Opening The Cage
I think we have some huge issues in this country. I believe these issues impede business and place layers of bureaucracy and layers on intermediaries that threaten the cohesive ability to conduct business. Now, the studio will tell you behind closed doors that their efforts are to create a one-to-one relationship with the consumer and take the middleman out of the transaction. But here's the rub: due to the shifting nature of financing and the rise of the agency economy and the simple fact that studios are slowly getting out of the financing business, the studios themselves have become intermediaries.
They will argue that the exhibitors are intermediaries. But if you really want to drill down to the truth of the matter, what the exhibitors are selling is their environment, their big screen, and their ability to produce concessions. That is the product that exhibitors sell. They are a medium on which the studios depend to provide a solid experience.
In the UK, there is a circuit called Everyman. The company was founded in 2000, when showman Daniel Broch bought the original Everyman Cinema in Hampstead, London. Broch led the company's growth with the acquisition 2008 of Screen Cinemas to add more locations. The company was founded in 2000, when entrepreneur Daniel Broch bought the original Everyman Cinema in London in 1933. Broch led the growth of Everyman by a set of strategic acquisitions.
This week, Everyman released its yearly financials, which showed a 9.7% rise in admissions, which was accompanied by a 10% rise in concession sales. Everyman also confirmed the opening of three new locations and a deeper market share rise to 4.8% compared to the previous year's 4.5%.
Overall the stock price rose 4.4%,
In discussions with Everyman, it became very clear that their focus was their own premise and their service offerings. They decided to really build on the movie-going experience and not the movie. I think that has provided both great strength, an ability to build on their own marketing focus and achieve a higher sense of self-reliance. It’s really a model we should be taking a serious look at. Everyman is doing a lot of things very right and should be looked upon as a model to follow. Everyman is making the wise decision to focus on elements that are within their own base of control.
There are many examples where exhibitors are focusing less on Hollywood and more on elements that they have under control.
Many voices in the ether are asking movie theaters to reinvent themselves. Folks like Domenico Del Priore, Rob Arthur, and John Sullivan are asking key questions regarding the future viability of the historical model for movie-going.? Many are commenting that with the rise of the multiplex the baby has been thrown out with the bath water. The lack of iconic theaters, a victim of the wrecking ball, coupled with the engorged cost of production based on agency and packaging greed, has profoundly reshaped the business.
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One of the founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, Jane Rosenthal has laid out an interesting series of comments that challenges the current model of movie-going and has called out for re-establishing the big theatrical experience.
Rosenthal commented, "If I go based on what was going on over a 20-year period with the film festival, we've lost venues like the Ziegfeld; the Paris Theater was bought by Netflix. I look at the number of seats we had below 14th Street— those numbers have changed." She goes on to say, "Instead, you have smaller theaters with bigger seats and food," she adds. "So, where is that big theatrical experience?"
"It's got to reinvent itself again," Rosenthal states. "Because it's very special to be in a dark room with a lot of people and laughing, crying, or screaming."
Going back to the basics, focusing on the elements that are under your control coupled with a search for newer and alternative content. The distractions that have been placed on exhibitors by both real estate developers and the studios have been more than stifling. What could happen is a renaissance for movie going.
“You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.” ~George Lucas