Free tickets are not the metric: measure what audiences do next
ESCAPES has distributed more than 250,000 free accessible tickets across hundreds of UK cinemas. The reported figures show reach, satisfaction and intention — not yet what those audiences did on their next visit.
Published 8/17/2026
The idea
Treat a free accessible screening as the start of a measured customer journey rather than as an attendance figure in its own right.
Evidence
Reported audience results. BFI reporting covers ticket volume, participation, satisfaction and stated intention to return. Paid return behaviour has not been reported.
Operator takeaway
Reach and satisfaction are easy to publish and easy to over-read. The question that changes a programme's economics is what the audience did next.
Try this
Run a six-month accessible screening trial for one defined low-engagement audience and track paid return at 30, 60 and 90 days where consent allows.
Measure
Genuinely new customers, reactivated customers, paid return at 30/60/90 days, subsequent genre breadth, F&B contribution, CRM permission and cost per paid returning customer.
Watch out for
Reading stated intention as conversion, and losing the ability to measure anything because the free ticket was never linked to an identifiable customer record.
What they are doing
ESCAPES provides free accessible screenings each month across more than 120 independent cinemas, supported by BFI National Lottery Open Cinemas funding. Current BFI reporting says that since launch in February 2024 more than 250,000 free tickets have been distributed, 235 cinemas have participated and 87 percent of participating cinemas are outside London.
Why it caught our attention
ESCAPES addresses several barriers in a single intervention: price, accessibility, unfamiliarity, threshold anxiety, targeted recruitment and recurring national visibility. Very few audience-development interventions attempt all of those at once, and fewer still operate at this scale.
How it works
A participating cinema hosts a recurring monthly screening designed for accessibility, with the ticket cost removed. National visibility and a consistent brand make the offer legible to audiences who do not follow individual cinema marketing, and the monthly rhythm gives people a repeatable reason to attend.
What another cinema might adapt
A cinema could run a six-month trial aimed at one defined low-engagement audience: one accessible screening per month, a free or partner-funded ticket, a clear second-visit journey, identifiable customer capture where consent allows, and follow-up within 30, 60 and 90 days.
Questions to consider
Who is the free ticket actually reaching — a genuinely new customer, or an existing customer taking a cheaper option? What is the designed next step after the screening ends? Would you be able to recognise the same person on a later paid visit?
What could be measured
Genuinely new customers, reactivated customers, paid return within 30, 60 and 90 days, subsequent genre breadth, food and beverage contribution, CRM permission rate and cost per paid returning customer.
What is currently known
Large-scale participation is published, along with strong satisfaction data: 99.4 percent said they would recommend ESCAPES and 99.5 percent wanted to attend future events. 54 percent of attendees were reported as new to the cinema they attended or not previously regular attenders. Earlier reporting stated that 33 percent were new to the cinema visited, that 82 percent said they were likely to return for a paid visit, and that 84 percent of those intending to return expected to do so within three months.
What has not yet been reported
The 82 percent and 84 percent figures are stated intentions collected at the screening. They are not measured paid conversion. The published figures do not establish what proportion of ESCAPES attendees subsequently bought a full-price ticket, or what that customer was worth over the following year.
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