According to the study, Twitter users said they planned to see an average of five movies this summer. Members of the social media network are also 340% more likely than non-users to have seen more than 12 movies in theaters over the last six months.
The recent study polled 1,000 U.S. moviegoers aged 13-54, and defined a “moviegoer” as someone who had seen at least one film in the past six months.
Anyone who has logged on to Twitter in the last few years knows that the platform has increasingly become a venue to discuss television and movies, with users actively weighing in on shows as they air. According to a 2014 Nielsen study, over half of movie-going Twitter users polled share their thoughts on a film on Twitter after they leave the theater.
The newest results show that 39% of the 1,000 users polled said they have tweeted about a movie, while 32% had retweeted a movie-related tweet. Just over a quarter of those questioned had replied to a movie-related tweet - the sort of engagement studios salivate for.
“Their frequent interactions on the platform mean they’re also key influencers,” Jennifer Prince, Twitter’s industry director for entertainment, told Variety.
According to a 2014 Nielsen study, 87% of Twitter users said their most recent decision to see a film in the theater was influenced by tweets. This year's survey suggests 63% of those polled heard about movies through social media, while 60% were aware of upcoming sequels, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.
Twitter has 288 million monthly active users who send 500 million tweets per day. According to 2015 figures from Pew Research, only 23% of online adults use Twitter but some 36% of Twitter users visit the site daily. Twitter is particularly popular among those under 50, with 37% of its users aged 18-29 and 25% aged 30-49.
Twitter's adult user base happens to be the demographic that goes to movies most. Those aged between 25 and 44 went to more movies than any age group, averaging 8.1 cinema visits in 2014 according to Nielsen.
Nielsen and Twitter's research seems to suggest the platform is an important marketing tool for studios, but Twitter's goal of convincing Hollywood of its enduring appeal is a potentially lucrative one for the company. Studios spend upwards of $50 million marketing a film, with global costs occasionally soaring to $200 million for blockbusters.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, studios rarely spends more than $10 million on digital marketing. If Twitter could eat up more of that budget, it could add on sizeably to the $1.403 billion revenue the publicly-traded social media company recorded in 2014.
For now, Twitter users can expect more Twitter accounts for individual movies, and perhaps a few more studio-sponsored tweets coming your way.
