Younger viewers are reviving box office growth

Hollywood can breathe a sigh of relief: Generation Z is not only going to the movies, they’re driving box office growth.

During the pandemic, as theaters closed and streaming became a dominant force in the media landscape, concerns rose that this younger group would shun the big screen as they mature into more engaged consumers.

However, this generation, roughly ages 14 to 29, is one of the most active movie-watching demographics and attends more movies annually than some older generations, according to data from Fandango.

In 2025, members of Generation Z watched an average of seven movies in theaters — matching average viewership among millennials — while members of Generation X and baby boomers watched about six movies on average, Fandango found.

“Gen Z is driving moviegoing trends today, and I think people are shocked,” said Jason Dorsey, president and co-founder of the Center for Generational Kinetics and co-author of Zconomy. “They’re saying, ‘Oh, Generation Z doesn’t want to leave their house.’ This is not true. “Gen Z definitely wants to leave their home, perhaps more than you know.”

Gen Z will account for nearly 40% of all North American movie viewers in 2025, according to data from Comscore.

As teens and 20-somethings become the dominant generation at the box office, they’re also shaping the future of moviegoing — and studios and movie theaters are taking that into account.

“Not only are we seeing a larger and larger percentage of Gen Z make up our overall audience, but their frequency is increasing year over year,” said Carrie Trotter, senior vice president of marketing at Your motherto CNBC. “So they have become one of the most important audiences for us, and I see that in the future, they may become our most important audience.”

Helping to fuel Gen Z’s affinity towards movies is the fact that they are still one of the most expensive forms of entertainment.

“Ticket prices have gone up, as they are now, but when you compare them to the year-over-year inflation rate, they are on par, if not lower,” said Steve Buck of EntTelligence, a company that specializes in movie data. “When you think about Generation Z, they understand the cost, but they open their wallets.”

Generation Z came of age around the time of Covid, which Dorsey described as a “generation-defining experience.” This group never knows a time without social media or smartphones, and is incredibly cost-conscious, having grown up in a time of great uncertainty, he said.

“COVID uprooted all their plans,” Dorsey said. “They were going to school, going to college… everything was turned upside down and it went on for a long period of time. So, we see them being more financially conscious. I will say that in general, it’s like they’re really conservative with their money in general, and a lot more frugal than we would expect for someone their age.”

This has led a large portion of Gen Z to opt for movie theater loyalty programs, such as AMC’s A-list, Regal Unlimited and Cinemark’s Movie Club, that reward them for the money they spend or allow them to watch multiple movies a month for a subscription fee.

“Gen Z is outperforming the indexes in AMC’s A-Class, and their engagement has tripled since the pandemic,” Trotter said, noting that AMC’s program also allows customers to reserve tickets for other loyalty members who are part of their group of friends.

“We’re trying to make it as frictionless as possible so we can encourage as much movie going and that social atmosphere as possible,” she said.

At the Rutgers Cinema in Piscataway, New Jersey, general manager Alex Delvecchio kept ticket prices low for students at nearby Rutgers University. Students who show a school ID pay only $5 for intern shows and $9.50 for all other general admissions. That’s a little cheaper than the nationwide average of about $13.50, according to EntTelligence.

“We try to make it as cheap as possible,” Delvecchio said.

But it’s not just about affordability. DelVecchio said he also runs promotions like free slushies on Wednesdays and looks for ways to engage consumers who are mostly college-age.

For the Warner Bros. release ‘It: Chapter One’ In 2017, DelVecchio said the company put a clown in every theater, spread red balloons around campus and had an employee wear a yellow jacket and play with a paper boat outside to imitate famous scenes from the movie.

“We started selling everything,” he said. “Then, once you get the momentum, you can keep it as long as you keep playing what they want.”

While Gen Z is selective about their spending, they are willing to spend money for experiences, especially social activities they can do with their friends that give them an excuse to disconnect from their phones.

“This is a way they can come and spend time with their friends and family, and this social experience really outweighs the movie itself that they’re watching,” Trotter said. “But there’s also a little bit of FOMO [fear of missing out]”It’s like they want to be part of the action and it’s their fan base that fuels their desire to be the first to see these movies and be part of the conversation as it happens.”

And while Gen Z enjoys staying away from their phones during a movie, they still use social media to share their thoughts about movies and see what others think of new and old titles.

Letterboxd, an online platform where moviegoers can track movies they’ve seen and post reviews, has become so ubiquitous with this generation that Hollywood has come to refer to Generation Z interchangeably as the Letterboxd generation.

The site currently has over 29 million users, with more than half of that base under the age of 35. Through Letterboxd, Generation Z relies more on community reviews than official film critics when choosing which films to see in theaters.

Of course, Generation Z has some genre preferences, and Hollywood seems to be playing with them.

Similar to older adults, this age group often flocks to movie theaters to watch horror movies and R-rated films. But they differ from previous generations in their interest in anime and video game adaptations based on the games they played while growing up. Generation Z has also shown a penchant for older re-released titles, and tends to be nostalgic about going to the movies.

In 2025, “A Minecraft Movie,” based on a popular online game, was the most attended movie by Gen Z, according to data from EntTelligence. the Warner Bros. The film grossed more than $424 million domestically during its theatrical run, the second highest-grossing production of the year, and grossed $960 million worldwide.

In the meantime Sony Crunchyroll’s “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — The Movie: Infinity Castle” saw the largest percentage of Gen Z audiences, with 42% of tickets sold to members of this generation.

Until now in 2026, worldwide “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is the most watched film by Gen Z. It has earned $425 million domestically, the highest-grossing film of the year so far, and $982 million worldwide.

Box office analysts predict films like Disney Pixar’s “Toy Story 5,” Universal’s “Minions & Monsters,” Sony’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” and Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” will see a significant portion of ticket sales from Gen Z audiences.

“I think theaters have a real opportunity now to be that personal social experience for Gen Z,” Dorsey said. “It’s still fragile, it’s still a difficult generation, but there’s a tremendous opportunity for them to be able to build on the fact that they can create these amazing personalized experiences in an affordable way.”

Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of Fandango and CNBC.