Long Range Tracking: ‘The Kid Who Would Be King’ & ‘Serenity’

This week’s report takes a first look at the final weekend of January 2019, currently slated with the release of Fox’s The Kid Who Would Be King and Aviron’s Serenity. PROS: The Kid Who Would Be King could benefit from its positioning as one of the first youth-friendly films of the year, getting a two-week jump on February 8’s The LEGO Movie 2. Initial trailers and the film’s high production value under director Joe Cornish could aid appeal to parents. Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway may provide enough star power for Serenity to counter-program the family-leaning opener. CONS: Early Trailer Impact and social media trends are mixed for The Kid Who Would Be King, which is to be expected given the glut of family-driven holiday releases before it. Distributor Aviron has a young history, so it remains to be seen how much marketing...

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Independent Cinema Alliance Names Rob del Moro Manager of the Cinema Buying Alliance

PRESS RELEASE The Independent Cinema Alliance (ICA) has reached an agreement with former Regal Cinemas executive and industry veteran Rob Del Moro to lead the Cinema Buying Alliance, formerly the NATO Cinema Buying Group. The Cinema Buying Alliance (CBA) is a new entity, wholly owned and managed by the Independent Cinema Alliance (ICA), taking over the business operations of the current Cinema Buying Group from NATO. The goals and functions remain the same, to provide a buying structure for the benefit of smaller cinema owners by combining their purchasing power through the CBA. Del Moro is a 40-year veteran of the industry with unparalleled experience in purchasing, most recently, as the Chief Technical and Theatre Operations Officer for Regal Entertainment Group. Del Moro is also the founder of Strategies Plus Solutions, LLC, a full-service business consulting...

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Atom Tickets to Integrate with Studio Movie Grill’s SMG Access Loyalty Program

PRESS RELEASE ________________________________________________________________________ Santa Monica, CA, November 29, 2018 –Today Atom Tickets, the social movie ticketing platform, has announced it is integrating with Studio Movie Grill’s Loyalty Program, SMG Access.  By adding the SMG Access account number in the Atom app, Atom customers will automatically earn points when they buy tickets to movies playing at Studio Movie Grill theaters and for SMG Access Director-level members, the convenience fee is waived. Studio Movie Grill (SMG), the leader of the in-theater dining concept operating 314 screens in 30...

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Trailer Impact: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ and ‘Aquaman’ Tie For Highest Recall; ‘Aquaman’ Sparks Most Interest in a Cinema View

Top Three Trailers with Highest Recall Score Among Moviegoing Audiences Moviegoers tell us the trailers they most recall seeing at their most recent visit to a cinema, among films opening in the next 10 weeks. [Note: our weekly Thursday column Trailer Impact did not run last week on account of the Thanksgiving holiday, but this installment will reference unpublished numbers from last week.] Mary Poppins Returns (Disney) Wednesday, December 19 28.7% of moviegoers (399 respondents) saw and recalled this trailer. That’s a new peak, up considerably from a prior 18.6% peak last week. The film spends its first week in the top three on the recall metric, tying at #1 after previously ranking only as high as #5 the prior two weeks. The vault is due in large part to the trailer playing before Disney’s fellow family-friendly Ralph Breaks the Internet, which debuted atop the...

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Weekend Forecast: ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet,’ ‘Creed II,’ ‘Grinch,’ & Holdovers Look to Exorcise ‘The Possession of Hannah Grace’

As is common during the post-Thanksgiving frame each year, most studios are sitting out the first weekend of December and allowing a market filled with strong holdovers to suffice before the barrage of holiday tentpoles resumes later in the month. The lone exception this weekend will be Sony’s The Possession of Hannah Grace, which has been tracking modestly ahead of its release in an expected 1,700+ locations. Top 10 vs. Last year Boxoffice projects this weekend’s top ten films will generate approximately $105 million. That would represent an increase of 9 percent over the same weekend last year when The Disaster Artist‘s platform opening and expansions from Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri stood as the only notable releases. That weekend’s top ten earned $96.7 million. Weekend Forecast Film Distributor 3-Day Weekend...

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Cineplexx Opens Two MX4D Theaters in Serbia

PRESS RELEASE __________________________________________________________________________ TORRANCE, California, December 28 2018 – Cineplexx International GmbH opened a second and third MX4D Theatre in under two months, this time in Serbia. Located in the country’s capital of Belgrade, Cineplexx’s second MX4D theatre boasts 100 seats configured into 25 benches. With a population of nearly 1.25M residents, the location offers a new form of entertainment not accessible in-home. “Working with Cineplexx on additional theatres only solidifies the great relationship we’ve formed,” says Jeremy Devine, VP of Marketing for MMI. The third MX4D theatre, featuring 15 four-seat benches, is located in Vojvodina’s Novi Sad. “After the great interest generated by our Graz MX4D location, we are proud to have partnered with MediaMation on our two additional theatres. As an innovation leader,...

