In only a few days the annual CineEurope convention kicks off in Barcelona, with over four days of showreels, previews, presentations, popcorn, awards, trade show, roundtables, seminars, networking, gossip, parties, paella, Coke & Cava (lots of the latter). We say “annual,” but of course last year’s show was shifted to October and hemmed in by COVID, while the one in 2020 was virtual. Cinema is an inherently social experience and the same with trade shows.
Despite the recent success of Tom Cruise and dinos, there is still an anxiety lingering across the European cinema landscape; an unspoken fear that the industry may be suffering from Long COVID. Audience numbers are still down across the continent compared to 2019 (which, yes, we know was a record year), in some like UK and Ireland by 20%-25%, while in countries like Italy it is closer to 35%-40%. The worry is that local and mid-budget titles are not filling the gaps between blockbusters to lift the market as a whole and the older audience appears to still be missing.
Those attending will have lots to talk about and hopefully there will be an increased sharing of best practices, coupled with a renewed focus on resolving the data-sharing knot. We can also hope for an agreement that will see films from the big streamers playing more widely in cinemas on a windows basis that everyone is comfortable with (OK, maybe not in France). There will be extra attention paid to the slates of the studios, given that there is slim pickings of big budget films in cinemas this autumn before the arrival of “Avatar 2” in December. This is a time when it would be good to play films like “Knives Out 2: the Glass Onion” and “Blonde,” both from Netflix.
While the freezing out of Russia and the departure of its cinema association from the fold of UNIC will throw a shadow over European cinema statistics, the region should not under-estimate its global importance. Having accounted for over a quarter of global box office receipts before COVID, there is every chance that Europe will perform even better than that this year. This is because China continues to grapple with on-off lockdowns, which will see the global box office crown returned to North America. Gulf states are meanwhile passing up pretty much every release from Disney these days, on account of the inclusion of LGBT+ content. (We don’t yet know how they will take to semi-naked and visibly pregnant Na’vis in the Avatar sequel.)
So while there are worries about the cost-of-living situation across Europe, there is little cinema can do about it other than hope that families will still want to take the bus to the multiplex, even if they can’t afford to fill up the car. Some cinemas like Curzon in the UK have started to cut ticket prices, but others can ill afford to. As always, the focus has to be on providing the best customer experience for people to come to the cinema, because there is no better advert for cinema and than a good cinema visit. Let’s toast to that in Barcelona, enjoy each other’s company and then head back home and redouble our efforts.
Market Research
Causes of Low French Cinema Recovery Identified
Surveys in France are said to explain the reasons why the country continues to suffer persistently low cinema recovery. Independently conducted polls have identified high ticket prices as the chief response from those quarried. With a looming cost-of-living crisis linked primarily to rising food and fuel bills, this is a worrying finding, not just for France but for the rest of Europe too. It seems streaming in thus not primarily to blame.
A poll by GroupM undertaken in April found that cinema prices are the main obstacle to audiences returning. As many as 54% of French say that they do not frequent cinema more often because “prices are too high.” A full 77% consider cinema to be “a leisure activity that has become too expensive.”
In a separate poll by French audio-visual body CNC, costs ranked as the second cause. 36% named “excessive price” as the reason they do not go to the cinema more often. The primary cause was that they had fallen out of the habit of going to the cinema. Interestingly it is the highest socio-professional class (co-called CSP+) where the complaints about the costs are the highest (42%), rather than the lower socio-economic classes (31%). People in the age bracket 35-49 also complained more than younger people.
In France the average cinema ticket price went up in 2021 by +6% to 7.04 euros on average, which includes reductions. For premium screen even more so in absolute terms, with Pathé Beaugrenelle in Paris adding an extra euro to its Dolby Cinema auditorium, which now costs 23.5 euros per ticket. French cinema operators point out that their average tickets are still cheap by international standards, compared to Britain (8.52 euros), Germany (8.87 euros), United States (9 euros), Switzerland (14.6 euros) or Japan (12 euros ). However, all of these countries have lower average annual cinema attendance than France.
