The small world of Hollywood movie research just got a little more crowded with an affiliate of advertising giant WPP agreeing to acquire film research boutique Movies First International. The Penn Schoen Berland consultancy—which is the WPP affiliate—issued a press release announcing its buy of First Movies, which has offices in Los Angeles and London.
The WPP behemoth has 158,000 employees worldwide and $16 billion in annual revenue. Its businesses include Burson-Marsteller public relations, Grey advertising, GroupM media buying, JWT advertising, Ogilvy advertising, MediaCom media buying, and Young & Rubicam advertising.
Says a Penn Schoen press release, “Founded in 2000, First Movies is a research-based strategic consultancy that serves film clients on a global basis. First Movies clients include many of the major film studios, independent distributors, production companies and industry affiliates. The business employs research consultants in the US and UK and key partners include Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox.”
The Penn Schoen press release continues: “As a combined entity, Penn Schoen Berland and First Movies will provide an end-to-end solution handling the full spectrum of consumer market research needs across the world, including franchise management, green-light research, marketing positioning, test screenings, focus groups, creative advertising testing, box office tracking, exits, and home entertainment.” First Movies managing director David Willing stays on.
The leading players in the field are Nielsen’s National Research Group (NRG), Ipsos OTX Research, and Reed Elsiever’s MarketCast. A startup in the field is Search Engine, which is newer than First Movies.
Over the years, several other research outfits have tried to crack the film business but mostly failed and eventually withdrew.
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