As the Northern Hemisphere of planet earth burns to a crisp amid what seem to be endless record setting heat waves, I am reminded of a focus session during last month’s CineEurope. On a panel titled “A Cinema Experience for All Audiences” Dorothy Smith, the Managing Director of Zeffirellis, an independent cinema in Ambleside, England, stated that she really likes when it rains because more people come to her theatre. Smith said this quite a few times during the session, to a point where it became a running moment of levity every time she mentioned her desire for foul weather.
However, in the midst of a blistering summer it is worth noting that movie theatres can also be beneficiaries without any precipitation. Remember it was movie theatres that helped introduce air conditioning to the masses back in the early Twentieth Century. There is some debate over which cinema was first to deploy any form of air conditioning, though many believe it to be the New Empire Theater in Alabama during 1917. At that time cinemas were abandoned during the sweltering summer months, too hot for patrons to sit inside.
This is one reason why the Rivoli Theater in New York City approached Willis Carrier to install one of his company’s newfangled air conditioning units. Audiences showed up en masse to watch movies in a cool environment. Carrier is now considered the father of modern air conditioning. After cinemas around the country followed the Rivoli’s lead and adopt the new technology, the summer blockbuster season was soon born.
For decades cinema owners would advertise their theatres air conditioning on marquees and newspapers as an amenity, the same way operators now market Dolby Atmos, reclining chairs or premium large formats. These days patrons assume most modern movie theatres will have air conditioning.
Yet, as thermometers begin to top out and residential air conditioners struggle to keep up with the unusually hot weather amid global energy crisis, it might be worth reminding audiences that relief can be found at their nearest cinema.
Showcase Cinemas in the United Kingdom employed a similar marketing tactic on the hottest days of the year, giving away free tickets to redheads, a group genetically proven to be more at risk for skin cancer. There’s been no word from the chain on whether the ploy was successful in attracting throngs of carrot tops, but it certainly managed to generate a lot of international press attention.
While this hot advice may apply mostly to cinema operators above the equator for the next couple of months, we also have a hopeful message, if not marketing guidance, for those in the Southern Hemisphere where rainy seasons might be dominating the weather forecast. It comes fresh from Dorothy Smith herself.
I recently connected with her on LinkedIn so that I could advise her I would be referencing some of her comments on the panel, without mentioning any specific quotes. Her unprompted response? “Happy for you to include. Having a good week this week. It’s been raining!”
Release Schedule
Supply-Chain Issues Cause Autumn Movie Shortage
The shortage of Hollywood blockbuster titles in the next two months has raised fears about the recovery of the global cinema sector. After a strong cinema summer, with hits such as “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Minions: the Rise of Gru”, there are no titles predicted to open to over USD $40 million at the domestic (North American) box office. While studios have traditionally shied away from releasing big tentpoles in late summer and early autumn, the lack of major tentpoles is noticeable.
Despite the recent recovery, tickets sales are still down 40% from levels before the pandemic. The proportion of films released on over 2,000 screens is down 30% compared to both 2018 and 2019. Major titles originally slated for these months, such as “Black Adam,” the seventh “Mission: Impossible” and the new “Transformers,” have been pushed back months or even to 2023.
The lack of titles is blamed on supply chain issues, with Hollywood studios halting productions during the pandemic. Once shooting resumed, visual effects houses were unable to ramp up to meet the surging demand:
VFX houses weren’t equipped to handle it all. Many had transitioned to remote work, which made them less efficient. They lost talented staffers to the great resignation and poaching from companies like Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook). Some of the movies mentioned above aren’t done because the visual effects aren’t ready.
Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg
Apart from the blockbusters, the overall cinema market has been “soft” this year, with the top ten titles accounting for 65% of the entire box office in the US. “Top Gun: Maverick” alone accounts for around 14%. Prior to the pandemic the top ten would make up roughly 40% of the total box office. There is hope that more streamers (Netflix, Amazon and Apple) will start to release films in cinemas with a 30-45 day window. The Netflix spy thriller “The Gray Man” recently released with a short window and earned less than “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank”.
Source: Bloomberg Newsletter
Cinemas
Cinema Slowly Returns to Ukraine
Even as Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, a semblance of normal life is gradually returning in un-occupied parts of the country, including cinemas. Out of around 50 cinemas in the capital Kyiv around 20 have reopened in recent weeks. Screenings are frequently interrupted by air-ride warnings, stopping the film and forcing people to find a shelter near the cinemas. If the air-ride siren goes no for more than 20 minutes the audience are told to come back the following day. Screenings also have to end by the 11pm (23:00) city-wide curfew.