“We have lost part of our young population, who go less and less to the cinema and will see fewer and fewer French films. Ten years ago, young people under 25 went to the cinema nine times a year, today it is five times. And out of those five movies, they’re going to see at least four Marvel, Pixar or LucasFilm. Audacious, risk-taking French films… are no longer seen. And if you lose a generation, you lose it on the future.”
Dominique Boutonnat, President of the CNC
Like their exhibitor counterparts elsewhere, French cinemas are suffering a post-Covid financial hangover. In 2021, the French cinemas of Pathé Gaumont achieved an operating margin of 10%, compared to 12.5% ??in 2019, though Kinepolis managed 24.5% last year compared to 25, 2% two years earlier, which is a better margin than it achieves in its native Belgium, Spain or North America. Fear of Covid was also a factor, according to the GroupM poll (23%), as was the demographic issue. According to Médiamétrie, the average age of a patron for a French film in cinemas was 47 in 2019, ten years older than for a Hollywood film.
Source: Capital
Trade Groups
Russian Cinema Association Out of UNIC
Russia’s cinema association has left the international cinema trade body UNIC. The move comes after the withdrawal of Hollywood studios from the Russian market over the war in Ukraine, which has led to the greatest existential crisis for Russian cinema since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although largely a symbolic move, it is nevertheless an important signifier of the pariah status that the exodus of Western businesses has left Russia facing.
The Russian Cinema Owners Association has applied “to exit” UNIC in a letter submitted to the trade body. The decision to leave voluntarily is thought to be taken in order to pre-empt a possible expulsion from the organisation. The Russian association joined UNIC around 2019, which is when Russia became the largest cinema territory in Europe in terms of admissions.
Russia depends on Hollywood films for up to 70% of box office. Without these blockbusters it has relied on domestic films, re-releases and films from Korea, India and South America. Some cinemas have resorted to showing pirate versions of films such as Warner Bros’ “The Batman”, leading the Russian cinema association to condemn such actions. “The plan to replace the overseas stuff with the local products and European imports is next to utopian,” said Oleg Sulkin, a film critic with Voice of America’s Russian Service. “The most realistic scenario is that many cinemas will be shut down or restructured — like in the 1990s.”
“Cinemas have rapidly emptied,” David Shneyderov, a Moscow-based film and TV critic told Variety. “By the end of the summer, almost 90% of cinemas are expected to close, the largest IMAX hall in Moscow is not working, and the large – 1,500 seat – hall of the Oktyabr multiplex in downtown Moscow is empty.” Meanwhile, two-thirds of cinemas have reopened in war-ravaged Ukraine.
Source: Variety
Movies
Disney/Pixar’s “Lightyear” Release Blocked In Middle East
Due to a scene depicting a same-sex kiss and a lesbian character, the highly anticipated Disney/Pixar release “Lightyear” won’t be opening in numerous Middle East countries, including Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “Lightyear” will not be shown by cinemas in Malaysia and Indonesia either.
The film hits theatres in most of the world this weekend, though it did not receive licenses or pass censors in many territories where movies depicting homosexuality or LGBTQ themes are forbidden. This stance is well known by Disney as they were prevented from releasing movies such as “Eternals,” “West Side Story” and the recent “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” in many of these same countries. That might be why the company didn’t even bother submitting “Lightyear” to censors in Saudi Arabia, well aware what the outcome would be.
Source: Variety
People
Movio Executives On The Move at Vista Group
It is customary before any cinema industry trade show for companies within the space to make a flurry of announcements to be made about commercial activity, hirings and promotions. This year’s CineEurope is proving no exception, as the announcement from Kinepolis about their deployment of EIKONA Cinema Solutions’s software demonstrates.
On the personnel front Vista Group promoted two longtime senior executives; Sarah Lewthwaite and Matthew Liebmann. Lewthwaite has been promoted to Chief Executive of Movio, Vista’s data driven movie marketing company. She has been with the company since 2014. Meanwhile, current Movio Chief Operating Officer, Matthew Liebmann, will move into the newly-created role of Chief Innovation and Data Officer for Vista Group, based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
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