Today, United Artists released the trailer for No Time to Die, the long-delayed 25th installment in the 007 franchise starring Daniel Craig in his fifth outing as MI6 agent James Bond.
The Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed film is slated for release on September 30, 2021 in the U.K. and October 8, 2021 in the U.S. It also stars Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz and Ralph Fiennes.
Hong Kong, August 31, 2021 — GDC Technology Limited (‘GDC’), a leading global provider of digital cinema solutions, and DTS®, a global leader in next-generation audio, imaging and sensing technology and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xperi Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: XPER) (“Xperi”), announced today that they signed a landmark agreement to deliver DTS:X IAB solutions. The IAB solution is designed to fully support SMPTE’s immersive audio bitstream (IAB) standard ST 2098-2.
“Our collaborative work with DTS has never been interrupted over these years, not even during the pandemic. The engineers at GDC and DTS diligently develop the best immersive audio solutions to the exhibitors. And GDC is committed to deliver DTS:X IAB through its family of cinema servers” said Mr. Pranay Kumar, CTO of GDC Technology Limited.
“DTS is proud to work with long-time collaborator, GDC, and our content and exhibitor partners to add Immersive Audio Bitstream (IAB) to the DTS:X ecosystem. We look forward to collaborating with stakeholders to rollout IAB to DTS:X theatres worldwide,” said Loren Nielsen, Vice President Content & Strategy, Xperi Corporation.
Upgrade of DTS:X media servers to DTS:X IAB
As a part of the process to rollout DTS:X IAB, exhibitors have the option to upgrade GDC’s current DTS:X media servers to DTS:X IAB designed to fully support SMPTE’s immersive audio bitstream (IAB) standard ST 2098-2. At CinemaCon 2021, GDC has showcased the built-in 24-channel DTS:X IAB solutions.
D-Box has signed an agreement with “one of the largest single-brand movie exhibitors in the Southern Hemisphere” to outfit ten additional locations with haptic recliner seats before December 31, 2023, the company announced last week. The exhibitor was not named.
Including the 10 upcoming locations, D-Box’s footprint now extends to 768 screens worldwide. That total includes eight recently-announced installations for Cinemark.
D-Box recliners provide an immersive experience by synchronizing the action onscreen with patented individual motion control in seats.
“We are proud to collaborate once again with this partner,” said Sébastien Mailhot, President and CEO of D-Box. “This recent agreement confirms moviegoers love feeling like they’re part of the action on the big screen. This partnership is important to us, and we thank them for their confidence in our innovative and immersive haptic technology. With the gradual deployment of vaccines, people are already enjoying a quasi-normal life and are going back to theatres just as they were before. The premium immersive experience offered by D-BOX enhances the entertainment and is one of the reasons why moviegoers are back to theatres.”
In recent weeks, Sony Pictures moved sci-fi sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage from September 24 to October 15, while Paramount pulled the live-action Clifford the Big Red Dog from September 17 to a to-be-determined date. So while the upcoming month’s slate may still be subject to further changes, as of right now, here are the films currently slated for wide release in theaters.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Friday, September 3
Premise: Simu Liu stars as the superhero title character in Disney’s MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) installment. Avoiding the day-and-date controversy of July’s prior MCU release Black Widow, which premiered simultaneously in theaters and for a $30 surcharge on Disney+, Shang-Chi is committing to a 45-day theatrical exclusivity window. Destin Daniel Cretton, of Just Mercy and The Glass Castle, directs.
Box office comparisons:BlackWidow, the lone other MCU film released since the pandemic, opened to an $80.3M opening weekend and has earned $180.5M domestic to date as it approaches the end of its theatrical run, likely to finish somewhere around $185M-$190M.
Malignant
Friday, September 10
Premise: Annabelle Wallis stars as Madison, a woman who can telepathically witness murders occurring elsewhere, in this Warner Bros. horror. James Wan of horror titles Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious — not to mention less frightening fare including Aquaman and Furious 7 — directs.
Box office comparisons: Wan’s most apt comp here is probably 2011’s Insidious ($13.2M opening / $54.0M total). July and August saw three wide release horror titles: The Forever Purge ($12.5M opening / $44.3M total), Don’t Breathe 2 ($10.6M opening / $21.3M total to date and likely to finish $25M), and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions ($8.8M opening / $25.1M total to date as it nears the end of its run).
The Card Counter
Friday, September 10
Premise: Oscar Isaac stars as the title character, a former Abu Ghraib soldier turned casino gambler named William Tell. (Seriously.) Recruited by Cirk, the son a fellow soldier who committed suicide, the pair hatch a plan to exact revenge on a military commander played by Willem Dafoe, whom Cirk blames for his parent’s death. Paul Schrader, who penned the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, writes and directs this Focus Features thriller.
