Senior Stars Find Hollywood Silver Lining

It seems like Hollywood — and the media that cover it — are always looking for the youngest, newest talent they can find and promote. But there’s certainly something to be said for veteran performers who have proven themselves across the decades.

In fact, if you take a close enough look around the pop culture landscape, you might even notice that quite a few veteran stars have been making big comebacks.

Hollywood likes to think young.

Jane Fonda, 78, and Lily Tomlin, 77, have been co-starring in the popular Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” for three seasons already, with Tomlin’s performance resulting in two consecutive Emmy nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy.

NBC just announced that it’s renewing its hit summer reality series “Better Late Than Never,” in which William Shatner, 85; Terry Bradshaw, 68; Henry Winkler, 70; and George Foreman, 67, travel around the globe immersing themselves in local traditions and food, and attempting to communicate with natives in places like Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.

“Better” was the top new broadcast show this past summer, drawing an average of 8.1 million viewers each week.

And in the nation’s movie theaters, screen icon Robert Redford, 80, has a large voice role in Disney’s hit family movie “Pete’s Dragon,” which has grossed over $70 million — giving Redford a boost himself just as he’s also heading off to star opposite Fonda in a romance movie for Netflix.

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These are but a few examples of the growing trend, which also served up a big red carpet premiere event on Sept. 19 for the new movie “Silver Skies.” The movie went way above and beyond the aforementioned projects to feature a panoply of famous people with a lifetime of experience, including George Hamilton, 77; Mariette Hartley, 76; Barbara Bain, 85; Alex Rocco, 79; Howard Hesseman, 76; Valerie Perrine, 73;  and Dick Van Patten, 86.

Could it be a sign that audiences really aren’t driven by a youth culture? An indication of the growing clout that America’s over-50 audience has at the nation’s box office?

“Silver Skies,” which tells the story of eccentric retirees whose lives are turned upside down when their apartment complex is sold,  was also the inaugural film in the NY Film Critics National Series, a screening company that has partnered with some of America’s leading independent cinemas to present live, in-theater events.

The evenings are moderated by Peter Travers, film critic for Rolling Stone and ABC’s Popcorn, and Peter Bart, a former top studio executive and Variety editor.

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NYFCS offers screenings of movies before their theatrical release. Its events — which include interviews and interactive audience involvement with the stars — take place exclusively in theaters and are simulcast on more than 400 screens so that everyone throughout the country can enjoy up-close and personal moments with beloved icons.

The clout of these older-skewing offerings is showing up in the blockbuster success of “Sully,” the Tom Hanks movie, directed by 86-year-old screen legend Clint Eastwood. Box office analysts have noted that its largest bloc of viewers opening weekend were those over age 50 (in fact, more than 80 percent of its tickets were sold to moviegoers over age 35).

Having earned more than $35 million its opening weekend and more than $20 million in its second, “Sully” is delighting Warner Bros., its distributor, by proving that films appealing to older crowds often have strong staying power.

Related: Hanks is Ready to ‘Sully’ His Career

These surprising results are drawing attention in Hollywood, where money matters more than anything. Former Variety editor Peter Bart wrote in his Deadline.com column that senior citizens are a new front in Hollywood’s drive for diversity. Studios are starting to realize that ignoring older audiences — and the stars and filmmakers most likely to appeal to them — is utter stupidity.

“Hollywood likes to think ‘young’ which is ironic since we are about to witness a presidential debate involving the two oldest candidates in debate history,” Bart wrote.

Bart notes that the trend of older audiences dominating the market is a reflection of seniors’ power across American culture generally. Americans age 50 or older make up 25 percent of filmgoers, and they are buying tickets at a much faster and ever-growing pace than a decade ago, while the traditional top audience for movies — males ages 18 to 24 — are buying 20 percent fewer tickets.

[lz_infobox]University of Southern California and Humana study: 11 percent of the characters in film and TV are age 60 and older, even though that age bracket is 18.5 percent of the nation’s population.[/lz_infobox]

The solution is for Hollywood to reach out to older audiences. As younger audiences opt for non-movie entertainment or watching at home on their own high-tech systems, it is very likely that older audiences will be the saviors of the cinemas and network TV.