Patrick von Sychowski is traveling this week so you’re stuck with me. Though before I forget, if you missed John Fithian of NATO and Charlotte Jones of Omdia on our last CJ Cinema Summit, you can always catch the session on-demand. And be sure to register for our next session on 17 February. We’re headed to China with Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore to talk with Lawrence Wang, the CEO of Vista China.
Meanwhile, here in the United States this weekend is one some people spend the entire year eagerly anticipating. Super Bowl Sunday is like Christmas for football fanatics. It’s also a chance for big Hollywood studios to give millions of moviegoers throughout the world a first peak at some of the most anticipated movies of the year.
While most outside the U.S. are aware of what American football is, for those who may not know, it’s not like football in the rest of the world which requires players to use their feet to kick a ball into a net at one end of a field to score a single point. American football is a game played by muscular men who carry a ball in their hands into one end of a field to score six points. For those of you from Australia and New Zealand, think of our football kind of like rugby for wimps who require protective padding to play.
Each year the Super Bowl is played to crown an American football champion. It is one of the most watched televised events of the year. Of the 30 most watched televised events in U.S. history, all but two are Super Bowl games. Last year over 100 million people tuned in. It’s a field day for advertisers that can afford to place a 30-second commercial during the broadcast. This year, a 30-second spot will cost USD $6.5 million.
On the other hand, North American cinema operators aren’t particularly fond of Super Bowl Sunday because moviegoers stay home to watch the big game. In fact, box office in the region usually takes a hit during Super Bowl weekends. This year might be a little different thanks to the Universal Pictures’ Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy, “Marry Me,” and the ensemble whodunit “Murder on the Nile” from 20th Century Studios. As well, Valentines Day is the day after the Super Bowl making this the obvious weekend for couples to celebrate.
But I digress. The commercials that air during the Super Bowl are often as buzzed about in the week following the game as the action on the field. They are big productions costing millions of dollars . Sometimes they are for flashy new products; Apple introduced its first Macintosh computer during the 1984 Super Bowl in a commercial directed by Ridley Scott. In fact, that advertisement began what grew into the modern-day Super Bowl commercial.
Over the years the Super Bowl became the place where studios would debut teasers for upcoming blockbusters. Leaving aside last year, when movie theatres were closed and studios went missing, titles such as “The Avengers,” “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “Jurassic World,” “F9” and “Batman Begins,” all got promoted on the Super Bowl. In 2012 there were 18 different movies advertised during the game.
This year the guessing for which studios would buy time during the Super Bowl began as early as November and it looks as if it won’t disappoint. Studios are far more confident this year that the movies they spend a fortune to promote for 30 seconds in February will actually be able to be shown in movie theatres come May, June and July.
Indeed, thanks to you YouTube, I’ve already seen most of the trailers and teasers that will air during the game on Sunday.
Universal has got “Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” and Jordan Peel’s “Nope.” Paramount has bought spots for the Sandra Bullock vehicle “The Lost City” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.” Not to be left out is Disney which appears to be bringing Pixar’s “Lightyear” and Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
Warner Bros. couldn’t decide which of their upcoming DC movies to promote, so they wisely went with all of them in a one minute spot. The best part of the Warner Bros. spot comes at the end where they remind viewers they can see these films “Only In Theaters.” I guess they had to remind consumers that the Project Popcorn was officially over.
It’s hard for advertisers to ordinarily know what audiences will tune into or whether they will pay attention to their commercials. The Super Bowl solves that problem. Stacy Spikes, the once and future CEO of MoviePass is also trying to solve that problem for marketers wishing to reach film buffs. He bought the moviegoing subscription service out of bankruptcy late last year and is relaunching it this summer with a feature named PreShow that will allow users to earn credits toward free movies by watching commercials. See the story below for more details on the MoviePass 2.0
And speaking of marketing, don’t forget to visit the sponsor of the CJ Marquee, Dolby, to learn more about their auditorium packages. Dolby has some interesting products being released soon so watch this space for updates.
Marketing & Promotions
MoviePass Relaunch Announced For Summer 2022
MoviePass, the company that helped introduce moviegoing subscriptions to North America before infamously flaming out, plans on relaunching in the summer of 2022, albeit with some significant changes. The first revision to the new MoviePass is the return of its original co-founder and CEO, Stacy Spikes, who purchased the company out of bankruptcy.
