How do kids choose their movies? It's a question many parents ask themselves. Young kids (and many adults) are so stressed about watching each movie the minute it hits the big screen that enormous queues are formed and tickets sell out before you even get half way to the door.
40 years ago, movies were not a big part of everyday life. In the 60’s, kids spent more time outside, or reading and socialising than they do today. Movies back then were a luxury not everyone could afford. When it could be afforded it was only ever at the cinema. Over the past 40 year period, movie watching habits have changed dramatically. In 2000, there was a major shift. From one channel televisions and occasional cinema outings, now-a-days children can watch any of a number of different channels and going to the cinema is a common occurrence. In the past few years, movie watching has become very popular and easy to access; families can borrow movies from the video store, from the library, download them from the internet and watch than in the comfort of their home. New movies come out in the cinema every week.
WHY do kids choose movies?
Today, movies have become a measurement of social standing. Children who haven't seen a certain movie are "way uncool", and are perfectly aware of what they have missed out. The other children in their class will make them aware of exactly what goes on in every movie. This creates a lot of pressure on parents. All you need to do to understand how serious the pressure is, is simply see the massive queues at the cinema on the release dates of every new movie. It is very hard for people, and especially young kids to wait a week or two weeks after the release of a new movie to go and see it. Just the thought of missing out, or being the last person to see the movie is quite stressful.
There are many movies targeted at young children that come out regularly. For movie makers, children's' movies are a great investment since young kids are such a big market. Every time kids go to a movie, at least one grownup must join them. This more than doubles the profit, not to mention the sales of related products that get sold after the movie – McDonald toys, figurines etc.
Movies today are advertised as far back as a year in advance. Posters are put up in every spare space, in shopping centres and food-courts. TV ads for certain movies start as early as 6 months before a movie comes out. Even 3-year olds can tell you they are going to watch a movie that will come out in 6 months. School holidays are especially hard for parents since most movies come out during the school holidays. Sometimes, over a period of two or three weeks or holiday, there are over six movies to watch. In the local cinema there is only a two to three week window in which to watch all the movies that have come out. Young kids are afraid to miss out. Missing out is a very hard feeling for young kids to deal with and this puts pressure on their parents.
A good way to help parents handle the pressure is to assure kids they will be able to see the movie later. The movie will still be there in a week, even too weeks. If its not, it probably wasn't worth it, and if they still want to see it, it can be borrowed from the video store or downloaded at a much cheaper price. Knowing this will relieve the stress of missing out on that great movie that everyone's raving about and when you go to the cinema, you won't have to wait in line for half an hour and you'll definitely have a ticket when you get to the desk.
Tsoof and Eden love to download full movies from the Internet.
