Boxoffice on Big Data: comScore

Interview with Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst, comScore

How does the comScore and Rentrak merger complement your offerings to the cinema industry? 

By combining comScore’s unparalleled digital platform measurement with Rentrak’s industry-leading worldwide theatrical box office data, we effectively tie together all aspects of how audiences consume filmed entertainment and how they search for content on virtually every device everywhere in the world. As we say, “comScore is precisely everywhere.”

 

Do you believe audience measurement has fully reached its potential? Or are there still a lot of untapped benefits for the cinema industry

comScore analytics have the potential to tie together audience theatrical moviegoing habits with their consumption of digital content on their mobile devices and in their homes to form a complete picture of how, when, and where they are seeking entertainment. There are enormous untapped benefits for the industry that can come from the harnessing of this exclusive comScore information to create more effectively targeted marketing campaigns and enact proactive rather than reactive advertising strategies. And it gives content providers the ability to actually connect with audiences that are seeking out the theatrical moviegoing experience.

 

Can you tell us more about Swift and how can it can help exhibitors manage their businesses? Is there any feedback from clients that you can share with us?

Swift is a product that provides efficiencies within the film exhibition/distribution ecosystem by allowing theaters to report their official box office figures to distributors in a one-stop shop. Swift is a tool that will gather pertinent transactional details from exhibitors and then provide collated data to each distributor of record for their own films. The result will be a reduction in manual entry when exhibitors create their reports and when distributors receive the reports as well as a streamlined and consistent methodology for all participants. Studios are thrilled with the idea of eliminating data entry chores while loading more granular data than they are currently able to. Exhibitors have been instrumental during our development process, and we’ve been able to accommodate their need for a consistent approach to box office reporting, easy delivery of these reports, and having Swift act as an electronic file cabinet for historical records.

 

What can we expect from your company in the coming year—any new products or services we can look forward to? 

In addition to the Swift launch, we are excited about our upcoming analytic tool called Forecast. Designed by the data-science team at Gower Street Analytics and using robust data sets provided by comScore, Forecast will allow distributors to “forecast” the potential box office performance of all films in individual markets on a week-by-week basis up to a year into the future. Using multilayered machine-learning algorithms and advanced analytics, we’ve produced a product that allows studios to find the best possible release data for each title within their slate for each of the major markets globally. 2016 will see the launch of this product for North America, the U.K., Mexico, and Australia.