With an array of devices at their fingertips, youths don't always think of theaters as the place to see a flick.
As the head of MTV Films, Gale was at the theater for a research screening of his "Jackass: Number Two," a crude teen comedy coming out next month. The film had just started when a teenager seated next to Gale began pecking away on his BlackBerry.
In fact, the teenager was e-mailing a friend, recounting the movie's best jokes.
For decades, the movie business has followed an inflexible formula: Produce features, show them first in theaters, release them on video, then broadcast them on television. But what Gale observed — and what a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll of teens and young adults has found — is that Hollywood's rickety model is poised to be torn apart.
With an array of devices competing to fill their leisure time, today's teens and young adults show diminishing interest in adhering to Hollywood tradition. They're willing to watch brand-new movies at home rather than in theaters, are starting to use their PCs as their entertainment gateway and are slowly turning to their iPods and cellphones for video programming.
For years, theater owners and movie studios have argued about the timing of home video releases. The people running the multiplexes want to keep the wait period between theatrical debut and the DVD's first day on sale — known in the industry as a window — as long as possible. The studios have been pushing to shrink that gap (it now averages about 20 weeks) to minimize the need for two separate advertising campaigns.
The poll found that many teens and young adults would be happy if that window were eliminated altogether. Asked where they'd prefer to watch a new movie if it were simultaneously available at home and in theaters, about a third said they would choose to stay at home, and another third said it depended on the movie. Going to movies at theaters still has appeal, particularly for younger teens, but among respondents ages 21 to 24, 56% said they wanted to see the new movie at home, and only 9% said they would rather travel to a theater.
In deciding what to see, their friends' judgments are the ones that matter. Those opinions are sometimes spread instantly, with almost a quarter of teenagers and young adults sharing their opinions during or right after the movie.
"It used to be that we could get people to see movies that weren't worth it because they didn't have so many other things to do," said Laura Ziskin, producer of the "Spider-Man" movies, whose latest installment is slated for next summer. "Now, you have to be a hit even before you open."
Nearly half (47%) of respondents ages 12 to 17 say they would watch a movie on a PC, well above the interest in doing the same on a cellphone (11%) or video iPod and similar devices (18%). A similar share of those 21 to 24 said they would watch movies on a computer, although they are much less willing to do the same on a cellphone (6%) or video iPod (7%).
No matter the device employed, entertaining the nation's teens will be tough. Although the youngest kids polled (12 to 14) say they are seeing either as many or more movies than a year ago, 3 in 10 teens ages 15 to 17 are seeing fewer. The distaste for the multiplex accelerates as children become young adults; 44% of those ages 21 to 24 are seeing fewer films. The Times/Bloomberg poll findings mirror a recent study by the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which found an even sharper drop-off over a five-year span.
To MPAA President Dan Glickman, the findings of the Times/Bloomberg
poll is an indication of the problems facing the movie business. "You
can't have a thriving movie industry without having a thriving
theatrical business," Glickman said.
Sensing a growing demand for movies delivered online, an increasing
number of companies are shifting their business plans to address the
opportunity. BitTorrent, a website whose focus has been expediting Web
file transfers, recently moved toward providing licensed content.
"A lot of people want to watch movies on their PC, and part of the
attraction is portability: You can take the movie with you," said
Ashwin Navin, BitTorrent's president. "And a computer is private, in a
[kid's] own space. They don't have to contend for the remote control.
It doesn't replace the experience of theatergoing, but the selection is
much broader."
Although some theater owners are banking on an increasingly lopsided
slate of big-budget sequels, remakes and TV show knockoffs to drive
attendance, more chains are taking matters into their own hands.
National Amusements, a Massachusetts chain with 1,056 U.S. screens, is
building high-end complexes that include in-theater table service —
with cocktails — sprawling video-game zones and auditoriums dedicated
to stand-up comedy and live music.
After 11 years of running MTV Films, Gale is now MTV Networks'
executive vice president for new media and specialty film, where he
will oversee the creation and distribution of online, wireless and
video-on-demand content for all MTV divisions.
