As we put this directory for the pop-up cinema industry together we did some research and dove deep into markets around the world. Through our discovery process, we came across some interesting and encouraging stats and resources for those exploring this business.

THE GLOBAL MARKET

The Pop-Up Cinema Market was valued at USD 824.72 Million in 2018 and is forecasted to reach USD 1972.29 Million by 2025 with a CAGR of 19.05% during the forecast period 2019-2025 High preference for pop up cinemas as a leisure activity in developed countries is driving the growth of the Pop-Up Cinema Market. Brand Essence

AN INTRODUCTION TO POP-UP CINEMAS – UK

There is a very comprehensive post on tutor2u.net about the UK market, so rather than reinventing the wheel, we thought we would just share it with you.

Here is their full post entitled: Pop-Up Cinemas in the UK – Market Insights

When all is said and done, this industry appears to be both healthy and lucrative!

May 4th is International Firefighters Day. And let’s be clear we all appreciate and are grateful for firefighters and we wouldn’t want any BACKDRAFT about this. Shout out to all the firefighters! But we would be remiss not to say “May the 4th be with you!” I think you know what we are getting at…

Let’s have a look at the Days in May we can celebrate together around the world, which has inspired our movie mix for this month.

• 1 May – May Day (Lei Day in Hawaii)
• 2 May – Press Freedom Day
• 2 May – World Tuna Day
• 3 May – World Laughter Day
• 4 May – Star Wars Day
• 4 May – International Firefighters Day
• 7 May – World Athletics Day
• 8 May – World Red Cross Day
• 12 May – International Nurses Day
• 15 May – International Day of Families
• 17 May – World Telecommunications Day
• 18 May – International Museum Day
• 22 May – International Day for Biological Diversity

Here are some of our movie suggestions for your outdoor cinema events in May.

Star Wars:

Pop-up cinema owners, tag @allpopupcinemas in your social media posts if you are ever screening Star Wars so we can highlight them! Here’s some of the most popular hashtags to add #StarWars #StarWarsDay #MayThe4thBeWithYou #MayTheForceBeWithYou #StarWarsCosplay #Cosplay #StarWarsDriveIn #StarWarsMovies #StarWarsFan #StarWarsNerd #StarWarsMemes. Also see our Instagram our Facebook our Twitter

All Star Wars Films (1977-2015)

Animation: 

The Incredibles (2004) PG | Action, Adventure

Coco (2017) PG | Adventure, Family

Shrek (2001) PG | Adventure, Comedy

Zootopia (2016) PG | Adventure, Comedy

Ratatouille (2007)  PG | Adventure, Comedy

Comedy:

Blue Hawaii (1961) PG | Musical

The Goonies (1985) PG | Adventure, Family

Home Alone (1990) PG | Family

Freaky Friday (2003) PG | Family, Fantasy

The Great Muppet Caper (1981) G | Adventure, Crime

The Parent Trap (1998) PG | Adventure 

School of Rock (2003) PG-13 | Music 

Doctor Strangelove (1964) PG 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) PG | Adventure, Fantasy

The Hangover (2009) R 

Airplane (1980) PG 

Groundhog Day (1993) PG | Fantasy, Romance

Fifty First Dates (2004) PG-13 | Romance

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) R | Romance

Drama: 

Goldfinger (1964) PG | Action, Adventure, Thriller

State Of Play (2009) PG-13 | Crime, History

Pearl Harbour (2001) PG-13 | Action, History

The English Patient (1996) R | Romance, War

Biographical:

Chariots of Fire (1981) PG | Drama, Sport

Hotel Rwanda (2004) PG-13 | Drama, History

Radioactive (2019) PG-13 | Drama, Romance

All The President’s Men (1976) PG | Drama

Header image source: Deviantart 

Send a child where he wants to go and you will see his best pace

African Proverb

The pop-up cinema movement unlocks endless opportunities for edutainment and is an effective way to communicate with a large audience.

Africa holds a very special place in our hearts. The original Pop-Up Cinema business started hosting pop-up cinema events across South Africa. We soon discovered the power of “film” in bringing people together, educating, entertaining and inspiring. We also realized there was a lack of access to traditional cinemas in so many communities and that’s where the vision to “take film out of the theatre and bring it to the people” was born.

