Hot on the heels of last week's Magic Mike XXL Sydney premiere, of which up to 5,000 wide-eyed fans piled into the Qantas Credit Union Arena - making it the biggest movie premiere in the Southern Hemisphere, it seems the big flick momentum continued into the weekend as the movie slid into the top three rankings.
In the Australian box office rankings between July 9-12, the ab-filled bump and grind session, starring Channing Tatum, took more than $4 million (see below for the top 10).
It's not only here that temperatures are rising as after two weeks in the cinema, the US Box Office has Magic Mike XXL having so far amassed nearly $50 million (USD).
Managing director at Val Morgan, Daniel Hill, said 2015 is proving to be “watershed year for cinema advertising.
He said the Australian box office stats year to date is running at an all-time high, up 17% year on year, and importantly for advertisers, attendances are up 11% - with growth across all demographics.
Standard Media Index also shows cinema to be the fastest growing media channel year to date.
“Against this context we are seeing a real shift in the way brands are using cinema,” Hill said.
“Whilst movies like Magic Mike XXL, 50 Shades of Grey, Jurassic World and Fast and Furious 7 – do attract brands to the medium – there has been a marked transition this year towards brands using cinema to deliver scale and audience, with less reliance on individual titles.
“Cinema is delivering scale to brands in the truest sense of the word and also in campaign reach, with more brands embracing a roadblock buying strategy – it’s proving an effective way for advertisers to help counter the increasing fragmentation in other media channels.”
He said to put this in context, looking at the top TV event programming of the year to date – a movie like the Avengers: Age of Ultron reached as many 25-54’s during its cinema run as watched The Block Triple Threat: Winner Announcement. “So cinema can effectively bolster reach delivery of a/v campaigns like never before,” he said.
Hill added that the outlook for the remainder of the year looks “exceptionally strong”given three of the year’s potentially biggest titles are still ahead – with the final instalment of The Hunger Games, Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, hitting the big screen later this year.
At last week's premiere, in which Hoyts were the exhibitor partner and built the huge cinema screen, movie-goers were also treated to a live Q&A with the stars themselves. Check out some of the footage here.
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