Art House Fans Also Like Mainstream Movies, Study Says

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Tue, 05/31/2016 - 12:54 -- Nick Dager

One million Australians 14 and older see art house or foreign language movies at the cinema—but they still go to mainstream movies too, Roy Morgan Research cinema attendance data shows. More than half (58 percent) of art house-foreign film-goers saw just one such film in an average three month period last year, while 30 percent saw two or three, and the remaining twelve percent saw four or more. Overall, at an average of two such films each per quarter, it adds up to a total of eight art house/foreign films over the year. 

Art house fans also see mainstream films, study says.But it’s not like these cineastes don’t enjoy the occasional popcorn entertainment too: art house movie audiences also saw an average of 14 films at cinemas in 2015 (3.5 per quarter on average)—which therefore includes six mainstream movies. Meanwhile the other 8.4 million cinemagoers (those who don’t see any art house or foreign language movies in a three-month period) only averaged nine movies each over the course of the year.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research, said, “Just under half of Australians go to the cinema at all in an average three month period—but only around 1 in 10 cinema-goers include any arthouse or foreign-language movies in the mix.Arthouse film buffs are a premium market for certain advertisers, not just because of their higher incomes, greater discretionary expenditure and increased retail visitation habits, but because their atypical taste in entertainment makes many of them, by definition, more difficult to reach via mainstream media, especially commercial TV and radio.”