Not only do pop-up cinemas benefit audiences, but they create job opportunities and expand the reach of adjacent small businesses (food vendors, etc.). It’s a win-win right?

Well, while this presented exciting opportunities with endless possibilities, the cost of importing screens and equipment was a significant barrier for these entrepreneurs, so our parent company, Mobile Cinema Management, started manufacturing and selling pop-up cinema screens across Africa. Their mobile cinema package makes it easy to ‘pop-up’ a cinema anywhere. Read about some of these projects.

Our focus is on enabling and encouraging entrepreneurs in Africa to start their own cinema business. And so we are creating an avenue for patrons and partners to bring forward our vision, this is where you come in.

• Are you interested in supporting an entrepreneur or project get off the ground?
• Are you an entrepreneur looking for support for your project?

If you answered yes to either of the questions above and are interested in following the movement please fill out the form below and we will keep you informed and get you involved!

Let’s get familiar, read our Who Is Pop-Up Cinema blog post to get to know us a little better. It’s like a handshake with words, not germs.

You’re asking what now..? We have all been there. We can’t read your mind but we are pretty sure you want to make more money. Maybe you want to start a new business, increase ticket sales, maximize Free advertising or Increase traffic. Since we can’t read your mind exactly, and you can’t read ours, we are going to point out a few things to you about us and what you can do. Turn that what now into right now!

Who we are!

Pop-Up Cinema began as a company that just sold screens and have been busy sourcing and supplying all the supporting technology to successfully screen movies anywhere. And we mean pretty much anywhere, from your backyard to the side of a mountain to the posh poolside of an exclusive hotel. In the background, we have also helped to create a groundswell of good faith projects to bring movies to underserved areas that don’t have classic Drive-in or picnic-style outdoor screenings.  The foundation is being built as we speak – read our Focus On Africa post where you can opt to get involved.

Filmgoers, find a drive-in or outdoor cinema!

When you’re friend turns to you on your night off and asks, “What now?” Search our map based interactive search engine to find a venue near you to watch a movie!  You can also find a cinema set up to rent for your next event.

Sign-up for our Newsletter!

You can receive our monthly newsletter called ‘What’s Poppin’ which will strictly focus on and help grow this unique industry. It brings you exclusive news, reviews, new listings and helpful tips for everything #popupcinema

Entrepreneurs, Buy A Screen!

If you are interested in running a pop-up cinema we have insights in the business section of our blog. You can also go directly to our Own Your Own page.

Business Owners, Need Some Help?

So you’re thinking of buying a screen or you already got yourself a screen and you have read through the FAQ’s and you still have questions (I know I can’t believe we didn’t cover your concern either!) you can always contact us for a consultation. We can help you expand and optimize your Pop-Up Cinema business.

Add your Business to our Listing Directory!

If you are a festival runner or Pop-Up cinema screen owner you have got to be listed. With all the increased traffic you’re going to be dealing with, you may have to hire car guards and install a few robotstraffic lights.

• First search for your company in our Listing Directory. It’s just like googling yourself, a bit of fun hey?
• You found your free listing! Great…now what? Claim it! Just click the button. You could leave it like it is with a minimal amount of information, but just like youth, it will be gone one day. So your best bet is to claim your listing and update the information.  Now you can respond to reviews.
• Not listed? Now you got FOMO don’t ya? No worries, just click “Add a Listing‘ and you will be taken to a form to fill in. You can actually preview it before you commit because we know commitment can be scary.

Upgrade your Package!

Make a splash and stand out by increasing your visibility with one of our various packages. Add images and increase the length of your business description, add your socials and web links to really let the people know what you’re about and how to find you.

Important Note from our SEO Expert: Properly naming your image file, the use of Alt Text fields on images to describe them, Closed Captioning on videos and Tags all help your SEO (That’s Search Engine Optimization). Not only is it the right think to do in terms of accessibility but Google may reward you with better ranking!

