The latest teen flick, "Dick," is about two teen-agers who meddle with President Nixon's plans.

DISCUSSION:

Do you find teen offerings appealing, or underwhelming? Go to the boards!

August 3, 1999
Web posted at: 5:09 p.m. EDT (2109 GMT)

Paul Vercammen
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- "Generation Y" -- the teens of today, so dubbed by marketers because they follow "Generation X" -- has a crush on movies: while there's no handy theater statistic specific to just teens, last year moviegoers between 12 and 24 years old made up a whopping 38 percent of last year's domestic box office.

And Hollywood has responded by pumping out teen-themed films such as "Varsity Blues," "American Pie," and "She's All That." All of them hit number one in the box office.

What draws young people to the silver screen? "We kind of use them (movies) to relate," says one teen-age girl.

"Basically, (it's) what me and my boyfriend mostly do to go have fun," says another.

Coming out on Wednesday, giggly teens get ensnared in the Watergate mess in "Dick." That stars Kirsten Dunst, who's also in "Drop Dead Gorgeous." "Dick" is trying for all ages of moviegoer, but will gladly settle for teens.

"They're the ones who saw 'Titanic' eight times," says Dunst. "Those are the people who keep paying, and like, there really isn't other things for teen-agers to do -- especially when you live in certain places. There's the movie theater, there's the mall, and that's pretty much it."

Teen audiences ate up "American Pie" this summer

Many teens couldn't get enough of the summer comedy "American Pie," just the latest movie to demonstrate why studios green-light teen projects. It cost just $11 million to produce, and has pulled in more than $77 million so far at the box office.

"They've been eating it up, and it's great," says Jason Biggs, who starred in "American Pie." "It's a great time to be a teen-ager in Hollywood, I must say."

Most teen-agers ignore reviews and follow stars that parents can't name. Take Seth Green, for example. Already known by many teens for his small-screen role as a slacker musician in the WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," he was also in the 1998 high-school graduation movie "Can't Hardly Wait." And, he played tormented teen Scott Evil in the "Austin Powers" movies.

"I think there's a tendency from the people who are in a position to create material to try and capitalize on what they believe to be a trend," Green says, "and the only trend here is the fact that these kids are getting older and having money to go see movies."

The coveted teen demographic is said to have added to the success of "The Blair Witch Project." CNN Movie Analyst Martin Grove says the studio made wise use of the Internet on this project.

"That is exactly where Artisan Entertainment began promoting "Blair Witch," with an Internet site, and the teens are on the Web ... This was a very inexpensive way to launch the movie, and they had over 30 million hits on that Web site. So, it certainly was a big, big teen factor."

Not every teen flick is a winner: Consider the slack-jawed performance of "Jawbreaker"

Studios hook cyber-savvy teens

The youth market is by no means guaranteed: Teens can stage disorganized boycotts on films aimed at them. Lack of teen interest made bombs of "Simply Irresistible," "Jawbreaker" and "Idle Hands." Between the three movies, they made only $11 million.

But teens do often show up for familiar faces from television, like "Dick" co-star Michelle Williams, already famous among teens for "Dawson's Creek."

"I think they'll continue to make these teen films, because they do so well, and they're going to just keep exploring different sort of venues and concepts for them," Williams says.

How can one tell which ones will tank, and which will soar? Many theater managers plot strategy with their teen employees. "Usually they tell us how business is going to do (for a specific movie)," says Oscar Balderrama, the manager of Pacific Theaters Winnetka 21. "They are a big majority, or a big percentage of what they come up to us and say, 'You know, I heard this movie is coming out. Are we getting that?'"