Without the right content and a well thought out and executed marketing/communications plan, they might as well throw open the doors and let folks come and go at will.
It takes time for wounds to heal and fade; or better yet, an overwhelming set of good/great memories to replace the bad ones.
When we mentioned the two-pronged approach to Allan McLennan, chief executive of PADEM Media Group, his eyes lit up and he said, “Something similar needs to be done in the U.S. and every streaming content country. Every theater is dark right now in every country around the globe; and if every studio, every content owner planned binging events in conjunction with theater owners, they just might jump start the date night at the movies again! New releases are just now starting to explore this, such as Disney presenting “Onward,” “The Way Back” or “Bloodshot” all for sale only in theaters at $19.99 USD and day-and-date rental of the “Invisible Man” for the same amount.
“The big challenge, besides the induvial price that is close to a monthly streaming subscription, is that studios will need to consider sharing a percentage of their ‘profits’ if they are to try and rebuild the behavior of their vacated audience to Streaming back in theaters as well as keep their supply chain healthy.
Reverse the Trend – It has been hard to miss the fact that movie attendance has been shrinking in recent years and the pandemic closures could really hurt theaters and their thousands of employees unless something drastic is done. Raising prices is no solution.
“It would take time, patience and a long-term view rather than front-end loading to recover past lost income,” McLennan emphasized, “but it could be just the solution the M&E industry needs to reverse the downward trend of ticket sales in recent years.”