TREND INSIGHTS 2015 Movie Marketing Recap and 2016 Preview Feb. 2016 2015: A RECORD YEAR FOR HOLLYWOOD BREAKING $11 BILLION IN BOX OFFICE DOMESTICALLY The U.S. Box Office: After a somewhat lackluster 2014, Hollywood bounced back with vengeance in 2015, recording a record high $11.122 billion in domestic ticket sales (U.S. and Canada). This represents an increase of 7.4% from 2014 and exceeding Hollywood’s previous high water mark of $10.923 billion in 2013. The box office success were aided by a number of popular movie franchises, reboots and sequels. The three top grossing movies of the year were either reboots or sequels of popular movie franchises, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Collectively, these three films alone totaled $1.85 billion in box office receipts domestically. Other film franchises that ranked in the Top 12 in box office were such familiar titles as; Furious 7, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, Cinderella, Spectre (James Bond), Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation and Pitch Perfect 2. Domestic Box Office: By Year (in Millions) $ 12M +7.4% +0.8% +6.5% +10% -0.3% $11,122.60 $10,923.60 -5.2% $ 11M -3.7% $10,837.40 $10,595.50 $10,565.60 $10,360.80 +4.9% -0.3% $10,174.30 +4.2% $ 10M $9,663.80 $9,630.70 -5.8% $9,209.50 $8,840.50 $ 9M $ 8M $ 7M $ 6M 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Source: Box Office Mojo 2 TRENDS | INSIGHTS Movies were popular throughout the year. Below are a few box office highlights of 2015. • Although Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper opened up in four theaters on Christmas Day 2014 (to qualify for that year’s Oscars), it did not open up nationwide until January 16, 2015. The film broke a record for ticket sales in any January weekend. American Sniper domestic total generated over $350 million in ticket sales, 99.6% of the tickets sold occurred in 2015. • The opening weekend of Fifty Shades of Grey released on February 13 generated $85.2 million in ticket sales, the most of any weekend movie opening that month. • The opening weekend of Furious 7 released on April 3 produced $147.2 million in box office receipts, the highest of any weekend film opening on that month. • The opening weekend of Jurassic World released on June 12 was the highest grossing of any weekend movie opening weekend in the U.S. ever at $208.8 million. That record lasted just over six months. • The opening weekend of Transylvania 2 released on September 25 generated $48.5 million, the highest of any weekend film opening on that month. • The debut weekend of Star Wars: The Force Awakens which opened on December 18 and generated a record $248 million. In less than two weeks, the film became the highest grossing movie of 2015 with $740.3 million. When box office sales of 2016 is factored, the film replaced Avatar as the top grossing film of all time. TOP TEN GROSSING FILMS RELEASED IN 2015 Rank Movie Title Studio Total Gross Theaters Opening Theaters Open Close 1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens BV $ 740,265,583 4,134 $ 247,966,675 4,134 12/18 - 2 Jurassic World Uni. $ 652,270,625 4,291 $ 208,806,270 4,274 6/12 11/19 3 Avengers: Age of Ultron BV $459,005,868 4,276 $ 191,271,109 4,276 5/1 10/8 4 Inside Out BV $ 356,461,711 4,158 $ 90,440,272 3,946 6/19 12/10 5 Furious 7 Uni. $ 353.007.020 4,022 $ 147,187,040 4,004 4/3 7/24 6 Minions Uni. $ 336,045,770 4,311 $ 115,718,405 4,301 7/ 1 0 - 7 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 2 LGF $ 274,222,959 4,175 $ 102,665,981 4,175 11/20 - 8 The Martian Fox $ 225,930,402 3,854 $ 54,308,575 3,831 10/2 - 9 Cinderella (2015) BV $ 201,151,353 3,848 $ 67,877,361 3,845 3/13 9/17 10 Spectre Sony $ 197,828,955 3,929 $ 70,403,148 3,929 11/6 - Source: Box Office Mojo TRENDS | INSIGHTS 3 Another factor was rising ticket price, to see a movie. According to boxofficemojo.com in 2015 the average ticket price cost $8.34, an increase from $8.17 in 2014. By comparison, in 2005 the average ticket price cost $6.41 and in 1995 it was $4.35. After reaching a 20-year low in 2014, the number of tickets sold in 2015 also reached 1.33 billion, from 1.27 billion in 2014. Nonetheless, it is below the high water mark set in 2002 when 1.575 billion tickets were sold (and the average movie ticket cost $5.81). In total, ten movies generated over $200 million in ticket sales (including American Sniper). According to Box Office Mojo, the top ten films accounted for 34.5% of all box office receipts. Going back 15 years no other year had the Top 10 films account for over 30% of total ticket sales. Conversely, only 95 movies earned over $25 million in 2015, the lowest figure since 2001 when only 91 films crossed that threshold. 