The Impact of New Media Promotion on Movie Box Office

Jinghan Gao

RDF International School, ShenZhen, Guangdong, China

Keywords: New Media Promotion, Box Office, Traditional Promotion.

Abstract: In today's era, new media platforms have the tendency to become mainstream channels for film promotion.

New media platforms are used and promoted by the industry, taking into account the various overwhelming

advantages brought by the characteristics of new media platforms. It provides a more efficient promotion

platform for film promotion. The forms of promotion have also become dominated by short videos, live

broadcasts and other forms that the public prefers. Several previous high-selling films have also strategically

used new media platforms for promotion. The multi-point dissemination method of new media platforms also

provides consumers with a channel to express their opinions, bringing higher sales to excellent films. The

main purpose of this study is to explore the proportion of new media platforms replacing traditional promotion

channels and to analyze the propaganda methods of new media platforms and make suggestions for the

ideological film industry.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the rapid popularization of the Internet, the

Internet has become an indispensable part of people's

lives. According to the "Statistical Report on the

Development of the Internet" released by the China

Internet Information Center, as of December 2023,

China's Internet penetration rate has reached 77.5%

(Liu, 2021; Su, 2024). The popularization of the

Internet has brought about many positive changes in

life, and the change in marketing strategies is one of

them. In the context of digital economy, China's

cultural and creative industries, represented by the

film industry, have ushered in new development

opportunities (Li, Zhang & Shi, 2023). Digital

technology has driven the promotion and marketing

efficiency of the film industry and reduced its

entrepreneurial costs (Li et al., 2023). At the same

time, Digital technology has pushed the film industry

into an era of involution and lowers the barriers to

entry for the film industry, enable more high-quality

works to be continuously produced, effective

publicity strategies are indispensable if film studio

want to achieve high box office (Li et al., 2023). New

media is a new way of sharing information that has

emerged from digital development in recent years, its

emergence has provided new publicity channels for

many industries, typical new media platforms include

Maoyan, TikTok, Xiaohongshu and other platforms

(Huang, 2018). New media platforms have the

characteristics of immediacy, interactivity, and strong

shareability. These characteristics contribute to the

efficient publicity of new media platforms (Liu, 2021;

Su, 2024). The film industry has also gradually

expanded from radio and television media

advertisements, brochures, offline meetings and other

publicity methods, and promoted through major new

media platforms. Now, the academic community

widely believes that new media platforms have a huge

impact on marketing. It breaks the multi-faceted

limitations of traditional media, namely television,

brochures and other one-way communication

methods, its gradually replacing the old media

promotion method and becoming a new channel for

film and television promotion (Liu, 2021; Meng,

2024). In recent years, China's film industry is in full

bloom, with a steady stream of excellent works

coming out, choosing efficient strategies can improve

its competitiveness.

Based on the research of many domestic and

foreign scholars, this article discusses the differences

between traditional publicity channels and new media

publicity channels, as well as the factors that lead to

the gradual replacement of traditional publicity by

new media platform publicity, explored the publicity

methods of new media platforms and analyzed their

impact on box office. Combining the current status of

the industry and publicity effects, it provides

656

Gao, J.

The Impact of New Media Promotion on Movie Box Ofﬁce.

DOI: 10.5220/0013998200004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 656-660

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

reasonable suggestions for publicity strategies for the

film industry. The discussion of these issues is very

meaningful and provides some ideas for movie

studios on how to promote movies more effectively.

2 COMPARISON OF

TRADITIONAL FILM

PROMOTION STRATEGIES

AND NEW MEDIA

PROMOTION STRATEGIES

Film marketing can be divided into traditional

publicity and new media publicity based on different

publicity channels. Among them, new media

promotion is the main promotion channel after the

popularity of mobile devices (Huang, 2018).

The traditional publicity strategy is mainly through

traditional radio and television media, newspapers,

magazines, and radio. Traditional propaganda mainly

developed in the period when mobile network

information technology was immature. Traditional

propaganda is characterized by centralized and one-

way dissemination of information (Dong, Wang &

Kang, 2024). Traditional propaganda focuses on

reinforcing the message and controlling its content

and its flow and impact. Before the popularity of new

media propaganda, various industries are willing to

bear tens of millions of yuan in publicity expenses in

order to promote their products in TV programs with

high ratings (Liu, 2000). Using radio and television

media as a medium for promotion was a popular

choice for film and television studios to promote

movies at that time, that is, in TV columns with high

ratings, they purchased broadcast time at a high price

and repeatedly played promotional short films (Dong

et al., 2024).

