Summer Blockbusters and Strategic Marketing in 2024

Key Takeaways:

• According to IMDbPro, box office sales in 2024 have started slowly, with domestic gross sales down 24% YoY as of May. This decline is also evident in mobile app downloads for the movie tickets cohort, which has exhibited double-digit YoY declines each month during the first seven months of 2024 per ST data

  • Despite the overall downturn, the summer release of major blockbuster movies like Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and Deadpool & Wolverine reignited the box office. Movie ticket app downloads surged by 117% MoM in Jun’24 and continued to rise by an additional 11% MoM in July

• Sensor Tower’s Audience Insights data shows that moviegoers are 313% more likely to be sports fans than the general population of smartphone users, allowing studios to effectively target this audience by airing trailers during major sports events. Leveraging this insight, 11 of the top 20 highest-grossing films of the summer strategically increased their digital ad spending in the week before, during, and after the Super Bowl. Collectively, these movies boosted their early awareness campaign investments by 7700% compared to the previous three weeks

• Disney strategically used the popularity of Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine to enhance Disney+ performance by promoting earlier films in the franchises through social ads. This approach could have played a key role in achieving a 3% MoM increase in downloads and MAUs in Jul’24, while competitors Hulu, HBO Max, Netflix, and Paramount+ saw MoM declines in both metrics

For more information, request the full report from reports@sensortower.com.