With this release, we are bringing more exciting features into Cinema Intelligence:
Film Database
o Display Age | Week Number | Week start date columns in the performance table
o Display Age <1 for sessions before official Start Date
o Automated Calculation of Cinema Start Date for Historical data
Forecasting
o Generate Forecast taking into consideration Similar Titles Cinema Start Date
o Generate Forecast based on Cinema Start Date
Scheduling
o Last Show Time Post-Schedule Message update
Reporting
o Distributor Report - Addition of Subtotals
o Distributor Report - Sticky Preferences & Improved Formatting
Below you can find more information about each feature. Questions, comments or feedback? Please contact us at support@cinemaintelligence.com.
Film Database
Display Age | Week Number | Week start date columns in the performance table
We always aim to make your data more user friendly, so with this release we have added 3 columns to better display film performance information.
Age - index of week (number of the week in the life cycle of the film)
Week Number - number of the running week in the year (example: week 2 starts on January 4th 2018 if first day of scheduling week is on Thursday)
Week Start Date - date when the running week starts, including year
Note: Same updates are applied to the performance table in the Forecasting module and Excel files generated from a film database or forecasting.
Display Age <1 for sessions before official Start Date
If a film has sessions before the official Start Date on cinema, performance data will be displayed in columns with Age <1.
Example:
Automated Calculation of Cinema Start Date for Historical data
We are introducing the concept of Historical Cinema Start Date, meaning the official Release Date of a film on cinema level for all films played in the past. We have developed an algorithm that will calculate this value automatically, without any manual intervention.
The Cinema Start Date is a valuable piece of information when looking at historical data and can also have a huge impact over forecasting. The main reason behind this implementation is to automatically calculate this date in case it is not available in the ticketing system or in case films had previews before the official Release Date.
How we calculate the Cinema Start Date:
By default, the Start Date on all cinemas is the Film Release Date
If bookings have been added, Start Date is retrieved from the cinema booking. Note: Start Date shouldn't be earlier than the Film Release Date
If sessions are open before the Cinema Start Date, they will be considered previews by default
In case booking information is missing or booking Start Date has been set from the moment the previews start playing, we will automatically calculate the Cinema Start Date based on the number of sessions in previous weeks and a Preview Threshold.
Historical data Start Date calculation will be applied after 2 full running weeks since the film had the first session. Example: if first session of Film X is on October 5th, first day of week on the cinema is Thursday, then process will run the 1st time on October 19th.
Example:
Let’s consider the following potential scenario:
There is no booking information available for the film
Analyzing the historical film data, we calculated the Preview Threshold to be 50%. This means that if the number of sessions in the previous week is lower with 50% than in the current week, the previous week will be considered a preview.
Number of sessions in the first week of playing = 2
Number of sessions in the second week of playing = 2
Number of sessions in the third week of playing = 5
Number of sessions in the fourth week of playing = 6
Results of Historical Start Date calculation:
Age -1 = 2 sessions
Age 0 = 2 sessions
Age 1 = 5 sessions - Start date is the first date of the third week
If you would like to learn more, feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
Forecasting
Generate Forecast taking into consideration Similar Titles Cinema Start Date
When generating a Forecast, you will receive a forecast for all cinemas where the similar title played, even if the similar film has a different start date on each cinema.
Generate Forecast based on Booking Start Date
Starting from this release, you will get a Forecast on cinema level starting on the Start date from Booking. Age calculation and Circuit level Total forecast per running week are also going to take bookings into consideration.
Scenario 1: If a Film Start date per cinemas was changed after the initial generation of a Forecast, when clicking on Get Forecast, the Film Forecast information on cinema should be updated to reflect the final Booking Start Date.
Scenario 2: If a user adds bookings (in Booking module) for a film with different Start Dates per cinema, the Film Forecast information on cinema should reflect the final Booking Start Date.
Note: If the film is not booked on one cinema, the start date will be considered the Release date and the cinema will continue to have a forecast. For a centralized view of only booked cinemas, we recommend using the Forecasting Dashboard under Analytics module.
Booking
Renamed Tiles
When accessing the booking module, you will see that there are 2 tile name changes:
Renamed 'Book New Releases' tile to 'Film Booking'
Renamed 'Film Week Overview' tile to 'Circuit Week Overview'
Film Booking is a more suitable name as bookings are not only pertinent to new releases. Bookings can be created for holdover films, weeks in advance if desired as well.
This change also has to do with an exciting new version of booking that our team has been hard at work on. We plan to provide a new tile titled 'Cinema Booking' which aims to include:
Ability to create bookings with a better overview of bookings across your cinema
Incorporated logic to prevent booking conflicts
Enhanced usability and ease for adding, editing, or deleting bookings
And more!
If you would like to learn more, feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
Scheduling
Last Show Time Post-Schedule Message Update
After generating a schedule, the Last Show Time conflict message will be displayed only if the session starting time is after the set last show time.
Current Message format will be kept as it is: "Film Moana in timeslot [x] was requested to start after the last show time".
Reporting
Distributor Report - Addition of Subtotals
The distributor report will now display subtotals for number of show at the parent film, film version, and distributor level. The subtotal should be the number of shows for each entry within a grid row added together. This change should help to reduce any time spent on manually calculating, and allow you to focus more on what matters.
Distributor Report - Improved Formatting (Cells with zero are now empty)
You should see an improvement in the general formatting of the Distributor Report so that you see more of what matters on your screen. Specifically, all cells which previously contained zeroes are now represented as blank in order to simplify your screen and help you focus on the data that matters.
Distributor Report - Sticky Preferences
Not only have we improved the formatting, but we also implemented measures for your system to remember your preferences.
As you make any changes to the following, your preferences will be 'Sticky', or remembered for the next time you access the report
Sorting
Filtering
Grouping
Column order
Column width