casestudy

ATTR is a discovery platform that helps people move from wanting to see a movie to actually going to the theater.

1. The Product
2. The System
3. The Audience
4. The Landscape
5. The Business Model
6. The Rollout
7. Sources

1. The Product

The name ATTR comes from “Coming Attractions,” a phrase used in theaters before the feature begins.

It began with a simple observation: people still love movies, but the habit of going to the theater no longer happens as naturally as it once did.
Streaming has made watching easier, but it has also weakened the sense of occasion, motivation, and shared momentum that made moviegoing feel special.

This project responds to that shift by designing a system that gives people stronger reasons to go out and show up.

2. The System

ATTR is not only about helping users find something to watch, but about creating the social and emotional push that turns interest into action.

A recommendation becomes a social object. The ‘SEND’ feature turns movie discovery into a personal invitation, framing the act of recommending a film as the beginning of attendance rather than a passive share.

Attendance unlocks actual rewards. The ‘SCAN’feature rewards users for being there in person. Scanning to unlock ties the app back to the theater, making attendance feel active, visible, and rewarding.

The screening does not end at exit. This interaction extends moviegoing into post-screening connection, giving users a way to carry shared attendance into conversation and community.

ATTR is designed to collapse the gap between commercial and independent moviegoing. By showing screenings from both large theater chains and independant theaters, ATTR creates a discovery space where convenience and relevance can exist side by side.

3. The Audience

Across survey data, media reporting, and writing on cinema culture, one truth becomes clear: people have not stopped loving movies, but the habit of going out to see them has weakened. In a 2025 AP-NORC study, 75% of U.S. adults said they had streamed a recently released movie at home in the past year, while only 16% reported going to a theater at least monthly. What has changed is not interest alone, but the conditions around attention: rising ticket costs, shortened theatrical windows, and the convenience of streaming have made staying home feel easier, cheaper, and more routine than showing up in person.

Yet theatrical moviegoing still offers something that home viewing cannot fully reproduce. Critics and scholars describe the theater as a space of collective attention, shared reaction, and conversation that begins the moment the film ends. To go to the movies is not only to watch, but to enter a setting shaped by anticipation, physical presence, and the awareness of others experiencing the same thing alongside you. As entertainment becomes more fragmented and personalized, that sense of occasion becomes more rare, and therefore more valuable.

ATTR is designed first for urban moviegoers in New York who value films and cultural experiences, but do not always follow through on going to the theater. Surrounded by both major chains and independent cinemas, they already have access to screenings, yet still need stronger momentum to turn interest into attendance. Start.io’s February 2026 audience estimates suggest that this gap is real, identifying roughly 215K NYC users who show interest in going to movie theaters, compared with about 33K movie theater visitors. ATTR responds to that gap.

4. The Landscape

Competition
The current moviegoing landscape is split between platforms that help people talk about films and platforms that help them purchase access to films. Letterboxd operates as a social network for film discovery, reviews, diaries, and lists, while Fandango, Atom Tickets, and theater-chain apps focus on showtimes, ticketing, seat selection, and concessions.

ATTR enters the space from a different angle. Rather than centering taste alone or transaction alone, it is designed around the moment when interest either becomes attendance or falls away. Its advantage lies in connecting recommendation, planning, and physical follow-through into one system, making it better
suited to audiences who need more than access to a screening — they need a reason to go.

The Film Marketing Landscape

Film marketing now operates in a media environment where attention is fragmented across social platforms, creators, and user-generated video. Deloitte’s 2025 Digital Media Trends argues that these formats are becoming a new center of gravity for entertainment, drawing both audience time and advertiser spending away from older models of media consumption. As a result, promoting a film is no longer only about awareness, but about finding ways to create momentum inside a much noisier and more competitive attention economy.

At the same time, recent campaigns suggest that successful film marketing increasingly looks less like isolated ad placement and more like cultural world-building. Vogue points to A24’s use of merchandise, pop-ups, and subcultural identity as part of its broader brand strategy, while coverage of Neon’s Anora campaign emphasizes branded products and pop-up activations alongside more traditional promotion.

