Category Archives: Analysis

Official: Irish love their filum in cinemas

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | November 2, 2007 2:24 am

Irish Destiny poster Statistics released by the European statistical agency Eurostat has revealed that the Irish are the Union’s most frequent cinema-goers, with over four visits per year, compared to the EU average of just under two. From an article in the Hollywood Reporter:

The Irish are Europe’s keenest cinemagoers, hitting the theater an average of 4.2 times a year, compared with the European Union average of 1.9.

The figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat, published Monday, reveal that other eager cinemagoers included the French (3.0), the Spanish (2.8) and Luxembourgers (2.7), while the least frequent attendees were the Romanians (0.1), Bulgarians (0.3) and Slovakians (0.6).

In the past year, 51% of EU citizens said they had been to the cinema at least once, though this figure stood at 71% in Sweden, 69% in Denmark and 66% in Ireland. When broken down by age, the figures showed the dominance of youth: 82% of 15- to 24-year-olds had been to the cinema at least once versus 66% of 25- to 39-year-olds, 53% of 40- to 54-year-olds and 24% of those over 55.

The report can be found here. However, if non-EU countries had been taken into consideration Iceland might have nudged out Ireland, as pan-European statistics from Screen Digest tend to confirm the smaller of the two north Atlantic islands as the the number one home of cinema buffs.

According to the report, the most internationalist viewers seem to live in Sweden and Denmark, where 73 and 74 per cent respectively reported having seen a ‘foreign language’ film or television programme in the past year - though I assume that they mean non-English, or the rate would have been closer to 100 per cent.

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as , cinema going, Europe, Eurostat, Statistics

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IMAX goes for digital cinema and 3D in 4K

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | October 22, 2007 10:57 pm

Large format (LF) exhibitor IMAX is slowly pulling the curtains back on its long-gestating plans for digital cinema and how to hang on to the 3D cinema market segment, just as digital 3D is about to go mainstream with ‘Beowulf‘.

Few people remember that IMAX was once going to conquer the digital cinema space when it bought UK projector maker Digital Projection International (DPI), which was on of the the three DLP Cinema(TM) licensees. Having failed in this venture and hived off DPI to NEC (who have made an only marginally better job of it), IMAX promised that they would still show the world IMAX-digital with their super-secret projector project. Then things went quiet for a long time. Until now.

At the recently concluded ShowEast IMAX announced that it l install the first prototypes of its digital technology in mid-2008 in three of its theatres. According to the article in Hollywood Reporter:

Imax previously pointed to late 2008 and early 2009 as the likely rollout dates for its digital projection technology.

After the first six digital projection systems meet unspecified “performance specifications,” Imax said it planned to proceed with a full rollout in the last half of 2008.

The Imax digital projection system, now in development and trials, will enable theaters to receive movies on a hard drive for digital projection. That eliminates the need for costly and heavy Imax film prints that require loading via forklifts on clunky projection systems.

Unfortunately it is not only the ‘performance criteria’ that are unspecified, but the underlying technology as well. Fortunately there is more details in a news/analysis item from Screen Digest that tell us that:

No further details about the technicality of the system were revealed, but initially it was stated that each screen would be fitted with two Sony 4K digital cinema projectors, coupled with custom lenses, a high bandwidth server and Imax Image enhancement engine.

This fits in with previous speculation and rumours about IMAX’s plans. It also makes sense from a technical perspective because two IMAX projectors aligned would give enough brightness for a large format screen and also enable 3D with each projector providing left eye/right eye image. However, if I was Sony I would NOT be trumpeting this use of their technology, because it risks giving the perception that 4K is specialised large format (LF) standard for a niche market at a time when they want to compete with DLP 2K for the multiplex mass-market.

However, from a quality perspective it is true that 2K is closer to 35mm release print quality while 4K is closer to 70mm. It also highlights that at the moment you need two Sony 4K projectors to display digital stereoscopic images. But we won’t know the details for sure until 2008.

In the meantime IMAX have been quick to make sure that they too are part of the expected ‘Beowulf’ 3D bonanza by announcing that the film will go out in both digital 3D and on IMAX (traditional film) 3D. Having been the first to mass market 3D with ‘Polar Express’ IMAX have still not forgiven DLP digital cinema from snatching away the 3D crown in recent years and even went so far as to attempt to sue digital 3D companies In-Three - but failed.
In the meantime IMAX has been picking up new exhibitor deals, including a major one with Regal and even in Morocco.

