Hollywood -- always in search of hip, influential people who can get others to go see a film -- is spending an increasing portion of its collective marketing resources online, shifting budgets and attention from traditional media like television and print toward the Web.

While the major movie studios spent just 1.3 percent of their $6.76 billion advertising budget online in 2003, the portion will balloon rapidly in coming years, industry executives say. Hollywood doesn't have a choice. Young men and other desirable audiences are not watching television, and they are relying less on newspapers to find reviews and movie times, according to industry research.

"This is a big topic that is making everyone sweat right now," said Juliana Deeks, an analyst at Jupiter Media. "It's an important flag for everyone in the advertising industry, insomuch as it's indicative of changing habits."

According to Deeks, one-third of all adults now prefer to get movie reviews and listings online over newspapers, television, magazines and radio. Among younger adults, the numbers are even bigger. Deeks said 47 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds prefer the Web to traditional media for information about movies, versus 33 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds and 24 percent of 45- to 54-year-olds.