It is the last week of August. The last week of summer. It is supposed to be one of those weeks where we struggle to find even a single story to include in the Marquee. The kind of week some might refer to as “a slow news week.” It was anything but.
If it wasn’t headlines predicting the death of the industry’s second largest cinema operator, then it was news stories about the rebirth of a subscription moviegoing service many had written off years ago (yes, that one). Not to mention the wave of punditry generated by industry and financial analysts pontificating on the dire straits of the movie business due to a slim fall release schedule. Never mind that few, if any, of these pieces ever mentioned the international markets where at this time of year local productions traditionally get a shot at a theatrical release without being pushed out of the way by the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
Then there was the announcement of National Cinema Day which will take place on 3 September. The promotion will see movie tickets deeply discounted in the Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Cinema Foundation in the US and Cinema First in the UK, who put the program together, did yeoman’s work to build awareness of National Cinema Day in the week run-up to the event. They landed stories in every major, medium sized and minor media outlet in all four markets, followed by additional headlines generated by exhibitors announcing their own participation throughout the week. This kind of earned media, on this scale, is not easy to come by and usually valued by public relations firms in the tens of millions of dollars, or in the case of the UK, pounds.
As expected, included in some of these news items was mention of a weak release schedule and sketchy analysis about how the cinema industry had to hold such a promotion as a last ditch effort to save abandoned movie theatres after the pandemic. Apparently the grosses on “Top Gun Maverick,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” are the exceptions that prove this theory. Of course, held up as a poster boy for the sorry state of the industry was Cineworld, with reports they are preparing to file for bankruptcy.
The only thing I want to mention here about Cineworld is that regardless of any schadenfreude some may feel over the its current financial predicament or that of its owners, nobody in the industry wants to see the company or its US chain, Regal, collapse. It would engender, if not exacerbate, a negative market sentiment and have a wide ranging deleterious affect on the entire business; from landlords, financiers, solutions providers, equipment manufacturers, film distributors and even other exhibition chains. That might be why UK distribution companies are reportedly continuing to supply films to Cineworld.
My only criticism of National Cinema Day is more personal and has to do with the title of a specific current release. I have been asked at least two dozen times over the past week by friends, family and neighbors whether I could recommend anything for them to see in movie theatres on National Cinema Day. Initially, I answered quickly and confidently with, “Nope.” After seeing the puzzled look on their faces I had to explain how “Nope” was Jordan Peele’s latest film and I’d heard good things. I have yet to see it and was hoping to do so on Saturday. Unfortunately all the National Cinema Day showtimes at the theatres near me are now sold out.
Marketing & Promotions
National Cinema Day Targets Audiences in UK, US and Canada
Cinemas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are making a concerted effort to attract moviegoers back to cinemas with a one-day promotional National Cinema Day on Saturday 3 September, when cinema tickets will be discounted to just USD $3 in the United States and GBP £3 in the United Kingdom. Movie theatres in Ireland and Canada will be joining in on the special day with tickets costing EUR €4 and CAD $3 respectively.
The program is being spearheaded by The Cinema Foundation in the United States and Cinema First in the United Kingdom, both of whom should win some kind of award for being able to keep news of the plan under wraps until a week before the promotion. According to Rolando Rodriguez, the CEO and President of Marcus Theatres, and Chairman of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), providing only a week’s notice was purposeful. “If it just became a story that’s over several weeks, then we’re not really leaving it in the consumer’s mind that it’s this Saturday,” he explained. “If we would have started this three weeks ago, it goes out of their mind. The fact that we can really garner that attention through the course of this week, and we’re seeing the excitement build with the consumers, we’re seeing it in the advanced ticket sales already.”
