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The
Force is with the US online
ticket sales market.
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Revenge
of the Sith (Star Wars Episode
3) exploded in the box office
with an unheard of $303
Million1
worldwide gross in 4 days
with more than $160 Million
in US alone. |
But guess who ran away with
the money? US based online
ticket retailers Fandango.com
and MovieTickets.com sold
$16.5 Million worth of tickets
in 3 days or more than 10.5%
of the $160 Million US box
office gross2.
That’s around 2 million
tickets in a weekend. In
fact, during peak hours
on Thursday and Friday,
both firms were selling
30 tickets PER SECOND!!!
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"This is not just the die-hard fans but a
much broader base overall," said Fandango
CEO and President, Art Levitt. "The more
and more people transact online, the more they
see the convenience and ease of it.3
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Fandango’s CEO has plenty to cheer. Now
easily America’s biggest online movie ticketing
firm, his company has recorded a 60% increase
in ticket sales from January through July 2003
to the same period in 20044,
including 155% year-over-year growth for the month
of June 2004 . MovieTickets.com also claims similar
growth in new users on its website. |
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Trend Spotting
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Online ticket sales in the US are showing a steady
increase in the last couple of years. For instance,
tech consulting company, Jupiter Research, has
estimated that American moviegoers spent roughly
$560 million in buying movie tickets directly
online last year, which is at least 6 percent
of overall US box office receipts5
showing an annual growth of 186% from the $300
Million in online sales last year. Jupiter analyst
David Card, also predicts that the online ticket
market will grow by another 150% more to around
$850 Million by 20076.
Based on the current trend, online movie ticket
sales could easily break through the magical Billion
$ mark.
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If you look at the ticket stats for last year’s
bid budget blockbuster, The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King, online sales7
in the opening weekend counted for 8% of overall
US box office receipts. The trend suggests that
the bigger the blockbuster, the more anticipation
for a film, the higher the online ticket rush.
MovieTickets.com has shown that each subsequent
blockbuster has broken the previous record from
Matrix Reloaded to Lord of the Rings to Star Wars.8
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The trend seems to have caught the eyes of internet
giants: Amazon, Yahoo and Google. Amazon’s
IMDB and Yahoo have joined hands with Fandango.com
while rival Google has aligned with MovieTickets.com
to promote films and ticket sales. The entry of
these giants, their huge user base and their financial
backing, would surely hasten the growth of online
movie ticket sales. |
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The rush for online tickets to watch big
budget blockbusters during opening weekends in
the US could also be directly related to well-planned
and researched online campaigns. For Example,
the Star Wars release was marketed as an “event
to die for”. Last year’s Lord of the
Rings and this year’s Star Wars films were
both highly visible on the net. Millions of fans
worldwide have been researching the film, downloading
trailers, checking ticket information… all
using the Internet.
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According to Claria's Feedback Research unit9,
some 69% of its Star Wars respondents have seen
or heard ads online compared to just 27% of general
entertainment respondents in TV or radio. Also,
some 46% of Star Wars fans10
who intended to see “Revenge of the Sith”
in cinemas either bought or were planning to buy
tickets online. Clearly, George Lucas’ online
ad strategy is a blockbuster winner on its own
terms. Film studios that relied on conventional
TV spots and print ads probably still don’t
realize what hit them! Does anyone recall Ridley
Scott’s epic disaster “Kingdom of
Heaven”? Scott’s offline campaign
has been completely zapped by Lucas’ online
light saber.
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(Devil’s Advocate: Did even the merchandizing
wizard, George Lucas, miss an online beat by not
using an “auction” system to take
advantage of fans’ mad rush to buy tickets
to the midnight opening? Star Wars fans won’t
blink before coughing up double the price to watch
the premier. Lucas could have made a mind boggling
$50 Million more from the May 19 opening, if he
had gone through the auction route. Ouch!)
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| Wonder
what our Bollywood wunderkinds have to say about
it, for the next Aamir khan release perhaps… |
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| 1.
Gray, B (2005): http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1826&p=.htm |
| 2.
Hernandez,
G (2005): http://u.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,211~23546~2884418,00.html |
| 3.
Ibid |
| 4.
http://www.fandango.com/ShowPressRelease.aspx?id=61 |
5.
Gaither,
C (2005):
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002188527_onlinetix24.html |
| 6.
http://www.kioskmarketplace.com/news_story.htm?i=16068 |
7.
Gaither,
C (2005):
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002188527_onlinetix24.html |
| 8.
http://www.movietickets.com/press.asp?year=2003 |
| 9.
http://www.claria.com/companyinfo/press/fb_releases/pr050519.html |
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10.
Ibid
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