The scheme is understood to have helped increase cinema audience numbers in the UK, despite a global downturn in admissions. During the scheme's first 30 months the incentive added an extra 2m admissions to UK cinemas.
Hattie Evans, head of film at Orange, said: "Independent research shows that Orange is the brand that consumers most associate with film outside of the movie space and Orange Wednesdays has played a key part in that."
Orange Wednesdays introduced the first ever mobile ticketing service for the UK cinema industry in 2004. Orange mobile customers receive a unique reference number by texting "film" to 241, and can present this code to more than 94% of UK cinemas taking part in this deal.
When the offer first ran, it was accompanied by a film ad campaign featuring Brennan Brown and Steve Furst in respective roles as Dresden and board member Burnley. The ads, created by Mother, featured various celebrities such as Patrick Swayze, Darryl Hannah and even Darth Vader pitching film ideas to the fictional Orange Film Board, only to have mobile ideas shoehorned into their pitches.
In November, Orange re-signed its Gold Spot cinema deal Cinema Advertising Association, which gives it exclusive access to advertising slots that air directly ahead of main features. The deal will run for three years.
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