Our packages range from Basic to specialized Festival Events. The Red Carpet package is the VIP treatment without the painful high heels and outlandish tuxedo rentals.

Business Support Services Get Booked!

If you are an adjacent business owner who supplies support services like a food truck, AV company, entertainer, ticket sales platform, etc. – ask us about advertising opportunities.

Social Media

Now that you’re set up with your listing be sure to like/share/repost your listing when you see it on our social media channels! Hashtags cost nothing and allow you to be as creative and audience-focused as you want. Follow us, use our hashtags (#popupcinema), tag us in your pics, mention us in your posts, and create your own unique identifying hashtags to make it easy for your audience to find out what you are doing and where. Encourage your audience to “share” their experience at your event with the world and tag you. You can also encourage them to go back to your listing on pop-upcinema.com and rate your event and write a review.

Don’t have social media yet? No problem, it’s real easy to set up those accounts. If you need a primer – check out our Social Media 101 blog and we will walk you through some tips and ideas of what to do and how to build a following. You can also browse through our ever-growing Blog to find other helpful information.

You won’t find a more powerful way to accomplish your goals than by getting people talking about your event and recommending your open-air cinema to their peers.

Word of Mouth is essentially free advertising triggered by customer experiences and plays a huge role in increasing your ‘brands’ trust and reputation. Everything about your event is a matter of discussion for others (aka potential attendees, leads, clients, or even haters especially if they’re your competition!).

Positive word of mouth keeps customers coming back… referring other customers… who also keep coming back.. and referring more customers…and so on… 

Don’t believe us? Check out these stats from Qualtrics that prove that Word of Mouth Advertising is your number one marketing tool

• Nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media when researching products or services in their local area
• 91% of 18-34 year olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 93% of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions
• And the best news is that 77% of consumers would be willing to leave a review if asked

EXTRA MAGIC

As the saying goes “You’re only as good as your last show” so sprinkle a little extra magic at every event. So how do you do that? Actually, there’s a lot you can do before you even begin the movie! Go to our “Pre-show Ideas” blog post in the What To Show category for some ideas to get the creative juices flowing. Look out for more brilliant ideas and innovative ways our pop-up cinema community is entertaining their audiences on our Blog. 

REVIEWS

Two other great ways to spread word of mouth is on social media and through your listing on pop-upcinema.com. Check out our blog post on Social Media 101 if your business doesn’t have a presence on social media. Ask your audience to rate and review your events! This not only spreads the word but also builds consumer confidence in what your company offers. We’ve even provided some guidelines for dealing with not-so-nice reviews.

Positive word of mouth advertising is guaranteed to grow your audience, increase ticket sales and drive the longevity and success of your pop-up cinema business.

The 3 E’s to become the most beloved and talked about pop-up cinema in your area:  

ENGAGE, ENTERTAIN, EVOLVE

If you stumbled across this post it’s probably because you are a hot nonstop entrepreneur googling “the next great business venture” – if this is true then you should probably pop on over to the Own Your Own page to buy a screen, think of a name, get a package and create a listing. Then come back here to get help on how to set up your social media. BOOM you are now in business!

Otherwise, we expect you are here because you have just signed up for a package and set up your Listing on Pop-Up Cinema. So now it’s time to reach out to a larger audience and the best way to do that is to have a presence on social media. This will also allow you to take full advantage of the social media shout out we’ll give you!

FORGOT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PASSWORD?

Let’s get this out of the way first – Forgot Your Password – you created an account ages ago and can’t for the life of you remember the password. Don’t worry we had to do it too. Hopefully, you know the email address associated with the account – if not you may have to make a few attempts at discovering which one you used. You can still recover your account but you will need to access the email address you used to get the account. If all else fails just start fresh!

CHOOSING YOUR HANDLE (aka Username, profile name or account name)

Your handle is the @yourbusinessname that you create on all the platforms that makes up this new world of “free” advertising and reach, called social media. Even if you aren’t going to use one particular platform or another you want to secure that handle on all the platforms where possible. Start brainstorming the perfect name!

