Despite the promotion for the second annual National Cinema Day only kicking off earlier this week, it is already having a big impact on ticket sales.
Box office analytics firm EntTelligence, which monitors 13.5 million seats across more than 100,000 showtimes, reports that the promotion seems to be working as Sunday’s presales are outstripping Saturday pre-sales by more than 700%.
The promotion will see all movies on Sunday selling tickets for $4, regardless of showtimes and formats. The initiative brought in 8 million attendees last year – and that was at a time with few films out.
This year there’s no shortage of films available including “Gran Turismo,” “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” “Blue Beetle,” “Strays,” “Meg 2: The Trench,” “Sound of Freedom,” and “Last Voyage of the Demeter” among others.
That begs the obvious question as to how much of an actual impact this year’s National Cinema Day will have on the box-office.
According to the firm, exhibitors are programming more titles on Sunday over Saturday and are extending their hours to take advantage of the promotion.
In addition, matinees on Sunday in particular are showing a strong response, with 41% of sales occurring between 1pm-5pm compared to 28% of sales at 5pm-9pm.
Source: Deadline