It is not the first time such a promotion has taken place, with “cinema days” like events happening in the UK throughout the 1990s. In continental Europe there has been a long tradition of multi-day cinema festivals such as Le Printemps du Cinéma (Springtime for Cinema) in France, when all tickets are EUR €4, as well as in Spain (Fiesta del Cine), Italy (Cinemadays) and Switzerland.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Exhibitors
Cineworld Financial Status Remains Vague Despite Bankruptcy Discussion
Since news first broke on 19 August that Cineworld was looking at filing for insolvency in the United Kingdom and bankruptcy in the United States, it feel as if each passing week is a guessing game for when the company will make the move official. Yet despite all the industry watchers waiting to pounce on the world’s second largest exhibition chain the moment it confirms any form of financial restructuring, Cineworld has been rather opaque about where they stand in the process, issuing only a single statement on 22 August:
“Cineworld and Regal theatres globally are open for business as usual and continue to welcome guests and members. Cineworld would expect to maintain its operations in the ordinary course until and following any filing and ultimately to continue its business over the longer term with no significant impact upon its employees.”
Over the past week the company’s second largest shareholder, the Chinese firm Jangho Group, reduced its stake in the company from 11.6% to 1.6%. As well, the landlord for its Picturehouse cinema in Piccadilly sent the exhibitor a “winding up petition” in a move to evict the company over past-due rent. Then it was revealed that Cineworld incorrectly reported its largest shareholder in its annual report. Nevertheless, shares in Cineworld on the London Stock Exchange are up over 40% to 4.07p since the news of the potential bankruptcy broke. Granted, the share price is down 85% from where it started the year at 32.68p.
While a bankruptcy filing still looks likely after Labor Day in the US, we have our own take on how Cineworld wound up in this position and the Financial Times describes how the company’s desire for expansion left it with a heavy debt load on the brink of collapse.
Source: Financial Times
Marketing & Promotions
MoviePass Reveals More Relaunch Details
After it was announced in February that the once notorious movie ticket subscription service MoviePass would be revived later this year by its original co-founder, details about the relaunch have been scarce. That was until late August when said founder, Stacy Spikes, started making the media rounds to reveal MoviePass would be accepting signups to its waitlist for a beta program which would begin on 5 September.
When the waitlist went live company’s servers crashed under the weight of 30,000 signups. There were 460,000 signups within the first 24-hours and 775,000 in the first week. Now MoviePass has disclosed that the beta program will launch in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City with three tiered pricing with monthly plans costing USD $10 for one to three movies, $USD 20 for two to four movies and USD $30 for three to five movies. How any many movies one can see under each plans depends entirely on when a subscriber wishes to see them; peak or off-peak showtimes.
When we spoke briefly with Spikes over the last week he was very optimistic about creating a sustainable service that will allow moviegoers to try out releases they wouldn’t have previously considered while providing incremental revenue for movie theatre operators they wouldn’t otherwise see. Indeed, Spikes has data on the box office lift specific independent films garnered during the first iteration of MoviePass.
Source: Insider
Box Office
Universal Is First Studio to Cross $3 Billion Since 2019
Universal Picture has become the first Hollywood studio to record box-office revenue in excess of USD $3 billion world wide and a calendar year since 2019. The strong figures came on the back of back-to-back success this summer with “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Minions: the Rise of Gru” and demonstrates the gradual recovery of the cinema market since the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to The Wrap, the respective takings were USD $976 million for “Jurassic World: Dominion” and USD $790 million for “Miniona: the Rise of Gru”, with both films still in general release. Together they account for over half of the studio’s total takings. Other Universal titles this year include “Nope” (USD $113 million worldwide) and “The Black Phone” (USD $152 million worldwide), with 11 releases in total, including two re-releases (“E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” 40th anniversary re-issue and the holiday release of “Sing 2”). Upcoming releases include “Halloween Ends,” DreamWorks’ “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” and “She Said.”
The strong box-office showing of multiple Universal titles should go some way to mend relations between the studio and the exhibition community, which were frayed by the decision early in the pandemic to release “Trolls World Tour” straight to PVoD and bypass cinemas completely. Even so, a USD $3 billion haul in a year used to be considered standard for a major Hollywood studio prior to the pandemic and the industry is fretting at the lack of major titles in the third quarter of this year.
Source: Slash Film
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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