What’s bringing Gen Z to the theaters? Backrooms and Obsession are two recent horror films that have done massive numbers – and their success has been driven, in large part, by Gen Z. Even beyond these films, Gen Z is now the largest moviegoing audience, according to a couple of recent surveys. But what’s bringing the short-form video generation to theaters? And what makes a movie… a Gen Z movie? To get into it, Brittany is joined by <a href="https://slate.com/author/sam-adams"target="_blank" >Sam Adams</a>, staff writer at Slate, and <a href="https://www.reannacruz.com/"target="_blank" >Reanna Cruz</a>, entertainment journalist and critic. (00:00) The Gen Z movie moment(03:47) Obsession vs. Backrooms(11:06) What's bringing Gen Z to movie theaters(15:04) Doomer vibes and digital worlds: what makes a movie a Gen Z movie(21:40) Will we see more Gen Z movies after Obsession and Backrooms? For more episodes about where film or Gen Z culture, check out:<a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/11/nx-s1-5454738/gen-z-is-afraid-of-sex-and-for-good-reason"target="_blank" >Gen Z is afraid of sex — and for good reason</a><a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/06/05/nx-s1-5845161/women-deserve-revenge-do-they-get-to-have-it"target="_blank" >Women deserve revenge. Do they get to have it?</a><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/10/29/1210938555/onscreen-cannibalism-and-our-hunger-for-love"target="_blank" >Onscreen cannibalism and our hunger for love</a> Support Public Media.<a href="https://plus.npr.org/"target="_blank" > Join NPR Plus.</a> Follow Brittany on Instagram:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bmluse/?hl=en"target="_blank" > @bmluse</a> For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at<a href="http://npr.org/podclub"target="_blank" > npr.org/podclub</a>. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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