To finish off on the subject of digital 3D, Wired has an article looking at the various aspects of 3D ahead of ‘Beowulf’ with some good insights for the average reader. Money quote:

But the spine-tingling moments weren’t when Ray Winstone, playing Beowulf, thrusts his sword at the audience — a 3-D cliché from the ’50s. They came when he faces a digitally enhanced Angelina Jolie playing the mother of the monstrous Grendel, in a dank, forbidding cave. Jolie makes for a stunningly seductive sorceress, so it’s all the more terrifying when her features momentarily morph into a death mask. A 3-D sword can make you jerk back in your seat, no question. But 3-D is even better when it draws you in — into the endless shadows of a cave, or into the vortex of a shrieking face.

The following day, the screenwriters were ecstatic. “It was like a third eye opened up in my forehead,” gushed Avary, who was already plotting out Beowulf when he wrote Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino more than a decade ago. “It’s so large and extraordinary and hyperreal that I can’t be anything but giddy. When I left the theater, I wanted the rest of the world to look like that.”

Hollywood is betting that audiences will feel the same way.

Not just Hollywood, but IMAX and a lot of cinemas and equipment makers too.

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as Beowulf, Digital 3D, Digital Dinema, Digital Projection, Hollywood Reporter, IMAX, In-Three, NEC, Polar Express, Screen Digest

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There’s not really 5,000 digital cinemas out there

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | October 17, 2007 11:59 pm

Texas Instruments might have you believe that there are 5,000 digital cinema installations across the world and on “every continent except Antarctica,” based on the press release ‘DLP Cinema(R) Technology Surpasses 5,000 Screen Milestone‘. But this is based on a creative definition of what constitutes a cinema screen. But that does not stop the PR from gushing:

There are 5,260 DLP Cinema enabled theatres installed across the globe, an increase of 140% from the same period one year ago.

The pristine picture quality and ideal combination of contrast, color and brightness created by DLP Cinema allowed DLP Cinema technology to quickly become the industry standard. DLP Cinema(R) technology is deployed throughout 99% of the digital cinema market and is in every continent in the world except Antarctica. DLP Cinema expects to surpass 5,500 screens by mid November, 2007 and 10,000 screens by the end of 2008.

It then goes on to discuss 3D, noting that there will be a 1,000 digital 3D-enabled screens in North America in time for ‘Beowulf’, which is very impressive given that that time two years ago when ‘Chicken Little’ came out in digital 3D there were just 83 screens put in place.

Which brings us back to what constitutes a ’screen’ or, more properly, ‘cinema screen’. As TI counts it, this is not a screen that you would find in a cinema or multiplex, but any screen with a DLP Cinema(R) projector pointing at it. This means that post-production facility grading room, preview theatres, specialized screening rooms, simulator installations, theme park screens and other places all fall within this category. These can be as much as ten per cent, given that post houses and other film service locations have had to digitize faster than cinemas to provide the content.

So we are somewhere above the 4,500 mark in terms of proper digital cinema installations, which in itself is impressive, but it is not the nice round number that TI has rolled out for ShowEast.

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as Digital Dinema, DLP Cinema, Texas Instruments

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How to keep trouble (makers) from your cinema

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | October 13, 2007 1:53 am

Kerasotes cinemas Here is a fairly controversial way of keeping potential troublemakers from your cinema - ban under-17s from late night screenings on Fridays and Saturdays. That’s the what the chairman and CEO of Kerasotes Theatres has started doing after a shooting incident at one of his cinemas. The article in the Chicago Tribune (Theater owner limits kids’ access, delays movies to stop problems) points out that the issue is not unique for Springfield, Ill:

Theaters nationwide have tried the no-kids approach for a variety of reasons, says Patrick Corcoran, spokesman for the National Association of Theatre Owners. Some want to serve alcohol, he says. Sometimes having teens at mall-based theaters after closing time makes mall owners nervous.

“Too many kids hanging out, and people get worried,” Corcoran says.

Kerasotes, whose chain operates more than 800 movie screens, has tackled the issue head-on wherever he sees a problem — even if his methods draw criticism.

Teens under 18 in Cicero, Ill., and South Bend, Ind., are not admitted to movies without parents unless they attend a 10-minute “code of conduct” presentation, verified by an ID they must show.

