Rockbuster customer & revenue analysis built for a streaming pivot.
An SQL-led analysis of Rockbuster’s 15-table relational database, built to guide the move from traditional store rentals to an online streaming model — mapping where revenue concentrates, which audiences spend most, and what content drives the catalogue.
From a 15-table database to streaming-strategy priorities
The project was built around a practical commercial question: as Rockbuster moves from physical rentals to online streaming, where does revenue actually come from — which markets, which customers, and which content?
Business problem
A movie-rental business needed to understand customer value, market performance, and revenue concentration before committing to an online streaming launch. The raw data lived across a 15-table relational database — useful, but not decision-ready until it was queried, joined, and summarised into clear answers.
Final output
The deliverables were built for two audiences: documented SQL scripts and a query-output workbook for technical review, and a manager-facing presentation with Tableau visuals for the business.
A formal data dictionary documents every table, key, and relationship, so each finding can be traced back to the query and the schema behind it.
How the analysis was built
The work moved from database restore and quality checks through to multi-table analysis and stakeholder-ready outputs — the SQL itself is the core proof of the project.
Two ways to read a market: scale and intensity
A single revenue league table hides as much as it shows. Reading markets by total revenue and by average spend per customer surfaces two different — and equally useful — kinds of opportunity.
How the market analysis was structured
Customer, payment, rental, and geography tables were joined so each market could be ranked two ways, then cross-referenced against content performance.
The largest markets by total payment, ahead of the United States and major European markets.
Smaller but highly engaged audiences, leading on average spend per customer (~116 and ~111).
Out-earned Drama and Comedy, the strongest content categories for rental revenue.
Broad family appeal puts PG-13 at the top of the rating mix, ahead of NC-17, PG, R and G.
Markets, audiences, and content
Headline cuts of the analysis — the markets that pay most, the audiences that spend most, and the content that drives revenue.
Total revenue by market
Top countries by total customer payment.
- China$5.25K
- India$5.13K
- United States$3.69K
- Brazil$2.92K
Average spend per customer
Highest-value audiences by market.
- Taiwan116
- Philippines111
- Brazil104
- United States102
Revenue by film rating
Rental revenue across MPAA ratings.
- PG-13$13.86K
- NC-17$12.63K
- PG$12.24K
- R$12.07K
Top revenue genres
Strongest content categories by revenue.
- Sports$4.89K
- Sci-Fi$4.34K
- Animation$4.25K
The questions the SQL set out to answer
Each strand of the analysis was framed as a management question, then answered with documented, reproducible queries.
Where are the customers?
Countries with the highest customer counts, and the cities within priority countries with the strongest concentration.
Which markets pay most?
Revenue concentration by country, separating large total markets from high average-spend audiences.
Who are the top customers?
The highest-value customers by total amount paid, to support targeted retention and marketing.
What content drives revenue?
Rental revenue by genre and rating, and the patterns in rental rate and duration behind it.
What the data made clear
The analysis turns a 15-table database into a small number of decisions Rockbuster could act on as it moves online.
The two largest markets by total customer payment, followed by the United States and major European markets — the obvious anchors for an online launch.
Smaller markets, but the highest average spend per customer — a signal of highly engaged niche audiences worth retaining and growing.
Both out-earned Drama and Comedy, pointing to the genres most worth prioritising in catalogue and promotion.
Its broad family appeal puts it ahead of every other rating — useful for shaping promotions by rating across the top markets.
Built to be defensible and reproducible
The analysis was structured so every figure can be traced back to a documented query and a verified schema — and so the whole project can be re-run from the original backup.
Queries you can trust
The findings are not one-off outputs — they sit on a profiled dataset, documented relationships, and queries that were checked and optimised.
Schema exploration, cleaning and profiling, joins, subqueries, CTEs, and business-KPI queries.
An Excel file of SQL results, ready for technical review and reuse.
Tables, keys, and relationships documented to support structured querying.
Findings and recommendations with Tableau visuals, pitched at a non-technical audience.
How Rockbuster could use the analysis
Anchor the launch on the biggest markets: India, China, the US and Europe carry the most total revenue and are the natural priority for the streaming rollout.
Protect and grow engaged niches: Taiwan and the Philippines spend the most per customer — strong candidates for loyalty and retention focus.
Lead with the content that earns: prioritise Sports and Sci-Fi, and weight promotion toward the top-earning ratings like PG-13.
Tailor by market: combine the geography, spend, genre and rating views to shape regional marketing rather than a single global plan.
What this project demonstrates
Relational database analysis in PostgreSQL — multi-table joins, subqueries and CTEs — alongside data profiling, query optimisation, and the ability to communicate findings clearly to both technical and business audiences.
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