Hollywood movies misfire with core audience–study

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Males under 25 years-old, a core
movie audience, saw fewer films this past summer but watched
more DVDs, played more video games and surfed the Web more
often than previously, according to a study released on Monday.

The research by Online Testing eXchange, or OTX, could help
explain the recent slump at box offices. The summer movie
season, which runs from the first of May through the U.S. Labor
Day holiday in September, is a key period that generates up to
40 percent of its total annual box office.

This past summer, ticket revenues fell to $3.62 billion,
their lowest level since 2001 and the estimated number of
tickets sold — 541 million — was the lowest level since 1997,
according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Two hits were director Steven Spielberg’s “War of the
Worlds” and Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
Flops included action films “Stealth” and “The Island.”

In its study, OTX found that males aged 13 to 24 saw 24
percent fewer films in summer of 2005 than in summer of 2003, a
year for which similar data was available.

“This (group), more acutely than any other, is weighing the
value of the in-theater experience compared to many other lower
cost, more immediate and convenient entertainment options,”
Shelley Zalis, co-founder of OTX, said in a statement.

The OTX study found that in 2003, 60 percent of the males
under 25 said the movie choice that summer was “excellent,”
whereas only 35 percent believed 2005′s summer films were in
the same league.

OTX’s research found that the young men watched 47 movies
on DVD or video this past summer compared to 30 in summer 2003.
The group also learned that videogame playing and Web surfing
is increasing.

Rising costs also factored into the decreased attendance,
as did people preferring to wait to see a movie on DVD rather
than going to see a film in theaters, according to the study.