I would love to see what the 10 minute ‘code of conduct’ presentation’ is like, but since I don’t live in Illinois and would not want to encourage someone to sneak in a camcorder and record it and share it on YouTube as that is very, very illegal in most US states, I guess I’ll probably never know.

With the town of Springfield having a large Latino population, the issue of race obviously comes up, but the truth is that it is at heart a age-related demographic-economic issue. Older patrons are becoming increasingly important to cinemas and they can’t have the perception of troublesome kids wrecking the cinema keeping the growing pool of well of OAPs away from screenings of ‘The Jane Austen Book Club‘ and similar genteel fare.

Kerasotes admits as much, when the article reveals that “Although last year’s shooting factored into his decision to try it, it’s more an attack on teens who have a “different culture of moviegoing,” text-messaging or conversing aloud with friends while the reels roll, Kerasotes says.” Completely age segregated multiplexes, anyone?

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as cinema patron behaviour, Kerasotes Theatres, NATO

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Halo 3 Bigger Than Spider-Man 3, But…

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | September 28, 2007 5:20 pm

Halo 3 BFI London IMAX

The Hollywood Reporter is not fooled by Microsoft’s PR spinners’ claim that first-day sales of ‘Halo 3‘ is “the biggest entertainment launch in history,” noting in the article (which it nevertheless made an e-mail bulletin of) that:

“Halo” not only passed the opening-day boxoffice record of $59.8 million set by Sony’s “Spider-Man 3″ in May, its one-day haul Tuesday also vaulted it ahead of Spidey’s three-day opening-weekend record of $151 million.

However, the unit sales of “Halo 3″ were overshadowed by those of J.K. Rowling’s novel “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” when it was published in July. “Hallows” sold 8.3 million copies in the U.S. during its first 24 hours. Microsoft did not supply unit sales but did note that more than 1.7 million copes [sic!] were preordered.

‘Copes’?!? OK, so the paper version of the Boy Wizard trumps the helmeted alien exterminator, though Microsoft must be gloating that the film whose weekend takings they trumpeted was made by the same studio whose parent company make the rival PS3 game console. But Halo 3’s sales was impressive and Microsoft knew that they had a blockbuster hit on their hands and launched it like a proper film at London’s BFI IMAX cinema (message: “This is WAY bigger than a regular film, so we need a screen that is way bigger.”) There is good blogging from the launch event here, where we’ve also taken the picture above from.

However, here is the point about games vs. cinema. Cinema is an expensive way to advertise films - which typically make less than 20 per cent of their life-time earnings at the box office - for when they come out on DVD. But when ‘Halo 3′ comes out on DVD….oops, that’s how it gets sold already. And there are no ancillary platforms for games, if you don’t count PSP or Nintendo DS hand held consoles. Now if you want a proper discussions, tell me which is typically worse, games made into films or films turned into games.

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as gaming, Halo 3, Microsoft, Sony, Xbox

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Do games work on the big screen?

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | September 21, 2007 2:19 pm

Less than two dozen posts and we are fearlessly tackle the Big Questions About The Future OF Cinema in this blog, such as do games have a future in the multiplex. As games get more sophisticated in terms of graphics, plot and budget, attempts are being made to transplant them to the cinema environment.

In Australia researchers at the University of New South Wales‘ department iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research (yes, it really exists) have developed technology that the claim creates ‘an immersive experience’ whereby the audiences explore a film using a joystick. This from an article in Sydney Morning Herald:

One of iCinema’s projects, Place-Hampi, plunges viewers into a 360-degree re-creation of the temple ruins in Hampi, southern India. The filmed ruins are populated with animated Hindu gods and research is under way to allow viewers to interact with the virtual characters. “What we’re doing I don’t think will replace existing formats. It is quite distinct and different from going to the movies,” Professor Shaw says.

“The future of the cinema will be a whole family of different types of interactive experiences. There will be specific sites where you’ll go to have very large-scale and very sophisticated experiences like going to a museum, or a rock concert. But we also see enormous development in terms of interactive cinema in the home.”

iDome The iCinema Centre has built a ‘lounge room friendly’ iDome (Have they checked with Steve Jobs about the use of all these iTerms? - Ed.), which is apparently a a fibreglass screen just three metres in diameter. This sounds like little more than the CAVE type of 3D simulation already widely in use.

