2018 Cinema Census

FLICKS ‘CINEMA CENSUS’ SHINES A LIGHT ON KIWI ATTITUDES TO PIRACY AND BAD BEHAVIOUR AT THE MOVIES

• Talking during a movie voted most annoying behaviour, yet a large number of Kiwis own up to doing it.
• Results show significant shift in New Zealanders attitudes to piracy with the advent of streaming.

Flicks have today released results from their 2018 Cinema Census, a survey which takes the temperature of Kiwi viewing habits and attitudes. The last census was in 2015 and this year’s results look at how New Zealanders are watching content as well as the biggest gripes people have with their fellow movie-goers.

“This year’s Cinema Census has revealed a wealth of fascinating information about Aotearoa’s movie-lovers“, says Flicks Editor Steve Newall. “With three times the participants of our 2015 survey, the 2018 Cinema Census illustrates just how much has changed in movie-watching in the past few years – as well as lifting the lid on how we feel about other people we share cinemas with. I’m looking forward to sharing in-depth results in a series of stories over the coming days.”

Significant drop in illegal piracy

The results saw a key shift in Kiwi behaviour and attitude related to piracy of content via illegal downloading and streaming. A drastic drop has occurred in the percentage of New Zealanders watching illegally ‘most of the time’ – down from 43% of responses in 2015 to just 7.7% today.

And those who think piracy is ‘fine’ make up just 14.9% now, as opposed to 24% in 2015.

‘Talking during a movie’ voted most annoying habit and New Zealanders not afraid to speak up about it

The most annoying behaviour for other cinema-goers was said to be talking (40%). But hilariously, exactly a quarter of people who said this was the most annoying behaviour admitted to doing it themselves in the past year.

Answering a phone call during a film was said to be the next most annoying behaviour (33% of respondents), but thankfully only 0.4% of people who highlighted this as the biggest annoyance owned up to doing it themselves.

Amusingly, half of respondents have glared at an annoying audience member during a film. That's a lot of people who have tried to use the power of their eyes to change someone else's behaviour while basically sitting in the dark.

The proportion of people who’ve been moved to become cinema vigilantes is significant, with 43% having shushed a fellow movie-goer, and 36% having said something to a fellow patron.

Streaming services, particularly Netflix, are massive but allure of the cinema remains strong

Results reiterate that streaming services are drastically changing the way New Zealanders are viewing content. Regular viewing (defined throughout the census as at least once per month) of online content has risen from 51% of people to 84.5% - and 40% of people subscribe to at least 2 streaming services. A massive 81% of respondents subscribe to Netflix.

While high rates of online viewing happen across all age demographics, unsurprisingly its biggest consumers are young people - 94% of those 25 and under watch online regularly.

Despite a huge rise in streaming services, cinema attendance hasn’t suffered, in fact the percentage of census respondents who regularly go to the cinema has actually increased - up from 62% to 68%.

A deeper analysis of the results from this year’s Cinema Census will be rolled out on Flicks.co.nz over the coming week.

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