“Meet audiences where they are”

Donna Langley knows there’s a lot of uncertainty about Hollywood’s future, but she thinks the answer for Universal is to simply embrace change and continue to “meet audiences where they are” .

The chairman and chief creative officer of NBCUniversal Studio Group spoke with veteran entertainment attorney Ken Ziffren at the UCLA Law Entertainment Symposium on Friday to discuss his studio’s long-term vision, both with the cinema and its streaming service Peacock.

“Consumer behavior has changed, and it’s probably not going to come back,” Langley noted. “One of the things we focused on is that before the pandemic, the majority of the movie-going public would see four or five films in theaters a year. The same number of people now see one or two films.

Langley attributed this to a mix of factors, including disruptions caused by COVID-19 and last year’s industry strikes, which have heavily impacted the number of films in theaters over the past three years. But she also acknowledged that audiences are now accustomed to being able to see movies at home “more quickly than before,” in part because of changes to theatrical release thanks to deals such as Universal’s historic one and AMC in 2020 during the pandemic.

This agreement allowed Universal to offer theatrical films on demand as early as 17 days after their theatrical release if they had an opening weekend of less than $50 million, or after 31 days if they had an opening weekend of less than $50 million. The opening was over $50 million. While Langley says Universal is committed to releasing as many films as possible in theaters, this strategy is key to attracting the widest range of customers possible while taking into account the different ways moviegoing habits have changed since the pandemic.

“We’re meeting the consumer where they are and with a lot of flexibility, giving them different ways to interact with our content,” Langley said, adding that Universal’s post-cinema model of seeing its films move to d he other streaming services after spending time on Peacock is part of this philosophy.

“Every time our films are released on another streaming service, it puts them in front of new eyes; which is ultimately very good for our creative partners and very good for our company,” continued the director.

Under Langley’s leadership, Universal led all studios at the domestic box office last year, driven by Illumination’s $1.36 billion blockbuster “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Oppenheimer ” by Christopher Nolan, which, with 975 million dollars, constitutes the highest-grossing film. to win the Oscar for best film since “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” 20 years ago.

But another notable film on the schedule was Blumhouse’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” a low-budget adaptation of the hit indie horror video game that grossed $291 million at the worldwide box office despite its simultaneous release on Peacock. More than three-quarters of the film’s opening weekend audience consisted of Generation Z, a demographic that has often been characterized as preferring YouTube and TikTok to movie theaters.

Langley, however, doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s not like in the ’90s, where teenagers would go to the mall and just watch any movie in the theater. This is a visit by appointment. But you can’t tell exactly what genre they are interested in,” she explained.

“They’ll appear in ‘Oppenheimer’ or ‘Barbie,’ or another movie we did last year, ‘M3GAN.’ (Generation Z) is gender agnostic. They are platform independent. But there has to be a social energy. There has to be something they can interact with and talk to others about,” Langley said.

Recently, Universal’s theatrical momentum hit a slowdown when the highly rated action romantic comedy “The Fall Guy” kicked off the summer season with a flop, grossing only $170 million at the worldwide box office compared to a production budget of over $125 million before marketing costs. .

But the studio should experience a rebound in a few weeks with the fourth opus of Illumination’s flagship series, “Despicable Me”. The studio is taking a bigger roll of the dice with “Twisters,” a revival of the ’90s Bill Paxton/Helen Hunt blockbuster that Universal is sending out in the hopes that a PG-13 disaster movie led by “Anyone But You” will come out Star Glen Powell will be able to stand out against major competition from the giant Marvel “Deadpool & Wolverine”.

The article Donna Langley Thinks Gen Z Will Keep Going to Movie Theaters: ‘Meet Audiences Where They Are’ appeared first on TheWrap.