PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios.

History

The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a film aggregates the demographic make-up, opinions about the film, impression of the film's marketing, when tickets were purchased, and plans to buy or rent the film on home media. The service was designed by Kevin Goetz, the founder and CEO of Screen Engine/ASI. The service was launched in 2013 by Screen Engine and

Rentrak Rentrak Corporation is a global media measurement and research company serving the entertainment industry. Rentrak is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, US, with additional offices in the United States and around the world. In February 2016, co ...

; the latter provides box office data to studios. PostTrak focuses on wide releases and polls audiences across 20 markets in the United States and Canada, where past services focused on three or four markets. Most of the six major studios have subscribed to the service, as well as several distributors. ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote in 2013 that the polling firm

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

had monopolized the film industry for three decades but received criticism for "relying on outdated polling techniques and too limited a sample" and would be challenged by PostTrak. While CinemaScore polls on an A+ to F scale, PostTrak assigns a positive score percentage on a 1–100 scale, among other reactions, such as how likely an audience member would be to recommend the film to a friend.

Acquisitions

With

Comscore Comscore, Inc. is an American-based global media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, advertising agencies, brand marketers, and publishers. History Comscore was founded in July 1999 in Resto ...

's 2016 acquisition of Rentrak, the service is owned by comScore and Screen Engine.

References

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External links

PostTrak Real-Time Polling Service Expands to Theaters Overseas
at ''

'' Film organizations in the United States Market research companies of the United States