Friday, February 25, 2011
Older Audience Makes
Older Audience Makes Its Presence Known at the Movies
But in the last few months an older audience has made a startling reassertion of its multiplex power. “True Grit,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Fighter,” “Black Swan” — all movies in contention for a clutch of Oscars on Sunday — have all been surprise hits at the box office.
And they have all been powered by people for whom 3-D means wearing glasses over glasses, and “Twilight” sounds vaguely threatening.
Hollywood, slower than almost any other industry to market to baby boomers, may be getting a glimpse of its graying future. While the percentage of moviegoers in the older population remains relatively small, the actual number of older moviegoers is growing explosively — up 67 percent since 1995, according to GfK MRI, a media research firm.
And the first of the 78 million baby boomers are hitting retirement age with some leisure hours to fill and a long-dormant love affair with movies.
“There is an older audience that is growing, and it’s an underserved audience, which makes for an obvious and important opportunity,” said Nancy Utley, co-president of Fox Searchlight, whose “Black Swan” has sold over $100 million at the North American box office. If the core audience for a particular film is over 50, she noted, “that’s now a gigantic core.”
There are glimmers of a shift. Aging action stars; theaters with adult fare, like better food; reserved seating; and, most important, movies like “The Social Network” and “The King’s Speech” that have become hits based on wit and storytelling, not special effects.
Theaters have long favored younger consumers in part because older moviegoers tend to skip the concession counter, where theaters make most of their money. The imbalance between young and old grew more pronounced over the last decade as theater chains, suffering the after-effects of overbuilding, cut back on maintenance.
Sticky floors and popcorn-strewn aisles have kept even more older people at home. That, and all those texting teenagers, “which is something that adult audiences really find irritating,” said Patrick Corcoran, director of media and research for the National Association of Theater Owners.
The very young still go to the movies more than anyone else — especially on those all-important opening weekends — but distribution executives say they are getting harder to lure in huge numbers. Social networking has sped up word of mouth, turning teenagers and young adults into more discerning moviegoers — a phenomenon pushed along by rising prices. People age 18 to 24 bought an average of seven tickets per person in 2010, down from eight in 2009.
And the industry is battling a generational quirk. When you can legally stream movies on laptops or order them from video-on-demand services soon after their release — or easily pirate them with high-speed Internet connections, often while they are still in theaters — it makes you less likely to buy a ticket.
Fewer teenagers, then, present an opening. Baby boomers are not their Depression-era parents, who grew up on radio and were very conscious of the price of a ticket. Baby boomers were weaned on movies.
“Our generation really had a love affair with the movies in a profound way,” said Nicholas Kazan, a screenwriter whose credits include “Reversal of Fortune,” which was nominated for an Oscar in 1991. “It was not a fling, not a casual relationship, but a real love affair.”
For many baby boomers, the relationship blossomed in 1969, as the movies belatedly caught up with the counterculture in a wave of films that included “Easy Rider,” “Medium Cool” and “Midnight Cowboy.” College film societies and an art-house circuit made generational heroes of foreign directors like Ingmar Bergman, whose “Cries and Whispers” had its New York debut in 1972. The “Godfather” series, from Francis Ford Coppola, forged the lexicon for a generation.
But then a younger, more fantasy-oriented generation asserted itself with “Star Wars” in 1977. Hollywood adjusted its output accordingly.
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Oil May Rise as Mide
Starbucks Clears Dis
Starbucks Clears Distribution Hurdle - WSJ.com
NEW YORK—A federal appeals court upheld a ruling that allows for Starbucks Corp. to begin distribution of its branded packaged coffee next month, a business previously operated by Kraft Foods Inc.
Kraft was appealing an earlier ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which denied its request to block Starbucks from taking over distribution of Starbucks coffee. The appeals court declared Kraft's most recent arguments are without merit, representing a blow to the packaged-food giant, which earlier Friday argued it will suffer "irreparable harm" if the distribution deal ends next week.
Oil May Rise as Mideast Unrest Curbs Supplies, Survey Shows - Bloomberg
Oil prices may rise from the highest levels in 29 months next week as violent clashes in Libya and tensions in other parts of the Middle East disrupt crude shipments from the region, a Bloomberg News survey showed.
Twenty-three of 40 analysts, or 58 percent, forecast crude oil will climb through March 4. Nine respondents, or 23 percent, predicted prices will decline and eight estimated little change. Last week, 44 percent said futures would increase.
Crude in New York rose above $100 a barrel this week for the first time since October 2008 as a Barclays Capital report estimated Libya’s uprising reduced supplies from Africa’s third- biggest oil-producing country by as much 1 million barrels a day. The unrest follows the toppling of rulers by popular movements in Egypt and Tunisia.
“Oil will rise in what is the biggest threat to global oil supply since the Persian Gulf War,” said Phil Flynn, vice president of research at PFGBest in Chicago.
Countries in the Middle East and North Africa were responsible for 36 percent of global oil production and held 61 percent of proved reserves in 2009, according to BP Plc, which publishes its BP Statistical Review of World Energy each June.
The crude oil contract for April delivery rose $8.17, or 9.1 percent, to $97.88 a barrel this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices for futures closest to expiration increased 14 percent this week in New York, the biggest gain since the five days ended Feb. 27, 2009. Futures are up 25 percent from a year ago.
The oil survey has correctly predicted the direction of futures 47 percent of the time since its start in April 2004.
Bloomberg’s survey of oil analysts and traders, conducted each Thursday, asks for an assessment of whether crude oil futures are likely to rise, fall or remain neutral in the coming week. The results were: RISE NEUTRAL FALL 23 8 9To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net; Margot Habiby in Dallas at mhabiby@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Banker at bbanker@bloomberg.net
