MEDIA
ANALYSIS
Family films are back on top C
inema has been the hardest-hit media sector during the pandemic. The long-awaited reopening and road to recovery began this year with a positive start particularly for family films. So, will the string of family film successes continue, and should cinema advertising return as a safe bet to build AV awareness for your brand this Q4? So far this year, the top 10 films are dominated by those targeted at family viewing, with family releases making up almost 40% of the top 10 at the box office. This is despite the huge lineup of films still to be released. At the time of writing this includes Paw Patrol The Movie, Boss Baby 2, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, The Addams Family 2 and Sing 2, to name but a few. At the top of the charts for all film releases YTD, is Peter Rabbit 2, starring James Corden and Margot Robbie – which was a sure-fire winner at the box office. The first day cinemas reopened saw the highest box office since March 2020, with admissions for the week in excess of 1.3 million. Peter Rabbit 2 took £4.6 million across its first week - a 128% increase on the predicted forecast, and 65% of the first film’s takings across its first week in 2018: a great indication that audiences were hopping back to the cinema as early as Easter, when the weather was particularly bad in the UK. Other family films such as Cruella, Space Jam and Croods 2 have also performed well, sitting within the Top 10 and rubbing shoulders with blockbuster releases such as Marvel’s Black Widow. However, the question remains - would these films have fared better on the big screen pre-Covid? Of course, few would disagree with this hypothesis, but we must recognise that a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels is still some way off. This is no more apparent than in Disney’s phased strategy back to the big screen, which sees the entertainment giant
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simultaneously releasing at the box office and on Disney+ (which of course went from strength to strength during the pandemic). This simultaneous strategy by Disney has hit the headlines following Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit for breach of contract after it streamed her superhero film Black Widow at the same time as its cinema release. Regardless of how Disney responds and adapts to this and potentially other lawsuits on the horizon in the long term, it remains true that with box office hits there is traditionally a 50% dropoff in admissions after the first week of release. However, a trend that has remained unchanged across family films is the consistent level of admissions week on week. This is no doubt due to the sustained holiday periods when most films are launched, but also the appetite for the cinema experience from families. Pearl & Dean (one of the two cinema salehouses in the UK) has been using CAA Film Monitor to track the audience demographic since cinemas have reopened, and has reported a strong family skew, with 59% of full-paying adults who went to the cinema across May-July being accompanied by children. Cinema advertising still allows brands to boost AV engagement and coverage, while ensuring they reach the intended family audiences - and with the slate of family films on the horizon, we expect that toy ad revenue in cinemas will bounce back from 2020. DCM’s & Kantar’s Milward Brown study among others also reveals that adding cinema to the media mix makes TV campaigns more effective, with the study suggesting that toy, game and console brands see an average return on investment of £6 on every £1 spent on cinema advertising. Those brands that will win big at the box office are those that not only invest in cinema advertising in its traditional spot form, but also those that see cinema as an opportunity to showcase their brands and content, in a quality environment, to an engaged audience. If you would like to find out more about how we can help you make the most of the big screen in 2021 and beyond, or for more regular updates on the performance of the latest cinema releases, please contact a member of the team.
Those brands that will win big at the box office are those that see cinema as an opportunity to showcase their brands and content, in a quality environment, to an engaged audience
Cinemas are back, says Generation Media director of business development Alex TaylorSmith, and films aimed at the family audience are proving to be the stars of the big screen
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Current Box Office as of 8 August. Source: Pearl & Dean, August 2021
Generation Media is the UK and Ireland’s largest independent media buyer of toys and games advertising. Visit generationmedia.co.uk or call 0207 307 7900 or email contact@generationmedia.co.uk to learn more
Generation Medianm.indd 1
02/09/2021 17:34
