Ah, the early 2000’s.
It’s a time of nostalgia for many, the final days before society became truly dependent on technology. There are many things that I reminisce on from my own experience growing up in this time: making my Barbies get dressed up and go to “balls” hosted by my three Ken dolls, playing Super Mario games on my Nintendo DS, and watching Mean Girls at sleepovers with my friends. Though it’s been years since the initial rise to fame of these properties, and though Gen Alpha would rather go to Sephora than Toys-R-Us, they are not names that have faded into obscurity, by any means.
It seems that, in the last year, filmmakers have shifted to making films targeted at a double audience: the first half being Gen Alpha children and preteens looking for a new sleepover film, and the second being the ever-maturing Gen Z in search of the natural high of a nostalgia-induced trip.
Looking at the highest-grossing films of 2023, Barbie leads with over $636 million domestically, followed by The Super Mario Bros Movie at $574 million. The third and fourth films on the list are separated by almost $200 million from the leading duo. November’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (the fourth installment in a franchise that has been untouched for eight years) grossed over $165 million at the domestic box office. Mean Girls, a much smaller-scale film, has brought in over $60 million since its early January release. So, why is it that the must-see films of the last year are all tied to familiar intellectual property? Simple—it’s the only trusted thing in our increasingly streaming-focused society. Who wants to take a gamble on a potentially uninteresting film with their rare bit of free time?
While Letterboxd users may be flocking to the theater for films like Killers of the Flower Moon or The Holdovers, most of the younger generations aren’t rushing to fill seats at these films. The reality is that even Oppenheimer, one of 2023’s biggest hits, was boosted a great deal by the “Barbenheimer” double feature hype.
It also makes sense that major film studios would pander to this extremely marketable age group. Almost half of TikTok users are under the age of 30, and this is a rapidly growing platform that is increasingly being used for film marketing. Users like @guywithamoviecamera (who, it should be noted, worked on Barbie, The Hunger Games, and Mean Girls) have become icons for the next generation of filmmakers and moviegoers alike, and young moviegoers nowadays turn to TikTok edits over film trailers when deciding what to see.
However, this matter goes deeper than which films were lucky enough to catch the TikTok wave. The youngest members of Gen Z were born in 2012, meaning that they will be celebrating their twelfth birthday this year. This is the perfect age to be introduced to an IP like Mean Girls, which dominated the summer of my twelfth birthday. The oldest members of Gen Z, however, will be celebrating their twenty-seventh birthdays this year. The members of this generation are at a pivotal point in life, the awkward transition between childhood and adulthood. In a world of overwhelming economic and academic pressure, it is unsurprising that this demographic would want to see movies with elements of nostalgia and escapism. These films are safe choices, they assure a comforting and fun night out at the movies if nothing else.
While filmmakers and critics alike scold moviegoers for turning big budgets into multi-billion-dollar profits, this fixation on nostalgia-based IP seems natural. There is a recent cultural burnout with long-running franchises, and people want to see something that can handle the difficult balance between fresh and familiar. Only time will tell how long it will take for society to grow weary of this style of filmmaking, but for now, it seems it is here to stay, with more familiar properties scheduled to get their own flicks soon, including American Girl and Polly Pocket.