STEP 1: PICK YOUR PLATFORMS

There are so many platforms these days: some that are regional, some that are politically specific, it’s a good idea to do a little research to figure out which ones are going to have the biggest impact on your company’s brand, marketing, and presence.

STEP 2: SEARCH YOUR @HANDLE

Search for the @handle you want to use across all the platforms you decide on [yes, at the same time – multiple browser tabs are cool]. Is it available on them all? Great – sign up immediately to secure those accounts! Go ahead, we’ll wait.

If your preferred @handle it’s not available, you’re going to have to choose a new favorite that is available, or get clever. You can make slight adjustments Like we said it’s ideal to have the same @handle across all social media or at least really similar to each other to make cross-posting easier and also to make you discoverable to your customers. We would suggest starting with Instagram and Twitter (Facebook is a separate beast). If you can’t, not to worry, you will still be able to be found by your “Name” as well. So keep this in mind when creating your accounts for your business.

STEP 3: CREATE THE ACCOUNTS

So all you really need to set up the accounts is an email address. We strongly recommend you use a business email address, but not the one you use for your general correspondence. Why do we say that? Well, hackers are a real and present threat, so if your social media accounts should ever get hacked, at least they won’t have access to your main business email as well. Smart right?! Try using email accounts like social@yourcompanyname.com or you could set up a whole new address like yourbusinessnamesocialmedia@gmail.com.

After you’ve set up the accounts you’ll want to complete your profile by adding a profile image, a description/bio and a way for people to reach you. This is simple. Basically, two sentences are all you can use on the most limited bio (each platform has specific limitations on the character count of bio’s so be sure you are aware and tweak yours accordingly). When drafting your bio, just answer these two questions: Who are you? What do you do? There are other “fields” on your profile set up for location and link (for your website).

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

YOUR FIRST POST: Regardless of which platform or all of them at once, this is the creative part! Don’t get daunted or too caught up in it being perfect. Just like blogging, you want to think about “the voice” of your business and “the look.” You can just post willy nilly and it will be fine but if you put a little thought into it first you can really make it a marketing tool.

WORDS: Each platform is slightly different – in terms of their rules – this mostly has to do with the number of words or rather more specifically the number of characters (like letter count) that can go into a post.

IMAGES: not so much size but the shape is important. Instagram uses a square cropped shape so start there. Also, you can TAG people and our social media account in your pictures to reach a larger audience. All the platforms have filters and ways to add text to your posts to grab attention.

VIDEOS: Oh boy, videos are huge on social media. And there are lots of different things you can do:

• Reels/Fleets (15 seconds or 30 seconds and less, Instagram/Twiter).
• Stories (Instagram and FB).
• Regular Video Posts (Up to a minute on Instagram, the only platform that categorizes by the length of time).
• IGTV (long format more than a minute, Instagram).
• LIVE streaming function.

HASHTAGS AND TAGGING: Hashtags (#) cost nothing and allow you to be as creative and audience-focused as you want. Now that you’re set up with your listing and your social media become part of our community by utilizing the hashtags we use and tagging (@) our social media accounts in your posts and pictures.

Be sure to Like/Share/Retweet/Repost your listing when you see it on our social media channels!

REPOSTING, RETWEETING, SHARING…

it’s basically digital recycling. If you have read our other blogs about joining the listings you have read this term already. We will do our best to make our post about your company as focused as we can and so when you share it on your page you will get all that lovely traction. Like having chewy tires on your 4×4. Check out the apps in your fav app store called “REPOST” for Instagram.

You may or may not know this but Facebook owns, itself obviously, but it also owns Instagram and Whatsapp (I know, this bummed me out too when I found out). The upside to the same company owning FB and Insta is they are connectable, especially if you have business accounts. But be careful which FB page you link to your Instagram. On Facebook, there are different “pages” you can have e.g.: Personal and Business. You want to make sure when you are connecting your Insta page to FB you connect the right one. Some people (like personality/celebrity types) will decide to use their personal FB page for their ‘biz’, we don’t recommend this for two reasons:

1. You don’t want your Aunt posting pics of you in the bathtub when you were a kid on your biz page nor do you want personal comments up there.
2. Personal pages are limited to a number of “friends” so you will eventually hit a wall if your business is a success.