Box office comparisons: Schrader’s 2018 First Reformed, which he also wrote and directed, earned $3.4M domestic. Excluding his Star Wars roles, Isaac’s two most recent live action films also earned similar amounts: 2018’s At Eternity’s Gate with $2.2M and that same year’s Life Itself with $4.0M.
Cry Macho
Friday, September 17
Premise: Clint Eastwood stars and directs this Warner Bros. drama thriller about an old man hired by his former boss to return his son back to Texas from a dangerous part of Mexico. The film is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by N. Richard Nash — which, ironically, was originally written as a screenplay before Nash retooled it into a book.
Box office comparisons: Eastwood’s most recent turn as simultaneous lead/director, 2018’s The Mule, opened to $17.5M and earned $103.8M domestic, though Cry Macho is likely projected to earn a lower total than that. August’s similarly-styled Stillwater, also about a southern male lead (played by Matt Damon) on a dangerous mission to rescue a teenager, opened to $5.1M and has earned $13.7M total to date.
Blue Bayou
Friday, September 17
Premise: Justin Chon wrote, directed, and starred in this Focus Features drama about a Korean-American man living in Louisiana, adopted and brought to the U.S. when he was three, who’s targeted for deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) due to his criminal record. Academy Award-winning Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) costars as his wife.
Box office comparisons: Another recent deporation-themed drama, 2019’s The Sun is Also aStar, opened to $2.5M and earned $4.9M total. 2012’s fellow Louisiana-based drama Beasts of the Southern Wild earned $12.7M, thanks in part to its awards nominations that year, including Academy Awards nods for Best Picture and Best Actress.
Copshop
Friday, September 17
Premise: Gerard Butler stars as a hitman assigned to kill a target, except the target gets himself arrested by sucker-punching a rookie cop — so to get himself closer to his target, the hitman intentionally gets himself locked up in jail, too. Now it’s up to the rookie cop (played by Alexis Louder) to prevent the hit job from taking place, in this R-rated action thriller from Open Road Films and Briarcliff Entertainment.
Box office comparisons: Open Road’s similar January action thriller, The Marksman starring Liam Neeson, earned $15.5M amid perhaps the worst months of the pandemic. Butler’s 2018 Hunter Killer made an almost identical $15.7M.
Dear Evan Hansen
Friday, September 24
Premise: Universal’s musical about the misfit high school title character is adapted from the 2016 Broadway play, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Ben Platt, who won that year for Best Actor in a Musical, reprises his role in the film adaptation costarring Julianne Moore and Amy Adams. Stephen Chbosky of Wonder and The Perks of Being a Wallflower directs.
Box office comparisons: June’s movie musical In the Heights opened to $11.5M and earned $29.8M total. The last major theatrically-released movie musical before that, 2019’s Cats, finished with a similar $27.1M. And though it’s not a musical, Chbosky’s similarly high school-set Wallflower earned $17.7M.
National CineMedia (NCM), the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., announced Monday that Amy Tunick has joined the company in the newly created role of SVP, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to lead its integrated marketing team. She will oversee NCM’s brand strategy, creative development, marketing solutions, consumer marketing, studio relations and public relations, working collaboratively across the organization.
She brings over two decades of agency, brand and media experience working with Fortune 100 and 500 advertisers on multichannel campaigns including branded content, talent, experiential marketing, cause marketing and entertainment partnerships. She is based in New York.
Throughout Tunick’s career, she has overseen integrated marketing and PR initiatives at prominent media and entertainment companies and agencies. Previously at WarnerMedia, she led a 15-person team implementing custom cross-platform campaigns for domestic and global advertisers at CNN while overseeing operations and strategy for Courageous, CNN’s brand studio. She also led event marketing for the News ad sales division and produced CNN’s upfront event from 2018-2020.
Prior to WarnerMedia, she spent nearly 15 years as a senior leader on the agency side of the advertising business. As President of WPP’s Grey Activation & PR, she led a 40-person team developing and executing integrated brand-building campaigns via experiential activations, partnerships, promotions, influencers and earned media tied to pop culture. Tunick contributed to 30 Cannes Lion wins for Grey Group. Throughout her career, she has worked with advertisers across categories, such as Canon, the National Park Service, Coca-Cola, Hulu, Procter & Gamble, Walgreens, BMW and Pfizer, among many others.
“I am thrilled to be joining National CineMedia at this pivotal time. I look forward to helping advertisers drive growth of their brands as moviegoers return to theaters,” Tunick said in a press release. “Audiences value the big-screen experience and there are outstanding opportunities for brands to creatively market to consumers. I am excited to help our clients take full advantage of NCM’s offering.”
