Movie theater ad data is finally breaking out of its silo.
National CineMedia (NCM), the largest cinema advertising platform in the U.S., reaching nearly 18,000 screens across roughly 1,400 AMC, Regal, and Cinemark theaters, has partnered with TransUnion to make NCM’s ad-exposure dataset—known as NCMx—available directly within TransUnion’s attribution platform, TruAudience.
The pitch: advertisers will now be able to measure whether an ad shown before a movie actually contributes to performance, right alongside channels like display, CTV, and social.
Why This Matters:
Cinema advertising has always felt like its own walled-off ecosystem—unique targeting, bespoke metrics, and very little interoperability with the rest of an advertiser’s stack. This partnership cracks that open.
By moving NCMx data into TransUnion’s environment, cinema exposures become measurable next to other media channels. That helps advertisers compare performance, justify spend, and potentially use these insights for cross-channel targeting.
And the timing matters. Globally, the cinema ad market is expected to attract over two billion in investment this year. Meanwhile, theaters are still trying to recover from declining attendance and pressure from at-home streaming. More sophisticated ad measurement gives theaters another lever to pull as they work to diversify beyond ticket sales.
NCM’s TransUnion partnership comes a few months after the company announced a partnership with iSpot. The deal/goal there was similar — making cinema ads more measurable.
Experts React:
In a press release on the partnership, Mike Finnerty, SVP of Marketing Solutions Services at TransUnion, had this to say:
“By adding cinema data into the mix, we’re expanding the depth and clarity of the insights available to our customers – helping them make smarter, more impactful marketing decisions. This integration will give our advertisers a truly comprehensive view of their marketing impact.”
Our Take:
This move, along with NCM’s iSpot partnership, is partly about attracting budget—but it’s also about survival, right? With movie attendance still below pre-pandemic levels and streaming eroding the cultural pull of the theater, cinema advertisers need the same level of clarity and transparency they expect everywhere else.
If the industry wants to keep (and grow) ad dollars, proving performance is non-negotiable. This partnership doesn’t solve everything, but it’s a nice step toward making cinema ads feel like a measurable, accountable piece of the broader media plan. In this economy, that goes a long way.
