Lionsgate × AYMI

Tentpole theatrical launches are still mostly bought like it's 2015 — heavy reach, heavy waste, late-window panic spend. Lionsgate wanted to test whether a franchise release could be run with DTC-grade measurement on top of the cinematic muscle, without losing the event feel that fills theaters.

The brief: keep the spectacle, prove the math.

Five movements: Discovery, Strategy, Creative, Launch, Optimize. Each one feeds the next; the loop closes on Optimize and starts again on Discovery.

1. Step 01Discovery

   Franchise audience taxonomy — diehards, lapsed-fans, crossover, cold — mapped against historical box-office data and trailer-view-to-ticket conversion rates.

2. Step 02Strategy

   Three-phase media plan: pre-buzz seeding (8 weeks out) → week-of saturation → opening-weekend conversion. Different cohorts, different KPI per phase.

3. Step 03Creative

   Three trailer cut-downs (mood / character / action) tested against cohorts. The franchise hero set held; what shifted was which cut hit which cohort and when.

4. Step 04Launch

   Coordinated digital + theatrical paid + influencer + earned. Real-time pacing reviews opening weekend.

5. Step 05Optimize

   Daily cohort burn-rate reviews during the conversion phase; mid-week reallocation lifted opening weekend ticket conversion materially.

Trailer views ran 1,200% above the franchise's prior baseline, with the gain weighted toward the cohorts most likely to convert to opening-weekend tickets. Acquisition cost dropped 45% as the phase-by-phase cohort model replaced flat-rate reach buying. Franchise awareness rose 3.8×, opening-weekend intent climbed 240%, and earned-media reach expanded 92%.

The spectacle held. The math worked. Lionsgate's release blueprint has since been updated to absorb the phasing model.