One cinema that doesn’t need to evacuate due to incoming missiles is Kino24 in downtown Kyiv. This is because the arthouse cinema is the towns only underground cinema, located four meters (13 feet) below street level. The cinema, which launched in 2019, re-opened in July with its backlit board having added the words “cinema shelter.” The 42-seat cinema has been doing good business since its underground safety became a unique selling point. Kino24 has been showing a series of classic Ukrainian films in partnership with the Dovzhenko Centre, Ukraine’s biggest film archive, and expanded from one weekly screening to three, all which sell out.
June is a tough month for film distribution, but I can see that people are hungry for films. We’ve held three charity screenings and sent around $1,000 to the Ukrainian army. It gives us the confidence to know not only that we are entertaining people, but also that we are doing something important for the troops on the front.
Ilko Gladshtein, Kino24 partner
Another nearby cinema to have opened is the 400-seat Zhovten picture house, which also screens Ukrainian classics. Because it is overground, it has to interrupt screenings when the air-raid sirens sound.
We wanted to support the country’s economy but also the psychological well-being of people. Psychologists say that this type of mental decompression, and the ability to escape to another reality, is extremely important.
Yulia Antipova, director Zhovten Picture House
Source: Kyiv Post (AFP)
Piracy
More Russian Cinemas Resort to Piracy as Sanctions Bite
The number of cinemas in Russia showing Hollywood blockbusters illegally is said to have increased from 16 a few weeks ago to 127 last week. Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine has resulted in all Hollywood studios halting the release of new films in the Russian Federation and Belarus. With the market depending on as much as 70% of box office revenue from Hollywood films, this has created a gap not easily filled by re-releases of Russian films and imports from South Korea, India and Latin America.
Initially the main screenings of illegally obtained films were private rentals where people brought their own torrented files of films such as “The Batman.” The Russian Association of Cinema Owners has condemned the screening of unlicensed titles, stating unequivocally that “We condemn the practice of illegal screening of films in Russian cinemas.” The organization went on to say that it risks dragging the Russian markets back to the dark days of the 1990s, when cinemas had closed after the fall of Communism and optical disk piracy was rife.
The Association’s chairman Alexei Voronkov has conceded that such illegal practices are now proliferating, as a result of revenue dropping by 72% compared to 2021, when Russia became one of the first territories to reopen its cinemas after the COVID pandemic. There is now a prospect that 50% of cinemas could close by August. “To date, the wave of unauthorized showing of film copies is developing exponentially and will only grow,” Voronkov told local trade publication Kinometro, “four weeks ago, such content was shown directly in 16 cinemas, last week – 127 cinemas.” The impact on cinemas is already being felt, according to Kinometro:
By mid-2022, the number of cinemas in Russia decreased by 6.4% and cinema halls by 12.4%. Such data are provided by the Nevafilm Research company in its latest study (available to BC). The number of cinemas in the country has decreased from 2161 as of January 1 to 2022 as of July 1. The number of halls was reduced from 5704 to 4996, respectively.
Kinometro
There is no prospect of Hollywood studios resuming distribution of films to Russia while the war in Ukraine drags on.
Source: TorrentFreak
Event Cinema
Event Cinema Titles Set for Second Half of 2022
At this point anyone who writes about the cinema industry has already noted that the release schedule in the third quarter of 2022 is looking a little thin. One highlight might come from Disney, which will be re-releasing “Avatar” in September ahead of the long-awaited sequel. Now we are hearing about a number of event cinema programs making their way into movie theatres, if only for a short time.
First up is “Coraline,” the hit stop motion animation first released in 2009. Fathom Events, alongside LAIKA and Park Circus, are bringing the movie back to theaters in North America this summer for a one night only event on 15 August. The screenings will also feature a special behind-the-scenes featurette “Coraline: A Handmade Fairytale.”
Then, Sony Music Entertainment Premium Content and Trafalgar Releasing are releasing “True North” in select cinemas worldwide on Thursday 15 September. The film comes from the Norwegian pop band a-ha and accompanies their new studio album of the same title, set for release in October. The film will also include a special behind-the-scenes featurette, exclusive to cinemas.
“True North” follows the band as they record their album in a studio location 90km above the Arctic Circle. The project expanded into more of a production, and they were joined by the talented Norwegian orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic. Both the album and the film come shortly after a-ha re-emerged to perform a set of rare shows in North America for the first time in years. The band has not released a new studio album in seven years.
Finally comes that event cinema perennial, The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts. The series will begin its 16th season on 22 October and will feature ten Saturday matinee performances broadcast from the Met stage directly to movie theatres. This season will feature the world-premiere staging of “The Hours”, company premieres of “Champion” and “Medea”, and four additional new productions.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
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