Fithian, Glickman cite turning point for cinema
Challenges seen for film biz after slide during 2005
March 15, 2006
LAS VEGAS -- At ShoWest's opening ceremony Tuesday, National Association of Theatre Owners president and CEO John Fithian and MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman put a brave face on the challenges facing the exhibition business: the 5.8% decline in 2005 boxoffice receipts, shortened release windows, rampant piracy and consumers distracted by new tech gadgets.
"We live in interesting times," Glickman said. "It's important how we respond in 2006 to these challenges. We are in state of ongoing change. The power of stories remain the key to our success. The play is the thing."
After looking at exciting footage from the upcoming Tom Cruise starrer "Mission: Impossible 3," to be released in May, and the studio slates for this year, both men expressed confidence in the industry's future. "I believe we are back," Fithian said as he proclaimed the long-awaited arrival of the digital-cinema age. "We stand now at the dawn of the biggest technological revolution since the advent of sound. Digital cinema starts right now, in the year 2006, and it couldn't come at a more important time."
To address the forces contributing to recent slumps in movie attendance, Glickman announced the first-ever MPAA research initiative to find out more about moviegoers' motivations, habits, wishes and desires. "We can't rely on guesswork," he said. "The public love affair with movies must be accomplished by the consumers recognizing and understanding the value of the moviegoing experience. If we focus on the value of the experience, I am confident that we will have a terrific 2006. Our goal is to preserve this movie experience."
Looking back on the recent turbulent boxoffice, Fithian described the past year as "bizarre," saying, "ShoWest 2006 comes at an important juncture in our industry's history." Without mentioning the film by name, Fithian thanked 2929 Entertainment mogul Mark Cuban and Steven Soderbergh's January release of "Bubble" -- which debuted day-and-date in January in theaters, on HDNet and on DVD -- for sparking a "healthy" and "spirited debate" on the issue of release windows. "These radical, though misguided, experiments have served a very salutary purpose," he said, to raucous applause from the audience at Le Theatre Des Arts in the Paris Hotel. "There's always a silver lining. This experience caused studios and exhibitors to sit down and talk with the creative community about this issue. It got us all together."
"We've got a lot of friends," the NATO CEO said as he thanked the studio chiefs who rallied to the cause of preserving the theatrical release window, which he said averaged four months and 16 days last year, a decline of only four days from 2004. "We'd naturally like to see it go in the other direction, but it's comforting to see the windows remain relatively stable."
Fithian praised Viacom's Sumner Redstone, Universal Studios' Ron Meyer, 20th Century Fox's Tom Rothman and Sony's Howard Stringer for their public support of the theatrical release window, "because they know the tiered release model best serves their companies and their consumers," he said, citing Redstone's quote: "Any exhibitor playing pictures under simultaneous release circumstances would be committing suicide."
Filmmakers M. Night Shyamalan, Tim Burton and Jonathan Demme also have rallied to the cause of saving theatrical release windows, Fithian said. "Burton believes that everything should be done to treat the cinema business as an art form -- it's a visceral medium." Bunch together homogenized made-for-cinema movies with direct-to-video or made-for-TV pictures, Fithian said, and you're doing what Stringer called "movies of the week." Fithian also singled out Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis for devoting so much time during March 5's Oscar telecast to celebrating movie theaters.
The American Film Institute will mount a "National Movie Week to generate enthusiasm and excitement for the power of movies," Glickman said. He added that Congress will be lobbied to recognize National Movie Week in March 2007.
At a news session that followed, Fithian complained that the media made a huge fuss over "one little picture" ("Bubble") but then neglected to point out that "the picture bombed," he said. "The reality is the window is not changing. The vast majority of Hollywood knows this windows model works." Journalists also jumped all over the industry's boxoffice misfortunes during bad times, he said, while ignoring all the good news that came at year's end. "It's easier to get negative media than positive," Fithian said.
"Technology is changing people's attitudes toward communication," Glickman said. "CES in January showed an explosion of new technology. You can't fight change. Radical changes in technology have caused people to focus on new venues, ideas and thinking. We'll do our best to protect the economics of our industry. We are all in this together. We fail or succeed together."
While Fithian reminded exhibitors that "in the short term, our business is cyclical," he cited a NATO admissions study showing steady growth in annual average ticket sales decade by decade. "In the long term, however, we are growing," he said. In the 1970s, theaters sold 985 million tickets a year. In the '80s that number grew to 1.1 billion. In the '90s, theaters sold an average of 1.3 billion tickets. "And in the first six years of this decade," he said, "we have sold an average of 1.5 billion tickets."