You can lock down or provide as little info as you want on your personal page but you will want a robust page for your business page with lots of info for customers. The best way for everyone but especially yourself to keep them separate is to use images in your profile that are specific: for your personal page – yourself or your kid whatever but for your business: Your Logo, Your storefront, something that will prevent your Auntie thinking it’s your personal page.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Hope this gets you off on the right (correct) track and helps you get started. Keep in mind the social media sites constantly update the way you can provide your media to your audience so it’s a good idea to use your social media regularly.

And just to recap: Put the Link from your Pop-Up Cinema Listing in your social media bio, follow us, use our hashtags (#popupcinema), tag us in your pics, mention us in your posts and create your own unique identifying hashtags to make it easy for your audience to find out what you are doing and where.

Feel free to browse the blog posts for ideas on what to post and when – the What to Show section is almost like a monthly “what’s happening” calendar. Get your questions answered in our FAQ’s section.

FEELING OVERWHELMED?

Our blog posts address many areas of running a pop-up cinema business and it can get overwhelming, so we have also designated areas of the blog for the 3 stages of a business owner’s journey to make it a bit easier to see targeted relevant info in one spot, they are:

1. Starting Out
2. Growing Your Business
3. Established Business Owners

In addition to categories, if you are looking for information on a specific topic – use the keywords on the side panel to go directly to a curation of those topics.

So you got a “not so nice” review?

LET’S RECAP ON WHY REVIEWS MATTER FIRST

• Nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media when researching products or services in their local area
• 91% of 18-34 year olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 93% of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions
• And the best news is that 77% of consumers would be willing to leave a review if asked

BENEFITS OF REVIEWS ON THE WEBSITE

We all ask our friends and family for their input when making a decision about everything. Well, with the internet that network gets even larger. When people see an online review it gives your business “social proof”, it instantly adds more credibility for the reader, and hopefully they will get that little twinge of FOMO and realize your outdoor cinema is the place they should be too.

It’s a good idea to respond to reviews quickly. If you have claimed your Cinema listing, you will be alerted by email automatically of a review and be able to respond as the Owner. Prompt responses are gold, social media is about developing and maintaining relationships with your clients even if it’s not always positive.

You want to encourage your moviegoers to write reviews, “the more, the merrier” as they say, and more social proof, which gives people more FOMO, and in this case that’s a good thing. Also, filmgoers’ search results appear sorted by most reviewed or highest review but be careful not to influence them to just be positive, if they are happy and they know it, tell them to show it in a review, cause at the end of your event… well… they clapped their hands.

Prompt responses extinguish the negative and maintain positive relationships.

Imagine if you were standing right next to somebody asking their friend about your business and you heard that friend say, “Oh don’t do that.” or “Don’t go there.” and because you are right there you can respond, “Hey man, sorry you had that experience, we would like the opportunity to change that…” Then the friend says, “Maybe we should give them a second chance, let’s go this weekend.” Then they tweet: “Hey everybody, this business is cool, let’s all go see a movie at this place!” Ok maybe I am stretching a bit but that’s the basic idea behind how you could handle a “not so nice” review in the instantaneous world of online reviews.

Although negative reviews may feel vindictive and attacking, they need to be responded to with courtesy and professionally without placing blame or making excuses. In fact, it’s even suggested to take the conversation with the disgruntled customer offline, work out a solution that makes both parties happy and then return to the review and publicly outline the resolution of the situation. This shows other potential moviegoers you are a business that cares and takes care of people’s experience.

Sharing the reviews with your staff, the kudos and areas that need attention will help your team provide the best experience possible to your audience.

Actions we will take on your behalf

Now there are some instances where you know the review you received is fake or unwarranted. A sure-fire way to sniff these out is to have the “plaintiff” reach out to your business email and outline their complaint. If you don’t hear anything then well you know it ain’t for reals. If this does happen please reach out to us with the circumstances and we will remove the review immediately.

Disclaimer: If you experience offensive comments or harassment through our review platform, let us know and we will do our best to use our digital superpowers to work with you to put a stop to it and prevent it going forward.