American Moviegoers by Age and Ethnicity
Younger Americans are more frequent moviegoers than older ones. 18-24 year olds attended 6.5 movies per year, on average, while those 60 and over only attended 2.3. This trend is mirrored in tickets sold. 18-24 year-olds make up 10% of the US population and bought 16% of movie tickets. Those 60 and over are 21% of the population and bought only 13% of movie tickets in 2016.
Non-Caucasian Americans are also more frequent moviegoers than Caucasians. Asian and other ethnicities saw 6.1 movies per person, while Caucasians only attended 3.2. African-Americans and Hispanics were also above average movie attendees with 4.6 and 4.2 visits, respectively. The Asian and others ethnic category accounted for only 8% of the uS population, but accounted for 14% of tickets sold. 62% of Americans are Caucasian, but they only bought 51% of movie tickets in 2016.
The charts below, based on data from the MPAA Theatrical Market Statistics 2016, summarize these trends:
The MPAA publishes excellent data on moviegoing worldwide and in the US every year. I chose to focus on age and ethnic differences, because it helps answer the question who is going to theaters to see movies.
The four charts capture two aspects of movie attendance. The top 2 are 100% stacked bar charts that show differences between the percent of the US population and the % of tickets sold across age and ethnic groups. These charts allow you to identify heavy and light user groups and can be useful in many marketing analyses.
The bottom 2 charts are bar mekkos and the height represents number of movies attended by each group and the width represents the relative size of the groups. I ordered the first chart from youngest to oldest age groups. You can see the bulge in attendance in 12-24 year-olds, even though they represent smaller percentages of the population. I ordered the second chart from largest to smallest ethnic group. You can see that the smallest group has the most frequent movie attendance. I added an average line to help split the groups into below and above average attendance.
Here is the chart in SlideShare to download and edit using Mekko Graphics:
