Cinema White Paper : The Fun Factor in Cinemas

About this white paper

This white paper aims to help cinemas to create a better and more profitable customer experience.
Saturn Visual Solutions commissioned a market research agency to carry out a survey with 2000 full and part time adult workers from across the UK. The statistics generated have been used to create an in-depth guide to creating a fun and profitable cinema foyer.

Download this free cinema white paper

Key takeaways

In this cinema white paper you will learn:

• How much more people are willing to spend in a cinema they consider to be fun
• How much more often people are willing to return to a cinema they think of as being fun
• How people define what a fun place is, and conversely how they define a boring place
• How to create more of a sense of fun within cinemas

Overview – The financial rewards of creating the fun factor in cinemas

The UK’s cinema industry is, to a degree, stabilising after the COVID-19 pandemic, but cinema attendance has still not recovered to the level of admissions before the lockdowns. Streaming platforms like Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime continue to create tough competition for cinemas, allowing people to watch films on demand from their own homes.

The research commissioned by Saturn Visual Solutions, which is detailed in this white paper, asked UK workers if they would spend more time and money than they’d originally planned in a cinema if they were having a fun time, and if so, by how much.

• On average, people said that they would be likely to spend an extra 49 minutes and an additional £18.83 (per visit) if they were in a fun place and enjoying themselves.
• Over half (53%) said they would return at least on a monthly basis to a place they thought of as being fun.

The research also found behavioural differences between people in different demographic groups.

• Men are more likely than women to spend more than planned when having fun, and are also likely to spend a larger amount than they’d originally planned.
• Those of retirement age are likely to spend the most when having a good time

Saturn’s research asked the survey respondents what they thought made somewhere feel boring what made somewhere feel fun.

• More than half said that a fun place was somewhere visually interesting
• Just under half defined a fun place/experience as somewhere that encouraged them to feel specific emotions (e.g., anticipation, excitement, happiness)

These new cinema statistics suggest there is a clear financial imperative to create a sense of fun and/or a fun atmosphere in cinema foyers to encourage customers to linger, spend more and return frequently.

Digital signage can be used to make foyers feel more interesting and engaging, creating a more exciting ‘big screen’ experience, that people want to repeat. This can be used to create a clear distinction between between the experience of staying at home to watch a film, or going to a cinema. It can also give cinemas a competitive advantage over other multiplexes nearby.

Our research findings

• 41 per cent of people involved in the research said that they would be likely to spend between 30 minutes and two hours+ extra than originally planned in a cinema that they were having fun in.
• Nearly a third (32%) of the respondents said they would return to a specific cinema three or four times a year if they thought it was a fun place to be.
• Over half (52%) of the respondents said they would spend more than £10 extra than planned if having fun. Nearly one in five (18%) said they would spend more than £20 extra.
• More than half (53%) of the respondents said they avoided spending time in boring spaces when outside of the home.
• These results suggest that more than half of people (52%) are likely to lose interest in a cinema foyer and think of it as being boring within 5 minutes, if it’s not actively stimulating or entertaining them.

Solutions

Whilst cinema managers have no control over which films their customers will watch and how much they enjoy them, they can take steps to foster a sense of fun before and after film showings.

Digital displays can, for example, be used to run competitions or challenges, show social media feeds and provide backdrops for taking photos for social media, or show forthcoming film timelines allowing customers to better plan their visits.

The PDF of of our cinema white paper gives a snapshot of just some of the ways digital signage technology can be used to improve the customer experience, and is Saturn Visual Solutions – Cinema White Paper.

If you have a project you want to discuss or you want to learn more about using digital signage to enhance your cinema, call our team now on 0161 222 0706 or email us at info@saturnvisual.com.