Is It Time to Hit Play on Movie Theater Ad Buys?

When the pandemic decimated cinema attendance, it took down cinema advertising too. Screenvision Entertainment Network, the company that sells movie theater space to advertisers, experienced the collateral damage. It happened right as the company was hitting its stride. Screenvision, which serves ad impressions to about 40% of the movie theaters in the country, organically doubled its revenue and tripled its profit between 2015 and the beginning of the pandemic. After three consecutive years of growth, the company was "entering 2020 with the largest Upfront that cinema had ever seen, and going into what was supposed to be another record-breaking year,” said Christine Martino, chief revenue officer at Screenvision. It took nearly three years, but now that blockbuster movies are back in theaters, young adults are buying tickets. Companies like Screenvision offer advertisers fewer cinema impressions than they did before the pandemic, but the impressions they do offer add value for brands that want exposure to advertising-averse younger audiences. Blockbusters are back Before the pandemic, there were about 1.2 billion ticket sales each year in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Motion Picture Association’s 2019 Theme Report. The industry generated over $11.4 billion per year. Almost three years in, moviegoers are coming back. According to a February survey from The National Association of Theatre Owners, 80% of respondents indicated they were either very or somewhat comfortable going to the movies. Blockbuster movies like The Batman, which pulled in $134 million this weekend, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, which grossed nearly three quarters of a billion dollars, are still capable of pulling larges audiences if they continue to debut exclusively in theaters, which movie studios stopped doing in recent years due to the ongoing health crisis. Plugging into cord cutters But the audience's makeup is very different now than it was a few years ago. There are fewer older moviegoers, and younger people are the majority of viewers. According to Nielsen data 76% of 2021 movie-goers were in the 18 to 49 age group compared to 70% in 2019. Of those moviegoers, 50% were in the 18 to 34 group compared to 49% in 2019. “We've got this huge, massive young audience—that kind of audience out there that advertisers are looking for,” Martino said. Many young people are cord cutters—viewers who don’t watch traditional TV. A movie theater is one of the rare places today that advertisers can connect with them. Even though many subscribe to streaming platforms, those platforms offer fewer and more expensive ad inventory, limiting the number of advertisers who can reach streamers. Plus, there are 30 million viewers in the 18 to 49 age group who are exclusively using ad-free streaming platforms, according to Nielsen data. The number is quickly increasing, up from 22 million last year. “When I would talk with some of the agencies, I would always say, 'there's no better feeling than knowing that we're probably one of the only networks out there that the audience is rooting for our return,'” said Martino. “Less than 10% of the budget” For one buyer at a large media agency, it’s unclear now if younger audiences are returning to theaters because today’s blockbuster movies attract a younger demographic, or if the pandemic led to a permanent behavior change for older audiences. “Is it just a higher comfort level from a younger audience to go back to the theaters? Now, I think that'll take a little bit of time to play out,” the buyer said. Shortened airing windows are also on the buyer’s mind. Before the pandemic, a movie might play in theaters for several months, but now only plays for a fraction of that time. Right now, movie buys are less than 10% of the video budget for the client, said the buyer. Beyond cinema To make up for lost impressions, Screenvision expanded its offering. Now it also offers media space in minor league, college and some major sports stadiums across the country, as well as NASCAR race tracks. It partnered with Super League Gaming to put ad breaks into livestream gaming, and also sells ad space at concerts—typically four minutes of advertising time right before a headliner comes on stage. Screenvision would have been able to offer just 325 million impressions to advertisers this year, according to Martino. After expanding its inventory to include the additional channels, it offers nearly 550 million. “It might seem like cinema impressions are down, but the audience you want is actually up and they're harder to reach anywhere else right now. And now across our entertainment networks, we have an amazing portfolio that lets you reach them not just in cinema, but also across these other live events,” said Martino. Snapchatters Gear Up for a Return to Movie Theaters

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Is It Time to Hit Play on Movie Theater Ad Buys?

Cinemas are an alternative for advertisers that want to connect with cord cutters

Olivia Morley

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Olivia Morley