From Where I Sit...

There is no doubt that this pandemic has had a profound effect on our business. Collectively we are all hoping hopes we can return to “normal” which in most people’s eyes translates to $11.3 B annual box office. Let’s suppose for a brief moment that it doesn’t. The first thing is that theater capacities must return to 100% capacity. The simple fact is that unfortunately, a certain percentage of people will never feel comfortable in a theatre environment again. Negotiations between the largest circuits and the studios have saved in some cases, but considerably shortened the traditional theatrical window. The public’s investment in several streaming services per household may make people more selective of what they will make an effort to see outside the confines of their own homes.

Let’s face the fact that attendance has been declining for years and will continue to do so. It is not something I am happy about, but it is a simple fact of this business.

If you believe in the saying “Where there’s chaos, there’s opportunity”, then there must be tremendous opportunity right now. For the first time that I can recall, there is a really good opportunity for theater owners to take control of, at a minimum at least, a little piece of what goes up on the screen. With shorter windows, which result in shorter runs and still some major titles going directly to streaming, now is the time to work with independent distributors and producers. If we collectively roll-up our sleeves, this could be the dawn of a new golden age of independent product.

There are thousands of titles, some of them admittedly bad, but, some of them really good. Most would love to have a chance at a theatrical release. What keeps these pictures from being released into theatres? What we refer to a P & A or prints and advertising. The “P” is insignificant at this point as the demand for content for has risen due to the end of the VPF programs. So, let’s call it promotion and advertising.

Somebody has to make a financial commitment to marketing the movie. Movies don’t find an audience by themselves. It takes a lot of work. While it is not feasible right now to spend $22 million on movies that barely gross that. We still need to make people “aware” of the movie and increase their “want to see.”

Even Netflix learned that they had to advertise their original content like a studio release. Previously, their titles had years of awareness. But, throwing original content on their network and not telling anybody, it just does not work. Same with theaters. You can’t just throw content up on the screen and hope people come.

Fortunately, some companies have become very good at micro-targeting their audience. Look at the success of Demon Slayer over the last few weeks.

We’ve had fewer wide releases throughout the pandemic, but many independent titles. Frustrated with having limited knowledge of the numerous pictures being released on a weekly basis, I asked the managers of the few theatres that I still book to tell me which movies that their customers were requesting. This was an experiment in marketing effectiveness. One theatre was getting numerous requests for the movie Radium Girls a picture that was released last October to limited success.

Juno Films was surprised by my booking request, but the movie played for four weeks. Demon Slayer, Radium Girls, The Resort were all titles that were requested by our customers...and they showed up!

What this tells me is that with a coordinated effort, we can have an impact on at least a small part of what goes up on the screen. Showing movies is, after all, our core business…that is of course after selling popcorn.

This effort is going to require four things – exclusive content with a proper window, screens, P & A and joint marketing effort by both distribution and exhibition. Exhibitors, you have direct access to the moviegoer. It’s time for those who are not already doing so, to leverage that relationship.

If we do not work together, then the ongoing economic effects of this awful pandemic will keep lingering. It really is time we changed the way we do business.