The Celluloid Junkie team has been quite busy over the past week or two. Helen Budge attended the Event Cinema Association’s Slate Day in London at the very end of January. Last week, Patrick von Sychowski headed off to Neurenberg, Germany for the 2023 EDCF conference last week, while at the same time I was in Dallas, Texas attending the Dine-In Cinema Summit. All the while we’ve been keeping up with the latest cinema industry news and fielding nominations for our annual Top Women In Global Cinema list. (Speaking of which, nominations are still open.)
Indeed, this week’s Marquee editorial was meant to be dedicated to the anecdotes and knowledge we picked up while attending the Dine-In Cinema Summit, however our industry had other plans. So much so, we don’t even have room here to touch on all the big movie trailers shown during the Super Bowl, the 36% increase of cinema attendance in Brazil during January or the Walt Disney Company earnings call in which the studio reported it will be laying off 7,000 workers and underscored the need for a theatrical release window.
Last week began with AMC announcing a new tiered ticket pricing scheme based on where a seat is located in a theatre. We thought all seats in a cinema were supposed to be relatively equal in terms of presenting a superior movie-watching experience. Dubbed Sightline at AMC, the company has discovered few patrons want to sit in the first two rows of an auditorium. So, the world’s largest exhibitor is going to price tickets for those seats slightly below standard ticket prices and well below what it calls Preferred Sightline seats in the middle of the auditorium. Those prime seats will cost a dollar or two more.
Cue a week-long stream of media hot takes and moviegoer outrage. There was such a fury over AMC’s new pricing model, which the company has said is only being tested for now, that we compiled all the passionate opinions (and provided a few of our own) in a single analytic post for your reading pleasure. Spoiler Alert: While we can appreciate AMC experimenting with all sorts of business models to help them thrive in a post-pandemic market, and we can surely sympathize with their need to increase revenue for their own longterm survival as a company, perhaps adopting the universally reviled pricing schemes of the airline and concert industries isn’t the best option.
Before our heads could even stop spinning from AMC’s announcement, we were in to court with Cineworld to get an update on the company’s bankruptcy case. We’ve written a piece providing the latest details about where Cineworld (and it’s United States chain, Regal) stand in regards to resolving their case and exiting bankruptcy. Numerous industry executives who were in Dallas with me last week felt that Cineworld would eventually have to convert their Chapter 11 bankruptcy into Chapter 7 and liquidate the company. However, as Cineworld explores both a deal with existing lenders and an outright sale of the company, it has managed to save up USD $182 million in liquidity thanks to improved business operations and a a few hit films in December and January.
Speaking of new releases, one of the biggest takeaways for me from the Dine-In Cinema Summit is something I knew going into the conference; movies matter and the more movies the better. Sure, I learned all about family entertainment centers (FECs), how much it costs to open a video game arcade, the most popular food items for dine-in cinemas, the difference between actual versus theoretical food cost and all sorts of amazing learnings we’ll be updating you on in the coming weeks. But at the end of the day, when Robert Nowak, the Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage at Marcus Theatres, asked Terry Sullivan the longtime General Manager at the company’s Movie Tavern location in Bedford, Texas about the one thing he most wanted to improve his theatres’ business if money were no object, he stood there in front of at least 300 attendees for a good moment to think about it. His eventual response? More movies, more consistently.
Because all the frozen margarita machines and robot food runners in the world won’t help a dine-in cinema that doesn’t have movies to show. And apparently, those movies don’t even need to be new releases. Who had two James Cameron movies, one of which is over 25-years-old, earning over USD $20 million and duking it out for the top spot at this weekend’s global box office on their 2023 bingo card?
Exhibitors
AMC Introduces Tiered Pricing Based on Auditorium Seat Location
AMC Theatres is introducing Sightline at AMC – a ticket pricing initiative based on seat location within each auditorium, that the company says will provide AMC moviegoers with multiple options to meet their viewing preferences. In short, moviegoers now have the option to pay less, or more, for a movie ticket based on their seat selection within an auditorium. The initiative is currently being tested in select AMC locations with plans to expand it to all domestic AMC locations by the end of the year.
