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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Anyone who has attended an industry trade show this year or has taken even a cursory look at international box office grosses has undoubtedly noticed the increase in revenue being generated in two countries; China and Russia. It’s no secret that the cinema market in both of these territories is on the rise as each goes through their own multiplex boom. While researching a piece on international box office for the July issue of Boxoffice Magazine I was told by Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution for Warner Bros., “Russia has been the single biggest growth story in the last decade, and China will be the biggest growth market looking ahead.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia continued to be a growth story for some time to come. That’s precisely the subject of a recent IHS Screen Digest report authored by David Hancock. Some of the highlights from the report include:
- Record box office in Russia surpassing the USD $1 billion in 2010
- The market has 2,430 screens of which 297 were added in 2010 – the strongest growth in the last five years
- Over 30% of all the screens in Russia are in Moscow and St. Petersburg
- Of the 941 digital screens in Russia, 95% are capable of showing 3D
Of course, the IHS Screen Digest report contains enough facts and figures to prove the point ten times over, certainly more than can be recounted here. Suffice to say, Russia is now a market that is so important that Paramount held the world premiere of “Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon” in Moscow on June 23rd.
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Cinema Digitaal, the organization overseeing the rollout of digital cinema in the Netherlands, has selected Arts Alliance Media to as their integrator to convert more than 500 screens throughout the country to digital.
Under the exclusive arrangement AAM will install and maintain digital cinema equipment and technology in a wide range of cinemas encompassing large exhibition chains and smaller art house venues. Circuits not participating in the rollout include Pathe, Euroscoop and Utopolis, as they will be handling their own conversions.
AAM will also provide their VPF deals with five Hollywood studios and is in the process of finalizing similar deals with the 14 local distributors that make up the NVF.
Cinema Digitaal was founded by the Dutch Association of Cinema Operators (Nederlandse Vereniging van Bioscoopexploitanten, NVB), the Dutch Film Distributors’ Association (Nederlandse Vereniging van Filmdistributeurs, NVF) and the EYE Film Institute. The Dutch government is funding 14 percent of the project with additional funds coming from the Netherlands Film Fund (Nederlands Fonds voor de Film) and bank financing.
With no VPF deals of their own, Cinema Digitaal needed to partner with an entity that had such agreements covering the Netherlands. Thus, it was really a choice between AAM, XDC and Ymagis.
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At the outset of CinemaCon this past Monday Steve Perrin gave an interesting presentation titled “Harnessing The Power of the VPF”. As the Chief Executive of Digital Funding Partnership (DFP) Perrin is in a position to know a thing or two about virtual print fees. He’ll have some help in this department now that DFP has entered into an agreement with XDC for the deployment of digital cinema in theatres throughout the United Kingdom.
The Cinema Exhibitors’ Association created DFP in 2009 to help small and mid-sized theatre owners in the UK secure funding for digital cinema conversions. The group is a legal entity consisting of approximately 400 screens at 130 mainstream and specialized cinemas operated by more than 100 theatre owners.
Perrin spent more than a year studying the country’s booking patterns, box office receipts and endless market data in an attempt to determine whether VPF deals would work for independent cinemas in the UK. In doing so he confirmed that VPFs work best for large theatre circuits which play mostly mainstream content. Smaller cinemas showing less mainstream content at varying turn rates are not as attractive to local or international distributors, making it difficult, if not impossible, for theatre owners to gain access to VPF deals.
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Less than a year after the formation of The Foundation for Digitizing Dutch Cinema (Stitchting Digitalisering Nederandse Cinema), the group has found some of the financing required to convert Netherlands’ cinemas to digital. The organization was formed in July of this year by the Dutch Association of Cinema Operators (Nederlandse Vereniging van Bioscoopexploitanten, NVB), the Dutch Film Distributors’ Association (Nederlandse Vereniging van Filmdistributeurs, NVF) and the EYE Film Institute, which is the Netherlands new film center.
In July the three groups announced a €38 million (USD $50.6 million or GBP £32 million) plan to rollout digital cinema in 520 of the Netherlands’ 755 screens (243 venues) by the middle of 2012. The largest Dutch theatre chain, Pathé, is not participating in the plan because their French parent company, EuroPalaces, is handling its own conversion.
The foundation has established CinemaDigitaal, a new organization to oversee and supervise the rollout. The Dutch government will fund 14 percent of the project with the remainder coming from an undisclosed contribution from the Netherlands Film Fund (Nederlands Fonds voor de Film) and bank financing which CinemaDigitaal is in the process of securing.
Though there has been some debate in the industry over whether national funding will be allowed by the European Union, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has had ongoing discussions with EU officials regarding the proposed model. The Dutch government’s participation falls below the de-minimus limit for state aid and is being made possible through an ongoing national information technology initiative (Programma Implementatie Agenda ICT-Beleid, PRIMA). As well, the government’s support is earmarked for non-commercial theatres.
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North America wasn’t the only territory to break box office records in 2009. In reviewing the backlog of posts I’ve been wanting to get to, I came across an announcement from the Asociace Producentu V Audiovizi a.k.a. Czech Audiovisual Producer’s Association (APA) which reported the country reached record box office and attendance during 2009.
Attendance reached 12.4 million moviegoers generating CZK 1.25 billion crowns (EUR €50.4 million or USD $70.32 million) in ticket sales according to the APA. The final box office was up CZK 31 million crowns over 2008 when grosses amounted to CZK 1.20 K? billion crowns (EUR €46.3 million or USD $64.60 million). What’s impressive about this figure is that the average ticket price in the Czech Republic is only CZK 100.3 crowns (EUR €4.1 or USD $5.72).
