Cinema advertising works by playing your commercial in the pre-show block that runs before the movie trailers, in the specific cinemas you choose. You pick the cinemas and the campaign length, and supply an ad or we will help you produce a new one. We convert it to cinema format and schedule it, and it then plays before every session, every film, every day at those cinemas for the time you have booked.
Cinema advertising is one of the only advertising formats where you can be confident the ad was actually watched. The audience is seated, the lights are down, there is no second screen and there is no skip button. This guide explains exactly what happens between deciding you want to advertise and your ad appearing on screen.
The short version
- You choose the cinemas and how many weeks makes the most sense for your business.
- You supply a commercial, or we help you get one produced.
- We convert it to cinema format and schedule it with the cinema.
- It plays in the pre-show block before every session at those cinemas.
Where your ad actually plays
Your commercial runs in the pre-show: the block of advertising that plays after the audience is seated and before the movie trailers begin. It is typically five to fifteen minutes long, and it is the highest-attention window in the whole session, because people have arrived, settled, and are waiting for the film to start.
Your ad is placed before the film as part of the anticipation of the main event. It does not interrupt anything. It is part of the experience. That distinction matters, because it is why cinema advertising does not carry the irritation that skippable online and other disruptive advertising does.
Choosing your cinemas
Cinema advertising is bought venue by venue, not as a blanket national buy. You pick the cinemas that cover the area your customers live in.
This is what makes it genuinely local. Most cinemagoers travel within roughly a 5-10km radius of the cinema they attend, so booking one suburban cinema puts you in front of that catchment repeatedly, rather than spreading a small budget thinly across a city.
OzCoWilliams books directly with Event Cinemas, Birch Carroll & Coyle, Limelight, Cineplex and Cinebar, plus independent Queensland cinemas, and has interstate access through national partner agreements. Across Queensland that is 40+ cinemas - see cinema locations for the venues in each region.
Ad format and technical requirements
To be shown before every movie, it has to be classified G. Australian cinema advertising must carry a G (General) classification so it can legally screen before any feature, including films rated PG and above. A G-rated ad is what lets your commercial play before every session rather than a narrow subset.
We convert it to a DCP. A Digital Cinema Package is the format cinemas use to project both films and adverts. It carries far higher resolution, colour depth and audio fidelity than a TV or web video file. A YouTube export will not play in a cinema.
If you already have a commercial, converting it to DCP means correcting the aspect ratio and crop, upscaling to 2K, remixing the audio to the sound format the cinema uses, and grading the colour for projection. We do that in-house, typically in about seven days. See ad conversion for how that works.
How long it takes to get on screen
Allow two to four weeks from a confirmed booking form to being on screen, depending on availability, and add production time on top if the ad still needs to be made. The steps are:
| Stage | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Cinema availability and quote | A quick initial call, then a proposal |
| Production, if starting from scratch | Varies by concept, 2 to 6 weeks |
| Conversion of an existing ad to DCP | About seven days |
| Scheduling and delivery to the cinema | Included in the two to four weeks |
Peak windows - school holidays, and the weeks around major blockbuster releases - fill earlier, so it is worth starting the conversation before the period you want to hit.
What it costs
Cinema advertising is priced per cinema, per week, and paid monthly. Indicative packages start from $250 per week for a 15-second spot in a single cinema. There is a full breakdown of what drives the price in the guide to how much cinema advertising costs, and current package tiers on the pricing page.
Who it suits
Cinema works well when you need people in a defined local area to remember who you are: car dealerships, real estate agents, schools and colleges, clinics, councils, trades, health, fitness and wellness, local retail and many other bricks-and-mortar businesses. It is a brand-building medium rather than a click-driving one, so it performs best over a sustained run rather than a single week.
It is a poor fit if you need immediate click-through and nothing else. In that case cinema is better used alongside digital to boost results, rather than instead of it.
Next steps
To learn more, send us an enquiry with some information about your business, or call (07) 3310 8794.