The Evolving Theatrical Window And What It Means for Marketers

Roku recently spoke at Advertising Week with Lori Pantel, CMO of Fandango, about The Evolving Theatrical Window and What it means for Marketers. Here, we share some highlights of that discussion.


The ease, convenience, and affordability of streaming continues to dramatically reshape viewing behaviors, from cutting cords to streaming sports. TV is going streaming-first and so too are theatrical releases. You may have noticed it: studios are releasing first-run movies to streamers while still in theaters -or skipping theaters altogether. The surging resurgence of premium video on demand (PVOD) is here and hard to miss.


The New Theater Experience


Family films like Scoob! and Trolls World Tour made waves earlier in the year when they were released on streaming platforms, like Roku. By some estimates, three weeks of Trolls World Tour on PVOD made Universal Pictures more money than the original Trolls film made in five months in theaters. And, Roku has been instrumental in these releases. More recently, Roku powered 54% of all Disney+ streaming hours during the Mulan premiere weekend, more than 3x the amount from the next largest streaming platform, Amazon FireOS, according to Comscore.




Those numbers make sense when you consider Roku’s scale: as the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Roku reaches 43 million households and 100 million viewers. Combined with the ease and convenience of Roku Pay, it’s simple to instantly purchase a virtual movie ticket on Roku.



What movie-“goers” want


Roku users appreciate watching high quality films from the comfort of their couch, and they’re willing to pay a premium for that convenience. In fact, over half of users interested in PVOD are willing to pay $15 or more to buy movies.



Previous buyers from movie rental and buying services like Prime Video and Fandango are the most interested Roku PVOD buyers.Once you’ve experienced the frictionless streaming-first movie-”going” experience, you’re likely to try it again, making them the most amenable to the PVOD offering. Higher income households with children and A18-54 are also potential target audiences for these titles.PVOD titles appeal to subscription video on demand users (SVOD), too. In fact, 55% of Roku users with more than four subscriptions expressed interest in these titles. PVOD gives consumers the choice and flexibility to expand their content library, while enabling SVOD services to expand monetization via one-time purchases.


What this means for marketers


Consumers love the experience of watching new theatrical movies from the comfort of their home, and they’re willing to pay a premium for that experience. Many of these viewers are active, hard-to-reach SVOD consumers, and Roku provides a unique opportunity to reach and engage these streamers. Roku’s massive scale, rich customer data, and efficient performance marketing solutions are uniquely positioned to help publishers grow their streaming-first movie tab.

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