Movio has released insights on the audience buying tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The opening night audience of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is 70.4 percent male which is 6.5 percentage points greater than opening night audience of Jurassic World (63.9 percent, on par with a typical blockbuster), Movio found.
Movio co-founder and chief executive Will Palmer said, “94.5 percent of Star Wars: The Force Awakens advanced ticket buyers have booked tickets for opening week, with 38.8 percent on Thursday, half of them for the first screening session. 2D is the preferred choice of 54.2 percent of moviegoers on opening night. This audience profile is comprised of 52.6 percent men between the ages of 22 and 49, which is 12.9 percentage points greater than for Jurassic World on the first Thursday night. This audience attends the cinema 18 percent less frequently than the Jurassic World opening night audience (which is on par with a typical blockbuster), suggesting that people are coming out for this particular event.”
At the time of the analysis, 2.2 percent of moviegoers from the Movio Media database had bought advanced tickets as of December 16. The Movio data sciences team compared this audience to Jurassic World as it was the biggest box office success of 2015, capitalizing on a long-standing franchise that parents were introducing to their children.
Over opening weekend, the gender distribution of a blockbuster would normally significantly balance out with an increasing female movie-going population (+9 percent for Jurassic World). For Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the presales audience remains heavily male with 67.8 percent, which is less than a four percent difference). However, it’s likely that the overall audience won’t be as skewed.
Over the first two weeks of Star Wars: The Force Awakens release, 94.5 percent of presales buyers have booked tickets for opening week, with 38.8 percent on Thursday (opening night), 26.9 percent on Friday, 14.9 percent on Saturday, 7.5 percent on Sunday, and 2.4 percent on Christmas day. It is worth noting that 50.6 percent of the Thursday presales are for the first session.
Comparing to the opening night audience of Jurassic World, 22 to 49 years old males represent 52.6 percent of Star Wars: The Force Awakens audience vs. 39.7 percent for Jurassic World, which was also skewing younger and more female.
Palmer said, “This audience attends the cinema 18 percent less frequently than the Jurassic World opening night audience (which is on par with a typical blockbuster), suggesting that people are coming out for this particular event. We even saw a spike in loyalty program membership for this occasion: 6 percent of people joined a loyalty program to buy presales tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens versus 5 percent for Jurassic World over its full run.”
“It is also worth noting that the 3D audience of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is over a year older (36.5) than the 2D audience (35.3) over opening weekend and more male (69.8 percent versus 65.7 percent). On opening night, 2D is the preferred choice of 54.2 percent of moviegoers. However, overall 52.4 percent of moviegoers who bought presales tickets will see it in 3D,” Palmer said.
Movio Media http://www.movio.co