How do movie studios know that cinemas are paying them correctly?

Question

Movie studios get a percentage of ticket sales. How do they know that cinemas, especially small independent ones, are reporting their ticket sales correctly? Couldn’t a cinema just claim that a screening had 20 paying viewers when in reality they sold 300 and keep the entire extra revenue for themselves? Or do cinemas have to pay per screening regardless of how many people are in the cinema?

In: 851

Answer 1

Thank goodness for Rentrak, otherwise movie theaters might try to sneak in an extra ‘ghost’ viewer or two!