Editor’s note: This column is a response to the Ames Tribune column published June 16 by Fern Kupfer titled “Where are the movies for grown-ups?“

Writer’s note: I will return to my regular rants and raves with less numbers next week, so bear with me and enjoy a little bit of summer number crunching.

Kupfer proposes the idea of assisting the economy of Ames by adding an art theater and cafe to show “movies for grown-ups.” The column proceeds with the message of movies not being targeted at those in the 50 and up crowd, to “lament the lack of choice” of films offered because what is in Ames are “mass-marketed, over-produced movies aimed at adolescents.”

With the lack of those films, people are going to Des Moines to spend their money on movies of “quality” and further spending their funds on dinner and shopping not in Ames.

I have seen no research to indicate an art house movie theater would be welcome and prosperous enough to survive in Ames. The Varsity Theater used to show independent movies and limited-screen-opener films. It went under for lack of ready generation of income.

That shows the population of Ames did not have enough residents with the interest to support such films on a regular basis. The cost to play those movies, to pay employees to run the theater and to cover the costs of utilities along with potential maintenance costs was not up to task for staying out of the red zone.

Independent films can be nice, a lot are not, but then many main stream films are boring or rotten as well.

Kupfer said she went to see a charming film called “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” at a theater in Ames “with an audience on the other side of 50 years old” comprising most of the viewers. She went on to say, “Older people are a largely untapped movie market.”

The age demographics for Ames, as of census 2010, had 15 percent of the population in the 45- to 64-year-old category, and 8.1 percent in the 65-year-old and up category. For the sake of argument, place 12 of 15 percent of the 45- to 64-year-olds into the 50 years and over category, which puts about 20 percent of the population of Ames in the 50 years old and up category.

The 2010 “Theatrical Marketing Statistics” from the MPAA lists 32 percent of the population of movie goers as 50 years old and up, with 20 percent of that category as frequent movie goers, here on out referred to as FMG; the whole of all ages for the category of FMG makes up 50 percent of ticket sales in the United States.

I don’t think the movie industry isn’t trying to market to 20 percent of their viewers that make up 50 percent of ticket sales. I think it more likely that movie goers age 50 and up enjoy and even prefer many of the main stream movies.

Part of the reason the independent movies play in so few theaters is because the potential audience appeal isn’t very high; though it is likely a few independent films would appeal to those in the under-50 category. With that in mind, why would it be worthwhile to offer regular viewings of films people don’t want to see on a regular basis?

It could be that a movie some people would enjoy is overlooked because the marketing for it was limited, but many of the independent movies put out are not very interesting to a general audience.

Ames is a general audience. Ames is a college town. The marketing for Ames is better served by encouraging new businesses that cater more heavily to students and other “youth.”

The population of Ames is about 60,000, with the student enrollment about 30,000 for fall 2011, according to Iowa State’s enrollment statistics.

Nearly all college students fall into the 30 and under category. Census 2010 has 40.5 percent of Ames residents in the 18- to 24-year-old category, with 22.9 percent in the 25- to 44-year-old age category. On a low estimate, about 45 percent of Ames population falls into the 30 and under age category, or college-age category. The MPAA lists 18- to 24-year-olds as 22 percent of FMG, with 25- to 39-year-olds as 22 percent of FMG.

If you use the numbers from the MPAA as a fair base for use of Ames numbers, the movie opportunities currently in Ames are unlikely to lose an amount of money to travelers to Des Moines for art house flicks in an amount higher than it could profit if it attempted to run them regularly because Ames’ age ranges fit into the “profitable” margin understood through the numbers given.

Some folks age 50 and up might prefer independent movies to mainstream and are only FMG because they attend movies with family. 13.5 percent of Ames population is under 18 years old — making them likely children or grandchildren of the 50 and up crowd — and the under-18 category makes up 27 percent of FMG, according to the MPAA.

The economic influence the 50 and up crowd Kupfer implies would make an impact through independent film viewing doesn’t appear to be valid. Generally, businesses want to turn a steady profit. 34-year-olds and younger make up 47.6 percent of Iowa’s population according to census data.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for Ames to target the younger age category as that age category will be the ones regularly making up more than 50 percent of Ames’ population thanks to the constant youthful influx of college students and continued birth rates?

Isn’t it likely those currently 30 and under will continue to hold the same desire for those main stream movies, rather than as they age wanting more art house flicks?

Movies might be more targeted at those in the so-called “adolescent” category, but those youth, young adults and adults who prefer to live with an outlook to life that embraces being young and stupid are not changing their outlooks. What we want is not often in line with what those at the beginning of Generation X and older generations desire.

We are the ones that are becoming the older generations. We are what businesses are having to alter their marketing to. We are the future. As Kupler doesn’t seem to think we are “grown-ups,” all I can say is that grown-ups are then not the way of the future.

What I’m getting at in my long-winded manner is Ames doesn’t show a capacity to support an art house place nor would the majority of Ames residents wish to fund such a place for a period outside the opening enticement from something new and shiny.

The university tried to re-open the Varsity Theater, and that proposition was shot down. The numbers for these things simply do not show the ideas wouldn’t end up in the red.

If people desire more art house flicks, the best bet would be to lobby the Dollar Theater in North Grand Mall. Other movie theater companies have special showings for groups. It tends to require a flat fee, so groups would have to be formed to account for regular viewings — maybe one of some movie a month or bi-monthly — and that would again require getting the numbers together to show that enough people would support such activities.

Generation Y, the Millennials and whatever other names are set for the under 30-year-old folks are all generations a far cry different from past generations due to the rapid pace society has changed thanks to technology and outlook on life. We shop online. We desire to be entertained both by fine art and superfluous special effects. We refuse to let go of any of our childhood outlooks, unlike the “growing up” change that defined so many generations of old; we are Neverland.

So for those of us non-grown-ups, well, “Give me a second, I need to get my story straight, my friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State. … We are young, so let’s set the world on fire. We can burn brighter than the sun.”