First of all, during this period, the public passively

received information and was unable to provide timely

feedback on promotional content. Film studios were

unable to optimize film content and improve film

quality in a timely manner. Secondly, it is impossible

to understand audience preferences, the promotion

group is inaccurate, and the promotion group is

deviated from the product audience group. Moreover,

the advertising content is blunt and highly directional,

making it difficult for the public to resonate

emotionally. Finally, the audience of traditional

publicity channels is decreasing year by year. With the

popularization of the Internet, watching videos on

mobile devices has become the choice of many young

people. The audience of radio and television media is

decreasing year by year. As a result, the exposure rate

of advertisements inserted in radio and television

media is low, and publicity the results are not

optimistic (Dong et al., 2024; Ye, 2024). Various

factors have led to the low efficiency and high cost of

publicity in traditional publicity channels.

The emergence of new media publicity has solved

the limitations of traditional publicity. New media

publicity is a publicity method developed based on

mobile Internet technology. It mainly uses new media

platforms as a medium to market and promote

products or services to netizens. Because of its high

communication speed, diversified content, and strong

interactivity, it has gradually replaced traditional

publicity methods (Liu, 2021).

According to data provided by the China Internet

Network Information Statistics Center, as of January

2024, the number of online video users in China has

reached 1.108 billion. The huge user base and the

characteristics of almost real-time sharing of

information provide a wider audience for new media

propaganda. New media publicity breaks the

traditional one-way communication method of content

output from a central platform to users. Through new

media platforms, the relationship between film studios

and the public can be two-way and interactive. Digital

platforms not only improve the promotion effect of

movie studios but also reduce the search costs of the

public (Li, Zhang & Shi, 2023). The new media

platform’s private messages, comment area and rating

functions all provide users with channels to express

their personal opinions. Since the quality of

experiential products such as movies cannot be

predicted, the review function is an important source

of information for consumers to understand such

products (Li et al, 2023). Scholars such as Dellaroca

and YongLiu found that the number of online reviews

in the early stages of a screening has a greater impact

on box office than the positive or negative rate of

reviews. However, the “Movie Rating Ranking”

provided by the platform excludes low-value movies

for consumers, and its movie classification function is

to help viewers filter movie content (Li et al, 2023).

The audience's timely feedback and opinions on the

film provide direction for the film studio to optimize

its works, effectively improving the quality of the film

and the audience's satisfaction with the film. New

media platforms have shortened the distance between

studios and audiences, according to the "celebrity

theory", because audiences are more willing to accept

reviews and recommendations of films from trusted

bloggers, audiences are encouraged to actively accept

publicity. Digital publicity can more vividly and

comprehensively display the content and highlights of

the film. Real-time information sharing makes content

The Impact of New Media Promotion on Movie Box Ofﬁce

657

more timely. To realize the dynamic display of

promotional content across the air, film studios can

use short videos to shorten the distance with the

audience and display the video content in a

comprehensive and detailed manner. The promotional

content does not have an obvious guiding tendency,

and the audience is more receptive to the information.

With the update and iteration of technology, search

engine optimization (SEO) technology has been

developed. This technology greatly improves the

efficiency of publicity and helps discover potential

customer groups. SEO can use big data to

automatically analyze user preferences and push

content to target customer groups more accurately.

Therefore, the advantages of new media publicity

are greater than those of traditional media publicity in

terms of publicity content and publicity efficiency.

3 NEW MEDIA PROMOTION

METHODS AND IMPACT OR

EFFECTS OF MOVIES

3.1 New Media Publicity Methods

New media promotion mainly uses the new media

platform on mobile devices as a promotional medium

to promote products or services. Because new media

publicity has higher publicity efficiency than

traditional publicity, it has greatly changed the way

new films are promoted in the film industry. The new

media platforms used by film studios to promote new

films are mainly divided into short video platforms

and movie ticket sales platforms. Among them,

Maoyan Movies is one of the main platforms for

movie sales. More and more consumers choose this

platform to buy tickets. For example, 17.5% of ticket

purchasers for summer movies in 2023 will be new

users. This type of platform mainly uses the brand’s

own influence to formally promote the work (Ji & Du,

2023). The content released on the Maoyan Movie

Platform is mainly the studio’s official promotional

video and ticket purchase links. The movie 'Hot and

Spicy' is a movie that became popular in mainland

China in 2024. According to box office data provided

by Maoyan Movies' official website, the movie 'Hot

and Spicy' is the highest-grossing movie in mainland

China in 2024. The movie's cumulative box office

from its broadcast to December 26, 2024 is as high as

3.46 billion. This movie is in the marketing strategy.

