Cinema has had a blockbuster year, and there’s plenty more to come on the big screen in the next 12 months. So what does that mean for advertisers? Hatched’s Paul Wilkinson explains.
Every few years, someone in our industry declares a channel dead. Print died. Then radio. Then linear TV. But cinema might be the record holder: it’s been declared dead at least four times since 2020 alone.
It was dead when lockdowns shuttered every screen in the country. Dead again when streaming subscriptions spiked, and the trade press asked whether anyone would bother coming back.
Dead once more when the 2023 writer and actor’s strikes gutted release slates and left exhibitors staring at a content drought. And dead yet again, more quietly, every time a mid-budget film skipped theatrical and went straight to a streaming platform.
And yet here we are: four consecutive $100 million plus months at the Australian box office, Spider-Man: Brand New Day posting the second-biggest opening weekend in the country’s history, and full-year growth tracking well ahead of last year.
The stacked release slate explains a lot of that: Spider-Man, Nolan, an Avengers and Dune double bill still to come in December. But a good slate alone doesn’t tell you whether to put real conviction behind 2027 budgets, or just enjoy the ride while it lasts.
Likewise, a record year doesn’t mean budgets will automatically shift to cinema. But dig deeper into the data, and there are plenty of reasons why cinema should be in your media mix, starting with Gen Alpha’s burgeoning love of going to the movies.
According to data from the National Research Group, about 59 per cent of Gen Alpha – born from 2013 onwards – enjoy watching movies in theatres more than at home. Compare that to just 48 per cent of Gen Z and 45 per cent of Millennials. For a generation that never knew the inside of a Blockbuster Video and grew up with movies at their fingertips, the magic of “IRL”, leaving the house to go to a physical multiplex, feels like an event.
Right behind them in a cinema queue is Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012. The recent success of Obsession and Backrooms was driven by Gen Z, with 85 per cent of the opening weekend audience for Backrooms under 35.
The outdated stereotype that “only old folks go to the movies” has completely flipped. Whichever demographic you’re looking to target, cinema’s not dead. Sure, audiences are craving new, bold stories. But when they get them, they turn out in droves. How else to explain the stunning US $15 million box office opening weekend for Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s doco, You Can See Everything? And let’s not forget that Amplified Intelligence attention studies have found cinema continues to outperform digital channels. You can’t skip a cinema ad and forget about multitasking at the multiplex. It’s all undivided attention for advertisers at the movies.
Modern marketing thrives on cultural relevance, and major cinematic releases create an active cultural moment. Advertising in cinema hitches your brand to cultural urgency. The past year’s box office milestones prove that audiences are craving high-impact, communal experiences. When a brand advertises in that window, it inherits the cultural excitement and anticipation of the event.
So how much of your budget should you be sinking into cinema, and how to distribute it? The key is to pay attention to what’s in the pipeline.
Looking ahead to 2027, there’s a raft of options on offer, from a new instalment in the Lord of the Rings franchise to fan favourites Frozen and Shrek coming back for more. Plan ahead now, and you’re likely to snap up a bargain. Wait to see what audiences latch onto, and you’ll be buying at a premium.
Written by Paul Wilkinson the national head of investment at Hatched.
