Movies Anywhere is seeing a boom in “mega-purchasers.”
The term, which Movies Anywhere defines as those who bought 24+ movies in the past year, has soared 37% in since 2017.
The digital service, run by Disney in partnership with Warner Bros., Universal and Sony Pictures, reports 94% more hours viewed in-app this year vs. 2017, per Fierce Video.
Plus, the number of users on connected TV has also jumped since 2017 — some 68%, which computes to 104% growth in watch time over the same time period (~11% per user).
Movies Anywhere lets you combine your personal digital library of purchases from Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Google Play/YouTube, Microsoft Movies and TV, Comcast Xfinity, FandangoNow and others.
Given the pandemic, studios have relied on VOD, with fantastic returns for some, such as “Trolls World Tour, which made nearly $100 million just in its first three weeks in April.
Other 2020 VOD titles include “Antebellum,” “Bill and Ted Face the Music,” “She Dies Tomorrow,” “I Used To Go Here,” “The Short History of the Long Road” and “Valley Girl,” the latter two for rent on Amazon Prime Video.
In fact, the Digital Entertainment Group said spending rose 26 percent in the first half of 2020 year-over-year. Consumers shelled out $12 billion for movies in the first half of 2019.
Movies Anywhere also has a useful feature: Watch Together lets users sync up a movie and watch remotely with others cross-platform. It also clicks with Screen Pass, a Movies Anywhere feature in which users share purchased content in their library.