You’ve survived the Outfronts, Newfronts and this spring’s cold front. But Upfronts season is still in full swing. By now, you’ve hopefully racked up at least one story about how January Jones almost spilled a drink on you. Congratulations: You’ve been anointed.
Steady onward. NCM—America’s Movie Network—wants to remind you of three key steps to surviving the remaining weeks. In the great movie theater tradition, we’ve teamed up with Digiday to produce our version of a policy trailer to get you in the right headspace before the big shows begin.
Ready for action? Great, here are a few more things you won’t learn at most Upfront presentations. Spoilers ahead: There’s only one screen that can truly dominate your audience’s attention, and it’s at the movies.
People are flocking to the movies
More than 1.3 billion of them in 2015 according to the MPAA — making it the perfect environment for your ads. And 2016 is primed to be another huge season for the movies, with the top 4 box office draws already selling $3.2 billion in tickets and audience favorites like Captain America: Civil War, Ghostbusters and XMen: Apocolypse still awaiting release.
We’re reaching millions of millennials
Meanwhile, while the average age of a prime cable viewer is 49 with a HHI $66,000 and a prime broadcast viewer is 54 with a HHI $62,000, NCM scores comfortably with millennials. The average age of a movie goer is 31 with an average household income of $79,500. And as we head toward summer, NCM has that data that tells you just where millennial audiences will be, not just at action comedy (100 percent more likely than the average consumer) but also at horror movies (150 percent more likely to go see than the average consumer.) A quick glance at the summer release schedule shows superheroes, jump scares and raunchy comedy that will have millennial eyes locked on a screen they can’t just stuff into their pockets.
First run inventory every weekend
Surging audiences have studios programming full-tilt year round, not just in time for debut seasons. One look at release schedules or quarterly box office earnings will show that seasonal slumps are a thing of the past. That means a consistent supply of first-run inventory year-round.
For Upfront’s season, let’s put the importance of the movies in TV terms: 38.6 million people tuned into this year’s Oscars, the biggest non-sports live event of the year. Only 11.9 million watched the Emmys. Appointment television is hard to come by, but millions and millions of fans are making time for the movies every week of the year. Simply put, the movies are the biggest stage for your ads.
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