu Panda 4 — were rated G or PG, suggesting they were targeting young audiences that include children younger than Gen Z. But all 10 of them — even the PG-13-rated, Oscar-nominated Dune: Part Two and expletive-filled, R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine — were constructed from familiar intellectual property and involve the heavy use of special effects that studios have long used to target young people.
Not every Gen Z theatergoer wants to see a blockbuster based on well-known characters. Multiple theater owners tell Yahoo that they were moved by the success of director Ryan Coogler's film Sinners, which is among the top three most successful movies at the 2025 domestic box office to date.
Box office stats can't capture the trend in seeing older, classic movies that theater owners say they've noticed. When David Lynch died in Jan. 2025, the nonprofit Belcourt Theatre in Nashville screened his offbeat hits Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead. Those movies are accessible — and popular — on streaming services, but young people turned out in droves to see the auteur's masterpieces on the big screen, just as Lynch would have wanted.
Stephanie Silverman, Belcourt's executive director, tells Yahoo she sees a lot of young people at the theater, and she's not alone. She spoke at a conference of European independent cinemas in 2024, where she heard that young audiences across the globe are showing up for the rereleases of prestigious classics like The Seventh Samurai and Princess Mononoke.
'This generation of moviegoers … is really smart. Whether it's spending time on [movie review social media site] Letterboxd during the pandemic, or having a curiosity about past filmmaking and how it connects to current filmmaking,' she says. 'They come in curious, wanting to see films that are recognized as important that they could watch on their televisions at home, but they want to see them in community.'
This is a massive victory for theatergoing, Silverman says, because it creates lifelong customers. As these Gen Z-ers start families, they might have less time to go to the movies at first, but could pick that back up when the kids are old enough to go to the theater.
'Our fractured digital selves can feel whole'
Since Gen Z was raised with easy access to technology and the internet, they spend that excess of alone time online. They still crave in-person events, though, seeking a sense of identity and community in an ever-fractured world. Theatergoing can provide that. Jack Goodson, a Gen Z expert known as the Identity Consultant, tells Yahoo that 'cinema isn't just a format — it's a ritual, and rituals matter more when identity is unstable.'
'Gen Z isn't saving cinema. They're reminding it what it's for — collective myth, emotional cohesion and the rare moment where our fractured digital selves can feel whole,' he says.
But since Gen Z's moviegoing habits are driven by their desire to develop identity, some experts say studios could do a better job making movies that make them feel represented on-screen. Michael Tran, who co-authored UCLA's annual Hollywood Diversity Report in 2025, tells Yahoo that 'racial/ethnic and gender diversity has unfailingly remained a key predictor of success at the box office' — but younger moviegoers aren't rushing to the theater as much as they could because they're 'hesitant to see films that do not cater to them.'
According to data from the UCLA report, young adult women, particularly those of color, are vital consumers. Studios and filmmakers not tapping into that demographic is leaving money on the table.
Barak Epstein, operator of the Texas Theatre in Dallas, tells Yahoo that young people naturally flock to their cinema. They saw a lot of success last year with Sean Baker's buzzy, Oscar-winning Anora, and again this year with a movie called F***toys that hasn't been picked up for distribution yet. Filmmaker Annapurna Sriram is 'going on tour with it like a rock band,' and young people are turning out with enthusiasm, Epstein says.
I saw this firsthand at a 4DX screening of A Minecraft Movie. The enthusiasm of Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers led to theaters creating special "chicken jockey" screenings that featured sanctioned chaos. It was delightful.
For Gen Z, moviegoing is a ritual. It's an easy and relatively inexpensive way to access community and celebrate identity. Now they just need other generations to catch on and keep that experience alive.
'Sometimes I'm like, 'How do I find older people?' Epstein laughs.
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The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,560 U.S. adults interviewed online from May 22-27, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.9%.
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