Category Archives: Distributors

Universal Cancels “Tower Heist” Premium-VOD Test

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | October 12, 2011 8:39 pm

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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Popularity: 1% [?]

Posted in Distributors
Tagged as "Tower Heist", National Amusements, NATO, Premium-VOD, Release Windows, Universal Pictures

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

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | October 7, 2011 8:44 pm

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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Posted in Analysis, Distributors
Tagged as "Tower Heist", Brett Ratner, Comcast, DirecTV, Los Angeles Times, Premium-VOD, Release Windows, Universal Pictures

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Odeon, Italy and AMC Reach Deal With Disney On “Alice”

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | March 1, 2010 12:16 pm

Alice In Wonderland - Alice.jpg Executives at Walt Disney Studios must be breathing a huge sigh of relief having reached a deal with Odeon Cinemas in the United Kingdom and Italian exhibitors to show their upcoming tentpole release “Alice In Wonderland”. Additionally, Disney reached an accord with AMC Theatres to show the Tim Burton helmed film in North America when it is released on March 5th.

After announcing their plans to release “Alice In Wonderland” on DVD in June, just three months after its theatrical release rather than the usual four months, Odeon, the U.K.’s largest cinema chain, publicly threatened to boycott the film. So did exhibitors in Italy. AMC never made any public statements about a boycott, but delayed signing any agreement to show the film. Most of the details about the agreements were kept private by both parties, but according to a story in Variety, here is what we know:

In the U.K. Disney will not begin advertising the DVD until six to eight weeks after the film hits theatres.
In Italy, Disney will release three big movies during the summer, rather than waiting until fall. Traditionally, the summer box office grosses have been tepid compared with those in autumn. “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” will open on August 20th, while “Toy Story 3″ and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” will also open have summer playdates.
Disney has extended the release of “Alice In Wonderland” on DVD from 12 weeksafter its theatrical to 13.

In the U.K., assurances were given that the studio won’t begin advertising for the DVD until six or eight weeks after the theatrical bow. It’s likely that exhibs elsewhere asked for the same terms.
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Popularity: 27% [?]

Posted in Distributors
Tagged as Alice In Wonderland, AMC Theatres, ANEC, Odeon Cinemas, Paolo Protti, Release Windows, Walt Disney Studios

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A Recap Of Disney’s Adventures With “Alice”

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | February 22, 2010 2:22 pm

Alice In Wonderland.jpg Surely Walt Disney Studios was hoping their upcoming release “Alice In Wonderland” would generate a lot of media attention before it hits theatres on March 5th, though they probably weren’t trying to create the kind of buzz the picture received over this past week. Theatre owners in North America and Europe protested when the studio announced it would move up the DVD release of the movie to early June, just three months after Tim Burton’s adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic is distributed theatrically.

The announcement was made on February 8th by Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, during an earnings call and seemed to come as a surprise to many. A surprising number of newspapers, websites and radio shows beginning running numerous stories about the dispute just two days later and through the course of last week. In fact, the Los Angeles Times managed to sum up the latest battle over movie release windows rather nicely:

The flare-up illustrates how an arcane topic once only of interest to Hollywood executives can affect moviegoers around the world.

The L.A. Times, along with The Wrap, touched on the fact that studios have been meeting with key North American exhibitors (probably Regal Cinemas, AMC Theatres and Cinemark) to negotiate a deal on shortening theatrical release windows. These meetings weren’t done surreptitiously. In January John Fithian, President of the National Association of Theatre Owners, told attendees of the International Cinema Technology Association’s tech conference that theatrical windows would be changing to help studios maximize revenues from home releases:

“As a person who represents the cinema industry I’m not going to tell you that we’re very happy that that model is going to change, but it has to. But it has to change logically and it has to change with studios and exhibitors sitting down together and analyzing the models. It’s not a great secret, this is happening. Leading studio executives, leading cinema representatives are talking about what these models should look like. The good news is we’re all at the table talking. That’s much better and much more cooperative than if studio x decided just to abandon the model and release a major picture in the cinema and in the home roughly at the same time. That’s not going to happen. What’s going to happen is some scientific thinking and some research and a deliberative process to maximize the model for the studios without killing the model for exhibition.”

Popularity: 29% [?]

