Rated AARP

Doug Desjardins is an ardent movie fan. But this summer has been especially enjoyable.

In the past month, he has seen “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Collateral,” “The Village” and “The Bourne Supremacy.” Up next: “The Manchurian Candidate.”

“For a while, there was … all this stuff aimed at teenagers or ‘tweens,” says Desjardins, a 42-year-old writer in Carlsbad, Calif. “But this summer, there are a lot of films I want to see.”

Summer 2004 will go down as the season when youth-oriented “Shrek 2” and “Spider-Man 2” became two of the biggest box office winners of all time. But it’s also becoming the summer of the grown-up movie.

Beneath the marketing hype luring young filmgoers to the latest blockbuster, Hollywood is quietly targeting older audiences with a surprisingly broad array of movies.

With more than $115 million in U.S. ticket sales so far, “Fahrenheit 9/11” has more than quadrupled the previous record take for a documentary.

While “Alien vs. Predator” and “Princess Diaries 2” led last weekend’s box office, three of the top four films the previous weekend – “Collateral,” “The Bourne Supremacy” and” The Manchurian Candidate” – were aimed at adults.

And several smaller films, documentaries and foreign imports are giving this season one of the largest collections of adult-themed offerings in four decades.

“The adult audience is usually left out in the cold during the summer,” says Gitesh Pandya, editor of box office tracker BoxOfficeGuru.com. “But Hollywood studios have put together one of the biggest menus for mature audiences in recent history.”

Summer has largely been a backwater for adult-themed films since the mid-1970s, when “Jaws,” “Star Wars” and “Rocky II” began transforming the season into an orgy of blockbuster action films, fantasies and sequels.

But older moviegoers are growing in importance. People 50 and older accounted for nearly 25 percent of U.S. ticket sales in 2003, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, and more than one in 10 moviegoers was over 60. Meanwhile, moviegoing among 12- to 24-year-olds is off 1 percent since 2001.

“The industry finally realized that this is a huge, extremely valuable market,” says Jonathan Estrin, dean of Drexel University’s College of Media Arts & Design.

It’s not that adults aren’t going to popcorn flicks. The dark, mature story lines of “Spider-Man 2 “and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” appeal to older audiences, too, says Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Entertainment, a “Fahrenheit” co-distributor.

Yet shifting demographics, economics, politics and consumer tastes – underscored by the surprise spring success of “The Passion of the Christ” – are prodding studios to offer more adult-themed summer choices and get them on more screens than ever before.

These plot- and character-driven films, which often eschew overblown action scenes, computer-generated effects and implausible story lines, include tearjerkers such as “The Notebook” and musicals like “De-Lovely.”

Unlike blockbusters that open big and fade fast, many have staying power. “Fahrenheit,” “Notebook” and “De-Lovely” have been posting higher weekly grosses than “Shrek,” “Potter” and other early summer biggies.

“Anytime a film like ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ pulls in $100 million, the big players take notice,” says Drexel’s Estrin. “There’s an audience for controversial, intelligent, serious-themed movies. It’s the ultimate example of ‘sell me what I want, I’ll buy it, and I’ll keep coming back.’ “

Among the reasons behind the mature movie trend:

Counterprogramming: New Line Cinemas’ launch of “The Notebook” on June 25, between the rollouts of “The Terminal” and “Spider Man 2,” made producer Mark Johnson skittish. Making matters worse, that coincided with the national release of “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

Johnson thought “The Notebook,” a romantic drama based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, would fare best in autumn — traditionally the prime season for adult-themed films — or perhaps December.

New Line production chief Toby Emmerich wagered otherwise, banking on the film’s target audience: women over 30. “Particularly in summer, they weren’t being offered that much,” he says.

The move paid off handsomely. “The Notebook,” which cost $54 million to make, has taken in more than $74 million so far.

“I was prepared to say New Line was wrong,” Johnson says. “But I’m very happy with the results.”

Cheaper costs, higher profits: Combined, the summer’s adult-themed films may not pull in much more than “Shrek 2” ($436 million in U.S. ticket sales to date). But their often significantly lower production and marketing costs mean a “hit” can result in greater profits than many $100 million box-office winners.

Johnson, who produced the 1988 Academy Award-winning “Rain Man,” expects “The Notebook” to eventually pull in $80 million in the U.S., making it far more successful than such big-budget summer duds as “The Stepford Wives,” “Catwoman,” “King Arthur” and “Around the World in 80 Days.”

“Relative to the costs of producing and marketing blockbusters, these smaller films are easier bets,” says John Penotti, co-founder of GreeneStreet Films, which produced the adult-themed “In the Bedroom,” “Just a Kiss” and “Pinero.”

“You don’t have to swing for the fences like blockbusters on opening weekend,” he says. “These films can gradually grow through word of mouth and critical reviews.”

The power of older women: Last winter’s “Something’s Gotta Give,” featuring 57-year-old Diane Keaton cavorting with 65-year-old Jack Nicholson, demonstrated studios’ adeptness at targeting older audiences.

With $125 million in U.S. ticket sales, it “proved the existence of a very powerful niche which is ripe to be tapped,” says Hilary Black, entertainment editor for “MORE”, a lifestyle magazine for women in their 40s and 50s.

“Older women are an increasingly powerful demographic, as evidenced by the success of (other) hits like ‘As Good as It Gets’ and ‘What Women Want,’ “Black says. “The result is a larger selection of intelligent films.”

Aging baby boomers, both female and male, “haven’t given up our love of movies,” says Paul Dergarabedian, head of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations, who at age 42 fits the demographic.

“We grew up with some of the greatest films and actors and directors of all time,” he says. “We’re a film-school generation that still gets excited to go to the theaters. It just takes a little more to bring us out.”

But the picture isn’t all rosy. Just as a blockbuster can dominate the marketplace, so can a runaway art-house success.

Distributors of “Fahrenheit 9/11” opened it on about 800 screens – at the time more than double the previous record for a documentary, held by Michael Moore’s previous film, “Bowling for Columbine.” It continued to crowd out smaller films as it expanded to more than 2,000 screens.

Now such industry insiders as Steve Gilula, distribution chief for Fox Searchlight Films, fret that the adult summer market — underserved for years — may be growing too fast.

“The strategy will not only be counterprogramming against blockbusters, but against each other going for mostly the same audience,” Gilula says. “This is going to be a crowded market.”