How The Boxoffice Company Helped Drive Online Ticket Sales for National Cinema Day
How many people saw a movie at your theater this past Saturday? On September 3rd, the nation celebrated its first-ever National Cinema Day thanks to The Cinema Foundation, the non-profit arm of The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). Over 3,000 theaters across the U.S. participated in the celebration by selling tickets for just $3. Jackie Brenneman, Cinema Foundation president, shared in a statement that, “The idea of the day was to thank moviegoers for an amazing summer, and now we have to thank them for this amazing day.”
Turning Tables on Labor Day Weekend
Considering Labor Day weekend’s history for the cinema industry, the 8.1 million turnout during National Cinema Day was a welcome about-face for theaters across the U.S. It’s safe to say this could be the first of many successful National Cinema Days. France’s equivalent, La Fête du Cinéma (The Cinema Festival), began over three decades ago as a single-day promotion and eventually grew to last several days in light of its success.
Making National Cinema Day a reality didn’t happen just like that. With more and more ticket sales taking place online, The Cinema Foundation knew they’d have to meet moviegoers exactly where they were at — on the internet. That meant developing an online platform where audiences could find showtimes for over 3,000 participating theaters. That’s a lot of data to manually harvest and host on a website that needed to be developed in just over a week. So, The Cinema Foundation reached out to our President, Stan Ruskowski, and SVP of Boost, Scott Hanlon, to help the foundation build the online technology just ten days before its launch.
The results speak for themselves
According to Comscore, the preliminary box office data showed that returns for National Cinema Day totaled $23.4 million, a 9% higher figure than the previous Saturday — even with discounted admissions. Boxoffice data showed that more tickets were sold for National Cinema Day than for the entire week prior and 30% more than for Top Gun: Maverick’s opening day. And while 85% of tickets are usually sold on the day of, a majority of our cinema partners saw 70% of their ticket sales online in the days leading up to the event, meaning that the higher the anticipation, the more likely moviegoers are to plan ahead.
Our products are known for their automation thanks to integrated data, which gives our cinema partners greater ease and flexibility. It was an even greater honor to see our tools used on an industry-wide scale. The outstanding results reinforce the power of the big screen, of community through moviegoing, and the values at the very nexus of what we provide and will continue to provide every cinema exhibitor. We’re grateful to be bringing audiences together from search to seat, and we want to help you. Find out how here.
Want the best recap on National Cinema Day? Check out The Boxoffice Podcast.
