Young Movie Watchers Prefer Web for Film Information

Posted on February 3, 2006

A Hollywood Reporter article says 90% of the coveted 13-24 age moviegoer demographic is looking for information on the Internet instead of in newspapers and magazines.

Once upon a time, you checked your local newspaper's film critic for advice about what to see on any given weekend. Or maybe you read the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly or the New Yorker, or checked out TV critics with national clout such as Roger Ebert or Gene Shalit.

Not anymore. With the advent of the Internet, geography is history. Today, more than 90% of the target moviegoer demographic ages 13-34 go online to get their movie information, New Line Cinema executive vp integrated marketing Gordon Paddison says.

Two movie sites changing the relationship between moviegoers and critics are RottenTomatoes.com and Metacritic.com, where a click brings you the best-reviewed movies in release. Recent Oscar nominees "Capote" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" have a "fresh" ranking of 92% and 94%, respectively, at RottenTomatoes. They get Metascores of 88 and 80, respectively, at the more streamlined Metacritic.

"Far more people are reading reviews on the Internet than they are in print," Paddison says. "This has a huge impact on cinephiles and any review-based demographic."

Some of the sources listed in the article are IMDb.com, YahooMovies.com, RottenTomatoes, iFilm.com, EOnline.com, Ain't It Cool News and Metacritic.com. The blogosphere, which offers a vast amount of movie information, is likely a frequent resource for movie watchers but they weren't discussed in the article. For example, there were dozens of websites devoted to the recent Sundance Film Festival.



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