Research: Young children drive movie market to new highs
March 3, 2020
Families with young children in their home, particularly aged 10 and under, are making more trips to the cinema than other households, according to research by Ampere Analysis. In fact, Ampere has found that the presence of children in the home is a more important factor than either age or household income when it comes to almost all segments of the movie market.
The findings revealed that of those consumers who had visited the cinema at least once in the preceding six months, 30 per cent lived in households with young children (aged 10 and under), versus 26 per cent in the wider survey. The effect is intensified for the heaviest cinema-goers; of those who had been to the movies at least once a month in the preceding six months, 35 per cent lived in households with young children.
Younger children are also a core driver of home entertainment activity – roughly 40 per cent of movie purchasers live in households with young children, compared to 26 per cent of the wider surveyed population. In addition, over half of 25-44-year olds with a premium movie package had young children in the household, relative to 41 per cent of consumers of the same age without a premium movie pack.
It’s a similar story for those homes with children aged over 10 years, who over-index by 10 per cent for high attendance rates compared to the average household. These households not only visit the cinema more often than the average cinemagoer, they are also higher spenders on tickets as they visit in larger groups, having a double whammy impact on ticket sales. The presence of older children in the household also impacts premium movie package subscriptions. 15 per cent of those in the 25-44 age bracket with a premium movie pack had older children in the household, versus 11 per cent of those with no movie package.
Young families are more important in low cinema attendance markets
Emerging markets are characterised by younger populations, and have more families with young children, thus films aimed at children and families are key locally. In developed markets, which tend to have lower theatrical attendance rates, families with young children are also an important and valued audience. For instance, in Germany households with young children represent 16 per cent of those surveyed by Ampere Analysis but represent 20 per cent of cinema attendance. This is an over-index of 25 per cent. In comparison, in Mexico, households with young children represent 37 per cent of interviewed respondents, but 39 per cent of cinema attendance, an over-index of just 5 per cent.
Richard Broughton, Director at Ampere Analysis, said: “Children are crucial to the movie market, and those aged under 10 are particularly important in driving movie visits. Studios have long known the importance of family movies written to entertain not just children but parents too. Our research shows that this has an effect across almost every movie distribution mechanism – households with kids are more likely to take a movie channel, buy DVDs or rent digitally – and of course go to the cinema. The only area of the market which appears broadly immune to the effect is the subscription OTT market – but this is almost certainly a consequence of the fact that SVoD services like Netflix and Amazon have diverse content offers with widespread appeal across demographic groups.”