Disney looks to reclaim Gen Z boys as streaming habits shift

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Watch Disney looks to reclaim Gen Z boys as streaming habits shift - Straight Arrow News on Dailymotion

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00:00Many of them grew up on Iron Man and watched Luke Skywalker come back.

00:04But these days, young men aren't rushing to watch Disney content.

00:09So how do you win back a generation more into gaming, streaming and scrolling?

00:17When Avengers Endgame released in 2019, Disney was on top of the world.

00:22At the time, it became the highest grossing movie in history,

00:34until it was surpassed by Avatar's $2.8 billion.

00:38But Disney was still dominating.

00:40The rise of Skywalker dropped later that year,

00:42along with live action remakes of The Lion King and Aladdin.

00:46And then came Disney Plus.

00:49But after 2019, that momentum started to slip.

00:53A Reddit thread captured a common sentiment.

00:56The MCU didn't stop after Endgame, but the hype did.

01:00And what followed, many fans say, marked the start of superhero fatigue.

01:09Movies like Eternals, Quantumania and The Marvels

01:12earned mixed reviews and modest box office returns.

01:16The Marvels released in 2023 became the lowest grossing MCU film to date,

01:21bringing in $206 million on a reported $374 million budget.

01:27And as for Star Wars...

01:29The Force will be with you.

01:32Always.

01:32There hasn't been a new release since The Rise of Skywalker back in 2019.

01:38And while some of these films did okay, Disney hasn't been winning with the audience it was clearly

01:43aiming for, Gen Z. Sources tell Variety the studio is now actively looking for titles

01:49that will bring boys aged 13 to 28 back to the brand.

01:52But others say this isn't just about young men.

01:55It's a Gen Z wide shift.

01:58YouTube has been the top streaming platform in the US for two years straight.

02:02Viewers are now watching over 1 billion hours of YouTube daily on TV screens alone.

02:09And according to a 2023 report from Samba TV, 59% of Gen Z streaming time goes to Netflix,

02:16while only 5% goes to Disney Plus.

02:19Between streaming, gaming and scrolling, Gen Z is shifting the landscape and fast.

02:25Disney executives know they haven't had a fan favorite hit like Pirates of the Caribbean in years.

02:30Variety reports former Searchlight co-head has been tasked with reimagining strategy to reach Gen Z young men.

02:37A 2024 National Research Group study found 43% of young men aged 13 to 30 feel unsure about what it means to be a man today.

02:46Nearly half say they're looking to movies, celebrities and fictional characters to help define that identity.

02:53Straight Arrow News recently highlighted this in Crisis of Masculinity.

02:57Young men looking to TV, film and internet for role models.

03:01And spoke with the research director for NRG's Trends and Futures team.

03:06If you go back to the 1960s, for example, you can see the way in which a lot of the depictions of

03:11masculinity of that era were very much informed by the countercultural energy of the time.

03:16You know, films like Easy Rider and Taxi Driver and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,

03:20you know, all grappling with these questions of, you know, how you can sort of defy the shackles of

03:27traditional social norms and traditional sources of authority.

03:30So what's next for Disney?

03:32Studios like Warner Brothers Discovery and Universal have struck gold with video game inspired hits.

03:38The Super Mario Brothers movie grossed over $1.3 billion and the live action Minecraft film brought

03:45in $955 million.

03:47Now, while Disney doesn't own gaming IP at that level, they could tap into Kingdom, Tron,

03:53or don't need a brand new playbook. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Kennedy Felton.

03:58Download our app or visit san.com for more.

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