MUMBAI: WeatherBill, the world’s only online service that allows businesses to protect revenue and control costs from the impact of bad weather, announced the release of a new study analyzing the impact of weather on film box office revenue. The study found that top ten box office films earn significantly less — up to a third lower — on warmer weekends than on average or dry ones.
WeatherBill, founder and CEO, David Friedberg stated, “Historically, the concept of weather motivating or deterring filmgoers was based on speculation and anecdote. It’s remarkable that such a weather-sensitive industry hasn’t had a publicly available fact-based weather study. We believe it’s important for the film industry to understand the impact of weather on revenue as a first step in managing weather risk and protecting profits.”
The company analyzed nearly ten years of United Kingdom box office data to identify the effect of weather on revenue from each weekend’s ten top-grossing films. Both temperature and precipitation can negatively impact box office revenue. While the top grossing film brings in about 9 percent less on a warm or dry weekend, films grossing in the 8th-10th spots bring in over 309 percent less on a warm weekend. Time of year also played a role in how temperature and precipitation affected revenue. Summer months turned out to be particularly susceptible to the impact of weather.
2007 was the wettest summer in the UK since records began in 1914, and August was the coldest in more than a decade. Film industry experts speculate that audiences were motivated to seek indoor entertainment because of the summer’s record-setting inclement weather resulting in record admissions of 50.8 million viewers, a 40-year high, according to box office figures. This study confirms that speculation, and although United Kingdom climate is infamous for cold and wet weather, dry and warm weekends occur with enough frequency to significantly impact revenue. The identifiable and measurable impact demonstrated in the study can be translated to US box office regions with relatively uniform weather.
“Clearly, warm and dry weather negatively impacts box office revenue, and with enough frequency and severity to warrant a new approach to managing that weather risk. WeatherBill is designed to be easy and affordable for all kinds of businesses, including film studios, production houses, vendors, and theater owners. WeatherBill is readily available to help these businesses manage weather risk with a simple, customizable, and affordable solution,” added Friedberg.
Founded by CEO David Friedberg and CTO Siraj Khaliq, former members of the Google team, WeatherBill is funded by New Enterprise Associates, Index Ventures, and Allen and Company and is backed by Nephila Capital, one of the world’s largest weather risk and catastrophe reinsurance fund managers.
