Celluloid Junkie » J. Sperling Reich

Sundance Goes Digital With Assistance From Barco

March 20, 2012

When Barco emailed a press release last Thursday with the subject “Sundance Film Festival expands digital cinema footprint with Barco projectors” I initially figured it must be an error. Sundance is held in Park City, Utah and takes place in January each year. If Barco was looking to get press for this year’s festival they are a little late and if they were trying to get ahead on next year’s event they are way too early.

In fact, the release was about the 2012 festival. Turns out Barco is not only helping theatre owners convert to digital, but they are also giving a hand to film festivals who will ultimately have to adopt the technology. For this past year’s festival Barco provided four additional digital cinema projectors to go with a number of others Sundance was using previously.

You may be wondering why we’re paying any attention to a corporate announcement that comes six weeks after the event in its subject line. Yet the real importance of the release is not necessarily that Barco is supplying film festivals with digital projectors (though it’s great that they are). Rather it is the meaning found between the words and sentences of the press notice that truly matters. It’s not written in black and white, but more of an invisible gray.

For those who may not be familiar with the Sundance Film Festival (i.e. non-film buffs or intelligent life forms from other planets), it is the premiere independent film festival in North America. Along with those in Berlin, Cannes, Telluride, Toronoto and Venice, it is one of the largest such festivals held each year. It has become known as the launching pad for such filmmakers as Darren Aranofsky, the Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, Robert Rodriguez, David O. Russell, Bryan Singer, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and countless others. “Precious”, “Blood Simple”, “Little Miss Sunshine”, “sex, lies, and videotape”, “Reservoir Dogs”, “The Blair Witch Project”, “American Splendor” and “Super Size Me” are just a few of the indie-films which were first shown to the public at Sundance.

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Posted in Digital Cinema, Events

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No More Silver Screens In France

By J. Sperling Reich

March 11, 2012

By 8:00 am Friday morning I had three voicemails and five emails all either trying to pass along or confirm the same implausible news. Rumor was spreading fast that France’s Le Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, otherwise known as the CNC, had banned silver screens throughout the country, giving exhibitors a five year timeframe to comply. If true, it could have enormous implications in the 3D market.

I initially thought some announcement the CNC had made was being misinterpreted after the rumor mill twisted it into something far more alarming. As a part of France’s Ministry of Culture the CNC is responsible for regulating cinema as well as the production and promotion of “audiovisual arts” within the country, so it’s easy to see how such a rumor could be easily believed. However, a quick trip to the CNC website informed me the news was accurate.

At the start of a six day conference on technology in exhibition and distribution, CNC president Eric Garandeau announced an “agreement to ensure the quality of film screenings in movie theaters in the digital age.” In his opening remarks Garandeau acknowledged all the hard work that goes into making a movie and that, “if so many people put so much care to seek perfection in the image, it is necessary that these efforts are visible and even sublimated on the screen, in the most beautiful manner.” Wanting to see the difference for himself, Garandeau held a test screening to see “if a layman could make a comparison and tell the difference between a white screen and a silver screen.”

Garandeau says he saw the bright smile of Oscar winning actor Jean Dujardin switch from white to gray during the test and that the brightness level at the edges of the screen, compared to the center, decreased significantly. Not surprising since color balance, luminance consistency, and hot spots are the major drawbacks when it comes to silver screens, especially when they are used for 2D films.

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Posted in Countries, Digital 3D

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Arts Alliance Rethinks Its Alternative Content Strategy

By J. Sperling Reich

January 9, 2012

How hard is it to find success with alternative content? The answer is; very. So many variables have to fall perfectly in place to find success, much less profit. No matter whether it’s sports, concerts or cultural events, there are rights clearances to obtain, theaters to secure and screenings to promote. None of this is easy, though there are a number of companies that have managed to make a name for themselves in alt. content by routinely producing high profile events including, Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Cinedigm and Fathom Events.

So imagine my surprise when in late November I started to receive emails and phone calls informing me that AAM was getting out of the alt. content business. How could this possibly be? After all, I had just interviewed Elizabeth Draper, who heads up AAM’s alt. content efforts, for a story on marketing such events in Boxoffice Magazine.

Rather than contribute to the rumor mill by posting such news with third party confirmation, I figured it would be best to go straight to the source by getting in touch with Howard Kiedaisch, AAM’s CEO. His email response sums up rather nicely not only AAM’s approach to alt. content, but also the company as a whole:

“Over the last three years AAM have released over 60 alternative content titles. Some have been very successful for our content and exhibition partners but in many cases have left little net contribution for AAM. Meanwhile, AAM’s VPF rollout business continues to grow nicely while our software has become a tremendous success with our recent deals. In looking at what to do going forward on the AC side, we have been reviewing our business model including both the revenue opportunity and the overhead requirements. Through that review we found it necessary to reduce the permanent staffing of the AC department at this time.

