Disney Panics Over Loss of 'Zoomer Men' Among Marvel and Star Wars Viewers, — Variety

Finally, a demographic that Disney has ignored for the past decade has shown its importance to the studio. According to reports Variety, the management began to turn to producers and screenwriters in search of films that could attract the attention of boys and men aged 13 to 28.

This demographic, called the buzzers, had allegedly been passing on Marvel and Star Wars movies for years, preferring video games and viral meme movies, like this year’s Minecraft

The irony here is not hidden and is very big: this is the same Disney that acquired Marvel and Lucasfilm in order to guarantee a male audience, but in the end “killed” the Star Wars franchise with the help of Kathleen Kennedy and suffered from “superhero fatigue”. Quite often, the studio relied on remakes (for millennials who, along with their children, “crazily devour” projects like The Lion King or 101 Dalmatians) and female-centric intellectual property in their feature films, leaving nothing in the development that resembled a “boy movie” since Indiana Jones and “Pirates of the Caribbean” (although the latter project is also rumored to be in the works, considered a “female version” with Margot Robbie).

Here it is appropriate to recall the words of George Lucas, who advised Disney’s management and the director of the movie Solo, Ron Howard, “not to forget” that Star Wars should be aimed at “12-year-old boys.” It seems that not everyone heard them.

The task of bringing back the men of the “Buzzer Generation” fell to former Searchlight Pictures boss David Greenbaum, who now runs Disney’s feature films, as well as Daria Cherchek, who oversaw such hits as “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Smile” at Paramount. They are said to be looking for proposals for adventure and horror films.

Disney is currently tied with Sony Pictures and Paramount for market share for the buzzer generation (10% of ticket buyers in 2024). This is two points higher than Universal and two points lower than Warner Bros. Along with the hiring of Greenbaum and Cercek, the corporation acquired a stake in the gaming giant Fortnite for $1.5 billion. Although two sources report that Disney does not have the rights to a Fortnite movie, which would seem to be an obvious way to lure gamers to theaters.