Donna Langley

Source: Mike Baker ©A.M.P.A.S.

Donna Langley

Donna Langley reflected on the power of young audiences and the shifting tone of horror in a talk at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sunday.

“Young people, the Letterboxd generation, are really engaged in film,” Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios, said during a Visionaries session. However the executive counselled that all conversations on the platform need to grow organically, adding: “You cannot manufacture that.”

“We saw it with [Christopher Nolan’s] Oppenheimer,” Langley told TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey. “They were going to the theatre more than once, coming back, having an opinion, and wanting to share that opinion.”

And that translates to a growing appreciation among younger audiences of Imax, a big differentiator for studios, who race – Langley called it a “rugby scrum” – to book the coveted screens well in advance of a release. Tickets for Nolan’s summer 2026 tentpole The Odyssey on Imax 70mm, for example, sold out within an hour in July.

“It’s value for money and value for their time,” she said. “It’s all about share of wallet.”

Langley also addressed the changing nature of horror, traditionally a bankable genre with audiences as evidenced by summer breakout Weapons on $244m at the worldwide box office, and Focus Features’ $181m worldwide take for Robert Eggers’ late 2024 release Nosferatu.

“We’re seeing the shift in horror,” said Langley, adding: “It’s not the horror as we came to know over the last decade. The weirder the better.”

NBCUniversal’s Focus Features is understood to be in exclusive negotiations for most of the world on TIFF Midnight Madness horror Obsession, which premiered on Friday night.

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