Sooner or later it was bound to happen. After all, 3D movies have topped the North American box office for nine out of 13 weeks this year. And 3D films like “Avatar” and “Alice In Wonderland” have generated record breaking grosses, far beyond industry expectations. With more and more moviegoers showing up for 3D content, it should come as no surprise that at some point the public, not to mention the media, was going to start noticing the extra USD $3 they were forced to pay for the latest multi-dimensional blockbuster. In fact, after this past week the industry may begin to face some consumer backlash at the 3D surcharge, especially since a handful of large U.S. theatre chains raised 3D and 3D Imax ticket prices as much as 26% in some locations.
We’ll get to a few reasons as to why exhibitors might be raising ticket prices during an economic recession and what it might mean for the industry as a whole before the end of this post, but first lets go over the history of this recent increase.
Lauren A.E. Shuker and Ethan Smith of the Wall Street Journal were the first to report the price hikes on Wednesday, causing a rash of similar news stories to surface by Friday. The original source of the news about price increases came from a research report released on Wednesday by Richard Greenfield, a media analyst for BTIG, an institutional brokerage and financial services company.
Mr. Greenfield surveyed 10 random theatres in major cities throughout the U.S. and found that on average 2D adult ticket prices rose 4.1% (USD $0.42), 3D non-Imax adult ticket prices increased 8.3% (USD $1.13) and 3D Imax adult tickets were up 9.9% (USD $1.50). Most of the new prices, which varied by theatre took affect on Friday, just in time for the release of Dreamworks Animation’s “How To Train Your Dragon”. Read More »
Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times
If you’ve never read Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times, you’re really missing out. Especially this past Tuesday when the subject of his weekly column, The Big Picture, was none other than release windows.
Goldstein has been writing his column for as long as I can remember and it is one of my favorite reads each week. When he started blogging back in 2008, a form of journalism he had previously criticized, I made sure to keep up with his daily posts. As the tagline on his blog states, Goldstein covers the “collision of entertainment, media and pop culture”.
On Tuesday Goldstein was covering the collision of exhibitors and distributors over theatrical release windows and some of his observations are worth mentioning. Some of his well-made points I agree with, others I do not.
The columnist cites the recent release of “Alice In Wonderland” as a “dramatic tipping point in film history”, but not because its box office success has confirmed that audiences will come to see 3D movies even when they aren’t made by James Cameron. What Goldstein believes earned Tim Burton’s version of “Alice” a place in movie history is that “It finally put the nail in the coffin of movie theater owners’ mindlessly stubborn resistance to shorter DVD windows.”
In case readers weren’t paying attention to the recent tussle over “Alice’s” DVD release window, Goldstein fills them in on the history of Disney’s decision to release the film on DVD only three months after its theatrical bow. He then goes on to detail the record breaking box office returns the film earned; biggest U.S. non-sequel opening weekend of all time with USD $116 million and a current worldwide gross of USD $366.2 million. Given the amount of press coverage over Disney’s disputed release plans for “Alice” Goldstein figures most audiences knew the film was being released on DVD in just 12 weeks. Read More »
It’s fitting that on the eve of theatrical exhibition trade show Showest—and as DCIP claimed its long-awaited funding—Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” topped the weekend box office during its second week in release and demonstrated the continued strength of 3D.
Alice earned an estimated $62 million, extending its domestic haul to $208.6 million, according to weekend box office figures announced Sunday by Rentrak and its Box Office Essentials theatrical box office data collection and analytical service.
Tim Burton’s fantasy played in 3,728 locations, and of course included a digital and Imax 3D release.
Many insiders believe this wildly successful start—Burton’s most successful do date—is t least in part due to the “Avatar effect.” And insiders suggest that 3D can account for roughly 80% of the “Alice” box office figures.
But “Alice” is not likely to benefit fully from this bump, as Dreamworks Animation’s “How To Train Your Dragon” is set to open March 26, taking the majority of the 3D screens. This of course is not a new concern, but it only becomes more pronounced as box office numbers climb to record heights and tentpole titles demonstrate staying power.
“Dragon” of course has a similar problem, with the opening of the 3D “Clash of the Titans” on April 2, when the industry will get its first look at a film entirely converted to 3D by Prime Focus.
“Alice” was lensed in 2D, and the live action scenes were converted to 3D by companies including In-Three and Legend Films. The film’s lead VFX house, Sony Picture Imageworks, handled the 3D conversion for the CG Wonderland environment that makes up the majority of the run time.
According to Rentrak estimates, the top five in the domestic market included the debuts of “Green Zone” with $14, 5 million, “She’s Out of My League” with $9.6 million, and “Remember Me” with $8.6 million. “Shutter Island” rounded out the top five with $8.1 million, giving the film a new domestic total of $108 million. “Avatar” continued to perform, earning an estimated $6.6 million, for a new domestic total of $730.3 million.
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.
Read More »
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.”
Read More »
Entries RSS
