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Industry
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January 8, 2010
Avatar crosses $1 billion worldwide…fastest to reach milestone!!!
According to an article in the LA Times, most of the take of Avatar’s $1 billion and counting box office worldwide has been from IMAX and Digital 3-D showings of the movie, about 75%.
One of the riskiest movies of all times is now officially one of the most successful at the box office.
When “Avatar” opened, its solid but far from stellar results left 20th Century Fox uncertain about whether the $430 million that it and two financing partners had invested to produce and market the 3-D film would pay off.
Less than three weeks later, there’s no doubt. Director James Cameron’s science-fiction epic on Sunday became only the fifth movie in history to gross more than $1 billion worldwide and, by far, was the fastest to do so.
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December 30, 2009
Paris Opera broadcast live to UK cinemas
Similiar to the program currently done by the Met in the United States, the Paris Opera is planning on coming to U.K. cinemas.
Last night, the evening’s performance at the Paris Opéra was transmitted live to some 30 cinemas across the UK — the first of what film company Pathé-UK hopes to build into a series of live screenings of major cultural events. While this year’s similar scheme for theatre has largely been considered a success, I was curious to see if watching dance in a cinema could be a worthy substitute for a live performance. More to the point,who would go to see it?
Read more in the Guardian.
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December 24, 2009
Rave Cinemas, LLC announces definitive agreements to purchase up to 40 theaters
DALLAS, TX — Rave Cinemas, LLC (“Rave”), a newly-formed company, announced that earlier this month it reached a definitive agreement with National Amusements, Inc. (“NAI”) to purchase the business operations and selected real estate assets of up to 35 NAI theaters and that it closed on the acquisition of an initial group of 29 of those theaters. Concurrently, the company acquired the business operations of four theaters from Boston Ventures-owned Rave Reviews Cinemas, L.L.C. (“RRC”), together with RRC’s corporate infrastructure and the Rave Motion Pictures brand. RRC will retain 21 of its existing theaters, which will be managed by Rave under a management services agreement. The day-to-day business and operations of Rave will be managed by RRC’s former management team, which partnered with equity sponsor TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. (“TowerBrook”) and co-investors Lambert Media Group (“Lambert Media”) and Charles B. Moss, Jr. to found Rave and pursue the NAI and RRC acquisitions.
Following the close of the acquisitions, Rave, which will operate under the Rave Motion Pictures brand name, anticipates it will own or manage 65 theaters and approximately 1,000 screens located in 20 states across the country and will have a presence in seven of the top ten Designated Market Areas (DMAs) in the country. Rave is expected to become the fifth largest domestic circuit by box office gross and number of screens.
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December 18, 2009
Avatar’s Midnight Screenings
Variety is reporting that James Cameron’s new film “Avatar” grossed $3.5 million in midnight screenings at roughly 2,000 locations last night. While the trade journal refers to it as a “strong start” for the “sweeping 3D sci-fi fantasy,” Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily is throwing a bit of cold water on the film’s expectations by noting that “last night there weren’t the usual reports pouring in to me of long lines and sold-out theaters after midnight, except for the IMAX 3D venues. Instead, Internet chatter and anecdotal accounts indicate moviehouses showing Avatar were not playing to packed houses – at least not yet.” Friday matinees are supposedly strong, however.
Finke does add one interesting quote from Steven Spielberg (“after screening it on the Fox lot”): “The last time I came out of a movie feeling that way it was the first time I saw Star Wars.”
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Next Twilight movie to be IMAXed for next summer
According to Zap2it, the next movie in the Twilight saga, “Eclipse”, will get the IMAX treatment when it comes out next summer. This marks the first time that a vampire-themed movie is getting the larger than life treatment. Select scenes from the movie will be shot with IMAX cameras. The previous entry in the franchise, “New Moon”, has made almost $270 million domestically.
“Eclipse,” the third film in the series, will be shown in the giant-screen IMAX format in addition to its regular release. Both formats will open June 30.
The IMAX release of “Eclipse” will feature digitally remastered sound and images designed to fit the enormous screens of IMAX theaters.
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December 9, 2009
Rave buying 35 theaters from National Amusements
DALLAS, TX – Thirty-five theaters currently operated by Sumner Redstone’s heavily indebted National Amusements will be acquired by Rave Motion Pictures, Inc. While the theaters involved in the deal have not yet been announced, they are believed to be all located out of National’s main markets of New York and New England.
Media mogul Sumner Redstone’s family movie theater chain National Amusements Inc. has reached an agreement to sell 35 theaters to Dallas-based exhibitor Rave Motion Pictures, people close to the matter confirmed.
Details of the deal, which is believed to include Los Angeles' Bridge: Cinema de Lux multiplex, are still being worked out, but the transaction is expected to be finalized in the next two weeks.
Redstone would probably use the proceeds from the sale to retire a portion of National’s debt, which was an onerous $1.46 billion until he announced plans in mid-October to sell nearly $1 billion in stock in the two media companies he controls, Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp.
Read more in the L.A. Times.
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December 2, 2009
AMC and Regal ban outside food from theaters
DENVER, CO — According to the Denver Business Journal, AMC and Regal are prohibiting outside food from being brought into movie theaters.
“AMC recently reviewed its company policy regarding outside food and drink and will no longer be permitting guests to bring in these items, as is the case with many entertainment venues,” said Sun Dee Larson, vice president of corporate communications at Kansas City, Mo.-based AMC Entertainment.
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November 20, 2009
Will movies at home kill movie theaters?
Here’s a discussion from NPR about new tactics Hollywood is using to bypass theaters and its effects.
As DVD sales decline, Hollywood studios are looking for ways to get movies straight to consumers' living rooms. This has some industry insiders worried that Hollywood is jeopardizing its most valuable asset: the theatrical release date. The movie industry is looking to change the way it distributes content.
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November 16, 2009
Moore Family Theaters provide alternative to impersonal theater management
EAST GRAND FORKS, MN — In “Citizen Kane,” the protagonist thinks it would be fun to run a newspaper; over 25 years ago, driving by a for sale theater in Blackduck, Bob and Jan Moore decided it would be fun to bring a cinema back to life and run it. Since then, they have rehabilitated theaters in Fosston and Crookston, and have converted a former crafts store East Grand Forks into a multiplex. But in spite of their successful growth, their approach to running their theaters is anything but corporate.
The movie theater has been so successful that owner Bob Moore plans to add an additional three to four screens within the mall and says he might eventually turn the entire mall into one giant theater after he purchases the mall from the city in the future.
“The theater is one of the better uses of that facility,” says Jim Richter, executive director of the East Grand Forks Economic Development and Housing Authority, which owns the mall. “These guys had a good background in theaters and entertainment. They did it right. It’s been a draw and it’s helped bring more focus to our redeveloped downtown.”
Read more at Prairie Biz Mag.
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November 6, 2009
MPAA undercuts cinema distrubution
The MPAA announced that they are paving the way towards bypassing theaters in the film distribution model.
In a filing today with the Federal Communications Commission, the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) reinforced the benefits of allowing studios the option of sending movies fresh from the box office to tens of millions of American households.
“Many of us love movies, but we just can’t make it to the theater as often as we’d like. That is especially true for parents of young children, rural Americans who live far from the multiplex and people with disabilities that keep them close to home,” MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman said. “Having the added option to enjoy movies in a more timely fashion at home would be a liberating new choice.”
Read the full story at Deadline Hollywood.