Gen Z? Coming-of Age?

These past few days I have delved into researching the target audience we had in mind: Generation Z. Upon researching the target audience we thought that it would help us narrow down the genre we should do. People in this Gen Z range from ages 5-19 and are part of the largest demographic group in America (25.9% of the population). In an article I found by Motive Val Morgan, it mentions that in a report by Millward Brown: ‘AdReaction Gen X, Y and Z’, Gen Z are the ones who enjoy cinema the most. They are constant followers of movie celebrities and with filmmakers offering a strong lineup of movies each year which forms part of their socializing activities over the weekend. According to the Theatrical Market Statistics 2015, “In 2015, 12-17 year olds had the highest per capita attendance (7.3) and largest increase in per capita attendance, up nearly one ticket per person from 2014.” Since Gen Z is such a broad age range we are guiding more towards ages 17-21. So, mostly targeting teens and young adults.

Like I mentioned in the first post we were thinking about Drama or Suspense, and we are sticking with Drama. I looked at the AMC Filmsite to look up sub-genres in Drama where it could relate to our target audience and I saw Coming-of-Age.

We are interested in Coming-of-Age sub-genre because it relates to our target audience and it is very popular right now. I found in this LA times article, that there is a rejuvenation of Coming-of Age movies where they are steering away from the typical cliche movies like “Mean Girls” or “Clueless.” But, instead are depicting kids and teens in a more real and authentic way. These new movies focus in explaining a new generation or telling the truths about older ones like “Boyhood.” Movies that show pains of growing up, but it's unique because every character’s story depends on their background and socio-economic status. We see this in “Moonlight” where we are presented with a story about a poor gay black teenager living in Miami and how he deals with constant struggles from his childhood to adulthood. As well as in “The Edge of Seventeen”, where we are presented with a middle-class white teenager who’s awkward and impulsive and how she deals with the problems at this peak point in growing up. The main characters are based off of point-of-views of real people.

This idea of Coming-of-Age really stood out to me because I defitnely feel like we can do a lot with this sub-genre. Being a teenager in high school I can collect a lot from research from my peers and get inspired from real and true stories. 

Now I have to do more research on a few of the recent popular Coming-of Age movies and older ones.


Bedgood, L. (2017, February 17). Marketing to Gen Z: The Massive Generation That will be Coming to Age. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://www.datamentors.com/blog/marketing-gen-z-massive-generation-will-be-coming-age

Dirks , T. (n.d.). Film Sub-Genres Types (and Hybrids). Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres2.html

Motion Picture Association of America (Ed.). (2016). Theatrical Marketing Statistics 2015 (Rep.). Motion Picture Association of America.

Motive Val Morgan. (2017, February 27). Gen Z: A Growing Target Audience For Cinema Advertisers. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://motivatevalmorgan.com/2017/02/07/gen-z-growing-target-audience-cinema-advertisers/

Zeitchik, S. (2016, October 21). The coming-of-age movie is reborn, with fresh stories and characters. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-coming-of-age-movies-edge-seventeen-moonlight-20161010-snap-story.html