Upon regaining control of MoviePass Spikes and his original engineering team asked “What do we do for a second act? How are we going to come back? How are we going to make this bigger, better, stronger, faster?” There are at least six new features in MoviePass 2.0 which dramatically change the way the entire service works. Originally, subscribers could see one movie per day and no movie more than once. Now they will be issued credits which will rollover from month-to-month.
Add to that the ability to bring friends, swap credits, and tiered pricing, not to mention a way to earn credits by watching advertisements. Built with Web3 technology, the new service completely upends the way MoviePass used to work by throttling subscriber activity in hopes of breakage and instead aims to turn the service into an end-to-end cinematic marketplace.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Film Festivals
Fewer Sundance Acquisitions Heading to Movie Theatres
If acquisitions activity at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival provides any insight into the current market for specialty and mid-tier movies, as tends to be the case with Sundance, then the near-future for cinema operators of all sizes is decidedly mixed.
Fewer of the movie that generated buzz and won awards than ever before will wind up being shown exclusively in cinemas. Indeed, a review of the movies that distributors purchased during this year’s Sundance is indicative of the current and short-term state of theatrical distribution, and as such, illustrates the challenge movie theatre owners will face when looking for titles to play in-between superhero blockbusters.
Celluloid Junkie looked at some of these movies streamers picked up, just in case someone gets the bright idea to put them in movie theatres as well as a rundown of those titles that will definitely be cinema-bound.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Box Office
Recovering European Cinemas See 42% Box Office Growth in 2021
The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), the body representing European cinema trade associations and operators, released preliminary 2021 box office and admissions estimates for the territories covered by the organisation.
While the figures are based on initial estimates, the overview provided by UNIC represents the first wide-ranging assessment of the performance of the European cinema sector in 2021. More detailed final data on the performance of each individual UNIC territory will be released later in the Spring 2022.
European cinema admissions increased by an estimated 38% in 2021, with over 590 million visits across the region. Box office reached an estimated EUR €3.7 billion, an increase of 42% on the previous year. UNIC believes these positive results amply illustrate the industry’s resilience and the eagerness of European audiences to return to the big screen.
In the European Union – including the UK – over 400 million tickets were sold in cinemas, worth an estimated EUR €2.9 billion at the box office, all this when most screens across the region were shut for the first half of the year and operating for the following six months under limited occupancy and additional restrictions. The full press release is on CJ Wire.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Cinemas
AMC Theatres Announces Major-Market Acquisitions of Former ArcLight Locations
AMC Theatres reached lease agreements with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), a global developer and operator of flagship destinations, to acquire and open two high-profile locations, each located in a major market in the United States.
In the San Diego market, AMC will reopen AMC UTC 14 at Westfield UTC, located in upscale La Jolla, on Thursday, February 10. In the Washington D.C. market, AMC will reopen AMC Montgomery 16 at Westfield Montgomery, with an expected opening date in March. Both are former ArcLight locations.
AMC remains in active discussions with other property owners regarding additional shuttered cinema locations.
Upon reopening, guests at both locations can expect many of AMC’s most popular amenities, including AMC Stubs, the company’s loyalty and subscription service that includes its AMC Stubs A-List.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Exhibitors
India’s PVR to Have 20% of Screens in Premium Formats
Indian multiplex major PVR has announced that it will have 20% of all of its screens in luxury/premium formats in the near future. The cinema operator currently has 12% of its screen count in one of several premium formats, including Director’s Cut, LUXE, Sapphire, IMAX, 4DX, P[XL], Playhouse and PVR Onyx across India, with a total of 860 screens in 179 properties and 73 cities in India and Sri Lanka.
The announcement comes as PVR signed an agreement with realty firm M3M India to set up an eight-screen multiplex at 65th Avenue, a luxurious retail project in south Gurugram, near Delhi. The property is expected to be ready in one year and will feature two screens in LUXE format, with a lounge and a hot food kitchen, one screen in the 4DX format and another screen in the P[XL] format with extra-large screens, RGB laser projection and immersive sound. In addition to M3M PVR is working with developers that include DLF India, Prestige Group and Phoenix Group.
Speaking to the financial newspaper Mint, Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, joint MD of PVR said:
“The luxury segment is usually content-agnostic because people take to these comfortable services, be it recliners or food and beverage served to their seats, easily. Audiences in every city are increasingly developing a propensity to spend on finer things.”
Source: Techi AI
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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