Older folk tend to gravitate toward the independent, art-house cinemas since the big multi-plexes tend to only have films geared towards the teen/20-something crowd. For the most part, they do go to these theaters without knowing what to see, but the go knowing they won't be seeing a tee-comedy or a superhero movie they have no interest in.

Marketing divisions have long ago mastered the art of identifying which venues to use to reach their intended demographics. The fact that you've been unaware of these advertisements, coupled with the large turn-out of this demographic, suggests that someone deliberately brought these films to their attention.

Yes, older folks like matinees because they're cheaper and less crowded, and yes, they're more inclined to show up to the theater and figure out what they want to see when they get there. Yes, they actually still follow the Arts section of the paper, though those have become less useful as less critically minded writers have taken over the duties. The bottom line, though, is that the OP's confusion stems from not having been the target demographic of the films he saw with the crowd from Cocoon. It's a big world, even outside of the part in which you exist.

Ugh.

I should have just titled the thread "older" people. Some folks are getting their panties all in a bunch being called 'old' when all I was trying to say is that I'm impressed with how many seniors attend smaller, well-reviewed movies and surprised that the word gets out to that demographic so well.

Also, the theater I frequent is a huge 20 screen multiplex, so there are tons of options. I don't think many folks are choosing randomly given that usually there are 4 or 5 movies sharing the same start times.

They hear about them through the Oldvine.

Fixed.

I went to a matinee of "No Country For Old Men" last year, and it was packed with the Cemetary Village retiree crowd. HOLY COW!!! Worse than seeing a Saw sequel in a *quickly searches for an acceptable euphemism for BLACK 'cuz "urban" is played-out* neighborhood on a Friday night.

It serves you right for seeing a Saw sequel.

I was talking about No Country For Old Men... I've never even SEEN a Saw sequel in theaters and what have you.

Then don't make such comparisons, liar.

Old people: Able to gather information as well.

It's often simply a matter of not spending $$$$ on crap. Take a look at the top 10 from this past weekend, with the Rotten Tomatoes ratings:

Tomatometer Percentage Movie Gross
57% Marley & Me $24.1M
24% Bedtime Stories $20.3M
72% Curious Case of Benjam… $18.4M
57% Valkyrie $14.0M
43% Yes Man $13.9M
28% Seven Pounds $10.0M
54% The Tale of Despereaux $7.0M
75% Doubt $5.0M
19% The Day the Earth Stoo… $4.9M
94% Slumdog Millionaire $4.8M

Guess which three movies are most likely to get older moviegoers .....

i noticed this a couple years ago when i made my brother go see sideways with me. we were the only 2 people under the of 50 and at the time we were younger than 25 and he was quite surprised because he only heard of the movie because of me.

other than the obvious answer, i believe some of the older people in my area have an informal club that they just get together and go. not to mention, they try to go to the matinee, which i prefer to visit also so i don't have to sit next to a kid on a cell phone.

I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon opening night. My friend and I were the only people under 30 watching that film and ~90% of the theatre was Asian.

My parents are 75 and retired. They just show up to the movies and decide then what to see.

I'm kind of surprised that presumably literate adults would purposefully decide to just head out to the theater without any idea of what they want to see, just hoping that one of the posters strikes their fancy or that one of the movies starts at a convenient time or whatever.

This happens far, far more than I think you realize.

Doesn't surprise me since there are presumably literate adults who don't know how to use a computer. Not that there's anything wrong with that, the malls around me typically include theaters so there's been more the one occasion where we've been out and just decided to catch something that. Seems like more of an old fashioned thing to do, going to the theater and just seeing what's playing.

My wife and I went to see a matinee of Frost/Nixon last Saturday and we were easily the youngest people in the theater. And we're both in our 40s.

It's my view that, less often than just showing up at a multiplex and then deciding what to see, "less youthful" cinema-goers simply read the newspaper.

I was sitting next to an old woman in Benjamin Button. I felt kinda bad for her.

As for old people knowing about smaller movies, it's not a new phenomenon. My grandfather tells me about tons of movies from the 40's and 50's that I've never even heard of. I'll sheepishly shrug and say "if it's not on DVD, I haven't heard of it".

this post is funny on so many levels.

its funny, because when i saw an Ad for Doubt on the front page of myspace I thought who using myspace wants to see that movie that doesn't already know about it.

There are no small movies, only small old people.

I grew up in a small town without a theater. We finally got one in 1995, by which point I was nearly finished with high school. On as many Fridays as possible, though, my friends and I would get together around 5:30 to catch the last matinee showing of the day (cutoff at 6:00PM). We often had no idea what was even playing, and I mean that in two ways. One, we were clueless as to the lineup, and two, we often had no idea what the movies playing were even about. This was before we were all online, and only one of us lived in a house with a newspaper subscription.

To be honest, I miss those days. Today, I pass on most films, even ones I'm interested in, for a variety of reasons (having Crohn's disease, often broke, hard to find time, wife and I don't always have the same taste, etc.), but back in the day, I would see just about anything. Hell, I even saw Blues Brothers 2000 just because it was playing and I'd seen most everything else that was screening that week.

Actually I work with mostly young people who never know about smaller films. They are only interested in teen comedies, slasher films or ones based on comic books. I'm 60. I've been a film buff since I was a teenager. I read reviews in mainstream mags, film magazines like Sight & Sound, Video watchdog and Film Comment. I also spend time on the web. I have friends of all ages but I find those over 40 tend to have a wider knowledge of film than the younger ones. I was the first person I know to get a HD TV. I was also the first to get a Blu ray player. Not all older people sit around and watch reruns of Matlock all day.

I was about to post a theory along these lines. Back when movies were the main entertainment and going to the theater was still an "event" (you got dressed up and everything), it didn't matter what was playing because you still got to see a movie. I can totally see older folks wanting to do something/anything just showing up and seeing whatever. (Saw sequels excluded).

My mother talks about going to the movies when she was a kid. The price was 5¢ and they rode their dinosaurs to the theater . Actually back then the movie had one or maybe two screens at the most. There were no published starting times. This was the 30's and 40's You just showed up, went in, started watching and left when you got to the part where you came in. Many times they had no idea what was playing when they went.