Age Power: Boomers (and Older) Drive Box Office

This summer's initial blockbusters have starred older actors and actresses. Robert Downey Jr of Iron Man is 43. Harrison Ford of Indiana Jones is 65. The Sex and the City foursome are 43-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker; 42-year-old Cynthia Nixon; 43-year-old Kristin Davis and fabulous 51-year-old Kim Cattrall.

To mainstream media that means this is a trend. Read "Gray Becomes the New Black" which originally ran in the Detroit Free Press.

We saw this coming four years ago, and are delighted that Hollywood is waking up to the economic power of today's older Boomer Consumer. It is encouraging how far Hollywood has come in the few years since Roseanna Arquette's 2002 documentary "Searching for Debra Wringer" lamented how actresses over 40 were invisible in Hollywood.

Here's what we said back in August 2004 about the coming trend:

Hollywood, like Madison Avenue, loves youth and the young. Or at least that's been the case for the last forty years. But the success last year of "Something's Got to Give" with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, will spawn a new era in Hollywood where movies for maturing audiences, featuring (gasp!) maturing actors and actresses, will grace cineplexes everywhere.

The rest of our prediction back then was that once movies featured older actors, representing the Boomer audience, then shortly thereafter so too will mainstream TV commercials (beyond financial services and pharma).

We'll keep our eyes peeled for examples and report on them accordingly.

Meanwhile, we'll see you at the movies.