Yet the fact that near every film to top the box office for more than three months has been female-focused does not just reflect a growing enthusiasm among women for films: rather, it also marks what some Hollywood film moguls now refer to as the “Xbox” factor, in which many young men and teenage boys increasingly prefer playing sophisticated video games to watching movies.

“A lot of young males are spending much more time on the internet, games and UFC [ultimate fighting],” Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Pictures production company and former studio chief at Sony Pictures, told The Sunday Telegraph.

“They have not abandoned movies but they have diminished as a target, while the female audience has remained robust.”

....

The shift in the balance of gender power has accompanied the explosion in the male-dominated video game market – worth about $21 billion in the US in 2008.

The same year, American box offices takings were nearly $10 billion, with another $22 billion spent on DVDs.

I don't play games, but thanks to free films on telly I've probably watched more movies in the past couple of years than ever before.

Yes I play more video games than I watch films.

I go to the cinema two or three times a year, but that doesn't seem to be particularly unusual??

Don't play games. Rarely go to the Cinema Quite often watch films on TV or DVD.

I've had Donnie Darko sat on Sky Plus for months and still haven't got round to watching it

I hardly ever watch films. Maybe once or twice a month on TV, and once a year at the cinema.