How Has Audience Demand Shifted?

The audience did not disappear: it reorganised. Across the last decade, demand shifted in four clear directions. Understanding them tells you what to make and how to sell it.

Audiences are often described as "fragmenting," as if they are simply scattering. The truth is more useful: demand has moved in specific, readable directions over the last decade. Four shifts explain most of what has changed — and each one tells a filmmaker something concrete about what to make and where it will find its audience.

How has audience demand shifted since 2015?

Since 2015, audience demand has shifted along four axes: from stars to IP, from theatrical to streaming, from local to global, and from long-form to short-form. These are not vague trends; each is visible in the data and each changes how a film should be conceived, financed and sold. Read together, they describe an audience that is larger and more global than ever but reachable through more, and more specific, paths.

Shift one: from stars to IP and concept

The first shift is from the individual star to intellectual property and concept as the primary driver of demand. Since around 2015, the era's biggest films are built on franchises, known IP and high-concept hooks, with stars serving the property rather than guaranteeing the opening. "Barbie" (2023) drew audiences on IP and concept; horror breakouts like "Get Out" (2017) and "A Quiet Place" (2018) drew them on concept alone. For filmmakers, the lesson is that a marketable idea now travels further than a marketable name.

Shift two: from theatrical-default to streaming-first

The second shift is from theatrical as the default to streaming as the primary mode of consumption. With global streaming revenue reaching toward $94 billion in 2025 — roughly three times the theatrical box office — most audiences now watch most films at home. Theatrical retains prestige and event power, but it is no longer where the majority of viewing happens. This reshaped what gets greenlit, how films are windowed, and where a film's value is realised.

Shift three: from local to global

The third shift is from local-only audiences to globally mobile, subtitle-tolerant ones. The "one-inch barrier" of subtitles has fallen: "Parasite" (South Korea) won Best Picture and grossed $250M+; "Squid Game" proved non-English content travels at massive scale; "RRR" (India) became a worldwide phenomenon. Audiences now follow story and emotion across languages, which means a specific local film can reach a global audience — the core of a glocal strategy.

> The audience did not get smaller — it got more global and more specific. A film rooted in one culture can now travel the world, and a great concept can outrun a famous face. Specificity and concept are the new reach.

Shift four: from long-form to short-form

The fourth shift is toward short, mobile-native content, most dramatically the vertical micro-drama boom that crossed roughly $3 billion in in-app purchase revenue in 2025 (per Sensor Tower, up ~115% year over year). A meaningful slice of entertainment demand has moved to 60-90 second, phone-first, micro-transaction storytelling. This does not replace features, but it is where attention and spending are growing fastest, opening a genuine new lane for creators.

What does the star-to-IP shift look like in numbers?

The clearest measure is at the top of the chart. Barbie (2023) grossed $1.448B worldwide to become Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film ever - powered by a globally recognised brand and concept, not by a single star's drawing power. The same year's second-biggest film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, cleared $1.35B on pure IP. When the two biggest films of a year are both concept-and-IP plays rather than star vehicles, the shift is no longer a theory; it is the structure of the modern box office.

What do these shifts mean for what you make?

Together these shifts mean you should build for concept over star, plan for a streaming-first life, treat the global audience as reachable, and consider where short-form fits — then match your specific project to the path that suits it. The audience is there, larger and more global than ever; the change is that reaching it now requires choosing the right concept, format and window deliberately rather than defaulting to the old theatrical-and-stars playbook.

Want a way to tell which of your own projects the market can actually carry, genre by genre? Get Find the Right Film to Produce and learn the maximum budget your genre supports before you commit.