Passion of The Christ Drives Traffic to Movie Sites

Posted on March 5, 2004

Nielsen//NetRatings, a provider of Internet audience measurement and analysis, reported that traffic from home to movie sites surged during the week ending February 22, as surfers went online to purchase advance tickets for The Passion of The Christ.

Fandango jumped 79 percent from 380,000 to 680,000 unique visitors during the week ending February 22 (see Table 1). Traffic to MovieTickets.com spiked 32 percent to 400,000 visitors. While Yahoo! Movies and MSN Entertainment traffic increased 28 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Rounding out the top five fastest growing movie sites was Moviefone, which drew 1.3 million unique visitors, a 10 percent week-over-week increase.

�Movie ticketing sites often spike in traffic prior to releases for big-budget films, as fans purchase tickets in advance online,� said Greg Bloom, senior Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "With group sales accounting for an unusually large share of early screenings and a late addition of almost two thousand screens, movie fans anxious to see The Passion of The Christ have had to be especially vigilant about searching online for the details and buying their tickets ahead of time."

Table 1: Nielsen//NetRatings Top Five Fastest Growing Movie Sites, (U.S., Home)

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, February 2004