Okay, for better or worse the Millennials have become our largest demographic base of consumers. In America they have easily overtaken the baby boomers and represent 69 million consumers. Lose them…you lose your business. My big concern for the exhibition business is the fact that last year 15% of Millennials stopped going to the movies.

This really worries me. This erosion really has to be addressed if we are to shape the exhibition business so it can endure well into the 21st Century.

As Millennial spending and movie content consumption continues to increase, exhibitors must seek new methods for maintaining audience connections, brand relevancy and revenue generation. Understanding how Millennials – their identities, self-perceptions and values – are driving evolution and revolutions in technology, communications and connectivity. We most understand that this is now our key audience and we must embrace the needs and the vision of this audience.

In an almost subliminal way, Millennials are drawn to simpler days. They collectively look back at the 50s and 60s, recalling a time of stability and lack of stress. Millennials have grown up with channels like TV Land playing old school classics, making our old entertainment into their old entertainment. They’re likely to listen to classic rock like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.

Millennials having instant access to so much of entertainment history, they haven’t demonstrated any problems with the media’s tendency to recycle old works in new packages. But for many in the Millennial generation that is quickly becoming old. The Ghostbusters remake and the announced Ocean’s 8 re-purposing (blech) have and will get significant market push back.

The inventive genius at the Movie Studios have sought to take advantage of this.. From remakes like Dawn of the Dead to reboots of movie franchises that ended only a few years ago the movie business has shown more of a tendency than ever to recycle old works instead of risking the creation of new ones. Remakes have become the norm, and Millennials are eating them up. For now…..but that is all about to change. As Millenials become more addicted to nostalgia, they are going to look towards not a cheap knock off copy, they are going to look for the real thing.

Nostalgia, has its roots in the Greek – nostos, means ‘to return home’ and algos, meaning ‘pain’. It is the fact that we cannot recover the past, that we cannot ‘go home’ which makes up the power of nostalgia so very compelling..An idealized past is huge. In many ways for Millennials, the past has become more important than the present

Like the Coca Cola ad said, we are all looking for “The Real Thing”

Across the world, makeshift movie theatres are popping up in village halls, cafes, hotels and nightclubs, as movie lovers crave a more “authentic” cinema-going experiences. Nostalgia is a big factor, the Millennials are seeking a more authentic movie going experience.

And in rural areas, make-shift cinemas are making the big-screen more accessible to those unable or unwilling to travel to the big city centre and out-of-town multiplexes. But they are not looking for new movies, they are looking for classics from the 80’s and 90’s. They are screening movies like Stanley Kubrick’s opus. The Shining , Ridley Scott’s Alien and Cinema Paradiso.

Movies theatres have to accept that there is a deep need in the Millennial audience for nostalgia and they must address it and address it soon or you might find yourself competing with a local park or VFW hall for your movie going audience. The market is shifting and shifting fast. Hollywood at best is playing catch up.

Distributors are getting smart and announcing that movies like “Animal House” will have two day release. My advice …start developing seasonal seasons three to four month in advance and dedicate a single screen to a “retro” program. Films like “The Goonies”, “Ferris Bueller” and “ E.T.” are perpetual favorites and will draw a crowd. Become the source for all local Millennials need for a nostalgia fix.

Also consider integrating a classic candy program. Stock NECCO WAFERS and BOSTON BAKED BEANS and maybe even non-Coke or Pepsi soft drinks. Give audiences the past and you will weave your theatre into their nostalgia habit. Nostalgia is a huge consumer need, satisfy it.

The biggest hits on Netflix this summer, is the eight part series ‘Stranger Things”. The drawn from the 80’s kid-goes-missing classic storyline one that we’ve have experienced countless times before, throw in a misunderstood kid-with-creepy-powers, the tortured sheriff, is also a well-traveled and more than comfortable story path. It’s homage to the movies of the 80’s is being called out as Stranger Things’ greatest strength.

Stranger things is a love letter to the cult classics of the ’80s,” according to Netflix’s official description. The nostalgia factor is more than deep :the retro theme music interwoven with a classic 80’s soundtrack choices and dripping with huge pop-culture references, the producers even cast of 1980s and 1990s icon Winona Ryder as Will’s frantic mother and Matthew Modine as the bad guy is a tip of the hat to that beloved cinematic decade. Millennials are flocking to it in droves.

It’s time that theatres gave the Millennials what they want