A more traditional type of cinema testing gaming is UK’s Odeon, which has equipped its Huddersfield multiplex with on-screen gaming in partnership with Big Screen Games. Here is how Odeon’s website describes it:

In line with the major entertainment milestones such as the moving picture, colour, surround sound and digital cinema, a new innovation in cinema history has been born. Big Deal Games, in partnership with ODEON, are introducing in-cinema gaming on the big screen!

Big Screen Games is the newest entertainment phenomenon and is exclusive to ODEON - an interactive game-show with the audience as contestants! Using interactive game consoles, players compete against each other right from their seats.

You can play fun and familiar games such as bingo, trivia and memory match and win cash and prizes! Hosted by popular comedian, Vic Reeves, Big Screen Games will revolutionise the cinema experience. Hundreds of people can play against each other, individually or in teams, right there on the cinema screen - an experience unrivalled in the world of entertainment!

Bold claim, but I’m sure Odeon will wait and see how it goes before it follows up on the plans to roll out the concept to other Odeon cinemas. For now you can test it for yourself at Huddersfield Mon-Wed after 8:15 pm. I tested the touch screen concept a couple of years ago and I can’t say that it attracts me to the cinema the way the latest ‘Bourne’ film would, but then maybe I’m not the target demographic.

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as Australia, Big Screen Games, iCinema, interactive, Odeon

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No Avatar vs. Monsters vs. Aliens at the BO

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | September 20, 2007 2:27 pm

It was a battle of the titans at the box office that was destined not to be. Paramount and DreamsWorks Animation (DWA) have moved the release date of ‘Monsters vs. Aliens‘ significantly forward to avoid a clash with James Cameron’s ‘Avatar‘. Both films were set to be showcase examples of the new digital 3D technology in cinemas already used to screen ‘Meet the Robinsons‘, ‘Monster House‘ and the upcoming ‘Beowulf‘ stereoscopically. Having initially both set release dates for 22 May 2009, ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ at first shifted slightly to 15 May but have now moved further forward to 27 March 2009, making it an Easter release. ‘Avatar’ has meanwhile not budged, showing the strength of Cameron and Fox. Quoted in the Hollywood Reporter, Katzenberg was pragmatic about the move:

Had “Monsters” stuck to its proposed May release, “I saw more and more problems splitting the market for 3-D right at the time when it will be becoming the most exciting thing in moviegoing,” Katzenberg told The Reporter. “Instead of splitting the market, I want to see it get launched in the best possible way.”

Katzenberg predicted that there would be 5,000-8,000 3-D screens available domestically by the time “Monsters” rolls out in 2009. While a 2-D version of the film also will play in smaller markets, the majority of its U.S. dates will use the new 3-D technologies.

With its new release date, “Monsters” will have an eight-week window in the 3-D corridor before “Avatar” takes over for the Memorial Day holiday.

Given that digital 3D movies have staying power, this should just about give MvA enough time to complete its run. Variety also has an article about it, but it ads little new, other than Katzenberg quipping that “In 2009, summer begins on March 29,” though what is more likely is that on that day the power of digital 3D in cinemas will be tested as it outnumbers the releases on 35mm film or even regular 2D digital.

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as , Aliens vs. Monsters, Avatar, Dreamworks Animation, Katzenberg

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Beaming directors to a cinema near you

Posted by Patrick von Sychowski | September 18, 2007 5:53 pm

Ken Loach Paul Laverty

Last week the London’s BFI Southbank (nee, NFT - the National Film Theatre) transmitted a live interview with director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty via satellite to nine cinemas across the UK, following a special screening of the pair’s latest film ‘It’s a Free World‘. The event on Thursday 13 September was part of the Guardian Interview series that has been running severla years, but the first time that they had ’shared’ this event with other cinemas, most of them art-house venues spread across the UK. The event was publicised at the BFI Southbank’s homepage:

The BFI has teamed up with Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films and City Screen in an innovative scheme that will see Loach’s new feature film previewed simultaneously at venues across the UK on Thursday 13 September; it will subsequently air on Channel 4 in late September. Following the special preview screenings of ‘It’s a Free World…’, Loach’s first feature since the Palme d’Or-winning ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’, all venues will receive the on-stage Guardian Interview with Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty via live satellite broadcast.