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Posted in Alternative Content, Integrators

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NATO Reports Declining Ticket Prices

By J. Sperling Reich

November 5, 2011

In Technorati Media’s “State of the Blogosphere 2011” report it is noted that the number one influencer of bloggers, whether professionals or hobbyists, is other blogs. Over 60% of all bloggers surveyed say they look to other blogs to find topics and subjects to write about. All the copy-cat posts on the same news story or subject have led some to criticize the blogosphere as nothing more than an echo chamber of people all writing about the same ideas in the same way.

Such an effect was demonstrated over the past two days with a news story about the decline of movie ticket prices. I first saw the story posted yesterday on The Wrap followed shortly after by one published on the Hollywood Reporter‘s website. They stated the National Association of Theatre Owners had announced the average ticket price for the third quarter of 2011 had dropped to USD $7.94. That’s lower than the second quarter’s record setting USD $8.06, but higher than the USD $7.86 price of 2011′s first quarter.

The publications “attributed” the price drop to having fewer 3D releases in the quarter, in comparison to the higher number of titles released in the second quarter. Both stories were short and practically carbon copies of one another leading me to believe they must have been citing a press release of some sort.

I waited for NATO’s press release to arrive via email for confirmation of the news, though nothing ever arrived. So, I went to the press release section of the organizations website, but found nothing had been published since October 14th.

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Posted in Box Office

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CineEurope Makes The Move To Barcelona In 2012

By J. Sperling Reich

October 14, 2011

Having changed its name from Cinema Expo to CineEurope this year upon teaming up with the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), now another change is in store for Europe’s largest motion picture exhibitor trade show; its location.

After being held at the Rai in Amsterdam for the past 15 years, the conference is being packed up and moved to Barcelona for the 2012 event. This was a move that had been rumored as far back as 2009, when UNIC decided to hold their own trade show in Brussels a week before Cinema Expo. Rather than compete head-to-head with a larger trade show, UNIC decided to fold the European Cinema Summit into Cinema Expo in 2011 and rebrand it as CineEurope. A change-of-venue could help in reposition the show in attendees’ minds.

In a press release statement announcing the move, Robert Sunshine, the Managing Director of CineEurope (not to mention ShowEast and CineAsia), said:

“The move to Barcelona represents CineEurope’s dedication to better serving the European cinema exhibition and distribution communities. CineEurope management and UNIC consulted with constituents and the overwhelming feedback received was that a move to Spain would be a beneficial change”.

Underscoring the new venture as a combined effort, Ad Westrate, the President of UNIC, also provided a press release quote

‘’I am sure I speak for all UNIC colleagues in welcoming CineEurope’s move to Barcelona and our continuing partnership with Bob Sunshine and his team. Our members will now have even more reasons to support the convention in its new host city.”

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Posted in Trade Shows

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Mexico’s Cinepolis Heads North Of The Border

By J. Sperling Reich

October 13, 2011

Not sure how I missed this. None of the gazillion Google alerts I’ve set up to track all things exhibition and distribution informed me that National Public Radio broadcast a story on Cinépolis back on August 12th. Nor did I hear the piece on Morning Edition, the NPR program my alarm clock blares on most days. (No doubt it aired during one of my many “snooze bar” fits.) There was even a story in the Hollywood Reporter that slipped under my radar.

If you live in the United States or Europe and have never heard of Cinépolis that may change very soon. The Mexican based theatre chain has a history dating back to 1947 and has grown to encompass more than 2,500 screens in over 270 theaters spanning several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and, of course, Mexico.

Over the past 10 years Cinépolis has gone through explosive growth to become the fourth largest theatre chain in the world. They company serves nearly 117 million moviegoers each year and its theaters in Mexico account for more than 61% of the country’s box office. A few years back the company began opening multiplexes in India. Now they’ve moved north into the United States and opened their first Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas in Del Mar, California, a wealthy suburb of San Diego.

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Posted in Theatre Openings

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Universal Cancels “Tower Heist” Premium-VOD Test

By J. Sperling Reich

October 12, 2011

Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy Star In "Tower Heist"

Well that didn’t take long. Facing stiff opposition from exhibitors Universal Pictures has decided to scrap its plan of releasing “Tower Heist” on premium-video-on-demand three weeks after its November 4th release. The move comes a week after the studio originally announced its intentions to run a PVOD test in Atlanta and Portland which would make the film available to about 500,000 cable subscribers for USD$59.99.

