Major film releases drive Australian movies and cinema online audiences – Ipsos iris May data

21 million Australians used a news website or app in May

23 June 2026 – Australians’ love affair with the big screen reignited in May, with audiences using movies and cinema websites and apps reaching 5.9 million nationally – the second highest online audience for the category on record, Ipsos iris data released today, shows.

The number of Australians visiting movies and cinema websites and apps, grew 15% year-on-year to 5.9 million in May, fuelled by major box office releases including the highly anticipated Devil Wears Prada sequel, the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, Mortal Kombat II, the movie adaptation of the popular science fiction novel Project Hail Mary and Hugh Jackman’s new movie The Sheep Detectives.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of online Australians aged over 14 visited Events, Hoyts, Palace or Village cinema websites or apps in May.

Hoyts Cinemas’ website and apps reached 2.56 million Australians in May, up 33.9% year-on-year, while audiences for Event Cinemas’ website and apps also increased to just over 2 million, up 4.7% year-on-year. Village Cinemas and Palace Cinemas recorded similar audience growth, increasing by 19.2% and 17.0% respectively.

The total time spent viewing movies and cinema websites and apps also grew by more than 20% year-on-year.

The new data directly aligns with national box office figures, showing that last month was the biggest May of all time for Australian cinemas, with box office sales reaching a record $119 million*.

The chart below shows the Movies and Cinema brands’ ranking during May 2026 by online audience size.

2026 Federal Budget, Met Gala and Delta Goodrem at Eurovision drove Australians to news websites or apps in May

The latest Ipsos iris data shows that 21 million people used a news website or app in May, reaching 93.2% of online Australians aged 14 and over, with users spending around 3.39 hours in May reading news online.

Nationally, the alleged abduction of a five-year-old girl in Alice Springs and the subsequent arrest of a 47-year-old Northern Territory man was a top news story, while stories on an ISIS bride accused of owning a slave in Syria also received significant attention.

Other trending Australian stories included the 2026 Federal Budget, with analysis of its “winners and losers” sparking interest, along with singer Delta Goodrem’s performance at Eurovision, the NRL first State of Origin game, including fullback Kalyn Ponga being sent off, and the AFL, particularly the offseason trade chaos.

Globally, the Middle East conflict continued to dominate headlines, along with red carpet coverage of the 2026 Met Gala, the UK’s local elections, the deaths of five international divers in the Maldives, Premier League football final winners, live coverage of the Champions League football final between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, and the heatwave conditions at the French Open tennis.

The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during May 2026 by online audience size.

*Source: Val Morgan Cinemas

Notes for editors:

Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $18.4 billion Australian online advertising market (Source; IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report prepared by PWC CY25)
Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices
Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the number of people who visit the content of digital publishers and platforms, along with the frequency of visits and time spent by tracking digital audience behaviour across desktop/laptop, smartphone, and tablets. It uses a hybrid methodology that combines metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement via media owner tagging.
In February 2024, the CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM launched, providing total unduplicated digital audience currency data for BVOD across CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
In August 2024, enriched YouTube audience reach and watch time data for Connected TV across mobile, desktop and tablets was integrated into Ipsos iris, in collaboration with Google and IAB Australia.
Ipsos iris is fully privacy compliant and cross-media ready and will continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2024 and beyond. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.
The launch of Ipsos iris with monthly data from January 2023 was the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council that commenced in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. Ipsos was awarded the IAB’s endorsement, having best met the standards on criteria across all areas of product along with criteria for operations and a future roadmap.
Further information can be found at: https://iris-au.ipsos.com/