2021 CineEurope Gold Awards Recipients Announced

Eight people were named as winners of the Gold Award at October’s upcoming cinema and exhibition convention CineEurope, given for “outstanding dedication and service to the sector.” Hanna Dobslaw: Theatre Manager, Cineplex Alhambra, Berlin, Germany Alexander Kuznetsov: COO, KARO Cinema Chain, Russia Ulf Jansson: CTO, Winberg Kino, Sweden Jon Nutton: Marketing Director, Empire Cinemas, UK Angeles San Gabino: Former Managing Director, FECE, Spain Alain Surmulet: Technical Director, Noé Cinemas, France Dee Vassili: Executive Director, Group HR, VUE International, UK Martin Waller: Group Food and Beverage Director, ODEON Cinemas Group, UK The winners were supposed to receive their awards at the 2020 ceremony, which was cancelled due to the pandemic and moved to an online conference instead. The awards will be presented on the final night of CineEurope at the awards...

Read More

Marcus Theatres Chairman, President, and CEO Rolando Rodriguez to Receive ShowEast’s Dan Fellman Show “E” Award

Rolando Rodriguez was announced this week as 2021’s winner of the Dan Fellman Show “E” award, a lifetime achievement prize, at November’s upcoming film convention ShowEast. Rodriguez is the chair, president and CEO of Marcus Theatres and executive vice president of The Marcus Corporation, in addition to his roles as chair of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) and serving on the Board of Directors of the Global Cinema Federation.  Previously, he was the CEO and president of Rave Cinemas, and before that the senior vice president of North American field operations for AMC, the company at which he began his career in 1975.  “We are extremely honored to present Rolando Rodriguez with this award at ShowEast this year. There is no better example in our business that truly represents what this award is all about,” Film Expo Group President Andrew Sunshine...

Read More

Weekend Box Office Forecast: Jungle Cruise, The Green Knight, and Stillwater

July comes to a close this weekend with a trio of new releases — Jungle Cruise, The Green Knight, and Stillwater — catering to various audiences after last weekend saw mixed results from Old and Snake Eyes. Once again adding to the volatility of forecasts right now, domestic concerns around the Delta variant of COVID-19 have become more prominent over the past couple of weeks. On Tuesday, the CDC reversed its previous May announcement and recommended that vaccinated people resume wearing masks indoors. Without mandates in place, though, that’s leading to some questioning from experts and people in general as to what this latest guidance means as virus cases climb again among the unvaccinated. How does all of this impact moviegoing? That’s something the next few weeks may tell us. While some have pointed to last weekend’s underwhelming debuts as evidence that audiences...

Read More

This Week on The Boxoffice Podcast: Jungle Cruise Producers on Disney’s Hybrid Release Model

This week on the Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Daniel Loria and Rebecca Pahle sit down with veteran producers John Fox and John Davis of Davis Entertainment, whose credits include Game Night, Chronicle, and Dolemite Is My Name. Davis and Fox’s latest outing—Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt—comes to theaters and Disney Premium Access this weekend. In the following conversation, edited for length and clarity, Fox and Davis speak candidly on the film’s hybrid release model and the struggles of setting a metric of success for a film being released during the pandemic era. Listen to The Full Episode: Subscribe to The Boxoffice...

Read More

How Premium Large Format Auditoriums Are Helping Welcome Audiences Back to the Movies

As moviegoers make their long-awaited return to cinemas, premium large-format (PLF) auditoriums have emerged as a preferred destination. The trend began to emerge as early as last summer, when Chinese cinemas first reopened following the closures that presaged the pandemic’s global disruption. The August release of The Eight Hundred, the first Chinese film to be shot in Imax, brought blockbuster earnings from Imax screenings despite the format being available in just 1 percent of the country’s screens. Imax continued to see similarly strong performances from its locations as more cinemas opened around the globe. The box office hot streak carried...

Read More

Cinemark Announces Executive Leadership Transition Following Mark Zoradi’s Retirement

Cinemark, the third-largest exhibition circuit in North America, has announced major personnel changes among its executive ranks. Mark Zoradi, CEO and Board Director, will retire as the circuit’s Chief Executive Officer at the end of 2021 while remaining a member of the Board of Directors until the company’s 2024 annual meeting. Sean Gamble, currently serving as CFO and COO, will serve as the circuit’s new Chief Executive Officer as of January 1, 2022. Gamble has been promoted to President at Cinemark effective immediately and will serve as the company’s CEO and President following Zoradi’s departure. Cinemark operates 523 theaters with 5,872 screens in 42 states domestically and 15 countries throughout Latin America. “Serving as Cinemark’s CEO during the past six years has truly been the highlight of my career,” stated Zoradi. “While I’ve been in the industry for more...

Read More

The Biggest Movies Coming to Theaters in August 2021

As the joke goes: on the first day of school, what did the teacher say her three favorite words were? June, July and August. The end of the summer makes people want to cram in all that fun and entertainment at the last minute, and cinemas are obliging with a packed schedule of films to close out the season. Here’s your guide to the titles playing wide on the big screen in August 2021. The Suicide Squad Friday, August 6 Premise: Margot Robbie returns as Harley Quinn in this R-rated action comedy sequel about a team of offbeat and inappropriate superheroes, which now add John Cena’s Peacemaker, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, and Pete Davidson’s Blackguard. Guardians of the Galaxy screenwriter and director James Gunn helms.  Box office comparisons: 2016’s prior installment remains the biggest August opening weekend of all time by a large margin with $133.6M,...

