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 »
Dan Glickman and John Fithian at ShoWest
The National Association of Theatre Owners president, John Fithian, and the outgoing chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, Dan Glickman, trumpeted 2009’s record breaking box office grosses as well as advances in piracy protection during their annual “State of the Industry” address at ShoWest on Tuesday. What seemed more important to everyone in attendance however was that the speech marked the last appearance by Glickman as the head of the MPAA.
Not that Glickman plans on disappearing entirely. As he put it moments before walking onstage to deliver his remarks, “It may not be my last time at ShoWest, hopefully it is not. John has promised to invite me every year, but it’s my last time in this job.” Glickman is leaving his post April 1st to take over as head of the non-profit organization Refugees International.
Of course, technically this will be the last time Glickman attends ShoWest since NATO will be taking the show over next year and changing its name to CinemaCon. Glickman may not have to worry about getting an invite though, for Fithian had nothing but kind words to say about him. “He really has contributed an amazing amount of leadership and support to this industry over the last six years, from intellectual property to the ratings system to opening up new markets oversees,” Fithian said of Glickman. He’s been just a terrific partner. . . he will be sorely missed by those of us in the movie business.”
Speaking of the movie business, it’s apparently doing quite well, at least theatrically. Fithian highlighted the USD $30 billion international box office gross earned in 2009 with USD $10.6 billion coming from North American, an increase of more than 10%. The NATO exec credits the ongoing theatrical success to advances in technology which have allowed for better presentations at modern luxury cinemas and the ease of purchasing tickets on mobile devices or online. Studios were also major contributors by spreading out their releases according to Fithian:
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Michael Lynton at ShoWest 2010
The 2010 edition of ShoWest, the annual gathering of theatre owners and distributors, kicked off in Las Vegas earlier today with a keynote address from Michael Lynton. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment had both junk and theatrical release windows on his mind, and not necessarily in that order.
After opening his remarks with some cheerleading over 2009’s record breaking box office returns, Lynton detailed why he believed the industry was doing so well in the midst of a deep recession:
“People battered by the recession see in movies reasonably priced escapism. It is the most affordable way to take a break, get out of the house, take the kids or get away from them and be transported to another world.”
Lynton pointed to the industry’s willingness and ability to change as being one of the prime factors for increased theatrical revenue over the past year. Despite economic, social and technologic challenges, he praised both exhibition and distribution’s willingness to find new ways to overcome challenges and prosper.
But Lynton wasn’t all smiles. He highlighted the increasing economic difficulties faced by studios this past year. At the height of the DVD boom in 2005 and 2006 57% of Sony’s revenues came from DVD rentals and another 43% came from DVD sell-through, but today, thanks in large part to the recession, that split is nearing a 75% - 25% split. Read More »
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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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.”
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John Fithian of NATO
Not even a record setting rain storm could keep cinema professionals away from the Universal Hilton in Universal City yesterday where the International Cinema Technology Association was holding it’s annual tech conference. After a Monday evening cocktail reception, the program began in earnest with a keynote address from John Fithian, President of the National Association of Theatre Owners.
In a speech billed as a “State of the Industry” in the conference schedule, Fithian covered a wide range of hot button topics not all of which were geared strictly to many of the motion picture engineers in the room. He began by recapping the box office records that were shattered in 2009, a year which saw North American combined grosses surpass the USD $10 billion mark. Fithian was quick to point out that such earnings were not due to just the rise in ticket prices, but rather an increase in the number of patrons visiting cinemas nationwide. In fact, decade-over-decade, the average number of moviegoers rose from 995 million in the 1970’s to 1.13 billion in 1980’s upwards to 1.28 billion in the 1990’s settling at 1.44 billion for the decade which just ended.
A good portion of Fithian’s talk was focused on many of the reasons 2009 was such a spectacular year for the cinema business and how the industry might continue to grow even more. He detailed three key drivers he believed were responsible, not the least of which was the major studios getting better at understanding there are 12 months in the calender. Fithian stated:
For years we put out everything in the summer, we put out everything in the holidays and you couldn’t find an person in the cinema in February or September. That is no longer the case…. we’re getting good pictures that appeal to different demographics with different genres spread throughout the 12 months and that’s fantastic. That’s what we have to have.
Affordability of movies as a form of entertainment was the second reason Fithian gave for 2009’s growth. Despite the increase in ticket prices over the years, and even with the premium for 3D films, the price of a movie ticket has not outpaced inflation. In 1969 the price of a movie ticket in the U.S. was USD $1.42. In 2009 that price had risen to a nationwide average of roughly USD $7.56. If ticket prices had kept up with the rate of inflation, then starting with USD $1.42 in 1969, we should presently have an average ticket price of USD $8.37.
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Last Thursday when the Motion Picture Association of America made public an ex parte communication they sent to the FCC in defense of a waiver request it caused a flurry of headlines about studios going to war with exhibitors over release windows. To be sure, the letter sent by the MPAA’s lawyers, as well as the press release they sent out the same day directly refer to release windows. The headline of the press release boldly reads “MPAA Seeks FCC Okay For Transmission of First Run Movies Directly To Consumers”. However the MPAA may simply be hiding behind the concept of protecting content during shortened release windows as camouflage for their true motive; securing high definition digital content as it is distributed into the electronic ether of the home by controlling which devices can playback and display the content.
The MPAA’s letter was sent as a rebuttal to a communication sent to the FCC in October by Public Knowledge arguing the waiver not be granted. PK (as they are often referred to) is based in Washington D.C. and considers and is a public interest group that focuses its efforts on digital technology. The second paragraph of the MPAA’s letter and third paragraph of the press release reads in part:
As MPAA has detailed throughout this proceeding, grant of the waiver would for the first time allow millions of consumers to view high-value, high-definition theatrical films during an early release window that is not available today. MPAA has explained that release of this high-value content as part of an earlier window, especially with respect to movies released for home viewing close to or even during their initial theatrical run, necessarily requires the highest level of protection possible through use of SOC.
Ignoring the reference to SOC for the time being (I’ll get to it in a bit), one can see how the phrase “close to or even during their initial theatrical run” might make motion picture exhibitors angry enough to storm MPAA headquarters. It didn’t help that outgoing MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman is quoted in the press release saying:
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