Why Gen Z is movie-maxxing
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Backrooms and Obsession are two recent horror films that have done massive numbers – and their success has been driven, in large part, by Gen Z. Even beyond these films, Gen Z is now the largest moviegoing audience, according to a couple of recent surveys. But what’s bringing the short-form video generation to theaters? And what makes a movie… a Gen Z movie?
To get into it, Brittany is joined by Sam Adams, staff writer at Slate, and Reanna Cruz, entertainment journalist and critic.
(00:00) The Gen Z movie moment
(03:47) Obsession vs. Backrooms
(11:06) What's bringing Gen Z to movie theaters
(15:04) Doomer vibes and digital worlds: what makes a movie a Gen Z movie
(21:40) Will we see more Gen Z movies after Obsession and Backrooms?
For more episodes about where film or Gen Z culture, check out:
Gen Z is afraid of sex — and for good reason
Women deserve revenge. Do they get to have it?
Onscreen cannibalism and our hunger for love
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Brittany, I've had kind of a revelation this year. |
| 0:04.9 | Oh, tell me. |
| 0:05.7 | Tell me. |
| 0:06.2 | I love a revelation. |
| 0:07.7 | Okay. |
| 0:08.1 | So what I've realized is that going to the movies kind of rocks. |
| 0:16.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:17.8 | Welcome to the club. |
| 0:19.6 | And welcome on Mike to everyone listening. This is Leah McBain. He is one of the producers of It's Been a Minute. Hi, I'm usually behind the scenes, but I really felt like I had to share this epiphany with the world. I mean, I joke because really a lot of people already know that going to see films is great. Like, Brittany, I know you've been a long time cinephile. Oh, this is true. I mean, basically, as soon as I could open my eyes, they were looking at a movie screen. But I wonder, what changed for you? Okay, it's kind of two things. One, I had a really transformative experience seeing blue velvet in theaters. Like, I came out of that screening, a different guy |
| 0:55.7 | altogether. I got to see. I'm not surprised by that. I mean, with the David Lynch film. |
| 0:59.8 | But what's the other thing? Okay. So every year, I make a physical bingo card with my friends |
| 1:05.1 | on New Year's Day. And we fill the squares with things we think will happen in the year, |
| 1:09.5 | either personally or in the world. |
| 1:11.3 | And one of the things I put down was that my friend Zach and I would see a horror movie we both liked. |
| 1:16.5 | Because I saw maybe six movies at theaters in total last year, not as much horror as I'd like. |
| 1:22.2 | And the one that I did see, Weapons, really didn't do it for me. |
| 1:26.7 | Weapons is kind of a mixed back. I'm with you on that one. |
| 1:29.3 | Yeah. So I've just been seeing tons of movies this year trying to get that bingo square, |
| 1:34.3 | and it's become kind of a habit. And I'm kind of feeling like I'm sheeple now because a lot of |
| 1:40.1 | folks in my generation are doing the same. Yes, you are famously Gen Z. Yeah, I'm 27 on the |
| 1:47.0 | older side of it. And I learned recently that Gen Z is now the biggest movie-going demographic, |
| 1:52.9 | according to a couple recent surveys by Fandango and ComScore. I think Hollywood was kind of |
... |
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