Diversified Acquires Cinema India Expo

Posted by Carolyn Giardina | January 21, 2010 10:46 am

Another change is coming in the trade show arena for theatrical exhibition.
Diversified Business Communications—a Portland, Maine-headquartered events, publications and eMedia business—acquired India-based Cinema India Expo, along with PALM Expo, Musician Expo, and the recently launched Info Communica Expo from Infocast Systems.
India-based publications Pro Sound Systems, Studio Systems and Cinema Systems were also acquired though the deal.
The Indian business will operate under the moniker Diversified Communications India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Diversified Business Communications. Heading the unit is Anil Chopra, former CEO of Infocast Systems, who will serve as managing director.
Chopra will oversee PALM Expo and Manuel Dias remains the project director. Diversified said it expects the event to expand by nearly 35% from last year.
Createasphere (formerly HD Expo), Diversified’s entertainment division located in Burbank, will be directly involved with Kristin Petrovich-Kennedy, president of Createasphere, overseeing international sales alongside sales manager Brian Henderson.
PALM Expo, co-located with Musician Expo, Cinema India Expo, and Info Communica Expo, takes place 3-5 June at Bombay Exhibition Center.

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“New Moon” Shines With $140.7 Million Weekend

Posted by Carolyn Giardina | November 22, 2009 11:12 am

We all knew Summit’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” would have a huge opening. The question was just how huge.
Box Office Mojo answered this question with Sunday estimates that suggest a North American gross of $140.7 million, which would make it the third highest opening weekend of all time, behind “The Dark Knight” and “Spiderman 3.”

It also reports that “New Moon” now holds various records including highest opening day gross, with $72.7 million.

The third film in the Twilight saga, “Eclipse,” is slated to open June 30, 2010.

While the weekend belonged to the vampire romance, Box Office Mojo’s early estimates for additional debuts include: “The Blind Side,” $34.5 million; and “Planet 51,” $12.6 million.

Sunday estimates also show that “2012” climbed to $108.2 million in North America. Disney’s 3D “A Christmas Carol” sits at $79.8 million in its third weekend. And “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire” earned $11 million in 629 locations—with a $17,500 per theatre average—for a new total of $21.4 million.

“Precious” has generated a lot of buzz as a likely best picture Oscar nominee. With awards season underway, we’ll be watching the box office numbers for “Precious” and other releases with Academy Awards potential.

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Posted In: Box Office
Tagged: New Moon, Precious, Twilight

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Kodak Digital Cinema Undergoes Major Strategy Shift

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | November 20, 2009 10:53 pm

For the past several weeks there have been whisperings in conversations throughout the motion picture exhibition industry about organizational changes at Kodak Digital Cinema. To put an end to the conflicting reports that were coming my way I did the most simple of things; picked up the phone and spoke with someone directly at Kodak. Strange, I know, given that this business has gotten us all so used to playing our cards close to the vest, but sometimes a direct approach actually works.

Indeed, Kodak Digital Cinema is dramatically changing the focus of its business. Bob Gibbons, Director of Marketing and Communications for Kodak Digital Cinema lived up to his title by being very upfront in explaining the company’s new strategy. “We’re going to really concentrate on areas that build more directly on our unique capabilities of service and intellectual property licensing,” said Gibbons. “We’re going to discontinue all development and manufacturing of our preshow advertising systems, our Kodak screen management servers, our Kodak theatre management systems and what I refer to as our role as a feature systems integrator, putting the packages together and marketing the packages.”

Acting as a systems integrator has been the most visible part of Kodak’s digital cinema business up until now. Moving forward, Kodak Digital Cinema will instead develop and license digital cinema technologies to be commercialized by others while continuing to provide services and support for existing systems. Though Kodak may not be manufacturing preshow video players any longer, they will continue to prepare and distribute preshow content and playslists.

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Posted In: Digital Cinema, Integrators
Tagged: Bob Gibbons, Kodak Digital Cinema

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“New Moon” Breaks Records For Internet Buzz and Midnight Box Office

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | November 20, 2009 11:57 am

Already one of the most anticipated film releases of 2009, it should come as no surprise that “Twilight Saga: New Moon” is setting all sorts of records, both at the box office and on Internet social networking sites.

According to Variety, the second installment in the “Twilight” franchise smashed the North American box office record for midnight showings by grossing $26.3 million when it screened on 3,514 screens Thursday evening (or more precisely Friday morning). The previous record of $22.2 million was set this past summer by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. On Thursday the Los Angeles Times was predicting the film would open in North America to over $90 million. Ben Fritz’s article points out that the first “Twilight” film had a significant box office drop off of 41% from Friday to Saturday in its opening weekend and a similar decline is expected this time around.

