Teen, young adult and middle-aged consumers increasingly embrace elements of popular cultural to define themselves, which prompts movie research to sometimes miss their preferences.
A 37-page research analysis titled “Fandom in Focus: How Cinema Will Captivate Passionate Audiences in 2026” makes the case for needing a new yardstick to understand youth audiences. The report is from trade group VAB (Video Advertising Bureau). The youth segments are Gen Z (ages 14-29 years) and Millennials (ages 30 to 45 years).
An example of missing out on a video-game passion is “A Minecraft Movie” (pictured above) that premiered to an astronomical $162 million in domestic boxoffice its opening 13 months ago for Warner Bros. Pictures. That far surpassing the tracking-research estimate of $67.5 million for the movie adaptation of a video game.
“Fandom in Focus” asserts “consumers are identifying with communities, and eight niche fandoms that feed their personal passions and interests … all of which enables them to curate their own cultural moments and personal identity. Cinema serves as a central gathering place.”
The eight verticals eliciting consumer passion are the horror genre, anime (distinctive Japanese-style animation), conventional animation, video games, comic books, performing arts, book clubs and Millennial nostalgia (pushing this affinity audience to remakes, revivals and sequels).
The Fandom Focus passions can be defined as a “demographic,” meaning segmenting a slice of the population by some metric (such age, income, location, hobbies, race, preferences, etc.). “Most adults no longer see a single ‘mainstream’ pop culture and instead are identifying more with their personal passions and the communities built around them,” says “Fandom in Focus.”
Other movies whose actual premiere-weekend boxoffice far surpassed prerelease estimates (see table above) include Sony Pictures’ “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle,” Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” Warners’ “Weapons,” Universal Pictures’ Dog Man” and Sony’s “One of Them Days.” At the top of the list, “A Minecraft Movie” was a pop-culture phenomenon with audiences talking back to cinema screens at junctures when certain signature elements of the source video game appeared.
Hollywood research has always put a laser-focus on finding preferences of Gen Z and Millennials, as this swath of teenage-to-middle-aged-adult demo is a prime movie-going group that frequents cinemas.
Not all audience research material is oriented to boxoffice. The “Fandom in Focus” also seems geared to helping cinemas get onscreen and other types of in-theater advertising. Thus, “Fandom in Focus” makes the case for theater advertising by retailers, restaurants and others to make cinema-goers marketing targets. As a trade group, VAB has a goal of spurring business.
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