5. The Business Model

ATTR uses a freemium membership structure with two tiers: Club Member, which is free, and Club Insider, which is paid at $1.99 per month or $19 per year. The free tier supports growth by keeping core discovery features accessible, while the paid tier offers deeper participation through insider-only rewards, limited promotions, and exclusive merchandise discounts. In this model, users are not paying for access to movies themselves, but for a stronger relationship to moviegoing through perks, status, and repeatable benefits tied to attendance.

Partner Activations generate revenue through limited-time in-app campaigns funded by film studios and distributors. Priced at $7,500 per four-week campaign, these activations can appear as sponsored prompt card envelope skins or other release-tied placements within ATTR. Compared with theatrical marketing budgets that often begin around $20 million for an independent wide release and can reach around $30 million or more for larger campaigns, ATTR occupies a much smaller but more targeted position: a release-timed promotional layer embedded in the moment of movie discovery. Rather than serving as a broad awareness campaign, it gives studios and distributors a more focused way to support attendance inside an existing marketing spend.

6. The Rollout

The ATTR experience extends beyond the app and beyond the theater. It takes shape across the city through limited-time activations tied to specific films, creating moments that users first discover online and then step into physically. These activations can take the form of restaurant or café collaborations built around a menu item from a movie, or become something more spatial: following a character’s day, moving through places tied to the film, or stepping into a themed night out.

For audiences already invested in the film, this allows its world to continue somewhere real. For someone who encounters the activation without knowing, it becomes an introduction — to the film, to the atmosphere around it, and to ATTR itself. This makes the activation both an extension of moviegoing and a way for the platform to enter the city as a visible cultural presence.

7. Sources

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “More People Are Enjoying Movies from the Comfort of Home.” AP-NORC, 25 Sept. 2025, apnorc.org/projects/more-people-are-enjoying-movies-from-the-comfort-of-home/.
Barthes, Roland. “Leaving the Movie Theater.” The Rustle of Language, translated by Richard Howard, University of California Press, 1989.
Cinépolis USA. “Affiliate Program.” Cinépolis USA, www.cinepolisusa.com/affiliate-program/.
Daseler, Graham. “Why Moviegoing Matters.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 5 Dec. 2016, lareviewofbooks.org/article/why-moviegoing-matters/.
Fandango. “Why Is a Convenience Charge Added to the Price of Each Ticket and How Much Is It?” Fandango Support, support.fandango.com/fandangosupport/s/article/Why-is-a-Convenience-Charge-Added-to-the-Price-of-Each-Ticket-and-How-Much-is-It.
Keller, Sarah. Anxious Cinephilia: Pleasure and Peril at the Movies. Columbia University Press, 2020.
McKinsey & Company. “The Attention Equation: Winning the Right Battles for Consumer Attention.” McKinsey & Company, 10 June 2025, www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-attention-equation-winning-the-right-battles-for-consumer-attention.
New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. “NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Art House New York Announce Inaugural Cinema Week – March 20–26 to Support Independent Movie Theaters Across NYC.” NYC.gov, 11 Mar. 2026, www.nyc.gov/site/mome/news/03112026-cinema-week.page.
Richwine, Lisa. “Cinema Group Pushes for Movies to Stay in Theaters Longer.” Reuters, 1 Apr. 2025, www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/cinema-group-pushes-movies-stay-theaters-longer-2025-04-01/.
Shambu, Girish. The New Cinephilia. 2nd ed., Caboose, 2020.
Start.io. “Movie Theater Visitors in New York City.” Start.io, www.start.io/audience/movie-theater-visitors-in-new-york-city.
Varma, Rechna. “Look Up: The Importance of Watching Movies in Movie Theaters.” MovieMaker, 27 Mar. 2025, www.moviemaker.com/watching-movies-in-movie-theaters/.
“Hollywood’s Soaring Marketing Cost Dilemma.” Variety, 17 Aug. 2017, variety.com/2017/biz/news/hollywoods-soaring-marketing-cost-dilemma-1202530305/.