December brings a compelling group of useful updates to Cinema Intelligence.
General
Default Cinema Drop % Calculation Service
Automation of Film Rental Data Import from Vista ticketing system
Performance enhancements
Forecasting
Similar Films Insights Service
Booking
Ability to define booking with 'no auditorium'
Coming Soon - New Version of Booking Module
Scheduling
Ability to optimize schedule for bookings with 'no auditorium'
Below you can find more information about each feature. Questions, comments or feedback? Please contact us at support@cinemaintelligence.com.
General
Default Cinema Drop % Calculation Service
The Drop % (Percentage) represents the percentage decrease / increase in number of admits from the previous play week to the current scheduling play week.
Today we are happy to announce that Cinema Intelligence will recommend what should be the value of the Default Drop % per cinema and movie type. This new service is a result of our commitment to incorporate a strong analytical approach in the product offering and optimize booking and scheduling results.
Previously, users had to know the default values and use historical knowledge and personal expertise to set up Drop % calculation within the product. When Cinema Intelligence is initially set-up, the default value for normal and children movies is set to -30%.
Alternatively, Cinema Intelligence now brings a new statistical based methodology to recommend the Default Cinema Drop %, proven to increase admits forecasting for holdovers.
As a Scheduling user, you will be empowered to use the best possible drop % when creating the upcoming week’s schedule.
For example, consider a scenario with 10 cinemas. We will curate the existing historical data, identify and separate movie types, eliminate outliers, and then calculate values. The deliverable will contain the following:
Circuit Multiplex
Name | Drop % | Drop % Children Movies (Animation, Family) |
Cinema 1 | 63% | 51% |
Cinema 2 | 57% | 56% |
Cinema 3 | 55% | 46% |
Cinema 4 | 42% | 38% |
Cinema 5 | 51% | 48% |
Cinema 6 | 36% | 33% |
Cinema 7 | 51% | 47% |
Cinema 8 | 54% | 48% |
Cinema 9 | 60% | 57% |
Cinema 10 | 56% | 47% |
You can continue using the current Default Cinema Drop % for your circuit. The default value for drop percentage can now be set differently for normal and children films. This setting is per cinema, under Scheduling -> Constraints -> Cinema Settings tab.
Next steps:
Default Cinema Drop % calculation for your circuit is available starting today. For more information contact your Customer Success Manager.
Stay tuned for more exciting news regarding how Forecasting will allow a personalized Weekly Film Drop % for each of the cinemas in your circuit.
Import of Film Rental Data
Historically, Cinema Intelligence has focused on automatically retrieving 'Admits' and 'Box Office Revenue' data. This update marks a big milestone toward Cinema Intelligence being able to automatically manage 'Profit' related information. Our goal is to facilitate analysis and decision making based on how much profit the cinema will earn per film based on film rental agreements.
Our team has confirmed the automation of Film Rental data Import from Vista ticketing system, which removes the need for any manual data input.
Stay tuned for updates in this space in future releases!
Performance Enhancements
This update is about enhancing the speed and usability of your system. Our team put heavy focus into testing the time required for various user clicks and actions to be responsive, and implemented solutions to increase the speed of the system.
We anticipate our users to see an increase in total performance of the application, particularly within the scheduling module.
Forecasting
Similar Films Insights Service
Each new week comes with new releases, either a new animation, the next Star Wars or another superhero movie.
Cinema Intelligence is here to provide insights into new releases and enhance the Forecasting process. With the help of our Film Community Consultants we can provide suggested similar titles to save research time and empower you with a good forecasting input.
By default, every month we will be looking at the US Release schedule for 3 months later and suggest a list of titles for similar movies. We aim to cover major releases on a global scale, major studios productions and movies from main distributors, as well as trend setting movies such as award nominees.
As an example, in December 2017, we will provide insights regarding the movies planned for release in March 2018.
The insights will be displayed under Forecasting and Film Database -> Industry Expert Reviews section.
When accessing the page for the first time, this section will be collapsed. By clicking on the title, the section will be expanded.
Next steps:
The Similar Films Insights are available starting today as a fee-based service. To enable the feature and for more information contact your Customer Success Manager.
If you are interested to hear about another film that is going to be released during the analyzed month (e.g., local movies, other independent production), we will invest in providing the pertinent similar films suggestion. Just reach out and let us know.
Booking
Ability to Define Booking with 'No Auditorium'
Until now, bookings required that users specified a 'minimum auditorium' or 'exact auditorium' instruction. With the latest update, we have implemented logic for the user to specify no instruction for the auditorium. The exciting part is that when this option is chosen, the decision for the best possible auditorium can now be generated by the scheduling optimization engine -- which you can read about in the feature to follow :)
Coming Soon - New Version of Booking Module
Although it is not yet available in the latest release, much of the team effort in the recent period has been devoted to an improved version of the current Cinema Intelligence Booking Module. Some of the goals of this system 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
Schedule Optimization for Bookings with 'No Auditorium' Input
We are very excited for the release of this feature! For the first time ever, our scheduling engine is able to intelligently handle booking input. Previously, the scheduling engine would read booking input, and translate the exact output in the schedule.
Example booking input: "Star Wars - All Days of Week - M1, M2, M3, M4 - Auditorium with minimum 0 seats"
Previously, the scheduler would assume that based on this input, it was okay to put Star Wars in your smallest room, because it would meet the requirement of "Minimum 0 seats"
Now with the same input, the scheduling engine will look at the expected performance of Star Wars and place it in the best possible room based on that forecast.
This feature is currently working properly for holdover films. Up next, we are working on implementing the same logic for new releases!
Option to Exclude Advanced Ticket Sales in Calculations
The scheduling film list on the right hand side of the main schedule page includes films alongside expected performance values. Until now, these values included advanced ticket sales to calculate expected admissions. We are now able to offer our users the option to exclude these values from calculations. This can be very helpful for data consistency across various reports, depending on the way in which your cinema operates.
Coming soon in this space - we will extend the capability to exclude advanced ticket sales for profit based calculations.
If you would like to enable this feature, or have any specific questions about breakdown of these calculations, feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager or directly to our support team.