Changes

If you haven't noticed, most things operate in cycles. Peter Bart, formerly of Variety and Paramount executive stated a couple years back that as an industry, the movies had landed back in the early 1970’s. In the 1970’s the movies were vulnerable and needing re-invention. A group of fine young cannibals rose up, Coppola, Scorsese, DePalma, Lucas, Ritchie, Kaufman and Spielberg started producing movies that both re-invigorated and forever altered the business of movies.

?Right now that is probably about to happen again, a group of visionaries will make themselves known and begin to shape this industry in their own vision. It is further complicated now due to the rise of new technology but after they wade through a much more complicated industry, they will find their own way. I am looking forward to it but the business of exhibition has to become much more reactive.

The times we are living in are really interesting; headlines scream out that our society as a whole is deeply fractured. Allusions are thrown out about a potential splitting of the country, that people are so polarized that there is no way the country can keep existing. This, of course, is a load of prunes. Society goes back and forth, reacting to the pressures on them. The MAGA movement is a result of deeply held frustration and anger (some of which is more than valid) and you wrap it in easy answers and a lack of sentience. The woke movement is equally as silly. Political correctness has been wielded like a sword and is attempting to define our culture.

?Both the MAGA and the Woke will fail and society as a whole shall find its center. They load bellicose proponents of each perspective like the cicadae and dig a hole in the ground for themselves and lay dormant under until they see an opportunity to interject themselves. Behind both of these approaches is not fiscal conservatism nor classical liberalism, but instead a need for control. Why do they need control, you say, well frankly so they can either promote themselves and have a light shine on them or so that they can make a lot of money.

?Both of these approaches are at their core, sociopathic. At the core of the purpose, though, is the ability to define again the nature of our society. If you transcend the inane comments and self-righteousness you can see where the maker is evolving.

?As exhibitors seeing what is evolving, and programming to address those shifting trends is key. The studios have made the near fatal mistake in thinking that this industry was essentially one singular market; it never was. The method of finance and distribution coupled with the ridiculous cost of movie packaging force the studio to take this approach.

?The purposeful erosion and the audience base laid the seeds of the market upheaval we are experiencing now. In order to ride the tide of pablum content, not thought-out strikes, shifts in technology, and demographic swings, you have to look closer and find your own truth in the community you serve. You also have to take into account that the method of financing and the service of a distribution system is, at best, archaic, and you will soon come to the conclusion that in order to grow your business you have to look past the studios and diversify.

?The singularity of exhibition has come to an end. The need to take lessons from the arthouse movement is more than evident. I take a look at the programming options put forward by arthouses in their day and that is one way to define your cinema community and begin to shape what offerings are going to work for you.

?I am a huge fan of the cinematic tradition of Hollywood, it is robust, joyous, and dependable. Ask yourself what you can pull from the studio tradition and what your community wants to see. Is ethnic programming the answer for my theater, is educational programming what they want to see? How do I use my show times to gain more audiences? Do I book alternative content for three weeks and alter the showtimes to build market awareness?

?In the 1970’s Roger Corman brought alternative and foreign cinema to the screens of North America, advancing Fellini and Bergman and placing them smack dab in the middle of the cinematic universe. For a while, repertory cinema was on, dragging the often staid world of the exhibition into a more dynamic reality.

?Arthouse theaters are a funky invention, as cinemas they tend to target very specific audiences. They, by their nature, offer alternative products and often cutting-edge cinema. The arthouse opens itself up, by its nature to a wider more diverse demographic audience. When most people think of arthouse they immediately almost always think of the midnight movie.

?The term midnight movie comes from television, often with a horror host offering some kind of curation. These movies began in the early 1970’s with screenings of El Topo at the Elgin Theater in New York City. Midnight movies firmly were ensconced with the recurring screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show. As movies moved to the suburbs the economics of the Midnight Movie changed. The cinemas where these shows occurred began to come under the wrecker ball Mall based theater were not very conducive

?My point in bringing up the midnight movie was to show how in the past alternative programming created markets. In today’s world, given the nature of our society midnight movies would not fly but maybe the demographic who powered the midnight movie phenomena would be receptive for a more aggressive and diverse matinee program as that generation rapidly finds itself in retirement mode.

?The point is you have to begin defining and shaping your own market.