The Global Film Village

Digital Downloading Movies an Audience That is Not There

// March 1st, 2010 // Comments Off // Industry Trends

(c) 2010 The Global Film Village. All Rights Reserved.

by Marc Halperin -

We have attended numerous panels over the last year in which filmmakers have told their tales of making no money from the digital download business. Meanwhile a cottage industry has grown up professing to tell filmmakers for a fee how they can self-distribute and make more money than going with an experienced distributor just by doing it themselves in a few cities and handling their own digital rights. At least someone is making  money from digital downloading, but it isn’t filmmakers.

From the horror stories told by individual filmmakers to the laments of Eamon Bowles at Magnolia, we know this is an emerging market. A few industry leaders have told the truth about this but these medicine show hucksters dismiss them as old fashioned distributors out of touch with the realities of the new distribution paradigm.

How long is it going to take for the digital download business to emerge to a point where someone can make money or survive based on it?

Far too long for most filmmakers working today.

Now there is evidence that Digital Downloading is not the solution they had touted. The Financial Times reports in a story today about Screen Digest’s latest study which shows that digital movie downloading isn’t catching on as expected. (more…)

Alice in Wonderland and a Shortage of 3D Screens

// March 1st, 2010 // Comments Off // Industry Trends

(c) 2010 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.

by Marc Halperin

After all of the maneuvering of the past couple of weeks between Disney and exhibitors, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was revealed to the public in a Royal Charity Premiere. Early reviews attest that it is a gorgeous rendition of the classic story. Todd McCarthy of Variety however is less than pleased and Emmanuel Levy has reservations. The Hollywood Reporter is extremely positive. Anyone who has seen the trailer and viewed Burton’s previous work knows that it will be visually stunning even if the characters lack the depth that some of the critics have noted. This is probably one of the most highly anticipated films of the period within its target demographic. The trailers shown at Christmas were extremely enticing.

All of the distributors are in for a struggle over the next month as the 3D movies they have spent lavishly producing enter a market that should have had far more screens than have been installed. Can you say screen crunch? Maybe if some of those TARP funds had been spent on installing 3D it would have injected more cash into the economy than most of the other projects that haven’t yet been built. Avatar is currently on 2581 screens of which 2169 are in 3D but there are less than 4000 screens altogether. On top of that it is playing on 179 IMAX screens but according to Marketwatch there are only 400 of these screens in the world as of December 2009. There just aren’t enough 3D screens to handle the product in the pipeline now. Fox will keep Avatar in theatres but in many locations they  will have to move into 2D screens. We are about to see a collision and it only gets worse as the year goes on with more 3D films reaching theatres every month.

Several years ago I predicted at a conference moderated by The Hollywood Reporter’s then Editor Robert J. Dowling at the UK Financing Forum in Hollywood that we would reach a point where the original financing of this 3D conversion would become critical. What was done in those early years was that several of the studios stepped forward and financed the conversion. Many may have forgotten this. Not having seen the contracts but understanding how distribution works I am sure there were clauses inserted that gave these companies first right of refusal on the screens they financed. The original companies that stepped forward were Fox and Paramount. Fox has Avatar occupying the majority of 3D screens now and Paramount has How To Train Your Dragon coming on March 26. Disney, Universal and Lionsgate announced at the ShowEast convention in 2008 that they were also going to help finance. However with the economic meltdown of 2008 it will be interesting to see how much of this money was actually advanced after ShowEast. Warners and Sony  announced earlier this month that they would join in to hasten the conversion.

Distributors will be very busy on Monday March 1, checking their hold-overs, new openings and  auditorium assignments. Fox could be sitting there with copies of their finance contracts at the ready to ensure that they keep every 3D screen that they are entitled to by these deals.

The next few weeks should be very interesting.

Odeon Lets Disney Out of Rabbit Hole

// February 25th, 2010 // Comments Off // Industry Trends

(c) 2010 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.

by Marc Halperin

After late night wrangling a settlement was reached between the Walt Disney Company and the UK’s  largest exhibition chain  which is also the largest in Europe and largest in the world outside of North America to allow screening of Tim Burton’s Alice. The Odeon boycott had also included its theatres in Ireland and Italy. The Boycott had grown to include several other theatre chains in Holland.

The resolution of this situation comes just in the nick of time as Alice in Wonderland has its gala Royal premiere tonight at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.

Odeon released this short statement on their website: (more…)

Largest UK Cinema Chain Says No to Alice

// February 22nd, 2010 // Comments Off // Industry Trends

(c) The Walt Disney Co. All rights reserved.

by Marc Halperin

The Odeon Chain of Cinemas one of the largest theatre operators in Europe has decided not to show Disney’s Alice in the UK, Irish Republic and Italy because of the studio’s decision to shorten the theatrical window. In these territories the window will only be 12 weeks and the chain says no way. There is an extended article on BBC News about this topic. No major U.S. cinema chain has taken a similar position to Disney’s plan which is all the more curious as this is a 3D movie and the video is only 2D.

From Disney’s ”Only in theatres” proclaimation on their previous advertising to only in 3D in theatres is a significant change. Some exhibitors are calling foul especially because they have just invested large sums to convert their screens to 3D and any challenge to their recoupment of these costs is dangerous in this economic climate. There is already an extreme shortage of 3D screens which will impact films like Avatar which will lose 3D screens to Alice. My previous article: Shrinking Theatrical Windows to be BIG Topic at Showest can be found here.

Will we see exhibitors putting the squeeze to Disney on box-office rental terms in light of their window decision? Will exhibitors choose to keep Avatar and show Alice in 2D?

We will learn the answers to these questions in a very short time.

Shrinking Theatrical Windows to be BIG Topic at Showest

// February 12th, 2010 // Comments Off // Industry Trends

(c) The Walt Disney Co. All rights reserved.

by Marc Halperin

This week the Walt Disney Company announced that they would be shrinking the theatrical window on Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland which opens on March 5. Now 13 weeks after the film first hits theatres it will be available at your local video outlet. This is actually only 4 weeks shorter than usual and allows Disney to grab a bigger slice of the video rentals than would be traditionally available during the summer months. By timing their release in this manner many children are still in school. Once they are out for summer vacation their preferred movie viewing is in the theatres for the summer blockbusters.

What does this mean to exhibitors? They have seen an erosion of these windows over the years. Recently it was common for video to be six months after initial theatrical so Alice represents a halving of that. But now it is far more common for everyone but a few independents to adhere to the 17 week schedule. IFC and Magnolia have been making much of their Day and Date releases but this has meant that their films seldom if ever see the inside of a major theatre chains auditoriums. Independent theatres are the only ones willing to play their films and many of them only for a single week. (more…)