As usual, Fithian called on the studios to supply more good product, especially family fare. "Exhibitors know that good movies drive good boxoffice receipts," he said. "No other factors loom as large."
But Fithian also cautioned his troops to improve the moviegoing experience. He mentioned the constant fight against rude customer behavior in theaters, including the use of cell phones and PDAs. He told journalists he is even pursuing legislation permitting blocked cell phone bubbles in movie theaters, which is done in France, but he is still trying to figure out emergency access issues for parents and doctors. He indicated that progress was being made in persuading theater owners to run more original advertising and Super Bowl-style premiere ads before the start of the show.
Fithian said that after six years of struggling with "the monumental task" of getting six studios and 500 theater companies to come up with specifications, equipment development and business models for the digital-cinema future, he is pleased with the final specs released last year by Digital Cinema Initiatives. Two weeks ago, NATO's technology committee released some supplementary requirements that complement DCI's work. "We believe that digital-cinema quality exceeds that of film and anything available in home entertainment systems," he said.
Digital cinema brings flexibility to theaters able to book concerts and sporting events as well as advertising and trailers, Fithian said. "Chicken Little" did twice the business in 3-D as it did in 2-D, Fithian said, more evidence that digital 3-D is just one of the benefits to cinemagoers going forward.
Fithian said he could imagine a future where two versions of a movie would be released digitally, where filmmakers could "edit on the fly," he said, and change endings whenever they wanted.
Glickman also raised the possibility of a marketing campaign to sell films to moviegoers much like the way the dairy industry sold milk with its "Got milk?" campaign. "Generic promotion is a helpful and constructive way to get people to accept the underlying product," he said. "In this world of confusing and contradictory messages and competitive pressures, advertising individual movies may not be enough. You can change people's general attitudes or build feelings and emotions about it."
Fithian insisted that this plan is "not an act of desperation," saying: "We want to find the hot button we can hit to identify how to grow and expand the magic of going to the movies. We need to innovate." Citing his two teenage sons, who are constantly distracted by video games, iPods, instant messaging and \, Fithian said: "When the movies are good, they go to the cinema. When they're not, they play with their iPods."
The trends are "troubling," Glickman admitted. "The numbers of people going to movies have declined for three years. When you divide that with the population, it's not as good as it once was. Is it the death knell? Or is it an opportunity to find new ways of bringing people into theaters?"
According to Fithian, the important statistics are the ones pointing to long-term growth and solid stock prices for theater chains. "If Wall Street thought the business was doomed," he said, "they'd put their money somewhere else."
"We live in interesting times," Glickman said. "It's important how we respond in 2006 to these challenges. We are in state of ongoing change. The power of stories remain the key to our success. The play is the thing."
After looking at exciting footage from the upcoming Tom Cruise starrer "Mission: Impossible 3," to be released in May, and the studio slates for this year, both men expressed confidence in the industry's future. "I believe we are back," Fithian said as he proclaimed the long-awaited arrival of the digital-cinema age. "We stand now at the dawn of the biggest technological revolution since the advent of sound. Digital cinema starts right now, in the year 2006, and it couldn't come at a more important time."
To address the forces contributing to recent slumps in movie attendance, Glickman announced the first-ever MPAA research initiative to find out more about moviegoers' motivations, habits, wishes and desires. "We can't rely on guesswork," he said. "The public love affair with movies must be accomplished by the consumers recognizing and understanding the value of the moviegoing experience. If we focus on the value of the experience, I am confident that we will have a terrific 2006. Our goal is to preserve this movie experience."
Looking back on the recent turbulent boxoffice, Fithian described the past year as "bizarre," saying, "ShoWest 2006 comes at an important juncture in our industry's history." Without mentioning the film by name, Fithian thanked 2929 Entertainment mogul Mark Cuban and Steven Soderbergh's January release of "Bubble" -- which debuted day-and-date in January in theaters, on HDNet and on DVD -- for sparking a "healthy" and "spirited debate" on the issue of release windows. "These radical, though misguided, experiments have served a very salutary purpose," he said, to raucous applause from the audience at Le Theatre Des Arts in the Paris Hotel. "There's always a silver lining. This experience caused studios and exhibitors to sit down and talk with the creative community about this issue. It got us all together."
"We've got a lot of friends," the NATO CEO said as he thanked the studio chiefs who rallied to the cause of preserving the theatrical release window, which he said averaged four months and 16 days last year, a decline of only four days from 2004. "We'd naturally like to see it go in the other direction, but it's comforting to see the windows remain relatively stable."
