A trip to the cinema: How theaters plan to entice moviegoers and advertisers in 2026

Even before Netflix announced its bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, entertainment marketers everywhere were pondering what a new year could bring in the theater and movie marketing industry. With the streaming giant set to possibly alter theater exclusivity windows if the deal goes through, the question has only become more prudent.

In 2025, theaters continued to battle to get butts in seats. Overall theatergoing activity has been about the same since 2019, with 70% of those surveyed for this year’s S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan US Consumer Insights report saying that they’ve gone to the movies at least once over the past year. But the percentage of frequent moviegoers—those who hit the theater at least once a month—has dropped from 39% to 17% in the same time period, with cost being the driving factor for fewer visits.

And while a summer of blockbuster titles had industry forecasters hoping for a $4 billion summer, the pivotal season came in just short at $3.67 billion, about even with the previous summer, per Deadline.

So how to convince movie lovers and advertisers to come—and keep coming—to the movies in 2026? With strategies aimed at creating cultural moments and spreading the excitement over more touchpoints during the year, some stakeholders are taking on the new year in stride.

“2026 is going to be the year of fandom,” Manu Singh, chief data and innovation officer at National CineMedia (NCM), told Marketing Brew. “You sit in a conference room talking to clients, and you see their eyes go like, ‘Oh my god. I have so many things I can tap into.’”

Ad it up

For theaters to operate and movies to have a home outside of the streaming landscape, advertising is expected to only become more important to exhibitor brands’ revenue streams, duly demonstrated by AMC’s decision to place even more ads ahead of feature films in 2025 after its worst non-pandemic first-quarter earnings since 1996.

Singh said that advertisers are interested in incremental reach and the ability to tap into the cultural power of beloved IP.

“TV and sports is the only place that [brands are] getting any kind of consumer volume,” Singh said. “So for us, it was very interesting to see brands recognize that if you’re looking for incremental reach, and if you’re looking to connect with consumers who cut the cord, who are not on any other platform, they are sitting in the movie theater.”

Using data to help paint fuller pictures of the impact of theater advertising will be key to keeping advertisers coming back, according to Singh, and NCM recently partnered with TransUnion to integrate the theater ad platform’s data on moviegoing habits, called NCMx, with data from channels like digital, CTV, and social platforms.

“We are very conscientious to the fact that the CMOs are getting really pushed hard on proving out the return on ad spend. We also know that the brands are looking to be able to see how all of their spend performs,” Singh said. “Giving brands the ability to see what their spend performs, how it performs on a platform, is going to play a key role in getting us on all the plans.”

Creative influence

In the movie business, though, it all comes down to the creative, and having stories that appeal to and connect with audiences is what gets the people going. Historically, the best-performing films have been associated with major franchises and summer blockbusters, and while that’s still true, Singh says that the success of movies like Sinners and A Minecraft Movie has set the scene for audiences and brands to show up throughout the year.

Both lower-profile titles and major blockbusters can be ripe for creative audience participation and themed events, like the GentleMinions trend of 2022, which has cued marketers to lean into messaging that “drives the impact of that shared experience,” according to Rebecca Eldridge, CMO of the Golden Trailer Awards, which recognizes excellence in movie trailer making.

And with much of this kind of participation gaining momentum on social media, the synergy between social and movie marketing continues to grow more interconnected. Eldridge predicted that trailers will compete for engagement through more bite-size teasers, clippable content for sharing, and more collaboration with influencers.

“Social media offers huge organic awareness that’s difficult for money to buy,” Eldridge said in an email. “Movie marketers will continue to be inventive in their social media strategies that harness not only more buzz, but different types of buzz. We’ll likely see more Easter eggs in trailers where it’s applicable, watch parties of trailers with first reactions, first-look images released ahead of trailers, freeze-frame shots for memes, and much more.”

As for the theaters themselves? 2026 will be an opportunity to emphasize brand loyalty in moviegoing, according to Wanda Gierhart Fearing, global chief content and marketing officer at Cinemark. After rolling out an industry-first brand campaign this past year, she told us that social and influencers will be a key cog in the machine moving forward while her team continues to craft and communicate the customer experience.

“We’re working on our influencer strategy and continuing to ramp that up, because I do think everyone’s going that direction,” Gierhart Fearing said. “Getting other people to tell your story—it’s more authentic.”