Event Cinema Revenues to Hit $1 Billion by 2019, IHS Report Says

• Western Europe driver of growth; Industry just getting started as huge growth projected *

LONDON, UK (1 July 2015) – IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), the leading global source of critical information and insight, today announced findings from the first report detailing event cinema revenues, written jointly with box office tracking specialist Rentrak.

“Now that the digital conversion has finished and the market understands what the technology can do, IHS forecasts event cinema revenues globally will hit $1 billion by 2019,” said David Hancock, head of cinema analysis at IHS Technology. “Event cinema is just getting started.”

Event Cinema is defined as non-theatrical programming in cinemas that has been enabled by the transition to digital projection technology. It covers everything from operas to eSports, theatre to secret cinema.

“The global market for event cinema is estimated at $277.2 million in 2014, according to IHS Technology, and this IHS/Rentrak report covers countries making up 38 percent of this,” Hancock said.

Western Europe drives industry growth

In 2014, Western Europe made up 45.5 percent of the sector’s revenues, and North America slightly less, at 40.8 percent.

“These two regions clearly dominate, partly because of content sources and partly due to a speedier transition to digital projection,” Hancock said. “Other parts of the world are developing, such as Brazil, where the World Cup gave a kick start to screenings in cinemas.”

Theatre is new hot genre

“Theatre has become the new hot genre in the event cinema world, replacing the early drivers of opera and ballet,” Hancock said. “Generally, English-language theatre is seen in anglophone countries. Genres with little linguistic content work best across borders, thus the visual arts are still an important part of this sector’s future.”

The report found that music is also an important genre, with live concerts and music documentaries tapping into a motivated fan base.

One Direction and “War Horse” take top spots

“This research has also given us our first insight into which titles perform well across countries,” Hancock said.

The leading title across all countries in the report was the UK’s National Theatre production of “War Horse” (grossing nearly $6 million in the sample countries), followed by One Direction in concert, “Billy Elliot: The Musical,” and “Monty Python.”

‘There is still much growth to come in this sector from its current level to our forecasted $1 billion by 2019,” Hancock said. “As digitisation of cinemas comes to an end and the VPF financing mechanism system winds down, the true extent of programming flexibility will become apparent.”

The IHS and Rentrak report concluded that event cinema has an integral part to play in re-defining the cinema experience, assisted by new experience-enhancing technologies.