Read More

Frank Tees Elected ICTA President at Annual Convention

At its just-concluded annual convention at The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, the International Cinema Technology Association (ICTA) elected Moving Image Technologies vice president of technical sales support Frank Tees as ICTA president, the organization announced today. The ICTA is a trade organization that represents companies dedicated to cinema technology including cinema equipment, manufacturers, dealers and service operators from around the world. Alan Roe, President of JACRO and former ICTA president, congratulated Tees in a statement. “Frank is smart, professional and passionate about the motion picture industry and will lead the group with great distinction,” said Roe. Tees is a more than 30-year veteran of the cinema industry and an experienced cinema technologist, versed in most aspects of cinema exhibition, technical management and operations.  He specializes...

Read More

Sharp NEC Display Solutions’ NC1202L Laser Light Source Projector Now Available

Sharp NEC Display Solutions announced today that its NC1202L laser light source projector, a new addition to its digital cinema projection series, is now available. Designed specifically for smaller screens at 7,000 lumens, the NC1202L boasts a built-in laser light source that provides approximately 50,000 hours of expected usage (under normal usage conditions and not constituting the warranty period), with no need for lamp replacement and eco-friendly power consumption. It also includes high frame rate (HFR) capability, 2K DCI-compliant cinema quality and is bright enough to display 14 feet-L on screens up to 39.4 feet in DCI color. It can also play 3D content. The NC1202L projector additionally features dust protection with NEC’s patented heat exchanger, along with a newly developed and sealed optical engine. With no exhaust system required, this projector is also suitable...

Read More

A Life in Film: Paramount’s Patricia Gonzalez’s Heart and Soul Is at the Movies

A love of the movies runs deep for Pat Gonzalez, SVP of in-theater marketing at Paramount Pictures. A child of Los Angeles, she grew up as a regular at the Egyptian Theatre, where her introduction to the art form in which she would eventually establish a 40-year career came, not from children’s movies, but from capital-C Classics that were not always the most appropriate viewing for a child not yet in middle school. “I was one of those younger girls hanging out with older cousins,” Gonzalez recalls. “At 9 years old, I was a chaperone for my cousin, 17, and her boyfriend—at the time, 19. When they went out to the movies, they took me. So I saw...

Read More

CES+ CEO Alex Younger Appointed International Cinema Technology Association (ICTA) Board Member

Alex Younger, the CEO of cinema equipment, software and technology company CES+, was appointed as a board member for the International Cinema Technology Association (ICTA). The announcement was made at the association’s annual convention at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of its 1971 founding, the ICTA is a trade organization representing companies which create and manufacture products including digital cinema systems, lenses, sound equipment, seating, and 3D technology. The board consists of 15 members, listed here, in addition to the group’s president and vice president. “To say I am excited to join the board of ICTA is an understatement. CES+ and myself will contribute as much as we can to the ICTA in order to help awareness and help the cinema industry recover from Covid,” Younger said in a press release. “I look forward...

Read More

Multicines’ Ecuador Location Was Only New Cinema in Latin America to Open During Pandemic, with CES+ Technologies

Opened on May 22, 2021, the Multicines Mall del Rio in Guayaquil, Ecuador was the only cinema project to be started and developed in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 11-seat auditorium includes a 4D E-Motion + 3D screen as well as a PLF (premium large format) screen with a Dolby Atmos sound system. Multicines features Dolby Atmos and Dolby audio systems and servers, chairs by Inorca and Lumma, screens by Severston, and RGB pure laser projection technology by Christie. “Selecting the right partners has always been important to us, and CES+ is definitively one of them,” Multicines CEO Gonzalo Lopez said in a press release. “We have been working with Guillermo [founder Guillermo Younger] and [current CEO] Alex Younger for more than two decades with excellent results. CES+ delivered during the most challenging year in our industry’s history.” CES+ is a cinema...

Read More

Cineplex Opens The Rec Room Location in Barrie, Canada Featuring Virtual Reality, Gaming, Bowling

Cineplex premiered its 10th ‘The Rec Room’ entertainment center location on Monday. The 30,000 square foot complex features a VRcade ATOM pod with eight virtual reality games, bowling, pool tables, ping pong, a live performance space featuring events including trivia and karaoke, and the full-service restaurant Three10. Virtual reality games include Terminal 17: Mission Critical, VR Showdown in Ghost Town, Target Capture, Territory Control, Team Deactivation Match, Baking Irons Gunslinger: Destruction, Baking Irons Gunslinger: Draw, and Baking Irons Gunslinger: Shootout. Restaurant menu items include the 10-ounce New York steak, herb-rubbed Atlantic salmon, barbeque ribs with three types of sauces (chipotle BBQ, sweet heat, and ginger soy), and the lumberjack burger with fried egg and Canadian bacon. The facility is opening...

Read More

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Old Opens at No. 1 w/ Strong $16.5M, Snake Eyes Comes in 2nd w/ $13.35M

Following strong debuts by F9, Black Widow and Space Jam: A New Legacy over the past several weeks, the North American box office slowed down a tad this weekend as two new studio films — Universal’s Old and Paramount’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins – debuted in theaters. After a close race, the former title ultimately won the weekend with an estimated $16.5M from 3,355 screens, demonstrating the continued power of horror in the North American marketplace following other recent genre successes such as A Quiet Place Part II, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Forever Purge. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Old became the latest box office success story for the filmmaker – a run kicked off by 2015’s The Visit ($25.43M opening) and followed by 2016’s Split ($40.01M) and 2019’s Glass ($40.33M). While Old’s opening comes in at the lower end of the spectrum in terms...

Read More