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QSC Announces First QSC Certified Multiplex, Alamo Drafthouse Raleigh

PRESS RELEASE — Costa Mesa, CA (November 27, 2018) – QSC is proud to announce the first “QSC Certified” multiplex, Alamo Drafthouse Raleigh. QSC Certified Theatres are equipped with complete sound systems from QSC, and meet a set of technical guidelines for equipment, projection, acoustics, and room design, to ensure an outstanding movie-going experience. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Raleigh, North Carolina is an eleven screen complex, with rooms ranging in size from 47 seats to 107 seats.  All rooms feature complete QSC cinema sound systems, using DCP Series cinema processors and DCA Series power amplifiers.  Each room features QSC 3-way bi-amplified screen channel loudspeakers, SB-7218 subwoofers, and SR Series surround loudspeakers. The multiplex was built in a refurbished supermarket, making attention...

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New Subscribers: 2018 Geneva Convention Looks Back at the Rise of Cinema Subscription Programs — and the Possible Next Steps

Sitting onstage during a panel on cinema subscription at the 2018 Geneva Convention, Bernadette McCabe, SVP of exhibition relations and business strategy at MoviePass, reminisced about a transformative year for exhibition. “When I think back to where we were as a company a year ago, the conversation was, ‘Is there a place for subscription?’” she said. “I think we’re standing here today knowing there is definitely a place for subscription in the movie theater industry.” That sentiment sums up the atmosphere at this year’s edition of the Geneva Convention, the annual convention organized by NATO of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Its centerpiece panel brought together, for the first time, a CEO from a major U.S. circuit (Marcus Theatres’ Rolando Rodriguez) and executives from two of the country’s top third-party subscription providers, MoviePass...

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Vista Entertainment Solutions Appoints Tess Manchester to President, Vista USA

PRESS RELEASE — [Auckland, NZ and Los Angeles, CA; November 26, 2018] — Vista Entertainment Solutions Limited (‘Vista Cinema’), the world-leading provider of cinema management software solutions and the founding company of Vista Group International (NZX & ASX: VGL), has appointed Tess Manchester President of their Los Angeles- based subsidiary, Vista USA. Announcing the appointment, Leon Newnham, CEO of Vista Cinema, noted “Tess is a special talent whose diverse skill set has been of enormous value to our business. She is a natural leader who is totally in tune with our customers’ needs and she has a commanding knowledge of the cinema exhibition industry.  In appointing Tess to lead Vista USA, we are confident that her exemplary record of customer care, product enhancement and operational excellence – all proven whilst providing unwavering support and...

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Studio Weekend Estimates: ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Levels Up w/ $55.7M 3-Day/$84.5M 5-Day; ‘Creed II’ Scores Knockout $35.2M 3-Day/$55.8M 5-Day; ‘Robin Hood’ Misses Mark w/ $9.1M 3-Day/$14.2 5-Day

In a competitive Thanksgiving weekend frame featuring three wide newcomers and several heavyweight holdovers, Ralph Breaks the Internet easily won the box office crown with an incredible $55.7 million three-day gross and a whopping $84.5 million over the five-day period. Elsewhere, Creed II more than lived up to the hype generated by its powerhouse predecessor while the latest version of Robin Hood faltered out of the gate. Boasting the widest Thanksgiving weekend release ever, Disney minted another holiday-season hit with Ralph Breaks the Internet, the sequel to 2012’s beloved animated comedy Wreck-It Ralph. Debuting in 4,017 theaters, the follow-up bested Toy Story 2‘s $57.38 million 3-day gross over Thanksgiving weekend 1999 and also topped the five-day Thanksgiving record of $82.08 million boasted by 2016’s Moana, making it the second-highest Thanksgiving weekend...

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Long Range Tracking: ‘Glass’ Could Be the Rare January Blockbuster

This week’s report takes an early look at M. Night Shyamalan’s highly anticipated follow-up to Split and Unbreakable, slated for release on January 18, 2019. GlassOpening Weekend Range: $55 – 80 million PROS: Split was a runaway hit two years ago when it exceeded expectations with a $40 million debut and leggy $138.3 million domestic total on the heels of strong word of mouth and critical reception. The film’s surprise twist connecting it to a previous Shyamalan hit left fans excited for the prospect of the long-discussed follow-up to Unbreakable after nearly two decades of waiting. The return of Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson as their Unbreakable characters, alongside James McAvoy and the tremendous praise he received for his Split performance, gives the sequel serious marquee appeal. Superheroes are hotter than ever...

