It’s been a tough few months and years for the cinema industry. When the corona pandemic swept over humanity in 2020, it started a vicious circle. Cinemas had to close or were only allowed to provide a limited contingent of seats, sales fell or collapsed completely, film studios postponed film starts and were temporarily unable to produce new content. Corona regulations are now apparently a thing of the past. But now the energy crisis and the associated high inflation are hitting the industry with full force. Although Avatar – The Way of Water also fills the cinema halls in the seventh week of the game and with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the next blockbuster from Marvel will start shortly, against fewer and fewer people in the cinema. The market research company S&L Research investigated the reasons for this.
Market research: That’s why fewer people go to the cinema
Avatar – The Way of Water has now moved up to number 4 in the list of the highest grossing films of all time. With 8.6 million visitors so far, Germany is the third largest international market. And yet a market research study by S&L Research shows that the cinema industry is anything but out of the woods.
As part of a survey, 18 percent of all respondents stated that they had not been to the cinema since the last major lockdown in summer 2021. In addition, 34 percent of potential visitors confirmed that the importance of the cinema had suffered as a result of their leisure activities. There are multiple reasons for that.
Market research: Is cinema too expensive?
The survey by S&L Research gives a variety of reasons for the decline in the importance of cinema. The bandwidth ranges from “don’t feel like it” to “no interesting films”. Only 8 percent stated that the fast availability of cinema films from streaming providers such as Sky, Disney or Netflix played a role. However, 20 percent confirmed that the general offer of streaming and home entertainment leads to less going to the cinema.
Prices, which are felt to be too high, are in first place among the reasons for the reduced importance of cinema in personal leisure activities. A study by GFK also points out that the price-performance ratio when going to the cinema is perceived as rather poor. It is obviously a problem that the consumer always only compares the individual price of a cinema ticket with what it used to be.
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While in 1995 a ticket cost around 8 DM, today it costs around 7.70 euros (for example with the Cineplex Group). However, this only applies to the standard ticket. If you want more exclusive seats in performances with 3D, extra length and better sound, surcharges are quickly due, which can easily double the price of a cinema ticket. If you count a large family including drinks and snacks, then going to the cinema is a very expensive experience. And the film has to justify that. Blockbusters like Avatar 2, Top Gun: Maverick or the new superhero film from Marvel may justify this in the perception of cinema fans. Smaller films, however, will probably have it increasingly difficult.
Source: Focus Film