“Amy’s two decades of experience includes developing and executing countless successful, profit-driving integrated marketing initiatives. She is an exemplary leader driven by how entertainment, culture and technology come together to form marketing content that pays dividends for brands,” NCM’s President of Sales, Marketing, and Partnerships Scott Felenstein said. “We welcome her to NCM’s senior leadership team and look forward to the many new creative ideas she will share to drive business for our advertising clients while engaging moviegoers.”
Following the debut of four wide-release titles last weekend – only one of which, Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Movie, did any kind of substantial business – the final weekend of August sees the release of just one new title, Universal’s Candyman sequel/reboot. Despite coming at the tail end of a season that has been filled to the brim with new horror releases, the new installment in the ‘90s franchise easily captured the No. 1 spot at the box office with a robust estimated $22.3M from 3,569 locations. It appears to have sidestepped genre fatigue thanks to largely positive critical reviews, a strong marketing campaign and buzz driven by the attachment of Get Out and Us auteur Jordan Peele, who co-wrote and produced the Nia DaCosta-directed film.
With the exception of A Quiet Place Part II, which opened with a bang over Memorial Day weekend with a $47.55M three-day debut, the latest Candyman iteration is arguably the most anticipated horror release of the summer, serving as a nice bookend to the season. Playing exclusively in theaters, the film’s audience also wasn’t split between theatrical and at-home viewers — as has been the case for a number of recent releases – which boosted its prospects at the multiplex.
Peele’s attachment was certainly important to the film’s success; while Candyman is a well-known property to those old enough to remember the 1992 original, for younger audiences who typically turn out on opening weekend for horror films, it needed a brand name creator like Peele attached in order to stand out. Its success this weekend is partially a testament to the prominent use of Peele’s name in marketing materials.
Candyman’s big debut was driven in large part by Black moviegoers, who made up 37% of the opening-weekend audience. The turnout was nearly evenly split between men and women, 53% to 47%, while young people under 35 made up the bulk of the audience at 76%.
“Audiences are eager to be in theaters where you get that true communal experience, which is very best for the genre. Our word of mouth on the film appears to be very enthusiastic,” Universal’s Jim Orr tells Boxoffice Pro‘s Daniel Loria, citing the film’s daily grosses over the weekend. Candyman dropped 15 percent from Friday to Saturday, but Friday’s earnings included $1.9 million from Thursday’s previews. Removing that $1.9 million from Thursday from the equation, the film’s Saturday was actually 8% above Friday, a bump not often seen with genre films. Orr is enthusiastic about the audience reaction as the film heads into a holiday weekend (Labor Day) for its sophomore frame, where it will continue to play exclusively in theaters.
Universal has a varied theatrical slate through the end of 2021. It has not pushed back any release dates despite concerns of the Delta Covid-19 variant, with films like musical Dear Evan Hansen (September 24), Halloween Kills (October 15) and animated family title Sing 2 (December 22) remaining on the schedule.
“We remain optimistic that audiences want to be in theaters and that variants will hopefully burn out so we can continue to head in the right direction,” says Orr. “This is a great first step towards that.”
20th Century Studios’ Free Guy continued holding up phenomenally well this weekend, dipping just 27% to an estimated $13.56M in its third frame, good enough for the runner-up spot. After debuting with a strong-than-expected $28.73M in mid-August, the Ryan Reynolds action-comedy vehicle has proven to be one of the leggiest – if not the leggiest – major studio films of the summer season — a testament to Reynolds’ star power as well as the film’s crowd-pleasing tone. Its total now stands at an impressive $79.3M.
After debuting to a good $13.15M last weekend, Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Movie fell one spot to No. 3 with an estimated $6.63M, a 50% dip from its opening frame. The family-geared title based on the kids’ animated TV series has $24.08M after 10 days of release.
Like Free Guy, Disney’s Jungle Cruise has proven to be a sturdy holdover throughout its theatrical run; unlike Free Guy, the family-friendly adventure has been available on Disney+ for a $30 surcharge since opening. In its fifth weekend of release, the Dwayne Johnson-Emily Blunt theme park ride adaptation dropped just 21% to an estimated $5.02M in fourth place, putting it just over the $100M mark domestically.
Don’t Breathe 2 fell to No. 5 in its third weekend with an estimated $2.84M, bringing the Sony follow-up’s total to $24.58M.
Sixth place went to UA/MGM’s Respect, which was made available on VOD this weekend, just two weeks into its theatrical run. The Aretha Franklin biopic grossed an estimated $2.27M in its third frame, bringing its total to $19.74M.
The Suicide Squad finished in seventh place with an estimated $2.04M in its fourth weekend, as the DCEU film nears the end of its disappointing theatrical run. The semi-reboot of 2016’s commercially-successful Suicide Squad has $52.78M to date.