Fithian praised Viacom's Sumner Redstone, Universal Studios' Ron Meyer, 20th Century Fox's Tom Rothman and Sony's Howard Stringer for their public support of the theatrical release window, "because they know the tiered release model best serves their companies and their consumers," he said, citing Redstone's quote: "Any exhibitor playing pictures under simultaneous release circumstances would be committing suicide."
Filmmakers M. Night Shyamalan, Tim Burton and Jonathan Demme also have rallied to the cause of saving theatrical release windows, Fithian said. "Burton believes that everything should be done to treat the cinema business as an art form -- it's a visceral medium." Bunch together homogenized made-for-cinema movies with direct-to-video or made-for-TV pictures, Fithian said, and you're doing what Stringer called "movies of the week." Fithian also singled out Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis for devoting so much time during March 5's Oscar telecast to celebrating movie theaters.
The American Film Institute will mount a "National Movie Week to generate enthusiasm and excitement for the power of movies," Glickman said. He added that Congress will be lobbied to recognize National Movie Week in March 2007.
At a news session that followed, Fithian complained that the media made a huge fuss over "one little picture" ("Bubble") but then neglected to point out that "the picture bombed," he said. "The reality is the window is not changing. The vast majority of Hollywood knows this windows model works." Journalists also jumped all over the industry's boxoffice misfortunes during bad times, he said, while ignoring all the good news that came at year's end. "It's easier to get negative media than positive," Fithian said.
"Technology is changing people's attitudes toward communication," Glickman said. "CES in January showed an explosion of new technology. You can't fight change. Radical changes in technology have caused people to focus on new venues, ideas and thinking. We'll do our best to protect the economics of our industry. We are all in this together. We fail or succeed together."
While Fithian reminded exhibitors that "in the short term, our business is cyclical," he cited a NATO admissions study showing steady growth in annual average ticket sales decade by decade. "In the long term, however, we are growing," he said. In the 1970s, theaters sold 985 million tickets a year. In the '80s that number grew to 1.1 billion. In the '90s, theaters sold an average of 1.3 billion tickets. "And in the first six years of this decade," he said, "we have sold an average of 1.5 billion tickets."
As usual, Fithian called on the studios to supply more good product, especially family fare. "Exhibitors know that good movies drive good boxoffice receipts," he said. "No other factors loom as large."
But Fithian also cautioned his troops to improve the moviegoing experience. He mentioned the constant fight against rude customer behavior in theaters, including the use of cell phones and PDAs. He told journalists he is even pursuing legislation permitting blocked cell phone bubbles in movie theaters, which is done in France, but he is still trying to figure out emergency access issues for parents and doctors. He indicated that progress was being made in persuading theater owners to run more original advertising and Super Bowl-style premiere ads before the start of the show.
Fithian said that after six years of struggling with "the monumental task" of getting six studios and 500 theater companies to come up with specifications, equipment development and business models for the digital-cinema future, he is pleased with the final specs released last year by Digital Cinema Initiatives. Two weeks ago, NATO's technology committee released some supplementary requirements that complement DCI's work. "We believe that digital-cinema quality exceeds that of film and anything available in home entertainment systems," he said.
Digital cinema brings flexibility to theaters able to book concerts and sporting events as well as advertising and trailers, Fithian said. "Chicken Little" did twice the business in 3-D as it did in 2-D, Fithian said, more evidence that digital 3-D is just one of the benefits to cinemagoers going forward.
Fithian said he could imagine a future where two versions of a movie would be released digitally, where filmmakers could "edit on the fly," he said, and change endings whenever they wanted.
Glickman also raised the possibility of a marketing campaign to sell films to moviegoers much like the way the dairy industry sold milk with its "Got milk?" campaign. "Generic promotion is a helpful and constructive way to get people to accept the underlying product," he said. "In this world of confusing and contradictory messages and competitive pressures, advertising individual movies may not be enough. You can change people's general attitudes or build feelings and emotions about it."
Fithian insisted that this plan is "not an act of desperation," saying: "We want to find the hot button we can hit to identify how to grow and expand the magic of going to the movies. We need to innovate." Citing his two teenage sons, who are constantly distracted by video games, iPods, instant messaging and \, Fithian said: "When the movies are good, they go to the cinema. When they're not, they play with their iPods."
The trends are "troubling," Glickman admitted. "The numbers of people going to movies have declined for three years. When you divide that with the population, it's not as good as it once was. Is it the death knell? Or is it an opportunity to find new ways of bringing people into theaters?"
According to Fithian, the important statistics are the ones pointing to long-term growth and solid stock prices for theater chains. "If Wall Street thought the business was doomed," he said, "they'd put their money somewhere else."
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