No doubt the number of exhibitors willing to boycott the film outright had a great deal to do with the decision. Previously Cinemark, Emagine Theatres, Galaxy Theatres, Regency Theatres and an additional 50 screens owned by independent operators all publicly stated they would not be booking the film if Universal went ahead with the premium-VOD test. Then today National Amusements joined the list of exhibitors opting not to show “Tower Heist”. With 950 screens worldwide, National Amusements is one of the largest chains in the United. States. Bloomberg reported that of the 39,000 screens in the U.S., 12% were participating in the boycott.

If that figure directly corresponds to the drop in box office Universal could expect for “Tower Heist” then that’s significant. Given that it is predicted the film will make upwards of a USD $100 million or more, that could mean foregoing USD $12 million in receipts. It’s unlikely that Universal’s PVOD test would have brought in as much, even if the studio decided to roll it out nationwide. Try explaining that to talent whose contracts are tied to theatrical box office gross.

So earlier today Universal released a prepared statement reversing their decision to test PVOD with “Tower Heist”:

“Universal Pictures today announced that in response to a request from theater owners, it has decided to delay its planned premium home video on demand (PVOD) experiment. Universal continues to believe that the theater experience and a PVOD window are business models that can coincide and thrive and we look forward to working with our partners in exhibition to find a way to experiment in this area in the future.”

Before Universal’s original plan was made public, they reached out to key theater owners to inform them of their desire to release “Tower Heist” on PVOD. I’m not sure what came of these conversations or whether they were more of a warning to exhibitors rather than a request or negotiation. Jon Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, who had been mum on Universal’s plans until today, referenced this ongoing dialogue in his response to the studios about-face:

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Posted in Distributors

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Woman Sues “Drive” Distributor Over Misleading Trailer

By J. Sperling Reich

October 10, 2011

Living up to the stereotype that you can file a lawsuit for just about anything in the United States, the Hollywood Reporter published a story over the weekend about a woman in Michigan who is suing the distributor of “Drive” over what she claims is a misleading trailer.

Sarah Deming’s lawsuit states that FilmDistrict’s trailer for “Drive”:

“…promoted the film ‘Drive’ as very similar to the ‘Fast and Furious’, or similar, series of movies…’Drive’ bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film… having very little driving in the motion picture.”

The critically acclaimed film is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and stars Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood stunt driver who takes side jobs as a getaway driver for various robberies. “Drive” does feature at least one car chase which is likely to go down in the annals of cinema history as one of the medium’s best, but the movie is hardly a shot ‘em action film similar to the “Fast and Furious” franchise. In fact, the story centers more on Gosling’s character and his flirtations with a character played by Carey Mulligan. It’s more of a thinking-man’s suspense film.

Even so, the trailer wasn’t Deming’s only complaint. She was also turned off by moments of overblown cartoonish violence depicted in “Drive” which left very little to the imagination. Her lawsuit went on to claim:

“Drive was a motion picture that substantially contained extreme gratuitous defamatory dehumanizing racism directed against members of the Jewish faith, and thereby promoted criminal violence against members of the Jewish faith.”

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Posted in Trailers

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Universal Hopes “Tower Heist” Will Pass The Premium-VOD Test

By J. Sperling Reich

October 7, 2011

In what the Los Angeles Times called “an audacious move” earlier this week, Universal Pictures announced earlier this week that it would allow the Eddie Murphy action comedy “Tower Heist” to be shown via premium-video-on-demand three weeks after its November 4th release date. Naturally, if Universal finds premium-VOD to be profitable without gutting their theatrical box office receipts, you can bet every other studio will follow their lead.

Of course, exhibitors aren’t big fans of premium-VOD or shortening the theatrical window from its current 90-day average in any form. Their big fear is that patrons will be accustomed to simply wait for a movie to be available at home rather than head to the theater not only lowering attendance but also permanently damaging concession sales.

The biggest downside of Universal’s plan, besides ticking off exhibitors, is the whopping USD $59.99 cost of screening “Tower Heist” in the comfort of your own home. During a time when news reports have the world headed toward another recession that kind of price might cripple sales. After all, USD $60 is roughly the price of six tickets on average at a movie theater.

However, it is tough economic times in the first place that is causing the movie industry to experiment with premium-VOD as they try to replace sagging DVD sales. But you probably already know that. In fact, you probably also know that theater owners will be just a angry about Universal’s current plans as they were this spring when the studio, along with three others, struck a deal with satellite television provider DirecTV to make a handful of titles available for premium-VOD 60 days after theatrical release for USD $29.99.

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Posted in Analysis, Distributors

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