A Gen Z Revolution at the Movies
6/16/202629 min
For years, Hollywood has been trying to figure out how to get young people into movie theaters. This spring, it has happened at an unthinkable scale thanks to two low-budget horror films made by 20-something directors.
Today my colleague Kyle Buchanan explains what younger audiences see in these films and how they’ve energized an entire industry.
Guest: Kyle Buchanan, a pop culture reporter and awards season columnist for The New York Times.
Background reading: The viral creator Kane Parsons, who directed “Backrooms,” has gone from YouTube sensation to A24’s youngest director.
Photo: Focus Features
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Speaker 10:35
Okay. Natalie, what time is it?
Natalie Kitroeff· Host0:40
It's 8:36, I wanna say, in the morning, to be clear. [laughs] We're going to see Obsession, um, which is gonna be scary.
Speaker 10:52
[upbeat music] So you're somebody who's reported on, like, cartels.
Natalie Kitroeff· Host0:59
Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 11:00
Where are you at on nervousness?
Natalie Kitroeff· Host1:02
I'm ter- I'm terrified. [laughs] This is different. From The New York Times, I'm Natalie Kitroeff. This is The Daily. For years, Hollywood's been trying to solve an existential problem: how to get young people to go to the movies. And then this summer, it happened at an unthinkable scale, thanks to two low-budget horror films made by 20-something directors,