SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME CINEMA CHOICEDOES YOUR HOME cinema provide 'premium,
trusted, quality content in a high-attention
environment'? Hopefully it does, give or take the
odd snoring dog, whining Blu-ray player or duff
movie choice. But the halcyonic environment
described above isn't a home theatre. It's your
local cinema.
So says a recent report from Digital Cinema
Media (DCM), which has found a surge in UK
residents being drawn back to the multiplex
after a brief period where everyone thought
they'd got stuck on the sofa watching Netfl ix.
The reference to 'premium, trusted content'
actually applies to in-cinema advertising – the
focus of DCM – but surely it also applies to the
movies themselves, such as Avengers: Endgame,
which has scooped over £80m at the UK box offi ce.
Huge titles like this one, says DCM, are leading
not only to a boost in attendance, but also spending
by advertisers desperate to ply their wares to
audiences before the trailers roll.
Key to the latter part is the demographic of
cinema-goers. Almost half of all cinema
tickets sold each year are to 16-to-34-
year-olds, people that advertisers adore as they
still have disposable income instead of fi nancially
crippling mortgages. And it seems this generation
has fallen in love with going to the movies again,
as they seek experiential ways to spend their
money, shunning alcopops, nightclubs, and waking
up with a hangover. Maybe.One thing leads to another?
So watching fi lms on the bigscreen is cool once
more. One can only hope it will have a knock-on
eff ect to the home cinema world. But it's probably
not as simple as that.A new report has found cinema audiences are up, and advertisers are keen to cash in.
Mark Craven believes it's the perfect time for the AV industry to blow its own trumpet
Do you think commercial cinemas are better than ever?
Let us know: email [email protected]Mark Craven
is now pleased
he's outside the
16-to-34-year-old
demographic
as it means
no one wonders
why he's baldOPINION 69
To AV outsiders, I sometimes imagine the
diff erence between commercial cinemas and home
cinemas looks something like this: with the former,
you spend £20 on a ticket to view a movie in a
theatre that cost a fortune to design and build; with
the latter you spend a fortune designing and building
your own home cinema to watch a £20 Blu-ray.
An exaggeration? Certainly. But the discussions
I have with friends/family, and the conversations
I witness on social media, often show a belief
that home cinema is an expensive (and
complicated) business. Which it needn't be.
Also, outside of specialist, one-track-mind brands
making products solely for movie buff s (dedicated
subwoofer companies, for example), I wonder if the
consumer electronics giants are losing their love
for home AV. We've seen it in companies exiting
certain product categories. Panasonic no longer sells
domestic projectors, and Samsung has moved on
from 4K Blu-ray players. Considering the latter is
probably the second or third biggest tech brand
in the world, you have to question what it does to
perception of the format. Additionally, your 4K set is
no longer marketed as just a TV. You're expected to
play games on it, talk to it, stream music through it,
and use it to monitor the temperature of your fridge.
Sometimes I feel I should mumble an apology when
I require mine to do something as mundane as play
out my Beverly Hills Cop II Blu-ray.
Commercial cinemas are developing a captive
audience, not just for fi lms but for advertising.
Perhaps the AV industry should latch on to it,
and promote itself in these 'high-attention
environments'. Because if you like watching movies
there, you might love watching them at home QMAIN IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/STOCK-ASSO