Spurring such wild daily swings of the box office is moviegoers use of Internet social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. On Wednesday 81,000 messages were posted to Twitter and “New Moon” was the top trending topic on the site on Thursday evening and Friday. Mashable has a post this morning detailing what people are saying about the film in their online conversations. They pull their information from a quick study put together by Crimson Hexagon, a company that analyzes social networking trends. Below is a chart measuring 4500 tweets, as Twitter postings are called, referencing the film:

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Posted In: Box Office
Tagged: Los Angeles Times, Twilight: New Moon, Twitter

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Report: Movie Theatre Popcorn Makes You Fat (Surprise!)

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | November 19, 2009 10:49 pm

As if theatre owners didn’t have enough to worry about with studios shrinking release windows at every opportunity, they may soon have to start worrying about moviegoers bypassing the real bread and butter of any exhibitor’s business, or more appropriately the popcorn and butter. A new study conducted by the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest and released earlier today reports that the food items found at most movie theatre concession stands are incredibly unhealthy. Lab tests revealed that eating a medium popcorn and soda combo from Regal Cinemas was the equivalent of eating three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter. For those with a more of an interest in nutrition, that’s 1610 calories and 60 grams (three days’ worth) of saturated fat.

The CSPI report also found that the candy sold by most exhibitors is no better. An extra large box of Junior Mints contains 570 calories and 8 grams of fat. Raisinets are 420 calories and 11 grams of fat. M&Ms may be tiny but they pack in 790 calories and more than a half a day’s supply of saturated fat (16 grams). Then there’s the calorie king of all movie theatre confections, Reese’s Pieces which are loaded with 1,160 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat. To hammer the point home the study compares the intake of such candy to eating a 16-once T-bone stake with a buttered baked potato as a side order. It’s a miracle that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’s heart was still able to glow after downing all those Reese’s Pieces in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster back in the early 1980s. The alien rightfully should’ve keeled over from a heart attack according to CSPI.

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Posted In: Concessions
Tagged: AMC Theatres, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Cinemark, Popcorn, Regal Cinemas

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The MPAA’s Motive In Upsetting Exhibitors Over Release Windows

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | November 9, 2009 12:52 am

Last Thursday when the Motion Picture Association of America made public an ex parte communication they sent to the FCC in defense of a waiver request it caused a flurry of headlines about studios going to war with exhibitors over release windows. To be sure, the letter sent by the MPAA’s lawyers, as well as the press release they sent out the same day directly refer to release windows. The headline of the press release boldly reads “MPAA Seeks FCC Okay For Transmission of First Run Movies Directly To Consumers”. However the MPAA may simply be hiding behind the concept of protecting content during shortened release windows as camouflage for their true motive; securing high definition digital content as it is distributed into the electronic ether of the home by controlling which devices can playback and display the content.

The MPAA’s letter was sent as a rebuttal to a communication sent to the FCC in October by Public Knowledge arguing the waiver not be granted. PK (as they are often referred to) is based in Washington D.C. and considers and is a public interest group that focuses its efforts on digital technology. The second paragraph of the MPAA’s letter and third paragraph of the press release reads in part:

As MPAA has detailed throughout this proceeding, grant of the waiver would for the first time allow millions of consumers to view high-value, high-definition theatrical films during an early release window that is not available today. MPAA has explained that release of this high-value content as part of an earlier window, especially with respect to movies released for home viewing close to or even during their initial theatrical run, necessarily requires the highest level of protection possible through use of SOC.

Ignoring the reference to SOC for the time being (I’ll get to it in a bit), one can see how the phrase “close to or even during their initial theatrical run” might make motion picture exhibitors angry enough to storm MPAA headquarters. It didn’t help that outgoing MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman is quoted in the press release saying:

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Posted In: Organizations
Tagged: Dan Glickman, John Fithian, MPAA, NATO, Release Windows

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Setting The Record Straight On ShowEast

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | November 6, 2009 5:23 pm

Let’s face it, while mainstream media might be screaming about an economic recovery, times are still tough for many businesses all over the world. That is especially true for trade shows. No matter the industry focus, attendance at global conventions has dropped in 2009 by more than 25% in most cases. Just look at attendance at some of the annual confabs the motion picture industry holds; the Sundance Film Festival down 11%, ShoWest down 15%, NAB down 20%, the Cannes Film Festival down 30% and IBC in Amsterdam down at least 7%. That may be why at ShowEast, which was held in Orlando, Florida from October 26th to October 29th, the talk amongst delegates was as much about the trade show’s attendance as it was about 3-D, digital cinema and the upcoming blockbuster release “Avatar”.

While such conversation tends to feed on itself ultimately making mountains out of mole hills, Robert Sunshine, the Vice President of Nielsen Film Group which organizes the event, readily admits attendance at this year’s ShowEast, like most conventions around the world, was down roughly 20%. “It’s numbers that we don’t like to see,” said Sunshine. “We attribute it to the economy and we also attribute it to the fact that there are lots of [industry] conventions, there’s the major convention, ShoWest, and certain people don’t have the money to attend all of these shows so they are picking and choosing where they go.”

