Gen Z has rediscovered the joy of going to the movies The hottest new hangout is old-school Aug 13th 2026 IT HAS BEEN an action-packed year on cinema screens—and at the ticket counter. Five films have already grossed more than $1bn at the global box office; three more have exceeded $500m. Forthcoming blockbusters such as “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three” promise epic showdowns; crowds are sure to show up to cinemas to watch the battles unfold. Although overall ticket sales are still down from pre-covid levels, analysts predict that the global box office will take $35bn this year, up 7% from 2025. Indeed, the picture house seems to be enjoying something of a revival, thanks in part to the younger generations. Many feared that Gen Z and millennials would hasten cinema’s decline, preferring to stay at home and
binge on Netflix, YouTube or TikTok. But in America nearly 90% of Gen Z went to the cinema in 2025, more than any other generation, according to a survey by Fandango, a ticketing website. They went seven times on average last year, compared with 6.1 times for Gen X and 5.7 for baby-boomers. Young cinema-goers are propelling films to success. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”, released on July 31st, set an opening-weekend record in North America, taking $360m to edge past “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), another superhero flick and the previous record holder. Almost two-thirds of its opening-weekend audience were 18- to 34-year-olds. The film has now made more than $1.7bn at cinemas worldwide. It is not just superheroes that get youngsters super excited. Many made a pilgrimage to see Sir Christopher Nolan’s retelling of “The Odyssey”. Recent films such as “The Drama” (a dark romantic comedy), “Project Hail Mary” (a sci-fi yarn) and “Wuthering Heights” (a racy adaptation of a Victorian novel) have seen a similar skew. Gen Z’s fixation on “Obsession”, a horror film made by a 26-year-old, propelled it to $490m at the global box office—more than 650 times its budget. The trend isn’t confined to the West, either. Under-30s make up more than half of the Hindi box office in India, according to Ormax Media, a consultancy. In Saudi Arabia two-thirds of cinema-goers are under 34; in Vietnam as many as 90% are. Last summer young Japanese flocked to “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle”, an anime blockbuster, helping give it the best opening weekend in the country’s history. What explains this surge? Partly, cinema is being boosted by the technology some thought might kill it: social media. Online communities generate buzz —nearly half of European youngsters say they discover new films on TikTok. Viral trends coalesce around certain titles. For instance, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” in 2022, attracted hordes of young men in suits, who called themselves “GentleMinions”. During screenings of “A Minecraft Movie” in 2025, people screamed and jumped out of their seats. Social media also create fomo (fear of missing out). Letterboxd, an app which lets users log which films they’ve seen and share reviews, now has 30m users worldwide, almost three times the number in 2023, and its most
active users are aged between 18 and 24. “The culture around films has become a youth culture again,” says Stephen Follows, a film-data analyst. Gen Z has embraced the cinema as a place for shared experiences. Many organise group outings with friends, adding on dinner or drinks to make a special evening of it. Treating a cinema trip as an “event” in itself means they are spending more on add-ons such as novelty popcorn buckets and reclining seats. This is a boon for cinemas. At AMC, an American cinema chain, revenue per cinema-goer was 44% higher in the second quarter of 2026 than in the same quarter of 2019 (almost 11% higher, after adjusting for inflation). A generation that revels in nostalgia is embracing an analogue pleasure. For many, the big screen offers a reprieve from endlessly scrolling the little one. Susan Sontag, an American writer, once described the thrills of being “kidnapped by the movie” and, “To be kidnapped, you have to be in a movie theatre, seated in the dark among anonymous strangers.” Young people, it turns out, are eager to go along for the ride. ■ This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/culture/2026/08/11/gen-z-has-rediscovered-the-joy-of- going-to-the-movies
The dark underbelly of “Paw Patrol” Why a debate over a hit cartoon is more than culture-war madness Aug 13th 2026 They may look like a pack of cutesy anthropomorphised dogs. “No job is too big,” vows their heartwarming motto, “no pup’s too small!” Don’t be fooled: some say the cartoon heroes of “Paw Patrol” are covert outriders for authoritarian capitalism. “Keep trying, everybody makes mistakes,” a winsome character urges in their latest outing, “Paw Patrol: the Dino Movie”. The haters have a slogan too: “Defund the Paw Patrol!” If you haven’t had a pre-school child (or been one) since “Paw Patrol” first aired on TV in 2013, it may have passed you by. But it is a world- conquering juggernaut, spanning more than a dozen seasons, a toy empire and now three theatrical film releases. Critics—perhaps including parents aggrieved at enduring so much schlock—have avidly dissected its
