As mentioned above, Crystal Skull In 2008, audiences were captivated by the prospect of spending their disposable income on going to the movies. But even 13- to 25-year-olds are now 28- to 40-year-olds, and the younger members of the audience who saw the original indie film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, pushing at least 50 today. Indiana Jones has always been a retro character, embodying the nostalgia of baby boomers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for the movies and series from their childhoods. But as their generation ceases to be the parents of Indiana Jones-watching kids, and as Indy ceases to resemble those kids’ grandparents and instead becomes a callback to great-grandparents (or adults), it’s worth considering whether something has been lost over the years.
Opening weekend tracking seems to bear this out. According to Deadline42 percent Indiana Jones and the Dial of DestinyThe opening weekend audience was 45. Unless your movie stars Tom Cruise, that’s a troubling number before the Covid-19 pandemic makes the 50-plus crowd elusive. For context, 48 percent of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3had an audience of under 25 years old, its biggest demo was 18 to 34 year olds, making up 58 percent of the audience. while 61 percent Spider-Man: The Whole Spider-VerseThe audience is between the ages of 18 and 34. The film was actually the highest-grossing film of the year with Gen-Z (young adults between the ages of 11 and 26).
In other words, the indie’s most loyal audience is on the older side, and as WB’s marketing asked viewers if they remembered growing up with Michael Keaton as their Batman, many Gen-Zers, younger millennials, and normal kids shrugged. One last time we saw Ford Don Fedora. Many, it seems, have never seen it the first time.
When related to the rest of the industry, it’s fair to wonder whether audiences are becoming overwhelmed by movies that target our nostalgia, or at least those who grew up in the 80s or later. 90s. Both the conclusion of Ford’s original Indiana Jones trilogy and Keaton’s debut as Batman came out in 1989. A person born in that year will soon be 35 years old.
Meanwhile, Disney’s kitchen-sink approach to exploiting ’80s nostalgia with the era’s most popular film franchise, Star Wars, has suffered dismal failures of late. It is fair to say that development The dial of destiny Lucasfilm started again when it saw billion dollar success Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), both of which lean heavily into nostalgia for the original Star Wars trilogy. Heck, The Force Awakens “Chevy, we’re home” was marketed around Harrison Ford.
But by the end of that decade, and after three more consecutive Star Wars films, the fanbase was largely divided over the quality of the new films, and critically maligned. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), while it grossed $1 billion, it generated 50 percent less revenue. The Force Awakens Four years ago. Disney and Lucasfilm have for the time being focused on producing Star Wars content exclusively for Disney+, but that innovation has been similarly thin, with viewership dropping dramatically between the first and third seasons. The Mandalorian.
