If I might riff on the waggish Mark Twain’s alleged turn of phrase: Reports of the movie-theater industry’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
The Minnesota Tribune recently reported 2025’s global film box office was the second-best ($8.6 billion) since profits collapsed in Covid-cursed 2020. Leading the charge on that boffo bank? Surprisingly … Gen Z! Young adult ticket buyers’ percentage of that market rose from 34% in 2019 to 39% last year.
Gen Z is generally defined as that cohort of the population born between1996/7 and 2010/12. Following “Millennials” and preceding the group commonly styled “Gen Alpha”, Gen Z is often tagged the first “digitally native” generation — they grew up with computers, the internet, smart phones, social media.
As Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian explains, “This is an audience we thought would be lost to the small screen and to social media and other technology. We thought that they may shun the very analog experience of watching a movie on the big screen.”
Instead, “Zoomers” are returning to the cineplex.
“What’s driving a lot of this, ironically,” continues Dergarabedian, “is social media. A medium that is very small screen-centric and digital is becoming a huge influence in powering this age group to going out.” Leveraging apps like Instagram, Letterboxd, et. al., this demographic is energetically endorsing the big-screen experience to its peers. “They are going to theaters to have a tactical [sic], immersive, communal experience. … [They’re] becoming analog fanatics.”
Note the use of “communal” in that comment. That’s apparently another psychological hook for this bunch: Occupying a dark roomful of fellow human beings while simultaneously taking in the same flick provides an infectious person-to-person element.
Jesse Bishop, programming director for Minneapolis’s five-screened “The Main Cinema”, explains it this way:
“Gen Z was trapped at home for that whole [pandemic] period when they were young. And I think in general, it’s the young people who tend to want to be not cooped up at home now. So it makes sense that they’re finding refuge in going to the movies.”
So … despite widespread claims to the contrary, getting out and being part of a crowd is in vogue again?
Twenty-seven-year-old Selma Erickson seems to confirm it is. ““I really, really like the collective experience of doing something with all these strangers.”
Committed filmgoer Abraham Teuber (25) echoes that sentiment. He digs “the social contract of a movie theater, which is that you’re not going to go on your phone, you’re not going to be loud, you’re all paying attention and then you’re all experiencing someone else’s perspective.”
People enjoying the presence of gads of other people? Imagine that! Mind you, such an observation would have been decidedly unremarkable not that long ago. In notoriously jaded, self-absorbed 2026 however? It’s admittedly somewhat unexpected.
Of course, anyone paying close attention to the preceding several millennia of history — including biblical history — shouldn’t exactly be taken aback by this development. Mankind is, evidently and incontrovertibly a social species; composed of relational critters. Centuries of human experience demonstrate: to be genuinely fulfilled most folks need other folks.
Technologically dazzling communication options are currently available to everyone, everywhere. Yet, frequently — and paradoxically — it’s asserted modern humanity is among the loneliest; perhaps, ever.
The Creator has wired us to be connected to one another. Of our first ancestor He asserted, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18). The wise man of Ecclesiastes seconded him:
“Two are better than one, /Because they have a good reward for their labor. /For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. /But woe to him who is alone when he falls, /For he has no one to help him up. (4:9,10)
There’s a reason, to this day, we thrill at apothegms like legendary Green Packer’s coach Vince Lombardi’s reminder that “individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Such statements resonate with our design. Denying their pertinence flouts the same.
“A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.” (Proverbs 18:1)
A possible knock-on consequence of this ticket-buying resurgence is the rebound of the movie-theater business. “[E]xperts say it’s become clear that streaming movies are merely the latest in a series of supposed threats to movie going: the Great Depression, the advent of television and the revolution in home video were all perceived as potential fatal blows for the movies. In each case, Hollywood survived.”
Moreover, an appreciation for films enjoyed corporately may be passed on to Generations Alpha … and Beta(!). As Z’ers become parents, film-makers are hoping their children will inherit mom and dad’s enjoyment of the giant, silver-screen movie-watching habit.
Now … considering the moral corruption and brain rot purveyed by too much Hollywood fare, that prospect is certainly not an unalloyed good. Still, a universal truth remains on display: Notwithstanding much-touted “rugged individualism” and “autonomy” – particularly among denizens of the United States – most homo sapiens eventually run headlong into an irresistible yearning to be around their own kind. It’s a nearly inescapable instinct – and not by happenstance; it’s programmed into our nature.
The mob mentality and mob rule would be two downsides to this inclination. A healthy regard for the company of others would be an upside … that and marriage, family, community, clubs and special interest groups, church, even business organizations. These entities are all nothing short of manifestations of people’s built-in hankering for others.
That proclivity has always been a part of men, women, young people. Cyberspace and its attendant gadgets may try to change that condition, but they will fail. Movie theaters’ stubborn durability is the freshest evidence.