subliminal messages. Hearing about this is like coming late to the manosphere; both, you find, are amazingly popular and allegedly pernicious. For the blissfully uninitiated: the show is set in idyllic but slightly creepy Adventure Bay, where children drive and puppies talk. Led by a lavishly quiffed ten-year-old boy, a group of heroic pups respond to mild emergencies, setting off down a fun slide at their HQ. It is utterly formulaic, with incessant catchphrases (“Paw Patrol is on a roll!”) and appalling earworm music. “A children’s story which is enjoyed only by children”, wrote C.S. Lewis, “is a bad children’s story.” He would not have liked “Paw Patrol”. The main baddies are a guy called Humdinger and his villainous kittens (the franchise is an extended libel against cats). In the first movie, he takes over the metropolis of Adventure City and installs rollercoaster loops in the subway. In the second, a fallen meteor gives the pups magic powers. In the new film they wash up on an island inhabited by dinosaurs: some huge, some petite and sweet, none apparently carnivorous. Humdinger covets the island’s diamonds. Superficially, if “Paw Patrol” has politics, they are clunkily left-wing. Humdinger is a blond narcissist who has his own plane, builds a phallic tower and disdains “free and fair elections” and the law. The pups protect the environment as well as people and creatures; they are surprisingly keen on recycling. The saccharine morals—about teamwork, facing your fears and other such soppy uplift—are vaguely leftish in today’s dog-eat-dog world. But that may just be what they want you to think. Of the core gang of six pups, some critics note, only one is a girl, whose outfit and even eyes are pink. Worse, the top dog, Chase, is a police pup, so the whole thing is pro- police “copaganda”. Actually, since the patrol are unaccountable freelancers to whom a ditzy mayor defers, it is a sly advert for privatised state services. (Their funds come from merchandising, runs a winking joke—which may grate with those forking out for it.) In short, fulminated a Guardian commentator, “Paw Patrol” is “authoritarian neoliberal propaganda”. An academic reckoned it “encourages complicity in a global capitalist system that (re)produces inequalities”. Rallying to the
show’s defence, a former White House spokesperson wrongly claimed it had been cancelled. It is very tempting to dismiss the whole debate as killjoy hogwash and culture-war lunacy. Tempting, but mistaken. It isn’t only that. There is, after all, a reason dictators try to control the stories told to the young. “Give me the child until he is seven”, the Jesuits’ founder supposedly said, “and I will show you the man.” Books, films and, yes, cartoons impart values and lessons. A sensation like “Paw Patrol” is doing a lot of imparting, and evidently resonating with youngsters everywhere. The takeaways of a critical theorist, however, may not be those of a four-year-old unfamiliar with Ayn Rand. To understand the deep meaning of “Paw Patrol”, the best tool may not be ideology but psychoanalysis. One of its tenets is that many children want desperately to heal their parents, partly for their own well-being, sometimes taking on parental roles themselves. This is the psychic backdrop to tales of young protagonists fixing grown-up woes, from Enid Blyton to Harry Potter. The “Paw Patrol” generation have overheard their parents freaking out about politics, war, inflation, the coronavirus and climate change. The action is stuffed with pre-school wish fulfilment, as the pups—avatars for the viewers —eat unlimited treats and play unsupervised with super-cool kit. Perhaps another wish it powerfully fulfils is for kids to be able to solve their elders’ problems. No pup’s too small to notice them. ■ This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/culture/2026/08/07/the-dark-underbelly-of-paw-patrol
Economic data, commodities and markets
Economic & financial indicators | Indicators Economic data, commodities and markets Aug 13th 2026
This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/economic-and-financial-indicators/2026/08/13/economic- data-commodities-and-markets
Nirmal Purja performed momentous feats in the Death Zone The Gurkha mountaineer and Netflix star died in an avalanche on July 30th, aged 43 Aug 13th 2026 His climbing career was still young when Nirmal Purja went up Dhaulagiri, the seventh-highest peak in the world. He had been born in a village in its foothills, in a house shared with chickens, but the family had moved to Nepal’s lowland south when he was five. So he had barely registered the magnificent wall of rock and snow, 8,167 metres of it, filling the horizon. Now, at 30, he was one of a climbing party toiling across it. He took his turn, of course, at trailblazing. And as he went, plunging knee- high into the snow, he was learning something extraordinary about himself. The altitude didn’t seem to be affecting him. He was strong. Each step