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Tuesday Night Report: ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Scores $3.8M; ‘Creed II’ Rings Up $3.7M; ‘Robin Hood’ Loots $800K

Wednesday Report: Disney reports this morning that Ralph Breaks the Internet earned an excellent $3.8 million start from 6pm onward last night as it begins a five-day weekend release. That compares very favorably with Disney’s Coco and Moana, which also bowed on Thanksgiving Wednesday in 2017 and 2016 with $2.3 million and $2.6 million, respectively. While initial results are expected to be higher for Ralph given its nature as a sequel, this bodes well for a strong opening performance in the days ahead. Although MGM and Annapurna have yet to report officially, multiple sources claim Creed II earned $3.7 million from last night’s first shows. If accurate, that marks a huge jump from Creed‘s $1.4 million start on the same pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday three years ago — although the comparison is loose given how popular early...

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Weekend Forecast: ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet,’ ‘Creed II,’ & ‘Robin Hood’ Arrive for Mid-Week Thanksgiving Debuts

The long Thanksgiving weekend is upon us. Contrary to last year’s slim offerings, a handful of major studios are aiming to get their share of the pie with three wide releases and one nationwide expansion sitting down at the table on Wednesday. Ralph Breaks the InternetOpening Weekend Range: $65 – 75 million (5-day) PROS: The original 2012 film was one of Disney Animation’s early modern hits that confirmed the studio could churn out animated hits without the Pixar branding. Wreck-It Ralph earned a respectable $189.4 million domestically, and has gone on to become a new favorite of the current generation. Disney has always been a force to be reckoned with, but their profile and drawing power with families have never been higher than right now thanks to a string of mega-blockbusters across their brands in recent years. Their dominance on Thanksgiving is also notable,...

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World Wide Wreck: Fighting the Trolls in Disney’s ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’

It’s always hard to nail down the perfect ending. It’s especially frustrating when you feel the ending you chose didn’t get your characters where they needed to be. At the risk of overstating matters, that’s the feeling that lingered among the production team of Wreck-It Ralph in the months following the film’s release. The film’s protagonist, Ralph, the misanthropic antagonist of arcade game Fix-It Felix, had just found his first true friend in Vanellope, a candy-race-car driver from the game Sugar Rush. But somehow, that ending didn’t feel completely right. “The idea came fairly early, right after we finished work on the first movie. We were talking if we would ever want to do a sequel, and if so, why? Because the first movie wrapped up pretty nicely with Ralph’s line, ‘If that kid likes me, how bad can I be?’” says director Rich Moore. “At the time, it felt like a...

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Vista Cinema Signs Agreement with Marcus Theatres®, the fourth Largest Cinema Exhibition Chain in the United States

PRESS RELEASE — [Auckland, New Zealand and Milwaukee, WISC., USA; November 19th, 2018] – Vista Group International Limited (‘Vista Group’ NZX & ASX: VGL) welcomes Marcus Theatres® as a customer of Vista Group company Vista Entertainment Solutions (‘Vista Cinema’), with the signing of a new long-term agreement. Currently with 68 sites and 890 screens across 8 states, Marcus Theatres is the fourth largest theatre circuit in the United States.  However, Marcus Theatres recently announced an agreement in which the company will acquire the assets of Movie Tavern, increasing its footprint to 90 locations, 1,098 screens and 17 states upon the completion of the transaction. The Vista Cinema and Marcus Theatres teams will partner on Vista’s products across the entire circuit, beginning immediately. Vista Cinema offers a diverse cinema management product set to meet the...

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4cine.io optimizes sound in cinemas worldwide for Simply Red’s “Symphonica In Rosso”

PRESS RELEASE — ENGLAND, UK, November 12th , 2018 — Julian Pinn Ltd signs UK’s MusicScreen Ltd to its popular cinema optimizing sound platform expanding its services into the Event Cinema marketspace. 4cine.io unlocks the power of cinema by introducing three ground-breaking concepts: mix-extraction, analysis, and cinematic-remapping. 4cine.io analyses final audio mixes, identifies cinema compatibility issues, and solves them quickly and accurately. The result is a cinema master that is fully conformed to relevant industry standards and optimised to preserve the original creative intent when experienced in the challenging but rewarding cinema environment. “MusicScreen takes you to the concert. It is critical that we immerse our worldwide cinema audiences into the full concert experience and ultimately give everyone the best seat in the stadium. To achieve...

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No Easy Way Out: Director Steven Caple Jr. on ‘Creed II’

The story might be apocryphal, but it’s been shared at so many press junkets and nighttime talk shows that it’s become part of the Rocky myth. Frustrated by a lack of opportunities, struggling actor Sylvester Stallone happened to watch the boxing match between Chuck Wepner and Muhammad Ali and ended up writing the first draft of Rocky in a whirlwind of inspiration. Every studio turned him down—except United Artists, who offered him a life-changing sum for the screenplay. Stallone turned the offer down, insisting he would only sell the script if the studio cast him as the lead. UA eventually agreed—but only if Stallone would agree to the minimum pay according to union rules. Which, of course, he did. That’s the underdog story at the heart of Rocky, a franchise that has closely followed the real-life career arc of its protagonist for over 40 years. In the first half of...

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