I am attending the Cannes Film Festival through the end of this week. It has been great seeing so many of CJ’s readers and colleagues walking the Croissette or at the Palais des Festivals, and if you’d like to connect while in Cannes, feel free to reach out. We’re covering the festival on Celluloid Junkie, of course, and next week’s Marquee will cover all the latest news from this year’s edition.
In the meantime, while waiting in line for screenings one of the constant topics of conversation among the critics, producers, sales reps and film buyers in Cannes this year, is the complete bafflement over the theatrical distribution strategy of certain studios and streaming services. Nobody has any delusions that Netflix will ever take theatrical distribution seriously, no matter how much money they might spend on a title, or how big a name (or ego) its stars may be. But Amazon is a completely different story and an incredibly frustrating one at that.
After announcing in November of 2022 that they would be spending up to USD $1 billion per year on 12-15 feature films for theatrical release, this year alone Amazon has sent two mid-budget, non-franchise movies directly to its streaming service, Prime Video. There was a lot of sturm und drang from director Doug Liman when the e-commerce giant announced his remake / reboot of “Road House” starring Jake Gyllenhaal would bypass cinemas and be released only via streaming after its SXSW premiere. Though there is some dispute among parties over whether “Road House” was ever made with the intention of a theatrical release or if it was always meant for the company’s streaming service, having seen the film myself, I agree with those who believe it could have opened in cinemas and done respectable business, especially during the March time frame when it was released.
Is “Road House” a masterpiece destined to be held up by auteurs through the ages as a classic piece of filmmaking? Decidedly not. But it doesn’t need to be for the movie to be financially successful for cinema operators, its creative talent and Amazon. As well, the company could have put “Road House” in theatres with a marketing budget along the lines of what they spent to bring it to Prime Video. And I realize Amazon, like Apple, has different motives and revenue generation strategies in mind when making such decisions.
This same argument could be made for a more recent Amazon film which wound up on Prime rather than in movie theatres, “The Idea of You” starring Anne Hathaway. Let’s put aside the fact that the movie is directed by Michael Showalter, who helmed Amazon’s indie-hit acquisition, “The Big Sick.” Instead, let’s focus on the fact that a movie starring a forty-something year old Hathaway as a mother who winds up in a romantic relationship with a twenty-something member of her teenage daughter’s favorite boy band is one that never would have skipped a theatrical release ten years ago.
Indeed, “The Idea of You” is now being held up as the poster child for what is currently wrong with the movie business, especially when it comes to theatrical distribution and exhibition. It’s not that the movie is awful; it isn’t. Or that, like “Road House,” it’s some cinematic gem that can only ever be truly appreciated on the big screen. It’s the kind of enjoyable movie teenage girls go to. It’s the kind wives and girlfriends drag their husbands and boyfriends to and afterwards they are all pleasantly surprised how much they enjoyed it. They talk about it at work and school after opening weekend driving word-of-mouth and bumping second and third weekends a few percentage points higher than they otherwise would have been. It would have made the perfect title to follow up the surprise box office hit “Anyone But You” in the February time frame as that film began exiting theatres.
It’s the kind that, when you didn’t get a chance to see it in a movie theatre, you’re happy to randomly discover on a streaming service such as Prime Video. And make no mistake, that’s exactly how the majority of audiences will ultimately find “The Idea of You” in the future after it is removed from the service’s front page; they will stumble across it while searching for some other movie to watch.
These mid-sized movies used to be standard fair for cinemas and helped bring in audiences between Hollywood blockbusters. It’s how many moviegoers learned about the next Hollywood blockbuster upon seeing their trailers in front of such titles. They ultimately became DVD stocking stuffers during the holidays and drove subscriptions to premium cable networks like HBO and Showtime. They helped make movie stars of actresses like Anne Hathaway so that having them headline a direct-to-streaming movie is an even feasible idea. Remember her debut in “The Princess Diaries”?
And lest anyone doubt the importance of movie stars to driving business, one only need look at what made headlines during last week’s television Upfronts. Media companies and streaming services didn’t bring out some of the stars of their historic TV hits, but instead they turned to movie stars like Cameron Diaz, Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds to show up during their presentations to advertisers. Before putting down her freshly minted “Poor Things” Best Actress Oscar to jet off to Cannes for the premiere of her latest film, “Kinds of Kindness,” Emma Stone introduced Disney CEO Bob Iger at the company’s upfronts presentation. Iger himself hadn’t attended the event since 1994.
This communal industry exasperation over how media companies have been parsing out theatrical releases is why you see cinema operators like AMC Theatres in the United States and Vue in the United Kingdom expanding their efforts in direct distribution. It’s a model that has precedent with exhibitors in most other parts of the world. It also served as the backdrop for a recent panel discussion at CinemaCon on how to buttress mid-sized movies when they are offered up theatrically. We’ve got a transcript of that valuable conversation on CJ and it’s well worth the read.