Posted in Distributors
Tagged as Alice In Wonderland, AMC Theatres, Bob Chapek, Bob Iger, Odeon Cinemas, Release Windows, Vue, Walt Disney Studios

4 Comments

A Comprehensive Review of Paramount’s Direct-To-Exhibitor VPF Agreement

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | March 6, 2009 1:18 pm

Since January 22nd, when Paramount Pictures announced their plan to offer virtual print fees directly to exhibitors, the news has been a frequent topic of conversation throughout the exhibition community. It didn’t take long before a copy of the agreement began circulating through the industry, in large part thanks to the National Association of Theatre Owners. With this year’s ShoWest less than a month away there is no better time to review the agreement in detail.

For those who have not seen a copy of the agreement, which is in draft form, it can be viewed on this post and downloaded here. The first thing to take note of is that the document isn’t the size of a phonebook. While many integrators VPF agreements can be upwards of 100 pages long, Paramount’s direct-to-exhibitor VPF is only 21 pages. And just because the document is a draft of the agreement an exhibitor will ultimately sign doesn’t mean it’s going to expand. After all, it’s not as if Paramount will be entering a brand new relationship with a highly leveraged third party. The studio is entering an agreement with the same exhibitors they’ve been doing business with for decades.

The agreement has 24 sections, one schedule and two exhibits. Keeping in mind that I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be, I’ll review each section pointing out some of the more pertinent bits and what they might mean for an exhibitor. Some of the sections are standard boilerplate and will not be covered in as much detail.

Popularity: 48% [?]

Posted in Digital Cinema, Distributors
Tagged as Contracts, Legal, Paramount Pictures, Virtual Print Fee

2 Comments

Lionsgate Goes Mobile With Webalo

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | February 13, 2009 8:04 pm

Example of box office figures delivered via Webalo

While it may not be the Hollywood-way, I’m always glad to hear about a longtime friends’ success. That’s one way of saying I need to offer a full disclosure for this post. You see, Rob Edenzon has been an acquaintance for ten years now, since joining the board of directors at FilmStew, a web startup I helped found before the dot com bubble burst. Now Rob is the vice president of sales at Webalo, a technology company that helps format and deliver software applications and enterprise business data to mobile devices.

For some time now Rob has been telling me about Webalo’s contract with specific television networks to deliver detailed overnight Nielsen rating spreadsheets to their employee’s Blackberries, while at the same time expressing a desire to offer box office grosses to studio executives on their own mobile gadgets. Well, his wishes came true on Wedensday as Webalo announced a deal with Lionsgate to deliver “live” box office figures to the smartphones of the studio’s top executives. What’s interesting to me is that the box office figures are coming not from aggregators such as Nielsen EDI or Rentrak, but instead from Lionsgate’s own internal SAP systems. Though, on second thought, the press release (warning: PDF) announcing the agreement didn’t say whether the box office figures were flash grosses or audited reports and if they are the former, then I wouldn’t be shocked if they were coming from an aggregator.

It must not have been hard to convince Lionsgate to try out the technology. Webalo’s offering is pretty much a turnkey solution with a web interface that enables IT managers to quickly reformat reports for mobile phones (mostly Blackberries) on the fly. Read More »

Popularity: 30% [?]

Posted in Distributors, Technology
Tagged as Box Office, Lionsgate, Mobile Phones, Robert Edenzon, Webalo

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DreamWorks Dumps Universal And Shacks Up With Disney

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | February 9, 2009 11:03 pm

Disney + Dreamworks

Sometimes rebound relationships can really pay off. At least that’s what Walt Disney Studios is hoping now that it has agreed to enter a long-term agreement with DreamWorks to distribute upwards of six films a year starting in 2010. The deal was put together very quietly over the last several weeks as DreamWorks simultaneously tried to negotiate an agreement with Universal Pictures which had originally been announced back in October of last year. That deal fell apart late last week when Universal and DreamWorks could not agree on a set of terms and as Universal reportedly discovered DreamWorks was negotiating with Disney. When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday the studio’s official line was:

“Universal Pictures has ended discussions with DreamWorks for a distribution agreement. Over the past several weeks DreamWorks has demanded material changes to previously agreed upon terms. It is clear that DreamWorks’ needs and Universal’s business interests are no longer in alignment. We wish them luck in their pursuit of funding and distribution of their future endeavors.????”

What a few of those “material changes” amount to says a lot about theatrical motion picture distribution and just where a studio realizes a profit when releasing a film. The deal that DreamWorks was originally negotiating with Universal was a straight distribution partnership. Such deals will usually see the production company paying for the production of a film while the studio pays for film prints, marketing and advertising in exchange for recouping costs and a share of the box office gross. That share can range anywhere from 8% to 15% of the gross – not the net – receipts. Read More »

Popularity: 30% [?]

