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Research Outline

Prepared for Akshay D. | Delivered July 16, 2019

Movie & Entertainment Industry Trends

Goals

To collect the latest trends in the Movie industry and the Entertainment industry in general, and use them to understand their impact on physical movie theaters attendance.

Early Findings

  • After experiencing a historic attendance low in 2017, physical theaters saw the numbers of their audience increase in 2018, which was reflected in a record domestic box office of $11.38 billion by December 2018, driven by blockbusters such as Black Panther. 
  •  Theaters subscription services have been popular in 2018 and more companies are likely to offer them.
  • Some physical theater companies such as Landmark partner with online streaming services such as Netflix to show their movies, despite them being available online at the same time.
  • There is a long list of blockbusters that will be released in 2019, even more than in 2018, which was already a record year in the US in terms of box office revenue. These include Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Men in Black International, The Lion King, and many others.
  •  Companies such as Apple, Disney and WarnerMedia are starting to produce their own original content to stream online.
  • Following the recent sexual allegations of sexual harassement and racism in Hollywood, there is a pressure on movie studios to hire more women and members of minorities. 
  • The movie industry is realising that global success is conditioned by more diversity in the story, the cast and the movie directors.
  • The availability of online streaming services attracts mainly the younger viewers away from theaters, as they are free to watch their movie any time, on any platform.
  • In 2018, the movie industry experienced success mainly with large science-fiction or comic books productions, with 3 movies exceeding $600 million in revenue in the US and Canada: Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and The Incredibles 2. This formula still works well as it allows for equally successful sequels. 
  • These successful movies are produced by major studios such as Disney, Universal or Paramount, which do not focus as much on lower budget productions. This category of movies is actually produced by independant filmakers or streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon.
  • There is a dissatisfaction experienced by Pay-TV customers compared to subscription video services consumers.
  • Consumers find that to view their favorite content, they need to commit to too many subscription services.
  • Some Pay-TV subscriptions now start to include streaming services in their media packages, such as Comcast with Amazon Prime Video.
  • eSport is a new entertainment form that is growing, with an estimated $1.5 billion revenue by 2020, thanks to a predicted global audience of $600 million.
  • The advent of 5G is expected to have a strong impact on many aspects of the entertainment industry.
  • Advertisers are starting to target the smart TV market in the US, which covers around 75% of all homes.
  • The media industry will continue to consolidate, reducing the number of large market players, and increasing their invidual content.