2015 recorded three of the five worst openings of all time for films playing in 2,000+ theaters, Jem and the Holograms, Rock the Kasbah and We Are Your Friends. Other box office disappointments included Victor Frankenstein, Burnt and Strange Magic. Billion Dollar Box Office: There have been 24 films that have generated over $1 billion in global ticket sales, five of them were released in 2015. Star Wars: The Force Awakens without being released in China, the second biggest movie market, reached $1 billion in ticket sales in just 12 days, breaking the record set earlier in the year by Jurassic World (13 days) which had opened in China simultaneously. Furious 7 actually grossed higher in China at $390 million than in the United States at $353 million. At the time, Furious 7 was the highest grossing film of all time in China. In 2015 the Chinese box office grew by 48.7% reaching $6.78 billion, making it the second largest movie market in the world. By comparison, five years ago the Chinese box office totaled only $1.51 billion. China is expected to become the world’s biggest film market surpassing North America by the end of 2017. Based on the success domestically and explosive growth in China, Rentrak estimates the global movie market is expected to approach a record high of $40 billion in 2015, exceeding the 2014 mark of $36.4 billion. 2015 Worldwide Billion Dollar Grosses Rank Movie Title Studio Worldwide Domestic % (Domestic) Overseas % (Overseas) 1 Jurassic World Uni. $ 1,669.0 $ 652.3 39.1% $ 1,016.7 60.9% 2 Furious 7 Uni. $ 1,515.0 $ 353.0 23.3% $ 1,162.0 76.7% 3 Star Wars: The Force Awakens BV $ 1,510.8 $ 740.3 49.0% $ 770.5 51.0% 4 Avengers: Age of Ultron BV $ 1,405.0 $ 459.0 32.7% $ 946.0 67.3% 5 Minions Uni. $ 1,157.3 $ 336.0 29.0% $ 821.2 71.0% 4 TRENDS | INSIGHTS Studios: Universal Pictures and Disney were the top two studios in 2015. Between them they had accounted for over 40% of all box office receipts, with Universal Pictures garnering a 21.6% market share and Disney coming in at 19.2%. Both studios easily surpassed $2 billion in domestic ticket sales, all six of the top grossing films of 2015 came from the two studios. Although Warner Brothers ranked third at 14.1%, the studio failed to have any one film rank in the 15 for the first time in 35 years. Globally, Universal Pictures grossed $6.8 billion in 2015, surpassing the record set by Fox the previous year of $5.5 billion. Disney generated over $5 billion worldwide for the first time. Young Moviegoers: Helping to drive Hollywood to its box office record was the return of younger age groups (under the age 25), back to the movie theater. Historically, younger age groups are the heaviest movie goers as well as early adopters of digital technology, a growing concern for theater owners. According to National Research Group’s 2015 Moviegoing Report, Persons 12-24 saw an average of 8.4 films in 2015, an increase from 7.1 in 2014. According to the report, younger age groups tend to go the movies to hang out with their friends. Additionally, they are more likely to go to movies in large groups and see the same film multiple times. Of the ten highest grossing movies of 2015, the under 25 year olds was the largest age group in attendance in eight of them, the two lone exceptions were The Martian and Spectre. Moviegoing Frequency in Three Words Average Number of Movies Seen 2013 2014 2015 8.4 Digital 7.1 REBOUND 12-24 8.4 7.7 Transitional 8.1 STABLE 24-44 8.0 7.2 Traditional 6.7 CHALLENGED 45-74 6.1 Q200/201. How many times have you been to the movies at a movie theater within the past 12 months? Regular – Luxury Respondents: Moviegoers 12-74;2014-2015 Total: 7.7, 7.3, 7_4 respectively TRENDS | INSIGHTS 5 After a banner 2015 in which Hollywood sold over $11 billion in ticket sales in the U.S alone, a record.