The event was a straightforward Q&A, the transcript of which you can read here, with a brief acknowledgment at the start and end of the interview that cinema goers from across the UK were following the discussion (”Hello, Belmont Picturehouse, Aberdeen!”). But there were no questions telephoned or texted in from the audiences in the other cinemas. What was the experience like? I was in the worst possible cinema to judge this, as I was in the ~~NFT~~ BFI Southbank itself. So we got Ken Loach in full analogue 3D and saw the cameras and stage managers holding up fingers counting down the number of minutes left until they went off-air. No write ups in news have appeared of the event, though the mostly right wing Englis press usually like to ignore or vilify Loach, so no surprise that they are not hailing him or the BFI for innovative uses of of satellite technology.

No doubt the BFI Southbank have a success on their hands with these types of events. The Guardian Interviews with directors such as Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino are typically many many time over-subscribed, and that’s just for London (interestingly two cinemas in London screened the interview - Greenwich Picturehouse and Brixton Ritzy). With digital cinema projectors there should also be less of a problem getting copies out to the cinemas even with one-off screening like this (the film will screen on Channel 4 less than two weeks after the BFI screening and be available on DVD not long after). But how big is the market for this type of event beyond the arthouse?

While the event was a first for BFI, it’s far from the first time this has been tried anywhere. BVI, City Screen Picturehouse Cinemas and Arts Alliance Media hosted “the UK’s first interactive multi-site film screening event” with director M Night Shyamalan in August 2004 for ‘The Village‘. The event was a technical and audience success but has tellingly not been repeated by the partners involved, meaning that the pay back might have been limited. Even prior to this Regal/NCM tried something similar with the ‘Red Carpet Premier’ of ‘Maid in Manhattan‘ in December 2002, as well as educational talks with James Cameron for ‘Ghosts of the Abyss‘ and the odd ‘film event’ by the NCM Fathom division (PDF link to list of events). Even priot to this US college campus preview/advertising operation Network Event Theatres Inc (NETS) held regular previews with Cast & Crew Q & A (read the SEC filing describing its operation here), such as this one of ‘Wild Things’. (Amazingly the films were transmitted in HD - definitely not DCI compliant - over satellite prior to their cinema screening and shown for free with a sponsor paying for the cost).

But if this is to take off in a larger way there needs to be more money to be made from Q&As and that can only come from two sources. Either audiences pay a premium to see films with a live Q&A and the premium must be high enough to not just pay for the logistics but for the opportunity cost of the screen-time that would otherwise be used to show a film, or by the distributor who sees publicity value in holding such an event. Judging by the Loach event, not much publicity was squeezed from it. What’s more, Q&As are already widely available. You can get excellent podcasts and even vodcasts for free from BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and TV Arts - see here or search for ‘BAFTA’ on the iTunes store) and most DVDs feature director’s commentaries. I’m not sure how many people listen to these and whether it is the talent’s ego or audience’s demand that drives these.

So just like most films ultimately realize their primary financial value on DVD, so too will these live broadcast Q&As ultimately be most widely seen when they appear as extra matrial on DVDs. Just don’t expect to be able to interact with the DVD by posing questions. It’s a shame that the DVD sale of ‘It’s a Free World’ is taking place so close to the films outing at the BFI Southbank and Channel 4 that there is no time to include it on the DVD.

Posted in Analysis
Tagged as Alternative Content, BFI Southbank, Ken Loach, podcast, Q&A, satellite

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Full “Iron Man” Trailer Airs During “Daily Show”

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | September 13, 2007 6:58 am

Monday night the film industry may have figured out a way to combat a growing problem faced by most television advertisers; time shifting. Wikipedia, that bastion of all things completely true and accurate, defines “time shifting” as:

“the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts.”

While time shifting may be all the rage these days, I’ve been doing it since September of 2003 when I first purchased Tivo. Ever since, it is the rare television show that I will watch live. Anyone who has ever owned a Tivo or DVR knows the luxury of being able to record your favorite television shows, and even live events, so that you can watch them whenever you want. And for those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, you might want to join the 21st century as soon as humanly possible by taking a trip to your local electronics store to pick up one of God’s gifts to couch potatoes.

One of the greatest features of Tivo and DVRs is their ability to allow viewers to skip over commercials either through fast forwarding through them, or jumping ahead 30 seconds. While consumers may be saving millions of hours by jumping past plugs for the latest laundry detergent or gas guzzling SUV, advertisers have been griping quite loudly about their commercials being “zapped” for some time now.

Posted in Analysis, Trailers
Tagged as Iron Man, Paramount, Trailers, Viacom

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