- Matt Cohen, MTV Insights

Last Sunday night, MTV aired the 2012 MTV Movie Awards. As part of the lead-up to this year’s show, we at MTV Insights have been sharing some key insights regarding this generation’s unique relationship with movies. So far, we have discussed the renewed significance of movie-going as an expression of Millennials’ craving for real-life communal experiences [see our previous post: “Is the midnight screening the new rock concert?” http://ow.ly/bp8Lr ]. We have also discussed how the massive rise of social media has enabled Millennials to form deeper and longer-term relationships with their favorite movies [see our previous post: “#MillennialsAtTheMovies: How Social Media Has Transformed This Generation’s Relationship with Movies”http://ow.ly/bpaRy ]. Before we say goodbye to this year’s Movie Awards, in this post we share one final insight regarding movies and the Millennial generation…

In recent years, we have seen the timeframe of movie franchises expand significantly. Today, it’s not uncommon for studios to announce (oftentimes before the first movie in a series has even finished shooting) that  they plan to release a franchise via several installments over several years. With this industry shift towards serialized movie storytelling, a movie franchise’s lifetime can now span an entire decade or longer – long enough for a child to grow into adolescence and adulthood. As a result of these extended timeframes, Millennials are the first generation to age in parallel with their favorite movie franchises and characters. Consequently, Millennials view certain films as a generational mirror, in which they witness their own maturation process projected on the big screen in real time.

The Toy Story franchise is a primary example of this phenomenon. In speaking with Millennials about which movies they hold closest to their hearts, the Toy Story franchise comes up again and again. “We grew up with Toy Story,” Christina, 21, tells us. “For a lot of us, it was one of the first movies we saw in theaters.” While Millennials were first introduced to Toy Story as children in 1995, they wouldn’t see the final installment until 2010 – a whopping fifteen years later. In that time, the franchise’s audience had grown from small children into college students, a growth process mirrored by that of Toy Story’s Andy – the beloved owner of Woody, Buzz, and all the other toy characters.

Seeing their own experiences reflected in the world of Toy Story, many Millennial viewers found particular significance in Toy Story 3. As Scott, 20, explains “When Toy Story 3 came out, I was leaving my mom for college, and that’s what Andy is going through in the movie. If it weren’t for the 3D glasses, my friends would have all seen me crying. That movie has been with me my whole life.” Tommy, 20, shares a similarly emotional perspective: “I literally cried when Andy gave up his toys. It felt like me giving up my toys. We are literally giving up our childhood there. We’re moving on to adulthood and it sort of hurts.”

Another major franchise that holds a special place in the Millennial heart is Harry Potter. This franchise spawned 8 movies over the course of 10 years (2001 – 2011). Having grown up voraciously reading the Harry Potter books (the first of which was released in 1997), Millennials approached the film adaptations with a strong emotional connection which has only gotten more powerful as they grew up alongside the films’ characters and actors.

“We evolved as Harry Potter evolved. When the first Harry Potter film was released, we were young and discovering ourselves. With the last movie released last year, many of us have graduated from college and are moving on with the next part of our lives as Harry Potter did,” says Stephanie, 22.

These generational narratives that run parallel to the lives of the audience allow Millennials to see and explore rites of passage (first crush, first kiss, leaving home, etc.) in a powerful, communal way.

Given that Millennials are the first generation to age alongside their favorite characters, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at the somewhat extreme expressions of fandom/loyalty we see Millennials exhibit for certain franchises. After all, these movies, in a sense, are an extension of themselves. As Javier, 24, puts it “The magic of movies for our generation is seeing ourselves in the movies – when you can say ‘that’s me, that’s my world.’”