Most of the Czech box office (87 percent) came from multiplexes were moviegoers favored homegrown content over foreign productions. Four Czech films were among top 10 grossers of 2009. They include the most successful title of the year “Líbáš jako Buh” (“You Kiss Like A God”) by director Marie Polednáková which earned CZK 90 million (€3.6 million or USD $5 million) from more than one million viewers. It should come as no surprise to find 3D Hollywood blockbusters such as “Avatar” and “Ice Age 3″ among the top finishers as well.
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Last night I had the privilege of attending the opening night of the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. The film being shown was “Benda Bilili” a fantastic documentary about a Congolese band made up of homeless parapelgics who go on to win international acclaim. Before the lights dimmed however the audience was addressed by the head of the Société des réalisateurs de films, the French Director’s Guild which organizes the Cannes sidebar.
After handing filmmaker Agnès Varda a lifetime achievement award, Malik Chibane (at least I believe it was him) turned to the audience with a serious word of caution. He was speaking in French and between what I understood and what was translated by the person standing next to Chibane I figured it was worth repeating here.
Keeping in mind, I’m paraphrasing, Chibane told the audience that “Benda Bilili” was being shown in 35mm and a film projector, which is how films had been shown for the past 100 years. However, this won’t always be the case. Very soon cinemas throughout France will undergo a digital conversion and films will be delivered on hard drives. He warned that such technology will actually decrease the diversity of films being shown in theatres, especially for French films. He stated that small theatres wouldn’t be able to convert to digital cinema, just those showing big blockbuster films.
Then as the film started a short 20 second promo put together by the SFR was shown. Again it was in French so I’m paraphrasing, but effectively the message of the animated spot was that a lack of diversity undermines the movies and that digital cinema threatened French culture. The trailer is embedded at the head of this post. Read More »
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This past week the digital cinema pipeline into movie theatres in India became a little more narrow – figuratively, not literally or technically. On Thursday Reliance MediaWorks (formerly Adlabs), one of India’s largest entertainment services companies announced a “strategic alliance” with UFO Moviez, a company billed as the world’s largest digital cinema network in the press release.
This is the kind of business news that usually doesn’t make a huge impact whether in trade papers or in the mainstream media. However, it’s actually a significant announcement. What it means is that a most digital content mastering being done for the Indian market will now be conducted under one roof. Besides being the film lab which handles 80% of all Bollywood releases, RMW is also home to one of India’s largest digital intermediate facilities. Previous digital mastering for pan-Indian films was split between the two companies with RMW handling JPEG200 DCI content and UFO taking care of non-DCI e-cinema content.
Real Image is another company offering digital mastering in India, handling both d-cinema and e-cinema to support the sale of its servers for both markets. What the alliance between RMW and UFO does is swing the balance of digital mastering work squarely in RMW’s favor while leaving a question mark over the future of Real Image’s mastering efforts.
Under the agreement UFO will set up an additional encoding and encryption facility on RMW’s premises and effectively turn over the work to their new partner. Read More »
Popularity: 35% [?]
Norway’s FILM & KINO has announced that it has signed virtual print fee (VPF) agreements with five out of six studios (discussions with Sony Pictures still on-going), thus paving the way to make it the first country to switch over all of its cinemas to digital in a government-led effort. Announcement in Norwegian here and press release in English here. From the latter:
Film & Kino, the Norwegian interest organization for cinemas, announces the world’s first non-commercial complete national digital roll out with agreements with Twentieth Century Fox, United International Pictures (the local distributor for Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures in Norway), Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International, and Warner Bros. Pictures International.
Film & Kino has served the Norwegian cinema industry for over 90 years, and is proud to announce multiple studio agreements in Norway. This complete digital roll-out will transform all of Norway’s cinemas, big and small, to modern DCI-compliant digital cinema houses. The roll-out will start in late 2009 after the completion of public tenders for the procurement of equipment and services required for the digitization process. Read More »
Popularity: 22% [?]
Scrabble Entertainment has announced virtual print fee (VPF) deals with five Hollywood studios (“Hello Scott from SPE, in the back.”) to roll out digital cinema in India. This may be the last notable VPF deal for some time, if not for ever.
Scrabble has signed up Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, plus Paramount and Universal, with only Sony Pictures yet to come on board. At the press conference in Las Vegas on the second day of ShoWest 2009, three of the studio representatives joined Scrabble’s CEO Ranjit Thakur on stage to praise his efforts. Tom Molter from Warner Bros said that WB has supplied more digital cinema titles internationally than any other studio (definitely true for India) and was looking forwards to doing more of this with Scrabble. Julian Levin from Fox praised Ranjit’s determination and effort, acknowledging that negotiating with the Hollywood studios is a “very difficult and complicated process.” Lastly Jason Brenek from Disney was happy that Scrabble digital cinema roll-out would include 3D installations, understandable given Disney’s 17 3D titles over the coming three years. Jack Klein from Christie was also up on stage. Christie is the 2K digital cinema projector supplier of choice for Scrabble, but what is not discussed is that Christie is said to have helped behind the scenes to facilitate the VPF deals for Scrabble. Universal and Paramount were not on stage, though they had signed up as well (Paramount’s logo was on the banners, though Universal’s was missing), though this may be due to the fact that both are represented jointly in India by the (elsewhere largely defunct) UIP, with Paramount branding, in India, meaning that there is some untangling to be done still.
Screen International covered the agreement:
Scrabble has signed contracts with Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros, Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Pictures that become effective on April 1, and the company is in the process of finalising deal points in the agreement with Universal Pictures. The agreements are based on the self financing virtual print fees model, which is essentially a pay-per-use or booking system. Read More »
Popularity: 40% [?]
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