• by Doug Chavez , Columnist, January 8, 2015

Did you notice that there have been shorter lines and less-crowded theaters in the last year? If so, you noticed a trend that has continually grown for 20 years. Reports show that the number of moviegoers in the United States slipped to an all time low 2014. While the National Association of Theater Owners is still finalizing 2014 numbers, early estimates show attendance is down 6% from the previous year. 

There are several factors for the continued decline at movie theaters, such as weak summer blockbusters, the rise of streaming services and continued improvements of in-home theater. As CES kicked off this week in Las Vegas, several of the factors impacting the continued downward spiral at the box office can be seen at the annual event, such as myriad new devices being debuted and a raft of new and expanded entertainment alliance announcements. 

Fandango, the longtime stalwart movie-ticketing site, announced a partnership with Hulu, the video streaming service. Fandango has been developing movie-review shows as part of its value-added customer experience to encourage ticket purchases. One of its shows, “Frontrunners,” is an award winner that provides in-depth reviews of current box office films and, of course, makes it easy to purchase a ticket at one’s favorite or closest theater. “Frontrunners” is one of the reasons I have started visiting Fandango a lot more.

This content and distribution deal is a pretty good quid pro quo for the two partners And this partnership continues Fandango’s strategy to create content that can be played on any device (e.g., smartphones, tablets, connected TVs). As Mark Young, Fandango’s vice president of business development, noted, “Our goal is to be wherever there is conversation about movies, with partners that have scale and the right context.” This partnership also highlights smart vertical and cross-platform integration by NBCUniversal, the parent company of both Hulu and Fandango. 

On the hardware and software side of things at CES, Google announced more hardware partners that will be embedding their Android TV operating system. New partners include Sony, Sharp, and Philips, just to name a few. As I pointed out in my last post, nearly half of TVs in the U.S. are “connected,” the war for living rooms is on full steam and the battles of this long campaign are in their early stages. Android TV doesn’t need to be the best service; Google just needs to be the most prolific with its OS embedding, and it sure seems like they continue to make strong headway on that front. 

Finally, more and more high-resolution TVs are also being debuted this week. While these super high-def TVs won’t have as immediate an impact on box office sales as the software, hardware entertainment alliances, especially since these devices are out of the price range for average consumers, the devices will continue to give consumers pause and more reason to invest in home theaters where there aren’t any noisy popcorn chewing or other loud moviegoers sitting next to them. 

The three areas outlined above and the battle to own your living room (or any room for that matter) entertainment experience are certainly contributing factors to the continued slump in box office ticket sales. As I have mentioned many times before, marketers (not just entertainment marketers) need to understand the shifting landscape and be continually exploring ways to connect with consumers. This is just another reason CES has become a marketing, media and advertising mainstay event to attend. Lastly, if you’re in the business of selling ads cinema ads, it’s really time to start thinking about evolving your current business model.