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Industry
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July 7, 2005
AMC & Cinemark Offers Money Back Guarantee To ‘Cinderella’ Moviegoers
AMC, since followed by Cinemark, is now offering a money back guarantee to moviegoers who see the new Ron Howard film “Cinderella Man.”
“Cinderella Man”, which stars Russell Crowe as a Depression-era boxer trying to make ends meet and revive his career, has stuggled to find success in this summer’s box office climate despite excellent reviews from critics. Some attribute this to Russell Crowe’s offscreen antics, the general downtown in ticket sales, poor marketing, bad timing, etc.
“It’s in competition with films with lots of special effects and big action this summer. This is a quiet film,” Falk said. “The whole effort was to focus attention on what is a beautiful film that deserves an audience but just hasn’t gotten one.”
So far, only 100 patrons have asked for actual refunds since the promotion started.
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July 6, 2005
NY Times: Advertisers Pour Money Into The Big Screen
A recent New York Times article took a look at the rising amount of advertising being shown at movie theaters.
A few interesting highlights:
• In 2004, ads in United States movie theaters grew 23 percent to $438 million, according to the Cinema Advertising Council.
• More than 27,000 of the total 37,000 movie screens in the United States run cinema advertising
• Off-screen promotions – including revenue from in-lobby promotions – rose 41 percent to $64 million.
• On-screen advertising revenues grew 20 percent last year to $374 million
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Gizmodo Asks “Is This The End Of Movies?”
Gizmodo has an interesting blog post about the so-called death of the movies.
“The Taipei Times — and the rest of the world — is bemoaning the death of the movie business. People stay at home, get Netflix, drink a beer or six, and watch Godzilla vs. Mothra for hours at a clip. No one goes to the movies anymore. Hundreds of ushers are out of work every day. Popcorn machines are idle. The movies themselves, of late, are dreck.
I think the real key is that people don’t like to go to movie theaters. As a result, new movies get seen at home, where it’s a bit harder to track box office receipts. I suspect that any movie that comes out now will get 30% of it’s receipts from the theaters. The rest comes from everything else: DVDs, rentals, TV, etc. We have so much to watch that we don’t want to go anywhere. We need to stay at home just to catch up, and we catch up long after the movie hits, and fades from, the theatre."
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June 21, 2005
AMC, Loews Cineplex To Merge!
According to this story from Yahoo News, the long-discussed merger between AMC Theatres and Loews Cineplex is about to become official.
What this means in terms of theatre divestment or zones with competing AMC and Loews properties (the AMC Empire 25 and Loews 42nd Street E-Walk in Times Square and the 600 N. Michigan, Esquire, and AMC River East 21 sites in Chicago, among other examples) remains to be seen.
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May 25, 2005
The Megaplex Turns “10”
The Associated Press takes an interesting look at the history of the megaplex…
While it seems as if gigantic movie theaters have been with us forever, the megaplex theater — defined as having 14 or more screens and modern amenities like stadium-style seating — turned 10 years old last week.
AMC Entertainment opened the first, the Grand 24 in Dallas, on May 19, 1995, ushering in a concept that used its scale to change how movies are shown. Ticket prices and audience expectations have gone up in the 10 years since, and megaplexes now face problems of their own.
The idea was to match the successful “big-box” stores sprouting across suburbia, said Peter Brown, chief executive officer of Kansas Citybased AMC, which now operates 229 theaters, 77 percent of which are megaplexes.
Pretty interesting read. There’s more at the East Valley Tribune website.
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May 23, 2005
The Future Of Movie-Going In Canada?
CANADA — A recent story in the Globe and Mail reported that Cineplex Galaxy movie theatre chain is considering buying its biggest competitor – Famous Players.
If the sale takers place and is approved by the Canadian government’s Competition Bureau, Cineplex-Galaxy would own slightly more than 70 percent of Canada’s movie screens.
The story also includes a hint of what to expect in the future when you buy your ticket. According to the head of Cineplex-Galaxy, there will be about 20 minutes of ads and promo’s projected digitally before the lights go out for the main feature. This is seen as a way to keep the price of tickets down.
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May 20, 2005
Sundance Group Announces Cinema Intention
PROVO, UT — This just crossed BusinessWire — The Sundance Group has just announced new plans for an art house circuit:
“The Utah-based Sundance Group announced today that it is going forward with long held plans for a Sundance Cinemas movie theatre circuit. The new venture brings together Robert Redford’s Sundance brand, a recognized name in independent film, with the seasoned specialized theatre management team of Paul Richardson and Bert Manzari. Investment funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management are financing the new company.
Richardson will serve as President and CEO, with Manzari taking the reins as President of Film and Marketing. The Cinemas will strive to incorporate the best in independent, documentary, and foreign language film, as well as quality studio films, and original programming, which will include shorts, filmmaker interviews, forums, and other value added features.
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May 4, 2005
Coming Soon To Loews Theatres: Truth In Advertising!
According to this article,) from the New York Times, Loews Theatres' newspaper and web-based advertisements will soon begin making note that their feature presentations begin 10 to 15 minutes after the show time actually given.
So, now, people who don’t want to watch advertisements will know exactly when they’ll be able to arrive and not find a very good seat. ;)
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April 22, 2005
Transforming a Historical Theatre into a Performing Arts Center
The following was sent in by “focus”:
“Performing Art Centers Of Indiana, LLC. was established to work with historical theatre owners and communities, to restore classical downtown theatres into state of the art performing art centers.
‘Restoration of a historical theatre is an important contribution to the theatre culture of each community they serve,’ said Mr. Monde President of the company, ‘but the success of the theatre goes beyond the restoration phase.’
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April 21, 2005
The Ups and Downs Of A ‘Better’ Moviegoing Experience
NEW YORK, NY — The travails, quirks, and general trend of luxury, reserved seating—from a New York City perspective—via this recent New York Times article).