Forging the Pathway to Movie Watching

Understanding What Makes A Sale A Sale

By: Kimberly Grant

Just when you thought you knew what makes a sale, well, a sale.  You find that you’re only partially correct.  A sale is way more than a product that is purchased in a store.  Now, there are some instances when that constitutes a sale; like when you purchase the latest iPhone from the Apple Store.  Apple manufactured the iPhone and you (the consumer) purchased it directly from the manufacturer.

Trusting the term “Sale”

Now, this post isn’t to say that we should distrust the word “sale”.  We just have to dig deeper into what a “sale” entails and what it means when it comes to decisions.  First, let’s breakdown a typical sale.

The pathway for a sale is:

Manufacturer sells a product or service to a wholesaler.  The wholesaler uses a distributor to get the product or service to a retailer.  The retailer sells the product or service to the consumer (or person who actually makes the purchase).  That sounds like a lot of middle management.  However, it is the way the world of sales and data operates.  Makes sense?

Let’s Get Theatrical

If the above doesn’t make sense; no worries.  I have a ready example.  Let’s take the film industry; specifically, Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The manufacturer of a movie is a production house.  In this example, Marvel Studios actually produces the product: Black Widow movie.  Once Black Widow is manufactured (or produced) the final product is “sold” to the wholesaler/distributor.  In this case, the distributor would be the Walt Disney Company, who actually owns Marvel Studios.  Therefore, there is no purchase, but Walt Disney Studios is considered the owner of Black Widow and its distribution company.

In turn, Walt Disney Studios distributes the final version of Black Widow to retailers.  In this example, the retailers would be the movie theaters.  Think: AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas.  These retailers (or movie theaters) sell the product (Black Widow) to consumers via movie ticket sales.

The Meaning of the Sale

Now that you have a better understanding of the journey of a sale, it’s time to look to why knowing the path is important.  The film industry is all about sales data.  Many deals and films are made based on sales data from previous films.  If Black Widow performs well, there’s a great chance more Marvel films will be made in the future.  The way that the film industry tracks these sales is via the retailer purchases and the box office data that is monitored on a constant basis via websites like Box Office Mojo. 

Justifying the next big box office film isn’t just about pitching the next great story.  There is quite a bit of analytics involved in making those decisions.  Tracking previous data, the film industry runs on knowing what works and what doesn’t work.  It also makes sure that it uses data it can trust.  Otherwise, it would be a costly data mistake.

Interested in more data and digital insights?  You can read my last post here.