Village Gamer

Going to a movie is the most common way to spend a first date according to the results of a movie-related poll conducted by Cineplex Entertainment and Ipsos Reid. Canadians also identified “Saturday” as the preferred movie-going night and Skyfall, the latest installment in the James Bond series, as the most anticipated movie of 2012. Cineplex, as part of its celebration of 100 years of movie memories, partnered with Ipsos Reid to poll Canadians about the movies.

“As we celebrate 100 years of movie memories in 2012, we thought this was a great time to kick off a Canadian-specific study to highlight movie-going preferences and unearth some fun and interesting thoughts Canadians have about movies, actors and actresses,” said Pat Marshall, Vice President, Communications and Investor Relations, Cineplex Entertainment. “We couldn’t believe some of the responses to the poll and we are going to have some fun sharing this data in the coming months.”

A new press release will be issued each month highlighting key survey data and other fun facts. The entire survey report will be released in December. The poll was developed by Cineplex Entertainment in partnership with Ipsos Reid. More than 4,000 adults from Ipsos’ Canadian online panel were interviewed. Next month with Mother’s Day taking place and Father’s Day around the corner in June, Cineplex will reveal what movie characters most remind people of their in-laws.

Going to the movies is a staple date night for Canadians according to 57% of poll participants. More than half (60%) of poll participants have been on a first date in a movie theatre. Going to the movies was also the most common way to spend a first date (35%) surpassing going out for dinner (23%) and going to a party (17%).

Survey stats-at-a-glance:

• 43% of Canadians have been to a movie theatre in the past month to watch a movie.
• The three most important factors that influence what movie a person decides to watch in a movie theatre are the storyline (29%), trailers (24%) and a partner/spouse recommendation (11%).
• Saturday and Tuesday were the days of the week Canadians typically watch a movie in a theatre.
• 16% of people were five years old the first time they saw a movie in a theatre while only 2% were 19 years of age or older.
• The mean age for seeing a movie for the first time in a movie theatre for poll participants ages 18-34 was 7.3 years of age, 9 years of age for ages 35-55 and for ages 55+ the mean age was 9.5 years of age.
• Skyfall, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Men in Black 3 are the three most anticipated movies of the year.
• The biggest pet peeves for Canadians when going to the theatre are people who talk during the movie (33%), people who kick the back of your seat (18%) and when someone sits directly beside or in-front of you when there’s nearly an empty theatre (14%).

These are some of the findings from an Ipsos Reid survey. A sample of 4,009 adults from Ipsos’ Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Individuals were disqualified if they didn’t watch any movies in the course of a month. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/-1.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire population of adults in Canada been polled. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.