It is very valuable for discussion. The total views of

12 related materials released on Maoyan Movie

Platform alone reached 27.024 million times. On

February 10, 2024, the studio of the movie "Hot and

Spicy" released a promotional video on the TikTok

platform featuring the starring boxing training, the

next day alone, the number of people who "wanted to

see" before the screening increased by 50,596 in a

single day. It can be seen that the new media platform

has the advantages of strong publicity, fast

communication speed and wide communication

range.

3.2 Short Video Marketing

As one of the important channels for brand marketing,

the short video new media platform represented by

TikTok affects consumer behavior to a high extent

(Jin, 2019). The short video new media platform

mainly focuses on fragmented information, and the

publicity methods mainly include publishing short

videos, electronic posters, and links to the movie

information page of the ticket purchase platform on

the new media platform. Registering an official

account on the TikTok platform has become an

indispensable step for film studios to promote their

movies. More film studios choose to publish

promotional videos directly on their official accounts.

The content is designed to attract the audience to learn

more, such as on-set behind-the-scenes, highlights.

However, their promotional content is not result-

oriented. Use the public's trust and love for actors or

Internet celebrities to establish emotional connections

with the public and increase the public's favorability

and popularity of the film. The actors output the

characteristics of the movie and the connection

between the person and the character in their personal

accounts to promote it to a wider customer group.

Based on the recognition of the individual actors by

fans, they are willing to actively pay attention to the

movie information. On new media platforms such as

TikTok, everyone can be a content creator,

disseminator, or information receiver. Some

consumers will choose to share their personal viewing

experience with the public through the platform after

watching the movie. Consumers or users with

consumption tendencies will elaborate or discuss their

opinions in the comment area, which will bring

attention to the movie and help people Consumer-

prone users make more personally appropriate

decisions. In fact, discussions about movies have

invisibly increased their popularity. The relevant

hashtags added by creators when publishing their

works on the platform not only increase the exposure,

but also classify the works big data will accurately

push customer groups and potential customer groups

based on user preferences. For publicity, a multi-point,

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658

multi-angle communication model is undoubtedly a

major advantage. Taking the summer of 2023 as an

example, the number of movie topic views on the

TikTok platform increased by 169% year-on-year (Ji

& Du, 2023). Significantly increased buzz on TikTok

platform drove positive box office results, compared

with the single-day box office on weekdays during the

summer season in 2019, the single-day box office

during the summer season in 2023 increased by 27%

year-on-year. In the summer season alone, there were

four movies that exceeded 2 billion in box office,

demonstrating the influence of new media platforms

on movie promotion (Ji & Du, 2023).

3.3 Social Media Platform Marketing

The Maoyan platform is the fixed options such as

ticket purchase and the area showing "Hot Movies"

below, groups dynamically rotate to display different

movie posters and their ratings. As early as 2007,

Professor Li Daoxin published the film criticism work

"History of Chinese Film Criticism", which

comprehensively constructed the critical framework

of Chinese films. In addition to experts’ evaluations of

Chinese movies, the public’s online film and

television evaluations also have a crucial impact on

movie box office (Li et al, 2023; Shi, Zhong & Zhang,

2017). Maoyan Movies, Douban and other movie

rating platforms with comment sections provide

channels for the public to express their opinions (Shi

et al, 2017). The opinions expressed by the public in

the comment area are also called online film and

television reviews. For consumers, online film and

television reviews are not only easier to obtain than

traditional reviews but also have high reference

significance. With the update and iteration of

technology, platform systems have been continuously

upgraded, and all have adopted a short flat display

mechanism, which folds extreme or invalid comments

based on computer algorithms, making them more

valuable for reference (Li et al, 2023). Both Maoyan

and Douban implement a scoring system for films.

