It‘s a trend that began a few years ago that movie theaters are visited by broader age groups, but now middle-aged people in their 40s and 50s are the main consumer group of cinemas.

The advance ticket reservation rates of the three local box-office hits -- “Tower,” “Les Miserable” and “Life of Pi” -- were the highest among viewers aged 40 or over, Maxmovie, a leading online movie ticket reservation site, said Monday.

For the Korean disaster film “Tower,” which exceeded 4 million in attendance as of Friday, the rate was 42 percent among audiences in the age group, far higher than 36 percent for people in their 30s.

Teenagers and those in their 20s accounted for only 18 percent and 4 percent of those who reserved tickets for the film.

“As a film with all age groups as a target audience, ’Tower‘ is drawing a large number of family viewers, notably parents in their 40s and 50s accompanied by their teenage children,” said a publicity official of the movie’s local distributor CJ Entertainment.

The case is similar with the Hollywood musical “Les Miserable” that has drawn an audience of 4.7 million.

The movie based on Victor Hugo‘s historical novel about courage, perseverance and injustice all witnessed by a Frenchman in the late 18th Century has been well-received by middle-aged audiences with the group buying 39 percent of tickets reserved at local cinemas. The share was higher than 37 percent for 30 year olds, 20 percent for those in their 20s and 3 percent for teenagers.

As middle-aged people have risen as a main consumer group in the local movie market, it became an essential strategy for companies producing and marketing films to consider their needs, according to a CJ official.

“Now, when we make a big-budget film, it became a must to employ a strategy to make people in their 40s and 50s see the film,” the official said. 

“We, in many cases, hire heavyweight actors or actresses whom middle-aged viewers would know as part of the strategy.” (Yonhap News)





<관련 한글 기사>

영화 관람객의 주 고객층은?

다양한 연령대가 영화를 관람한다는 것은 몇 해 전부터 사회의 새 트렌드로 자리잡았지만 현재 영화 관람객의 주 고객은 중년층인 40, 50대다.

한국 최대 온라인 티켓 예매 사이트인 맥스무비의 수치에 따르면 타워, 레미제라블, 라이프 오브 파이는 40대 이상 관람객들로부터 가장 많은 사랑을 받았다고 월요일날 밝혔다.

금요일까지 발표된 수치를 보면 타워는 총 4백만 명의 관람객을 동원했으며 그 중 42%의 티켓 예매율은 40대로, 30대의 36% 티켓예매율을 훌쩍 뛰어넘었다. 10대와 20대는 각각 18% 와 4%의 영화 예매율을 보였다.

중년층이 영화 산업의 주된 고객층이 되면서 기업들이 중년층의 수요를 타겟할 수 있는 전략을 잘 짜야 할 것이라고 CJ관계자는 밝혔다.

“고 예산 영화를 제작할 때, 40대와 50대가 영화를 보게끔 만들 수 있는 전략이 필수적이게 됐다,”고 CJ 관계자가 전했다. “중년층이 친숙해하고 좋아하는 영화배우를 캐스팅하는 경우가 종종 있다.” (코리아헤럴드)