Another factor Sunshine might not be considering is that digital cinema is maturing, growing out of its infancy and into adolescence. The technology is responsible for one of the greatest, if not most disruptive, transitions the motion picture exhibition industry has ever seen. By now, there has been some shakeout in the number of companies who entered the digital cinema space, and those that remain are naturally looking to augment their marketing plans. This is a common trend in emerging markets and industries, though unfortunately this phenomena is taking place in digital cinema during a record setting recession.

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Posted In: Trade Shows
Tagged: Bob Sunshine, Chuck Viane, NATO, Nielsen Film Group, ShowEast, ShoWest, Walt Disney Studios

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Katzenberg Keynotes 3D Entertainment Summit

Posted by Carolyn Giardina | September 17, 2009 3:06 pm

3d-entertainment-summit

Jeffery Katzenberg suggested that if exhibition doesn’t grab the 3D opportunity, “it will go down as one of the real great misses of our time.”

He shared his thoughts about 3D, both for the theater and the home, Thursday at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles, during a keynote discussion with Bob Dowling, Summit co-producer and conference chair.

On theater pricing, he said: “Exhibition has been incredibly timid about (pricing). Every piece of research we did showed the consumers felt they got a valuable experience at a $5 premium and almost no one adopted (the premium).”

The Dreamworks Animation CEO commented: “I find it amazingly curious how slow the live action business has been at jumping on this opportunity.” And the 3D champion also admitted that he perhaps went too far in predicting that all content would go 3D, adding that it “dampened his credibility.”

Commenting on Technicolor’s 3D approach, he said: “I’ve seen it in a controlled environment. I’ve yet to see it in a large theater, but the early demonstrations looked pretty good. It’s not ideal but we are in an economy unlike anything we faced in our lifetime. So to me, that’s an interim step.”

Katzenberg noted that theater owners have had a few years head start, but “rollout into the home is going to pick up serious momentum next year.”

During the well attended event, he predicted that sports and games would drive 3D to the home faster than other types of entertainment. As to broadcast, Katzenberg noted that with Disney’s work in the 3D arena, he expects “real leadership” from ESPN.

The two-day event at the Hilton in University City featured a conference program and exhibits from companies including 3Ality Digital, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Sensio and NVidia.

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Posted In: Events, Trade Shows
Tagged: 3D Entertainment Summit, Add new tag, Bob Dowling, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Technicolor

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Technicolor Goes 3D With Film Based System

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | September 17, 2009 8:00 am

With the demand for digital 3D films at an all time high, Technicolor has decided to jump into the fray with what they are calling an affordable, alternative solution that has stirred up intense debate. The leading motion picture service company is introducing the Technicolor 3D Solution, which will allow exhibitors to use their existing 35mm film projectors to project 3D releases without upgrading to more costly digital cinema equipment. And there’s the rub; rather than using digital content Technicolor’s solution is film based.

Even though the technology relies on celluloid, rather than bits and bytes, Ahmad Ouri, Technicolor’s Head of Strategy, Technology & Marketing, on Wednesday assured roughly 400 members of the industry that the technology was not old or steeped in the past. Sitting on a panel titled 3D’s Impact On Digital Deployment at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles, Ouri explained, “It’s actually new technology that we’re introducing that’s perhaps based on an older concept. A lot of people have experienced 3D on film historically. We’re introducing a system that is basically an over/under film based solution that’s two-perf based on a format that Technicolor brought to market decades ago called Techniscope.”

Techniscope was first introduced in 1963 and used by the likes of spaghetti-western filmmaker Sergio Leone in an effort to find more economical ways to shoot. By halving the size of each film frame less film stock could be used, though the image quality was less than that of the four-perf (or four sprocket hole) format. Technicolor 3D Solution uses a special split lens that can be mounted to a conventional 35mm projector which then assembles the left eye and right eye images as the film runs through the projector. Read More »

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Posted In: Digital 3D, Technology
Tagged: Ahmad Ouri, Chuck Goldwater, Frederic Rose, Joseph Peixoto, Technicolor, Technicolor 3D Solution

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DCIP Closer To D-Cinema Funding

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | September 12, 2009 9:06 am

The announcement the entire exhibition and distribution industry has been waiting for has finally happened; Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) will finally get funding to roll out d-cinema equipment on over 15,000 screens at U.S. exhibitors AMC, Regal and Cinemark. Some may view it as a non-announcement as this doesn’t mean the money is in the bank yet. At the very least though, DCIP’s financing is looking more probable than it did earlier this year when the global financial meltdown was holding up any potential funding.

The Hollywood Reporter is stating that investment bank J.P. Morgan has set out to raise $525 million from brand name lenders before seeking additional sources of cash from private equity firms and the exhibitors themselves. So, while funding is not readily at hand, with a heavyweight such as J.P. Morgan in their corner it hopefully won’t be long before DCIP will be seeing some cash to jump start its efforts. Read More »

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Posted In: Integrators
Tagged: AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, DCIP, J.P. Morgan, Regal Cinemas

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