AILSA CHANG, HOST:
So many of the biggest movies of the last few years have one thing in common, from "Inside Out 2"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "INSIDE OUT 2")
MAYA HAWKE: (As Anxiety) I'm Anxiety. I'm one of Riley's new emotions.
CHANG: ...To "A Minecraft Movie"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A MINECRAFT MOVIE")
JACK BLACK: (As Steve) Chicken jockey.
CHANG: ...To "Wicked."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WICKED")
CYNTHIA ERIVO: (As Elphaba, vocalizing).
CHANG: All of these films are all rated PG - yes, for parental guidance. And that is surprising because many of Hollywood's biggest hits have been rated PG-13. So what's behind the current love of PG movies? And why are kids the most influential moviegoers in the industry right now? Well, we're going to direct those questions to Wall Street Journal columnist Ben Cohen, who wrote about this trend in his latest piece. Welcome. Welcome.
BEN COHEN: Thanks for having me, Ailsa.
CHANG: Well, thanks for being with us. OK. So yeah, why are PG-rated movies so successful right now, you think?
COHEN: Well, there are actually a bunch of reasons. One is that the success of PG movies is partly about the struggle of PG-13 movies. These days, a movie that comes along and gets adults to theaters without their children feels like something of a miracle.
CHANG: (Laughter).
COHEN: But the people who actually are still going to movies and want to go to movies as soon as that movie is out...
CHANG: Yeah.
COHEN: ...Are children. And there are a bunch of reasons for that. One is that they are obsessed with this idea of participatory fandom.
CHANG: Oh.
COHEN: Think about singing along to "Wicked" or...
CHANG: Yes.
COHEN: ...Dressing up for "Minions" or getting all the "Minecraft" references, right?
CHANG: Oh, totally.
COHEN: And all of those viral frenzies have helped movies become something like movements in recent years.
CHANG: But why is that a kid thing? I like to participate, and I'm almost 50.
COHEN: So I think the difference is that you and I might wait a month for a movie to become available on demand at home if it means you can watch that movie from the comfort of your couch...
CHANG: Oh.
COHEN: You don't have to...
CHANG: Laziness takes over.
COHEN: Exactly.
CHANG: Yes.
COHEN: Well, and also, like, cost effectiveness. Like, you don't have to pay for tickets and popcorn and a babysitter if you're just going to pay...
CHANG: Sure.
COHEN: ...The 29.95 to rent it at home. So you might wait, but kids won't. Because for them, the whole point of seeing a movie is getting in on all the memes around that movie...
CHANG: Yeah.
COHEN: ...Which means seeing it as quickly as they possibly can.
CHANG: OK. But what is the whole PG versus PG-13 thing? Because you mentioned in your piece that so many of, like, the highest-grossing films were rated PG-13, not PG. I'm talking about movies like "Titanic," the Avengers movies, "Avatar." So why the shift away from that? Why aren't PG-13 titles doing as well right now?
COHEN: I think you really have to go back to IP. If you think about the hits from the past few years, they're all based on intellectual property that kids have a deep connection with already.
CHANG: Yeah.
COHEN: So there are the sequels. There's "Inside Out 2" and "Moana 2" and all of the minions movies. There's "Wicked," which is based on not just a Broadway musical, but, you know, one of the most famous movies of all time.
CHANG: Right, "Wizard Of Oz."
COHEN: There are all the video games, Super Mario Bros. and Minecraft, which really surprised Hollywood when they turned into massive hits at the box office. And then you think about one of the PG movies this year that actually didn't really work, and that was Disney's "Snow White." And that is an iconic Disney movie, but kids today don't really have much of a connection to "Snow White."
CHANG: Exactly.
COHEN: They care more about SpongeBob...
CHANG: (Laughter).
COHEN: ...Which, as it happens, is coming to theaters next month and is probably going to be another smash PG movie.
CHANG: Well, you know, I'm just remembering back when I was a kid, when the PG-13 rating first came out. This was back in 1984 - right? - in the middle of the '80s. And by then, there were already all these iconic Hollywood blockbusters like "Jaws" and "Star Wars," which were rated PG at the time. But maybe "Jaws" and "Star Wars" would be rated PG-13 these days, or even R, right? Had there been a PG-13 rating back then for those movies, do you think that would have affected the success of "Jaws" or "Star Wars"?
COHEN: Possibly, right? I mean, it's also hard to know because movie theater-going culture was so different in the '80s and '90s and 2000s, even part of the 2010s, than it is today. And, you know, one of the things that really surprised me about the success of PG movies is that the people going to the theaters to see these movies are exactly the people who have grown up with the ability to watch any movie on any device they want, anytime they want, right? And, you know, kids have always gone to the movie theater to hang out and to escape their parents also. And...
CHANG: (Laughter).
COHEN: But in 2020 and 2021, this century of long-established habits was suddenly disrupted, and there was real fear in the industry that once audiences were watching these movies at home, they would not want to come back to theaters. And, in fact, the opposite has happened.
CHANG: Yeah.
COHEN: And so there was a recent National Research Group survey that found that Gen Alpha prefers movie theaters more than Gen Z or Millennials or Gen X. So...
CHANG: Interesting.
COHEN: ...These people who, like, everyone thought maybe won't come back to the theaters, they want to come back to the theaters more than anyone.
CHANG: Ben Cohen with The Wall Street Journal. Thank you so much.
COHEN: Thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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