Recently, we talked about the fact that AMC teamed up with Sony Pictures and Cub Studios to launch the first NFTs tied to one of the world’s favorite superheroes, Spider-Man. Through the promotion, NFTs were set to be given away for free, leading to several predictions, including my own, of massive amounts of sales.
These predictions were right. Here’s what happened:
The Promotion
As mentioned in my previous article on the topic, available here, in order to qualify for the free NFT drop, you had to be either a Premier, A-List, or Investor Connect member with AMC. From there, you had to pre-order tickets to the upcoming “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and go see the movie, which will have its first screening on December 22, 2021.
Shortly thereafter, those who did pre-order tickets before they ran out will receive an email explaining how they can redeem their free Spider-Man NFT. Only 86,000 pieces will be featured in this collection, and as predicted, demand far outpaced supply.
Spider-Man Ticket Sales Flew at Record Speeds
Though AMC, Sony Pictures, Cub Studios, several financial experts and entertainment buffs, and myself predicted that sales would be strong, nobody could have predicted just how strong they would be. According to various reports, the rush to buy tickets led to the AMC website and Fandango ticketing website to crash. It has been multiple years since the demand for purchasing movie tickets led to a crash of a ticketing system.
Of course, tickets that qualified for the free NFT giveaway sold out incredibly quickly.
In fact, demand for the movie was so high that scalpers are charging higher prices than ever seen before. Several tickets to watch the upcoming presentation have found their way to the internet with price tags ranging from $200 to $25,000.
A Major Success for AMC & Sony
Even before COVID-19, movie theaters were seeing interest plateauing or slumping. Dinner and a movie, a long-lived favorite among American daters, was fading away and consumers were looking for other, ever-growing options when it comes to sources of entertainment.
For AMC and several other movie theaters and theater chains across the United States, many thought that COVID would simply be the nail in the coffin, and it has caused the closure of some. However, AMC made it through the struggle.
Unfortunately, the rebound in movie theaters has been slow and theaters are still dealing with significant pain. However, this promotion may breathe new life into AMC, acting as a major win for Sony in the process.
You see, in order to claim the prized NFTs that likely led to a big boost in demand for the movie, those who pre-ordered tickets must have those tickets scanned at a brick and mortar theater. So, not only did AMC enjoy the massive amount of revenue that came in from sales of the movie tickets, the company will benefit from a boost in concession sales as both movie and NFT enthusiasts flood the theaters.
Expect to See More NFTs as Sales Drivers
The corporate world is complex, but relatively simple to understand. Large companies work to innovate and stay ahead of their competition, and when that innovation leads to a hit, the hit is repeated across the board.
There’s no question that AMC is going to repeat this process. While digital collectibles associated with movie premiers will likely be few and far between in the early stage of the company’s involvement in the industry, I wouldn’t be surprised if AMC drops new collections with every new movie they show a few years down the line.
But AMC isn’t going to be the only company doing it.
Think about it, in the corporate world, if you see a competitor doing something that works, something that’s not patent protected, and something that’s relatively simple to roll out, wouldn’t you want to repeat the process in your own business?
There’s no questioning the fact that Regal, Cinemark, and Cineplex were all watching the launch of the Spider-Man movie at AMC very closely. I’m 100% positive they know that the promotion was a massive success and if they’re not already on the phone trying to put together a team to launch their own digital collectible promotions, they’re likely waiting for the next one to confirm the likely success of NFTs as a marketing tool for feature films.
This isn’t just something that has the potential to breathe new life into AMC, the connection of NFTs to feature films could revive the movie theater and film industries all together. Interestingly, I read an article probably about a year ago now saying that if the movie theater and films industry didn’t do something to boost demand, my grandchildren may not know what a movie theater is. What a thought. Well, it looks like AMC did something, and did it well!
How Much Money Will Spider-Man NFTs Be Worth?
That’s the million-dollar question. After seeing Bored Apes and CryptoPunks selling for hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars, the big question is will these Spider-Man NFTs reach that level? I’m not sure that will be the case. If the collection features highly rare pieces, and you happen to get one of those pieces, you might come into some big money.
Nonetheless, I can say that I expect the NFTs to be worth far more than what the people getting them are paying for them… FREE! I can also say that an unofficial Spider-Man NFT on Open Sea is currently listed for about $350, so there’s a strong chance that NFTs in a collection officially launched by AMC and Sony will fetch a higher price.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line here is that the Spider-Man NFT promotion was a massive success, for the spider man franchise, AMC, and Sony. However, that success goes much further than the names that benefited directly from the promotion.
The indirect benefits the promotion will likely have on the industry as a whole are incredible. Who would have thought that simply adding digital collectibles to the movie-going experience could result in such a profound opportunity industry-wide?
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