Top cinema users are top clients for Studios across all windows

But across the rest of value chain, they exhibit similar spending habits in transactional video, subscription video and even content piracy.



Omdia’s report identified three distinct consumer types characterized by their movie content consumption habits. Cinema Power Users, Cinema Goers and Infrequent Goers exhibit significant differences in terms of the frequency and (channel selection) of their viewing habits.



Before COVID-19, the average household spend for Cinema in the US was over $80 per annum. However, due to the global lockdown restrictions caused by COVID-19, cinema spending has suffered, box office revenues were down $30bn in 2020 (from almost $42 billion), compared to 2019.



Omdia predicts that it will take two to three years for Cinema spending to return to pre COVID-19 levels. Studios will continue to delay large tentpole releases such as James Bond as they wait out the pandemic to capitalize on consumer’s eventual return to the cinema. In the meantime, consumers will look to other windows for premium content and Omdia expects models such as online video subscriptions to benefit from the advances in their spending habits.



 Cinema Power Users are subscribed to 50% more SVOD services than infrequent goers, rent twice as many new movie releases, purchase three times as many new releases and are around three times as likely to pirate content from unauthorized sources.

Although Power Users are the highest content users across the board, Cinema Goers present the greatest growth opportunity for studios across all content access points, particularly through paid subscription channels with 13.9% growth YoY in subscriptions per household to SVOD services.

Max Signorelli, senior analyst for media and entertainment at Omdia, commented: “Whilst Cinema closures have effectively halted box office revenues, they have not hampered consumer demand for new content, especially in cases of government mandated lockdowns.

“We are seeing consumers look to all subsequent video options to access premium entertainment with an increasingly appetite that will remain post pandemic.  As cinema release delays such as James Bond prove however, content producers can reliably bet on people returning to the cinema when able to do so.

-ENDS-

About Omdia

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We combine the expertise of more than 400 analysts across the entire technology spectrum covering 150 markets and publish over 3,000 research reports annually, reaching over 14,000 subscribers, and covering thousands of technology, media, and telecommunications companies.

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