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."