Community Ignition

The grip that Hollywood has held theaters in for decades is now coming loose. It’s a result of a lack of direction and thought. This loosening is revealing a group of crises: 1. A crisis over content 2. A crisis over the affinity of theaters with global audiences, 3. A crisis in the amount of overhead it takes to run a theater and finally, 4. a crisis in operator reactivity. All these crises are challenging and can give rise to a further erosion of the movie going experience.

?The announcement of the joint streaming sports efforts by ESPN, FOX and Warner’s should really cause? for pause. Streaming sports has been struggling and? this venture is designed to counter this trend.? Eyes will be on this effort. Most likely it will evolve into a portal approach as content diversifies and expands. It is a precedent that may define the nature of non-Netflix based streaming. Subscribers of the new service would also have the ability to bundle the product with the partner streaming platforms Disney+, Hulu and Max.

?Coming back to exhibition, I think that the singular reliance on studio products is something I have been waving my arms around for years now. It no longer makes sense. I have a Regal theater near me. It’s a nice looking theater, typical poorly utilized space coupled with overblown design. It starts its shows at 1:00 PM and they go in some cases to 8:45 PM. The 1 o’clock shows may have a 4% occupancy, the 4:30 PM show not much better….and at most enjoy a 13% occupancy. Theaters are always being forced to hold pictures that are under performing. What is fascinating to me is that this theater is starting to show Japanese animation, Hindi movies and of all things Peppa’s Cinema Party. There is such a vacuum in this business of exhibition that? slowly the market is going to redefine itself and reshape its customer.

?I believe that a theater should open at 7:00 AM and close at 11 PM. That’s 15 hours of operation. Traditionally if it's a robust cinema, we are seeing 7 hours of economic activity per auditorium. I think that’s a problem. To increase auditorium occupancy rates is an imperative.? To provide sources of revenue for the overblown foyer is an imperative.

?Scottish/Italian Architect Domenico Del Priore has been innovating cinemas for years now. In his thinking the issue really evolved into a concept called 60/40. He feels that a cinema, in order to give the operator maximum revenue potential, has 60% of the seating that can be fixed, but 40% should have a fair degree of flexibility tied to it. This concept is kind of game changing as you can have Zumba classes in the auditorium, educational presentations, product launches, concert movies with dancing, dinner and banquet space, and esports tournaments. This is how you can really widen your revenue base.

I live in the Midwest and one of the issues that most communities have is the lack of a mid-sized event center. Domenico’s ideas provide a popup setting that can provide maximum revenue potential and lead to liberation for the theaters. Cinema can be an evolved imaging of a community. Domenico calls his product Ignite Screen. For the sake of transparency, I have the privilege to be one of the partners in this effort.

?This effort creates a synergistic effort that moves a theater away from a singular reliance on a flawed vendor to a building of community and community centric consumer behavior. It’s interesting since this approach places community in the center of your business model and trains the consumer to treat your theater as a wider resource base.

In the Ignite Screen plan there are three aspects to the strategic implementation of community fundamentals.

?1. ? ? Consciousness that resources are available as a building blocks for community

2. ? ? Defining rituals and traditions and imbuing culture into everything you do within a facility

3. ? ? Showing a real dedication to the community you are serving.

?When you first approach the idea of community you have to define your theater as a space where people sharing can take place. Sharing of similar values and interests and through that you instill a sense of belonging to something. Theater spaces in the modern time have been presented as abstraction instead of a place from which to build aspects of your life.

?The biggest special effect in the Ignite Screen universe is the motivation of emotions and personal passions where relationships can be evolved from personal passions. Mutual support of those passions can deepen richer communities and create a much higher value proposition for that physical space.? While the brand of your theater is attached to these communities, it is not a cornerstone in that community's existence.

?Your customers soon become your social media influencer, creating a Jetstream of affinity marketing. Ignite Screen also brings community building technologies into play, like videocast/podcast stations, libraries of entertainment and educational content and the foundational element to which you can begin your theater evolution into the next generation of cinema. Domenico Del Priore John Sullivan Rob Arthur Laura Peralta-Jones Sean Branagan Jason Brenek Chuck Goldwater Patrick von Sychowski