are teenaged girls really the key to riches?

Teenagers are the key to riches. The teenage boys will get their turn this summer. It was a record-setting weekend, but there is a big caveat:

Making history, Lionsgate's The Hunger Games opened to an astounding $155 million at the domestic box office, the third-best debut of all time and the best for any film opening outside of summer.

Films aimed at teenaged girls are still getting relegated to a Spring opening, while films for teenaged boys still get the choice Summer opening dates. I'll bet that the Avengers will have a bigger opening, and Batman having a shot at it, too.

Yeah, I don't think teen-girl movies are typically the biggest grossing. But non-action/sci fi movies without big stars have got to be cheaper to make, so more likely to turn a profit?

I think what the Hunger Games has going for it is broad appeal.

I think what the Hunger Games has going for it is broad appeal.

I agree. I think what they're counting on there is the crossover appeal, like with Harry Potter -- the teens will want to go, but so will some of their parents.

Fandom types are also obsessive

I don't think your average fandom type is much of a key to anything, but I might be defining fandom differently. Is it fandom that made Avatar break records, or its mass appeal?

Basically, I'm wondering which target demographic has the best making it big with everyone potential. I don't think that the teenaged girls (or boys) are where the money is actually being made.

From looking at the stats for Hunger Games, it looks like it does better crossover-wise than Twilight did, hitting more men and more older viewers.

I'm wondering if a good story technically aimed at teenaged girls tends to appeal to a) more grownup girls and b) more people in general than a good story technically aimed at teenaged boys appeals to a wider age range as well as more people.

I kind of doubt The Avengers will break $155 million opening weekend. Iron Man 2 only got $128 million opening weekend. I bet The Avengers will get around $140-$150. Batman could do it, though I think The Dark Knight got a bit of a boost from the untimely passing of Heath Ledger that may not make it to the third movie: though I've met a lot of people who really loved The Dark Knight, including many on this board, I've also met a bunch of less-fandom-y types who were not in love with it, finding it kind of long, confusing, and, naturally, depressing. I think the opening weekend may be disappointing, at least compared to the shattering that was TDK.

What astounds me about the Hunger Games statistics is that it's so cross-demographic and NOT teenage-girl-heavy. Breaking Dawn Part 1 was 80% female and way more than 50% under-25. The Hunger Games was 61% female and 56% over the age of 25. Teen girls are only part of their demographic. I think it will have an astonishing second weekend, possibly a box office record.

I don't think that the teenaged girls (or boys) are where the money is actually being made.

Conventional marketing wisdom says that because teens don't have bills to pay, all of their income is disposable so they spend more on entertainment than adults. But "conventional wisdom" is frequently wrong.

I'm wondering if a good story technically aimed at teenaged girls tends to appeal to a) more grownup girls and b) more people in general than a good story technically aimed at teenaged boys appeals to a wider age range as well as more people.

Huh. Is Harry Potter aimed at teenage boys or girls? Both?

For that matter, is The Hunger Games really aimed at girls? It has a female protagonist, which maybe means more girls read it, but I'm not sure that's as true as it once was. The love triangle is played up a lot, but it's a pretty minor part of the book, really. I wouldn't say the book is aimed just at girls.

I think YA novels in general have had a lot of appeal recently, but I actually think that's mostly because the kids read it, get excited about it, and get their parents to read it. The other direction doesn't happen as much.

For that matter, is The Hunger Games really aimed at girls?

The marketing campaign for the movie was specifically designed to appeal to boys because it's assumed that anything with a female protagonist is a chick flick. Seriously.

[link]

I read that The Hunger Games was supposed to pull in a lot more boy viewers than the Twilight movies. Don't remember if they expected it to appeal to boys as much as girls, though.

eta: Huh. Jessica's link seems to contradict what I read.

Yeah, I've read a lot of uninformed complainants assuming that any YA book with a female protagonist must be Twilight-esque, and that Twilight is effectively identical to the whims of teenaged girls.

I suspect that the period during which you're least likely to get entertainment gender crossover is during adolescence, but I have nothing to back that up with. Just that kids younger than that don't care yet, and that adults have made more peace with their gender identity, but that being a teenager can be fraught with considerations of "appropriate" gender behaviour.

Harry Potter has a more balanced gender makeup, plus I suspect, as with many things, it's more acceptable for chicks to poach nominally male-branded territory than vice versa.