MPAA Statistics: Who Goes to the Movies?
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) released its annual theatrical market statistics. The year 2009 was a solid year for the studios with $10.6 billion in box office take-in on the US and Canadian market although attendance remained stagnant at 1.42 billion tickets sold. What I want to focus in is the demographics of the population actually going to the movie theater:
- 67% of the population over the age of 2 has gone to the movies at least once last year. What is the other 33% thinking?
- The average movie-goer attended 6.5 movies in 2009
- The frequent movie-goer (one movie a month or more) comprises 10% of the population but makes up 50% of total ticket sales. Good job everyone
- Possibly the most interesting fact is that women make up 55% of all ticket sales: Now this destroys the myth that the average movie-goer is a male obsessed with brainless action movies but raises other important questions: Why is Hollywood a male-dominated industry? This only makes the dearth of quality roles and movies for women that much more perplexing.
- Young people age 18-24 comprise nearly 20% of all ticket sales despite being representing only 10% of the population. This obviously shows the rapid transformation the motion picture market has gone through the last couple decades as the main fares are now kids’ friendly movies instead of the R-rated movies of the past.
- Hispanics are more likely to go to the movie theater than other ethnic groups. Weird but interesting.
17 Comments
Interesting read, I’d like to see how the UK compares. The fact that 55% of women make up sales is myth-busting indeed. My theory is that guys are far more likely to convince their girl to come and see Avatar / The Hangover more successfully than the girl could drag her man to Twilight / Time Travelers Wife / Confessions Of A Shopahilic… Then they have to drag their other female friends to see it.
Or maybe I just speak for my selfish self?
well girls will go see a movie with a group of other girls or with her boyfriend. A guy would most likely go with a girl. Therefore on both occasions there is at least one or more girls in the party.
is this a Maths exam? lots of graphs
I’d like to know what percentage of those percentages pull out their cell phone during a movie.
I love that you pulled out the interesting data from that daunting PDF, but there’s some great info in the whole thing if you have the guts to stomach it.
Interesting info!
Women making up 55% of the market doesn’t suprise me all that much. Movies like Twilight have women going to theater several times and show up in bunches each time. And even though the romantic comedies of today aren’t exactly high quality, women still flock to them as if they are candy. I’m not sure why studios don’t try and put out more quality films with female leads that will make the women of the country to be more fequent buyers. It’s a starved demographic, and the past couple years have proven that.
@ Paragraph: You might be right. It seems like “guy” movies are more gender-balanced while “chick flicks” have a much heavier opposite ratio of gals/guys. I might just be making this up to please you, I don’t know lol
@ Ross: I know everyone here is studying hard for the upcoming Advanced Mathematics test next week
@ This Guy: Thanks! The PDF is definitely worth a deeper look
@ Red: The same could be said of movies like Transformers, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek getting repeat visits from male viewers. I definitely agree that the studio really are not working very hard to hit that part of the market with higher quality products but like you said, women flock to these rancid rom-coms anyway so why would they change their way.
Maybe, people are starting to catch up though with the pathetic Bounty Hunter hitting all kind of lows on its opening weekend, finishing behind Diary of a Wimpy Kid of all things! Glad to see people wising up and exposing Jennifer Aniston for what she is, an untalented scam!!!
Well, one thing to add to this is that the male population is probably more likely to watch pirated versions of movies.
Wow, two-thirds of people go to the movies semi-regularly. I know people talk about the industry dying, but that’s pretty impressive in our media-saturated day-and-age. If that many people were buying records I don’t think that industry would be complaining.
“My theory is that guys are far more likely to convince their girl to come and see Avatar / The Hangover more successfully than the girl could drag her man to Twilight / Time Travelers Wife / Confessions Of A Shopaholic…”
This is highly debatable. “Avatar”, “The Hangover” and the likes aren’t really that much gender oriented.
But when it comes to strictly guy/girl films, It’s another story. Most man today are pussies. While I sincerely doubt I’ll see many girls tagging along their boyfriends when “The Expendables” hit theaters, I can bet my ass there’ll be loads of guys in when the new “Twilight” installment premieres. Of course, not that they wanted it. Their GF’s made them do it.
I went with my bf to see the expendables. I also loved avatar saw twilight (hated it but still had to watch all of them). The thing with women is that we watch both the action, drama, horror, AND Romance movies. Unlike guys who refuse to go see romance and other movies that would ruin their manhood. So I don’t think women are dominant in the theaters because of “women” movies but rather because we aren’t as picky as guys!
Very interesting stuff, thanks for passing it along. Of course, my favorite stat is about the “frequent” moviegoers who are responsible for 50% of ticket sales. Maybe that should increase the size of our voices according to “them.”
Yeah my head hurts too from looking at those numbers
But it’s interesting info nonetheless. Like most of you, I’m not surprised at all with women making up 55% of the market, though I tend to go for action/sci-fi more than ‘chick flicks’ or even comedy in general (for theater viewing), so I guess I’m not a ‘typical’ female demographic? Alas, I made a promise to a friend that I saw The Bounty Hunter this past weekend, and was really surprised to see as many guys as gals waiting in line. Not sure if most of them were dragged by their spouses/girlfriends though, if they were cranky about going they certainly hide their feelings well 
Interesting read. 6.5 films a year on average? Seems so low when you’re a movie blogger.
@ Ventilation Shaft: LOL
@ Fletch: I agree. They should definitely reward us, frequent customers.
@ rtm: Bah, at least you got to watch your one and only Gerard Butler
@ Sasha: True but most people aren’t armchair critics
Awesome analysis here. I was a little surprised by the gender breakdown but when you consider that the number of mindless action movies is only rivaled by the number of mindless romantic comedies, it really makes sense.
Here’s my favorite part, and the most unsolved question of our time: “67% of the population over the age of 2 has gone to the movies at least once last year. What is the other 33% thinking?”
This is the whole problem with the movie business , their obsession with the demographics and stats of moviegoers, they try to tailer movies to demographics and models of people who go to movies, if they made different movies different people would go see them , but lets have another Transformer movie because it is the right movie to fit all the numbers, even if its mindless crap
To Whom It May Concern,
I wanted to know what percentage and number of movie theaters are using LCD Shutter Frames for 3D movie viewing? and… Who are they?
Do you think they should start to incorporate this technology?
Thanks
David
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