Introducing Ignite Screen

We are about to look at the reconvening of Streaming Wars 2.0. The studios are anxious to show Wall Street that they really did know what they were talking about, and the misspending was merely a blip. Little thought is being given to movie theaters and the studios are predictably always trying to establish a one-to-one relationship with the consumer. Again these storm clouds forming should give rise to a call for re-invention and re-imaging of the movie going experience.

Almost seven years ago, I converted a dormant auditorium in the MidWest into an operational esports arena. What was a 110-seat theater auditorium turned into a 50-seat esports center. We had to extend the raised platforms, build casements for the wires and power drops, and build out a multi screen display for the projectors. We discovered that IKEA has an European esports furniture division and bought a table that fit on the extended raised platform. It was a ton of work, but today it is still in operation. The biggest challenge and cost in the build was converting a firmly designed single-purpose auditorium into a viable esports facility.

In many ways, one of the most significant issues was their premise. It was built for only one use. When I spoke to theater owners, they were very curious about the revenue potential of esports and other profit centers. They were just very wary about giving up something known for something that, at best, was a gamble. They were right to be cautious and nervous about this. What was interesting to me was that casual gamers phenomenally consumed concessions.?

We experimented on the Atlantic City Boardwalk and discovered that casual game consumers pay $8 of concessions per hour while aspiring gamers pay $0. In fact, it was discovered during discussions with Dave and Busters that these pro and semi-pro gamers usually showed up for a tournament cradling their own can of Pringles and bringing their own water. Other than terminal rental, they provided the facility almost zero upside.

I had been lucky enough to be introduced to architect Domenico Del Priore a couple of years back by Australian showman John Sullivan (I say this with much respect and admiration). Domenico and I began to chat about my challenges, and he spoke of wanting theater owners to diversify and expand their profit centers. Both of us are passionate cinephiles, and Domenico has a history of designing cutting-edge theater spaces from Bucharest to Bahrain. A phenomenally talented fellow.

Throughout our discussions, we collectively reached the conclusion that theaters had some root problems: they had to engage far more into the idea of community, they had to widen their food and beverage offerings (Domenico and I are concession fanatics), they had to bring in more profit centers to offset a deepening overhead cost and they had to have facilities to accommodate all these profit centers….and they had to incorporate streaming and some form of demand programming to deal with the lulls inflicted by the studios. We also understood that one of the significant impasses for theaters not embracing independent or alternative products was the lack of a dynamic ad campaign to support a movie's release.

I was thrilled to begin this dialogue. I was tired of yelling, "The sky is falling," without doing something about it. My grandmother and mother were both fond of saying, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." With that attitude, we began to put ideas to paper. Discussions ensued, and both intent and strategy were shaped. We soon realized that what we were talking about was not substantial for universal application but had a deep potential impact with theaters genuinely willing to re-invent themselves and have a deeper reach within their community. We soon realized with what we were talking about, we would see much longer hours of operation, at least 6 profit centers, and double the seat occupancy rate.

?We developed an on-demand seating arrangement of 60 percent fixed seats with a further 40 percent expansion. We have created projection capabilities for 3 walls to create facilities for education, small-form conventions, and corporate events; from morning Zumba classes to anime conventions, product launches, and standard movie presentations. We want to give the exhibitors a literal Swiss Army Knife that provides optimum revenue for the exhibitors.

We put esports, virtual reality, and casual video gaming into our plans. We acquired the rights to various IMAX-like titles. We firmly believe that education is a vital part of the model, including traditionally schooled and home-schooled students, so we obtained the global license to the world's most extensive educational library; we acquired and up-converted 800 classic movie titles, an extensive library of B movies and relationships with secondary studios, we licensed a pool of VR titles.

Next we acquired licenses for esports and video gameplay. We want a Netflix-like environment for theaters expanding on concepts brought to market by progressive theater owners like Jon Goldstein and building on foundations implemented by folks like Chuck Goldwater and Jason Brenek.

In conjunction with a major agency we began to look at promotion and how we could avoid the cost of a national campaign but at the same time achieve depth and profound word of mouth. Social media and low saturation program strategies were tested out and found to be successful.

Most of all, we wanted to create a firm plan B, distanced from the shenanigans of the movie studios.? We aimed to create a tightly defined, lower-cost, and expansive set of community-based theater toolsets in a box.

We see this as a season of deep re-invention for exhibitors on a global scale. We must see what it would take to spread overhead and increase attendance and profit centers. We are looking for imaginative theaters to partner with, committed show men and show women who sincerely believe in the future of the movies and are intent on shaping for their own benefit and the benefit of their communities.

This is IGNITE SCREEN, an effort to revitalize and expand the cinema-going experience. If you're interested in talking about possible involvement, please reach out to me at via messaging on Linkedin.