Saturday, August 16, 2003

Industry brief: Movies 4                         Part 1   2    3   5    6 Variety You might think that this large number of theatrical screens across the country would allow for a wide variety of products (films) to be available at one time. In fact, the opposite has happened. The expansion of the big chains has led to the demise of independent second-run theaters that would prolong a film's life considerably while offering reduced price tickets and a greater number of currently playing films. In addition, the studios are not interested in the revenue from second-run theaters - they want to clear the decks for the next release. At this point, all the studios and all the studios and chains have basically the same strategy - show the biggest hits as soon as they are available. If they are megahits, show them on two or more screens in the same cineplex, with staggered starting hours. This will pull in as big an audience as possible as fast as possible. The result is that the cineplexes are only looking for a narrow range of products, preferably ones which can bring in a quick-decision making crowd who wants to be in the theatre as soon possible to see the hottest films. This means films that are already pre-sold thanks to: 1) big stars, 2) remakes of famous movies or sequels to other hits, and/or 3) enormous marketing campaigns designed to bring out the audience. Only a limited number of movies come out with one, two or especially all three of these factors in their favor. Those are the ones that the theater chains want. So that's why they all have the same set of 15 to 20 movies, playing in every theater at the same time. The numbers tell the story. Big studio new releases fill around 3,000 to 3,500 screens apiece; slightly older (3-6 weeks after release) or less popular pictures occupy 1,000 or fewer screens apiece. At any one time, almost half of the national screen capacity is taken up by the top six films, four fifths of all screen capacity is by 20-25 or so films. Getting on the shelf and staying on the shelf is critical to a movie's financial success, and in no way easy. Once on the shelf, the clock is ticking. Shelf space and mind space There's another reason why studios release their films on as many screens as possible. Generating a high box-office figure functions as a promotion for the film, a way of gaining mind space. In this hall of mirrors, the fact that the marketing effort pulled out large numbers to the opening weekend is seen as a guarantee of its "hit" status, thus gaining it mind space, no matter what the critics say. People want to go to the hot movie, and the movie is hot because other people went to it. Thus, a winner-take-all mentality drives the industry. You might think the difficulties of generating a hit would make the studios more cautious. But they keep churning out the features and spending more and more, for bankable stars, for special effects, for marketing, including a barrage of ads on television. . Combined with percentage deals, this assembly-line procedure is a killer for theater chains, Even if overall box office is constant or increasing, chains can never make it up. A slow opener that lasts for months like My Big, Fat Greek Wedding or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are rare treasures. Without them, the chains would be in even worse shape. Incidentally, this fast start is why the movie industry is so slanted to adolescents. With less complicated personal schedules and with so little to do in suburbia, they are likelier to jump into theaters in the first few weeks. If they like a film, they might be back the next week with friends. Older viewers find it hard to make it to a film while it is still playing, slow to make up their mind, more skeptical. That's why "serious" films like Shakespeare in Love or Memento are released more gradually to create a more gradual buzz, and have a somewhat longer shelf life. Theaters also face competition from home video, which has recently outstripped theater box office in terms of yearly revenue. And what the hell, the video will be out before you even made a decision, and at $2 or $3 a pop for several days of rental, it sure beats going out to the theater and forking out $8 a ticket or more on a third-rate film. (Plus you can make your own jumbo bucket of popcorn for next to nothing.) 2:31:48 PM

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