Conferences & Trade Shows
CinemaCon Panel Highlights Importance of Mid-Budget Films
One of the more productive panels at CinemaCon 2024 was titled “Strength in the Middle: Working Together To Boost Mid-Budget Films.” The focus of the session was, as its title suggests, all about finding and programming smaller, modestly budgeted films to fill in the gaps between the more costly Hollywood studio blockbusters. From the outset, it was agreed by panelists that exhibitors can not survive solely on high-priced releases.
CinemaCon organizers put together a session with representatives from distribution and exhibition that included Brock Bagby, President and Chief Content, Programming & Development Officer at B&B Theatres, Lisa Bunnell, President of Distribution for Focus Features, Elissa Federoff, President of Distribution at NEON and Rebecca Stein the Vice President of Marketing & Partnerships at National Amusements.
The panel discussed the significance of mid-budget and specialty films in the theatrical marketplace, emphasizing their cultural and economic importance. There was a lot of talk about how to make such movies more successful when they hit theatres, specifically around the need for collaboration between all interested parties including talent, studios, and distributors.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Exhibitors
AMC’s Adam Aron Discusses Company’s Recovery, State of Exhibition and Plans for Distribution
In a joint interview with Boxoffice Pro, Celluloid Junkie spoke with Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Theatres, at CinemaCon 2024. We get an update on AMC’s fleet of theaters, future investments, potential plans for expansion as well as the company’s film distribution initiatives.
Regarding the latter, AMC Theatres appears to be taking its shift into distribution quite seriously, hiring on Stephanie Terifay as Vice President of Distribution. This strategic move comes on the heels of AMC’s successful foray into distributing concert films, including the record-breaking “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” and Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.”
In her new role, Terifay will be responsible for working with the music industry to develop future projects and crafting distribution strategies and marketing plans to reach out to fans. Terifay joins the cinema operator from Fandango, where she led the integrated marketing team and worked closely with Hollywood studios, independent distributors, exhibitors, and brand partners.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Exhibitors
Vue Plans Expansion of UK-Ireland Film Distribution Strategy
In asking a question during a panel at CinemaCon in April, Tim Richards, the CEO of Vue International, one of the leading cinema operators in Europe, stated that 40% of the movies his circuit plays are foreign language titles. What’s more, he said that 70% of the box office from the United Kingdom’s top chains – Cineworld, Odeon and Vue – is for smaller, independent and foreign language titles.
When we ran into Richards at the conference in Las Vegas we couldn’t help but pose the same question we asked him in May of 2021 on the CJ Cinema Summit about the possibility of Vue distributing movies, similar to how other European exhibitors like Pathé and MK2 operate. He told us more news about the company’s thinking along those lines would be coming before the end of 2024. It took less than a week.
After distributing the Italian hit film “There’s Still Tomorrow” (“C’è ancora domani”) to box office success in the UK and Ireland, Richards is publicly stating that Vue will be expanding their direct-distribution initiatives throughout the region. The company will focus on non-English language titles initially, importing films from Denmark, Germany and Poland.
Actor Paola Cortellesi’s directorial debut “There’s Still Tomorrow” was already Italy’s top film in 2023, earning EUR €36.6 million (USD $39.7 million), more than both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.”
“We know there’s an audience that want to see it in the UK, we thought we’d bring it in,” Richards said of his company’s strategic shift into distribution during The Leisure Property Forum in London. “We’re going to start doing that with more films from more of our markets.”
Source: Screen International
Premium Large Format
IMAX Reveals 2025 Filmed for IMAX Slate
With 20% of the box office for Filmed for IMAX movies like “Oppenheimer” “Oppenheimer” and “Dune: Part Two”, IMAX has announced a its largest slate of such titles for 2025 — including at least 14 releases currently shooting with IMAX film or IMAX-certified digital cameras. Among them are highly anticipated titles such as “Superman: Legacy,” “Mission:Impossible 8” and “The Fantastic Four.”
The slate represents the biggest offering of Filmed for IMAX releases ever in a single calendar year — more than double any previous year — as filmmakers and studios from Hollywood and international territories increasingly create specifically for the IMAX platform, often with the company’s proprietary technology and tools.
To faciliate growing demand among filmmakers to shoot in IMAX, the company is developing and finalizing the rollout of four next-generation IMAX 15/65mm film cameras which should be in the field by the end of 2024.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Sponsor Spotlight
The Dolby Advantage
On CJ Cinema Summit 93, we learned all about one of the fastest-growing premium cinema formats; CINITY. Offering movies in 4K resolution, high brightness, high dynamic range, high frame rate, wide color gamut, in 3D images with immersive sound, we spoke to representatives from CINITY, Christie, Comscore, Lightstorm Entertainment and TrueCut. Watch the session on-demand or listen to the podcast.
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