As we approach the end of 2024, I want to celebrate our industry’s remarkable achievements this year. From box office record-breakers like Inside Out 2, Wicked, Moana 2 and Thanksgiving; to a larger, more diverse film slate; and especially to the unique experiences you and your teams continue to give your guests, cinema exhibition’s foundations are strong.

We are proud to support you and this industry. For us, 2024 has been filled with transformation, innovation, and meaningful connections, all made possible by you. Your dedication to delivering exceptional cinematic experiences inspires us.

Vista Group Conference

We kicked off the year with the Vista Group Conference in Auckland, our first in five years. It was a pleasure to welcome many of you to four days of insightful presentations and engaging conversations in February.

The conference’s theme "Connected Future" set the scene for our revitalised approach to Vista Cloud, focusing on an at-your-pace journey across the capabilities of Data Empowerment, Digital Enablement, Moviegoer Engagement, and Operational Excellence.

Launching the Vista Roadmap

Perhaps the most exciting part of VistaCon for me was sharing our product roadmap for the first time. It unites Vista Cinema, Movio and integrated elements of Numero and Maccs over a rolling two-year period, directed by our ongoing conversations with you and your teams.

We have since taken our commitment to greater transparency further by publishing the items we intend to deliver on a public-facing Vista Roadmap Portal, which we update and extend in real time.

But it’s not enough to communicate our plans. You rightfully expect us to deliver. And this year we did, shipping more than 45 features, including advanced business intelligence via Oneview and Horizon, greater guest self-service through Lumos and Living Ticket, and genuine 1:1 marketing enabled by Movio EQ’s AI copywriter, First Draft. Notably, 1 in 4 features delivered this year advanced our capabilities in F&B, dining and extended entertainment.

With more of our products SaaS-based, you’ll be receiving more innovations more frequently in 2025!

Leveraging AI to deliver practical, business-oriented solutions

We’ve harnessed AI in Movio to help exhibitors and studios deliver outstanding experiences to moviegoers for almost a decade.

And in the past year, we’ve stretched our AI capabilities across the Group, from movie marketing to assisted film scheduling, operational decision support, assisting you, your teams and your guests.

One particular highlight in this area was launching the Oneview Daily Podcast. Available to all Horizon users with Oneview, the AI-generated podcast offers a two-minute overview of your own business with everything from overnight box office, admissions and market share, showtimes at risk of selling out, food and beverage performance, and pre-sales for movies about to hit screens to help you seize every opportunity today.

A focus on reliability and support

During the year we’ve maintained a strong focus on the quality, stability, and overall reliability of our solutions.  Over the record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend with headliners Moana 2, Wicked and Gladiator II, we supported our Vista Cloud clients with zero outages or throttling, ensuring an exceptional experience for moviegoers.

We are also improving our client support processes with a global model that includes a ‘Follow the Sun’ support initiative, launching Zendesk for ticketing, and enhancing the Vista Help Centre.

Whether you are using our on-premise or cloud solutions, we know that there will always be more work for us to do. Continuing to improve software quality, client success, support and our ability to deliver client specific enhancements using a more scalable approach are all areas we have improved but will continue to focus on in 2025.

SOC 2 Type 1 achievement

Security and compliance remain top priorities for us. This year, we achieved SOC 2 Type 1 for Vista Cloud and movieXchange, demonstrating our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of data security and privacy. We are dedicated to providing highly secure and performant solutions, and whether you use our cloud or on-premise software, this achievement of SOC 2 Type 1 provides benefits for all our clients.

In 2025 we are continuing the process to achieve SOC 2 Type 2, and we have commenced the work towards attaining SOC 2 Type 1 for Movio Cinema EQ.

Thank You

As I reflect on 2024, my thoughts are filled with fantastic and invaluable interactions with so many of you, as well as the dedication and commitment of our team to deliver for you. I want to thank each of you for these opportunities. We are excited about the future and look forward to continuing this journey together in 2025 and beyond.

Wishing you a joyful holiday season and new year.