What Are Boomers Watching Most on Disney+?
If the term “Ok Boomer” was one of the most disparaging terms of 2019, any future derogatory terms might be changed when seeing what this demographic is watching on Disney+.
Not long after the platform went live, a small poll was conducted to determine what each age group is watching.
The results were a bit surprising, including the oldest demographic polled. Boomers have grown up with Disney since the late 1940s, making them one of the groups who remember the magic of Disney when Walt Disney was still living.
Regardless, they aren’t necessarily watching Disney+ for Disney-produced nostalgia. The poll shows some insightful things each age group wants to see on the streaming service.
It may be proof Millennials are old souls after all.
The Disney+ poll is based on a small sample size
Disney wasn’t responsible for this Disney+ tracking poll. Hollywood Reporter and Morning Consult are the media outlets responsible, though only polling 496 subscribers. Perhaps it’s strange Disney didn’t conduct the poll themselves to find out what their public really wants to see.
For them, they likely knew all age groups would sign up without really caring who watches what. Maybe Disney really will conduct a larger poll (eventually) to gain a wider picture on which age groups watch specific shows/movies.
What the existing poll shows, though, is an odd dichotomy on media tastes based on age. What you think Boomers are watching isn’t what the poll suggests.
Whether this is really reflective of the world is still a matter of debate. Since there’s far more Boomers living in America than any other age group, there may be some differences when polling tens of millions of people.
Are Boomers really only interested in watching ‘Star Wars’ movies/shows?
Based on the above poll results, most of the Boomers signing up for Disney+ are apparently watching more Star Wars than anything else. While this makes sense since there’s now 43 years of history in the movie universe, it’s still a bit strange to see they aren’t watching Disney classics.
There could be one ironic sociological explanation behind this. Ahead of that, though, is the equally fascinating reveal of Millennials watching more Disney classics than any other demographic. Why they’re doing this is a bit of a mystery, other than many Millennials usually appreciating older things.
Maybe there’s a good explanation as well. In the case of Millennials, they might have grown up with the old Vault Disney programming block on the Disney Channel from 1997 to 2002. This was eventually dropped in the DVD era, but a lot of Millennials aged 23-38 might have stayed up late at night watching old Disney classics during their most formative years.
Seeing these classics like that likely stuck in their memories more than if growing up seeing them in a movie theater. On the Boomer side, there may be one particular era standing in the way of maybe not gravitating to the Disney classics.
Boomers had the 1960s rebellion
Consider many of the oldest Boomers were part of the counterculture in the late 1960s. These groups shunned all conservative type of entertainment at the time, including some Disney content.
The only movie they really gravitated to was the 1969 re-release of Fantasia because its imagery was the epitome of psychedelia. Otherwise, the Hippies of the time might have been turned off by other earlier Disney classics, something they’ve kept with them all these years.
When Star Wars began in 1977, they might have experienced a more revolutionary feel to movies, especially when taking their kids to see the original trilogy.
All of these scenarios above are just speculation, yet it’s worth noting history first in understanding what certain age groups gravitate toward. Sometimes the results are surprising, including tastes of the younger set.
