MUMBAI: Media research company Nielsen has taken a look at annual moviegoer trends in the US as the awards season continues. According to Nielsen National Research Group‘s 2012 American Movie going report, 70 per cent of Americans aged 12 and older reported seeing one or more movies at a theater in the last 12 months, which is in line with the earlier year trend.

The demographic makeup of the movie going audience has remained relatively consistent over the last couple of years, but the proportion of younger moviegoers (12-24) and oldest moviegoers (65-74) has grown gradually at the expense of middle-aged moviegoers (25-54).

Overall attendance to new release movies was on par with a year ago (6.8 movies per person on average, compared with 6.9 in 2011), while movie going increased among Hispanics (12 per cent), people aged 25-34 (seven per cent), youths 12-17 (three per cent) and males (three per cent). Although there were slightly more female moviegoers than male moviegoers in 2012 (51 per cent and 49 per cent respectively), men accounted for 55 per cent of theatrical attendance.

When looking at the movie going audience by race/ethnicity, Hispanics were the heaviest moviegoers, as they represented 18 per cent of the movie going population, but accounted for 25 per cent of all movies seen. Hispanics were also the only demographic group that went to more movies in 2012 than in the prior year-9.5 movies on average compared with 8.5 in 2011.

The 2012 report highlights that going to the movie theater seems to carry a particularly positive cultural significance for Hispanics, as they were considerably more likely than non-Hispanics to view going to a theater as a way to spend time with their family and friends (86 per cent versus 77 per cent). They also were more likely to spend time discussing the movies after seeing them (66 per cent versus 53 per cent).