00:00I want to start today because many of us are fresh off of CinemaCon last week in Las Vegas
00:04with cigarette smoke almost out of our hair.
00:08I'm so fresh.
00:10And, you know, the vibe is really upbeat.
00:12I think it's really positive.
00:13The box office is performing at levels we haven't seen since before the pandemic.
00:16You know, audiences are really galvanized and excited.
00:19There's cross-generational attendance.
00:21There's co-viewing going on.
00:23But, you know, it's not lost on me.
00:24And quite a few of the studio heads who presented at CinemaCon said that, you know, the world is really
00:31crazy right now.
00:32And discretionary spending is being disrupted by gas prices, you know, the horrible compounding effect of two different wars going
00:39on.
00:40But it seems like the movies are doing better than they ever have, especially since the pandemic, like I said.
00:45So do you think this is just old-fashioned escapism that we're seeing on top of the incredible IP and
00:50films you're putting out?
00:53Oh, I'll jump.
00:54I'll jump in.
00:55Do I talk about war?
00:57Listen, I always think that movies are, they've always been somewhat recession-proof and cataclysm-proof, right?
01:06They are the cheap escape, right?
01:08It's the thing that you can afford to do when you put the vacation plans on hold or the renovation
01:13or the new car or whatever it is.
01:15So I think there's some of that.
01:16But the data suggests that younger moviegoers, right, Gen Alpha and Gen Z, are becoming fans of the theatrical experience,
01:26the in-person experience, right?
01:28And so they're driving some of that box office steadiness.
01:33We just need to make that habit deeper and stronger among them.
01:36So I think that's some of what's happening.
01:38And last thing I'll say is, because this panel won't let me get another word in, so I'm going to
01:44do this.
01:44But why do you say that, Dwight?
01:47Because Josh is here.
01:49No, just kidding.
01:50We rehearsed this.
01:51But the last thing I'll say is the movies that we do at Universal are tapping into some of what
01:58these younger audiences want.
02:00Lots of nostalgia, lots of IP, and lots of fan-driven stories.
02:06So I think that has to do with it.
02:08I think, added to what Dwight said, I think we have to understand, and there are studies on this right
02:14now that are promising,
02:16where Gen Z and Gen Alpha are, you know, much more frequent, seven times a year versus five times a
02:26year for boomers or six times a year for millennials.
02:28And I think it's really notable because we're dealing with a generation, it's the swipe before you wipe generation, right?
02:35It's the first generation that grew up never being off a screen.
02:39And the need for connected social experiences, what the research shows is they're choosing movies as social experiences,
02:47as opposed to choosing it as something else to do.
02:51And that's a notable change in terms of how we have to reach them, what they're going to seek out
02:57in these experiences,
02:58the types of movies and entertainment we're all kind of part of making now,
03:02because it really shows the importance of kind of speaking to an audience where they are.
03:09You can't just decide, like, something's interesting and they will come now.
03:12You know, this is a completely, this generation is wired completely differently.
03:17They like different things.
03:18They have their own vocabulary like every generation does.
03:21We have to speak to them in completely different ways.
03:24We also have to protect this trend that we're seeing.
03:27And as they get older and the money becomes needed for other things and the distractions are more,
03:33and you have children and you have other things that make what is otherwise a very inconvenient experience
03:38in an otherwise very convenient world still worth it.
03:41So we can't take it for granted either, I think.
03:44I also think that the Cinema United put out a really interesting report right before CinemaCon,
03:49and there's 136 million members of these subscription services, the loyalty programs,
03:58the theatrical loyalty programs, MC, Regal, Cinemark, and all of the others.
04:03And they are really great value.
04:06You are paying kind of a regular ticket value, but you can go and see something in IMAX,
04:11you can go and see something in PLF, and that is keeping the value in terms of a younger person
04:19who cannot necessarily afford the upcharge on an IMAX ticket or a Dolby or whatever.
04:25And so I think this is, we're talking about Gen Z and Gen Alpha,
04:30but we're talking about generations that are used to having apps drive everything in their life
04:34and subscriptions drive everything in their lives, and sort of living like that.
04:40And I do think those theater loyalty programs are really helping boost this box office,
04:44as well as different genres of films like anime doing really well,
04:48just a variety of movies, horror, there's more horror in the marketplace for younger people,
04:54you know, and so it's all, it's kind of like a perfect storm in terms.
04:59No.
05:00No.
05:01No.
05:01No.
05:02No.
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