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Industry
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April 9, 2009
Motion-enhanced seats coming to a theater near you
Taking a cue from the theater developments of the 1950’s, motion-enhanced seats are being tested out.
Heading to the movies just became a more “moving” experience, thanks to new motion-activated theater seats available for theatergoers, D-BOX Technologies announced today. Beginning April 3, audiences will experience the seats with the release of Universal Pictures' new action-thriller, Fast & Furious.
D-BOX Technologies will debut its Motion Systems for the first time during this theatrical release. The seats are equipped with the company’s Motion technology and powered by D-BOX Motion Effects that corresponds to the action taking place onscreen, causing the seats to tilt and shake in perfect synchronization with the onscreen action.
Read more in PR Newswire.
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April 8, 2009
MovieTickets.com inks 150th theater chain partner
Apparently leaving Fandango and all others in the dust, MovieTickets.com announced its 150th chain partnership at ShoWest.
MovieTickets.com (www.movietickets.com) today announced at ShoWest it will provide online movie ticketing services for its 150th theater chain — a milestone partnership for the company, which now represents seven times as many exhibitors as its nearest competitor.
Read the full story at Fox Business.
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April 6, 2009
Alamo Drafthouse interview
Eclipse Magazine has an interview with Alamo Drafthouse CEO, John Martin.
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas in Austin Texas has the little theater that could. It’s become an Internationally known movie theater and a must see stop for anyone visiting town which is quickly becoming a haven for the Hollywood hipsters to hang out. This is in large part due to the folks at Ain’t It Cool News and the hot new South By SouthWest conference, that, apparently I’m not cool enough to give credentials too. But that’s another story. After a few recent bad movie going experiences here in DC, I was ready to get a movie executive on the horn and vent, who better to talk to then the CEO of the Alamo John Martin – especially since they are expanding and opening their 2nd theater, here in Virginia.
Read the interview at Eclipse Magazine.
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Fox won’t foot 3-D glasses bill
In a move that’s angering theater owners, Fox is expecting theaters to cover the cost of 3-D glasses for their 3-D films.
On Tuesday, Fox said that it wasn’t going to pay the $1-million-per-movie cost to supply theaters with 3-D glasses for the studio’s upcoming in-your-face films like this summer’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Instead, Fox wants the movie theaters to pay for them. Understandably, multiplex owners aren’t too happy about the extra cost, and many are considering revolting by only showing Ice Age 3 in 2-D, which could massively cut into the film’s box-office revenues.
Read the full story in Business Insider.
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April 2, 2009
Admissions up, concessions down during recession
People may be going to the movies more but they’re buying fewer food items and drinks when there.
In response, theater chains are rolling out “value menus” to combat reluctance at the concession counter. None is doing it as drastically as Carmike Cinemas, which in March introduced Stimulus Tuesdays to its 250 locations, with refreshments at the rock bottom price of $1 each.
Andy DiOrio, AMC’s manager of corporate communications, agrees that value is the key concept this year. Theatergoers are “more value-conscious than ever,” DiOrio says. AMC is offering popcorn, sodas, Icees, bottled water and candy for $3 each or three items for $7.50, with the combo prices available at all times. The circuit also offers discounts on rotating items and loyalty-program discounts.
Read the full story at Variety.
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Chain delivers ‘two-hour vacation’
Despite the recession, Chicago-area chain Classic Cinemas is doing better business.
As the recession worsened late last year, something odd happened at Classic Cinemas: Business begin to pick up in what had been pretty much a flat year for the family-owned movie theater chain, based in Downers Grove.
And for the first three months of this year, attendance has kept climbing — up 11.5 percent compared with the same period last year for Classic, which owns seven movie theaters and leases space running theaters at six other locations from Oak Park to Kankakee.
Read the full story in the Chicago Sun Times.
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March 30, 2009
National Amusements theater auction sparks interest
Despite the economy and the state of moviegoing, a sale of some National Amusements locations has generated quite a few queries.
Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements has received interest from strategic rivals and private equity firms for its U.S. and U.K. theater chains, two sources with knowledge of the auction said.
Sales books started going out in early March to nearly 60 parties for the U.S. theaters and to about 20 for the U.K. screens, the sources said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the sale have not been made public.
Two separate auctions, likely to help National Amusements pay about half its looming debt obligations, include 54 theaters in the United States and 21 screens in the United Kingdom.
Read the full story at Reuters.
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Former Cineplex Odeon duo found guilty
Original Cineplex Odeon executives Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb were found guilty in court this past week.
Former Broadway producers Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, founders of the once-thriving theater company Livent, were both found guilty of two counts of fraud and one count of forgery in a Toronto courtroom on Wednesday.
It marked a decidedly downbeat final curtain for the flamboyant showman Drabinsky, who, at his height, dazzled Broadway with free-spending ways the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Florenz Ziegfeld.
Read more in Variety.
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March 27, 2009
Cinema Treasures at ShoWest
Patrick Crowley and Ross Melnick will be at ShoWest next week talking to exhibitors, technology companies, and journalists about the future of theatrical exhibition.
If you are an exhibitor, technology/equipment provider, publicist, or journalist, and would like to schedule a meeting in Las Vegas, please email Ross Melnick at .
Look for our post-ShoWest coverage upon our return!
(Thanks to Flickr user http2007 for the shot of Vegas.)
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March 25, 2009
Clock ticking on Warner Bros. succession
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes looks to the future as the looming exit of the top two Warner Bros. executives points towards a change in practices for the studio.
With the heads of Warner Bros. signing only two-year contract extensions, Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes will focus on succession and how the movie and television studio should be managed in the face of tectonic shifts in the entertainment industry and a harsh economic environment.
The performance of the legendary Hollywood studio, with its rich legacy of producing cultural touchstones such as Looney Tunes and the “Harry Potter” series, will receive closer scrutiny as it becomes more important to the bottom line of parent Time Warner in the wake of its spinning off its cable TV systems.
Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times.