Media analysts are missing the boat when it comes to asking older adults how “comfortable” they are returning to cinemas.
As research questions go, it’s loaded. Asking if they’re “comfortable” with moviegoing encompasses more than being fearful of catching COVID at a cinema. Older adults can be “uncomfortable” for other reasons — like people talking on cellphones during films and the risks one takes today by asking the wrong person to stop doing the wrong thing. So there’s more to being “comfortable” than pandemic fears.
Another factor likely to have kept older audiences from rushing back to cinemas like younger HALLOWEEN KILLS (pictured) fans are is the string of pictures targeted to adults that just didn’t deliver the goods. Consider Rotten Tomatoes’ critics scores for recent adult titles like: REMINISCENCE (37%), CRY MACHO (59%) & THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (74%).
On the other hand, +45 moviegoers didn’t worry about going to see NO TIME TO DIE, which was a healthy 84% on RT. The Delta Variant didn’t keep them from doing what they wanted to do. It also helped that DIE didn’t stream day & date, so they couldn’t watch it on their couches.