The main scoring methods are divided into five-star

system and ten-point system. The five-star system is

mostly used by consumers to judge whether a film has

value. The closer the score is to five stars, the higher

the quality of the content and the higher the

recommendation. However, the ten-point system is the

optimal reference value when consumers compare and

choose movies. Different from the traditional rating

system, which is only criticized and rated by

professionals. Although it lacks professionalism,

online ratings are more objective. They are not

individual subjective values but the average of

millions of consumer ratings.

4 SUGGESTIONS FOR NEW

MEDIA PROMOTION OF

MOVIES

Based on the weighing of the pros and cons of

traditional publicity channels and new media platform

publicity channels, the author puts forward the

following reference suggestions for the film’s new

media publicity strategy and the improvement of new

media platforms.

In an era dominated by traffic, after the movie

officially releases its trailer and sets its schedule,

relevant information about the movie, behind-the-

scenes footage, character stories, and behind-the-

scenes production processes should be regularly

released on the official account. The interaction

between actors and audiences at a movie premiere can

effectively promote the movie. Measures should be

taken to simultaneously broadcast offline activities

through real-time broadcast on multiple platforms to

maximize the number of viewers participating in the

event. During the screening stage of the movie, the

authors actively collect and disseminate positive

feedback from the audience, giving consumers the

opportunity to learn about the movie.

The production of promotional videos can draw

lessons from the trailer of the Hollywood movie

"Transformers 4", that is, when producing

promotional videos, they should arouse the sensory

resonance of the audience as much as possible. For

example, when promoting action movies, use high

volume and strong visual impact.

The highly interactive nature of the new media

platform brings the audience closer to the movie,

giving the audience a stronger sense of participation

and prompting them to actively accept promotional

information. Gathering the main actors of the movie

to host a live broadcast on a short video platform and

interacting with the audience to answer questions is

also an effective promotional tool. When the work is

being filmed, the actors share informal behind-the-

scenes and stills from the filming set on their personal

accounts to build up the popularity of the work. The

studio can publish formal interview videos and

entertainment interview videos that are highly

interactive. The studio should not only jointly release

movie information on multiple platforms to enhance

publicity, but also effectively use the traffic of the

actors themselves and the content of the work to

The Impact of New Media Promotion on Movie Box Ofﬁce

659

promote publicity. Studios and entertainment media

should achieve win-win cooperation and bring

attention to both parties. The studio relies on the

influence of entertainment media to implicitly

promote the movie, but the entertainment media

attracts readers based on undisclosed information

provided by the movie studio. The studio uses

different entertainment media to disseminate the

filming situation of the film from a public perspective

and convey the progress of the film shooting to the

public without leaking too much content. A good first

impression of the film, increase the audience's

expectations for the film, and warm up subsequent

publicity work.

For platforms, a reward mechanism can be set up

to encourage consumers to leave short online

comments after watching the movie. For example,

after commenting, the platform will feedback points to

consumers. Users who accumulate a certain number of

points will be ranked higher, and high-level users will

receive benefits.

While promoting in new media, it is also beneficial

to hold a small number of offline promotional

activities. Taking advantage of the highly interactive

nature of the new media platform, a lottery mechanism

was set up online, with participation in the premiere

ceremony as a reward, and audiences were randomly

selected to participate in the premiere event. While

promoting the film, the audience's suggestions for the

film were collected.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The emergence of new media platforms has helped

boost the box office of movies. New media platforms

have more advantages than traditional publicity

channels due to their high publicity efficiency and

low publicity costs, and are the best choice for film

studios to choose publicity channels. Compared with

publishing information in radio and television media,

the threshold for publishing information on new

media platforms is lower. The application of search

engine optimization technology makes the publicity

groups more precise and pushes information to the

customer groups in a precise manner. The role of the

public is no longer limited to recipients of

information, but can also be publishers of

information, expressing personal views on movies on

the platform. The main forms of new media

promotion are posters, videos, texts, live broadcasts.

The online review screening system of Maoyan and

Douban platforms eliminates extreme reviews and

provides consumers with reviews with more

reference value. According to the comparison of the

advantages of publicity channels, the film industry

should first choose new media platforms as the main

publicity channel. The application of new media

platforms in marketing has changed traditional

promotion channels. This article discusses the impact

of new media platforms on movie box office. Future

scholars’ research focus can be on the impact of new

media platforms on movie content, whether new

media platforms improve the quality of movies, and

whether the emergence of new media platforms

improves the audience Satisfaction with the movie.

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