Theatres that offer Sightline at AMC will provide a detailed seat map that clearly outlines each seating option during the ticket purchase process online, on the AMC app, and at the box office. Sightline at AMC is applied to all showtimes that begin after 4 p.m. at participating locations and is not applicable on Discount Tuesdays.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Exhibitors
Cineworld Reaches Tentative Debt-For-Equity Deal With Existing Lenders
Cineworld was back in United States Bankruptcy Court providing an update on the status of their ongoing bankruptcy case. Lawyers for the United Kingdom-based company gave an overview of current operations, a potential reorganization plan, ongoing interest from third-party bidders and even set a court date to provide a firm schedule for exiting bankruptcy.
The exhibitor’s secured lenders have submitted a term sheet detailing a debt-for-equity transaction that would also grant rights to fund the business moving forward. The ad hoc group is made up of 35 equity funds which hold USD $6 billion in Cineworld debt. Meanwhile, Cineworld has received significant interest in a sale and is currently accepting bids for the purchase of the company through 16 February. During this calendar year the world’s second largest movie theatre chain has beat it’s own budget forecast and managed to save up USD $182 million in liquidity thanks to blockbusters such as “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Event Cinema
Event Cinema Association Celebrates 10 Years at 2023 Slate Day
A full house attended the Event Cinema Association’s (ECA) annual slate day at Empire Walthamstow in, London, now comfortably back in its January calendar position. Organised by ECA director, Grainne Clarke, one of the most notable things at this year’s event was the anticipated return to content pipeline normality for the event cinema sector. Much like mainstream content that has shifted repeatedly over the last couple of years, the event cinema sector has had a similarly challenging time, with the pandemic obliterating any release schedule consistency. And due to this, as well as significant landmarks like the ECA making it to the grand old age of 10, there was a palpable sense of positivity present throughout the day.
Comscore began the proceedings on 26 January with an overview of looking back at the past 10 years of event cinema and where we are now, broken down by territory, with some interesting highlights; to name a couple, the interest in and success of genres such as K-pop and faith-based content. And, of course, the out-and-out success of theatrical screenings, with NT Live’s “Prima Facie” – the one no one’s quite sure how to pronounce – breaking the impressive record set by the same distributor’s “Fleabag” in 2019.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Exhibitors
Date Set for India’s Record Cinema Merger
A date has been confirmed for the merger of India’s two largest multiplex operators; 17 February will be the day that PVR Cinema and INOX Leisure will combine to form PVR-INOX. The announcement comes after the approval of the merger by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) in January of this year. Together they will be by far the largest cinema operator in India and dominate the market in the world’s largest film business in terms of annual admissions and films produced.
The merged PVR-INOX will have an estimated 1,625 screens spread over 350 properties. While this only represents 17% of all cinema screens in India, it would account for 36% to 38% of total box office collection and close to 50% of all multiplex screens. The new company plans 150-200 news screens per year, primarily targeting tier two and three cities, with the aim of having 3,000 screens within the next five years.
The ILL Committee of board of directors for operations of Inox Leisure in mutual agreement with the company have fixed February 17, 2023 as the ‘Record Date’ for the purpose of determining the shareholders of Inox Leisure to whom equity shares of the company would be allotted, pursuant to the scheme.
PVR filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Inox shareholders are set to receive three shares of PVR for 10 shares held in INOX Leisure on 17 February. The merged company is expected to have both higher pricing and greater bargaining power when it comes to negotiating with film distributors.
Source: Business Today
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Celluloid Junkie is the leading online resource dedicated to the global film and cinema business. The Marquee is our newsletter focused on motion picture exhibition; keeping industry professionals informed of important news, the latest trends and insightful analysis