Why is Hollywood not being fully wary of the Z?

Last week, people from the film industry descended on Las Vegas to discuss the future of theatre experience at Cinemacon.

However, attendees enjoyed theatre snacks, watched footage of “Superman” and raised their hands about attendance levels, but more consequential conversations were being unfolded in the media business.

A new study of US consumers suggested that for Gen Z people, who were generally born between 1997 and 2012, the traditional storytelling medium of film and television shows has lost many of the associations they had in previous generations.

A key theme that sounded the show business executive alarm: The way youth consume entertainment is changing. And Hollywood doesn’t pay enough attention.

This threat has not come from streaming, which has been the source of much of legacy media unrest in the past few years. Instead, it comes from social media platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube.

According to Deloitte’s 2025 Digital Media Trends Report, 56% of Gen Z respondents say their social media content is more related to them than traditional content, including television series and movies. In comparison, only 43% of millennials and 26% of generation X agree to that statement.

Similarly, a report surveying 3,595 US consumers in October said that the majority of Gen Zers felt a stronger personal connection to social media creators than television personalities and actors.

Gen Z spends more time intake of media and entertainment than older siblings and parents (6.9 hours a day, 6.3 hours on Gen X, and 6 hours on Gen X), but they spend less time watching movies and shows on TV and streaming services.

These preferences aren’t gone, and we need to worry about studios, television networks, and even tech giants like Netflix and Amazon.

Another fact of life that is not ignored: an increase in YouTube domination. The Google-owned video giant in February won 11.6% of US TV viewing and topped all other distributors (including Disney and Netflix) for the second time since Nielsen began tracking such data in November 2023.

“The center of gravity for young people is not Hollywood. It’s not just for free,” said Kevin Mayer, co-founder and co-author of Los Angeles-based Candle Media, in a recent talk hosted by the Paley Media Center in Beverly Hills. “This isn’t happening in the future. It’s already happening.”

Mayer’s perspective is useful. Candlemedia owns “Coco Melon” producers Moonbug Entertainment and Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine. He was also the CEO of Tiktok, and before that he spent many years under Walt Disney’s Top Deal Architect.

People in Mayer’s position know that the changing habits of young audiences, as we know, are not the only threat to the entertainment industry.

As I wrote earlier in this column, the studio is hit by dramatic economic evolution that has reduced profits, leading to massive layoffs, uncertainty and pressures for integration.

Until recently, the PAY-TV model allowed entertainment companies to “over-measure.” In other words, the content was earning more than it really was worth it.

The practice of bundling up TV channels and making them pay for everything to watch what consumers really wanted was extremely beneficial, but it was unsustainable in the face of the internet. The music industry learned this the hard way when the $25 CD turned into a free (for example, pirated) singletrack MP3, then replaced streaming.

The cable and satellite television business is now being replaced by streaming, making it less profitable.

So, how concerned should Hollywood be about all of this? In Mayer’s words, “I am very, very worried.”

“Not only is Hollywood becoming less relevant, but Mayer said, “time spent is less profitable,” Mayer said, and there is “some degree of alarm” about the deep secular challenges facing the entertainment industry.

This does not mean that young people are not interested in films or go to the theatres. A recent example suggests that Studios can produce large returns when they put out films related to Gen Z profits and sell them effectively.

This past weekend’s box office gross Smash, Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “Minecraft Movie,” showed us leveraging youth culture, and in this case how video game intellectual property can be rewarded in a great way. The film, starring Jason Momoa and Jack Black, sold $163 million in the US and Canada over the opening weekend.

The family was mostly the Bonanza on the weekend. More than half of tickets were sold to families, with 26% of movie fans under the age of 13, according to data company Entelligence. However, Gen Z audiences, many people grew up in Minecraft, were also an important segment. Approximately 31% of participants were between 13 and 25 years old, Enttelligence said.

It took advantage of the enthusiasm of the game to bring a big victory, as did for Universal and Blumhouse in 2023’s “Five Nights at Freddie’s.”

Therefore, there are still ways to invite young people to film and other traditional forms of entertainment. Storm Retterboxd, a Gen Zers who loves to cram in repertoire screening, features a movie diary to test the limits of an AMC Stub A-List subscription. If they get behind something, it could go viral.

However, the entertainment industry needs to understand and strategically sell smarter ways to create great movies and TV shows related to today’s youth.

If you ask Meyer or his old boss, Igar, what’s the best way to keep your business healthy, they’ll say it’s about focusing on quality. In other words, Hollywood needs to give Gen Z a talk.

What we wrote

“It was just freedom”: What happened to Kanye West’s Donda Academy? The Times, which was held and interviewed, offers a new glimpse into the extraordinary dysfunction within Donda and the controversial founder’s unstable behaviour that led to its clarity.

Broadcast TV is a problem. The station is seeking help from Washington. As viewers move to streaming, the TV station group is lobbying to lift long-standing ownership caps and improve competition with tech companies.

Sequel, The Beatles, The Studio Who Fought: What I saw in Cinemacon 2025. The studio left the tough first quarter at the box office to showcase the best films and, in some cases, star-studded cast in Las Vegas.

Disney plans to open Century City’s renowned Fox slot by the end of the year. Disney’s leases for Fox’s Pico Boulevard compound space in Los Angeles will expire in March next year. The company has no plans to renew its lease, and plans to leave by the end of the year, Disney insiders said.

Steve Kornacki will leave MSNBC due to a new contract with NBC News and NBC Sports. Khaki Wearing Data Analyst’s new deal allows you to pursue projects on other networks and media platforms, as long as they are unrelated to politics and sports.

Warner Bros. is betting on the ambitious film lineup with the studio chief in the hot seat. Warner Bros. Film Studios has seen box office disappointments such as “Mickey 17” and “Altonite.” Will the ambitious slate, including “Minecraft Movie,” turn that outlook better?

Top cinema lobbyists want at least 45 days in advance before the movie hits streaming. Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Cinema United Trade Group, called on the studio to expand most films to a 45-day theatre window before home video and streaming, claiming that a baseline is needed to give more cinema fans more clear expectations.

Icymi:

Number of weeks

There is a lot of stock market turmoil right now.

But my numbers this week are worth the Newsmax today.

The Magazine-friendly Cable News Network was riding Wild on Wall Street last week, saying something when the stock market was in the spiral due to Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs.

NewsMax shares surged from $10 to $279 per share following the initial public offering, temporarily valuing the company at over $20 billion. According to regulatory documents, this is a prominent valuation for businesses that lost $55 million in revenue in the first half of 2024.

As my colleague Stephen Batario wrote, the company clearly benefited from the enthusiastic support of Trump fans as the network promoted stocks with the airwaves.

Anyway, the highs didn’t last long.

The shares closed at $52.52 on Wednesday, falling 80% from its daytime peak last Tuesday. On Monday, the shares closed at $47.12.

“The White Lotus” boosted viewers to HBO on Sunday night.

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the finale of the third season of Mike White’s praised, hotly debated satirical drama saw HBO and streamer Max’s 6.2 million viewers 30% from the previous week.

Viewers for the episode increased by 51% from the season 2 finale. Next up on HBO is Season 2 of “The Last of Us.”

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Listen: San Francisco Shoegaze y Metalheads Deaf People have a huge new album called “People with the Power of Lonely People.”