Posted in Distributors
Tagged as Bob Iger, DreamWorks, HBO, Nikke Finke, Paramount Pictures, Reliance Big Entertainment, Starz, Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios

1 Comment

Tom Ortenberg Moves To Weinstein Company

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | January 27, 2009 10:11 pm

New Weinstien Company President Tom Ortenberg (Genaro Molina/LA Times)

Tom Ortenberg, president of theatrical films at Lionsgate, is ditching the studio he’s spent 12-years at for a similar title and position at The Weinstein Company. In his new role, Ortenberg will take on some of the same responsibilities at TWC that he oversaw at Lionsgate, including distribution, marketing, publicity and domestic acquisitions.

Over the past two decades, Ortenberg has gained a solid reputation of being a savvy executive who had real talent for acquisitions and marketing. He was integral in planning the campaigns behind some of Lionsgate’s most successful movies, including the “Saw” series and “Crash” which won the Best Picture Oscar for 2005. In 2008, Ortenberg was interviewed by Dan Rather at the Sundance Film Festival and he explained some of the traits he looks for in a film when making an acquisition.

Certainly the Weinstein brothers must have been excited to land a veteran exec such as Ortenberg, especially after all the recent turnover within TWC’s senior executive ranks. In a press release announcing the hire, Read More »

Popularity: 16% [?]

Posted in Distributors
Tagged as Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Joe Drake, Lionsgate, Nikke Finke, The Weinstein Company, Tom Ortenberg

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Paramount Goes Direct-To-Exhibitors With D-Cinema Deal

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | January 22, 2009 11:02 pm

On the eve of the National Association of Theatre Owners’ meeting with equipment vendors to review digital cinema requirements on Friday, Paramount Pictures has thrown the exhibition industry a curve ball in the hopes of resuscitating the stalled rollout of the technology. Rather than work solely through integrators such as Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) and Cinedigm (formerly AccessIT), Paramount has become the first Hollywood studio to offer North American exhibitors financial assistance for digital cinema installations.

What’s significant about Paramount’s announcement is that previously studios have refused to cut deals to reimburse exhibitors for digital cinema installations directly with exhibitors for fear of future anti-trust litigation. Instead, they relied on digital cinema systems integrators to provide a buffer between themselves and theatre owners. But, with the digital cinema rollout at a near stand still, Paramount seems to be throwing caution to the winds.

Paramount has a vested interest in seeing digital cinema take off, specifically to increase the number of 3-D capable projection systems. This March the studio will be releasing Dreamworks Animations’ “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 3-D and presently the United States and Canada only have about 1,200 screens properly equipped with 3-D systems. Paramount has been promoting the film heavily for nearly a year at industry trade shows and will be airing a 3-D commercial for the movie during the upcoming Super Bowl telecast.
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Popularity: 60% [?]

Posted in Digital Cinema, Distributors
Tagged as Dreamworks Animation, Jeffrey Katzenberg, John Fithian, Mark Christiansen, NATO, Paramount Pictures, Virtual Print Fee

5 Comments

Warner Bros. Looking To Shed Titles

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | August 14, 2008 8:57 pm

If you’re looking for a screaming deal on a finished film you should probably give Warner Bros. a call. In his Los Angeles Times column today Patrick Goldstein details an interview he conducted with Alan Horn, the studio’s top dog. Goldstein contacted Horn after he learned producer Joel Silver was pitching Lions Gate Films to pick up “RocknRolla”, the British gangster film from director Guy Ritchie which Warner Bros. was due to release in early October.

Apparently, with the recent shuttering of subsidiaries Warner Independent Pictures and New Line Cinema Warner Bros. finds itself with too many films to release over the next six to twelve months. Besides “RocknRolla” Goldstein reports that Warner would be happy to unload two additional films; Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire”, originally a WIP release, and the New Line cop drama “Pride and Glory” starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. Silver became proactive in a finding a new home for his film when he realized Warner Bros. wasn’t about to spend the money to market the movie. Horn confirmed this in his conversation with Goldstein, saying: Read More »

Popularity: 29% [?]

Posted in Distributors
Tagged as Alan Horn, Dan Fellman, Joel Silver, Los Angeles Times, Patrick Goldstein, Warner Bros

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