The remainder of the top 10 was made up of three holdovers: Lionsgate’s The Protégé, Searchlight Pictures’ The Night House and Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow, which grossed an estimated $1.65M, $1.22M and $855k. Their respective totals stand at $5.72M, $5.18M and $181.53M.
OVERSEAS
Free Guy posted a terrific $37.3M from 47 international territories, including a $23.9M No. 1 opening in China, where the film posted increases from Friday to Saturday to Sunday, and sophomore frames of $14.4M in the U.K. and $8.5M in Russia. The studio notes that despite nearly 20% of theaters in the Chinese market remaining closed, the opening was 1% higher than Deadpool 2‘s pre-pandemic. Across previously-opened markets, Free Guy dropped just 23% in its sophomore frame, which included increases in Germany, Austria and Sweden. The film’s overseas total is $100.1M and its global total is $179.6M.
Paw Patrol: The Movie took in an estimated $10.3M from 46 markets (including 8 new openings) in its third weekend internationally, bringing its international total to $37.8M.
Candyman opened to $5.23M in 51 overseas markets, including $1.48M in the U.K. and Ireland, where it debuted in second place.
After grossing another estimated $3.62M this weekend from 65 territories, F9 officially crossed $700M worldwide, making it the first Hollywood film to do so after 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level.
In the final episode of The Boxoffice Podcast’s Daily CinemaCon Edition, co-hosts Daniel Loria and Rebecca Pahle go over Thursday’s series of events as the convention comes to a close. A day that included a major filmmaker slamming day-and-date releases, Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff, and studio presentations from Lionsgate and Paramount.
This week’s series of episodes ends with a pair of interviews with representatives of independent exhibition, Independent Cinema Alliance president Rich Daughtridge and United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association president John Vincent.
Listen to a full recap of the day’s events by subscribing on any major platform or visiting podcast.boxofficepro.com
Paramount’s studio presentation opened the morning with action-packed sequences from two Tom Cruise movies, Top Gun Maverick and the next installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Chris Aronson, the studio’s head of domestic distribution, came on stage to introduce the footage, which included the first 13 minutes of the Top Gun sequel and the debut of the film’s latest trailer. It was followed by a behind-the-scenes featurette detailing Tom Cruise’s newest iconic stunt from the upcoming Mission: Impossible film. Paramount’s presentation concluded with a screening of Clifford the Big Red Dog, introduced by Aronson as a title that the studio is looking forward to bringing to theaters.
Lionsgate closed the week’s studio presentation with a preview of its 2021 and 2022 slate. The studio showcased a trio of faith-based titles that will be coming to theaters in the fall and winter. It also screened footage from American Underdog, a sports biopic about the life of former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner, scheduled for release on Christmas Day.
Highlights of Lionsgate’s 2022 slate include read footage from Moonfall, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich scheduled for February, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, starring Nicolas Cage as himself, dated for April.
Paramount’s Aronson was also in attendance in the afternoon’s industry luncheon panel alongside Marcus Theatres CEO Rolando Rodriguez, Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi, and filmmaker Patty Jenkins. The conversation featured pointed remarks on the industry’s challenges coming out of the pandemic. Patty Jenkins addressed the decision of opening Wonder Woman 1984 simultaneously to the home, calling it “a heartbreaking experience.”
“I’m not a fan of day-and-date, and I hope to avoid it forever,” stated the filmmaker, expressing her strong preference of maintaining an exclusive theatrical window for all her upcoming films.
“I don’t understand why we’re talking about throwing [the big-screen experience] away for 700 different streaming services that there’s no room for in the marketplace. It’s crazy to me,” said Jenkins. “One studio should plant a flag and make a huge move just for the theatrical experience, and the filmmakers will go there as a result.”
2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Boxoffice Pro. Though the publication you hold in your hands has had different owners, headquarters, and even names—it was founded in Kansas City by 18-year-old Ben Shlyen as The Reel Journal, then called Boxoffice in 1933, and more recently Boxoffice Pro—it has always remained committed to theatrical exhibition.
From the 1920s to the 2020s, Boxoffice Pro has had one goal: to provide knowledge and insight to those who bring movies to the public. Radio, TV, home video, and streaming have all been perceived as threats to the theatrical exhibition industry over the years, but movie theaters are still here—and so are we.
We at Boxoffice Pro are devotees of the exhibition industry, so we couldn’t resist the excuse of a centennial to explore our archives. What we found was not just the story of a magazine, but the story of an industry—the debates, the innovations, the concerns, and above all the beloved movies. We’ll share our findings in this series, A Century in Exhibition.
The 2010s were a dramatic decade for the exhibition industry, full of rapid, profound transformations, innovation, and ingenuity, most notably the digitalization of the economy. Thanks to new platforms, social media, and big data, exhibitors and studios harnessed the power of information to better communicate with and understand their audiences.
But with new opportunities also came new threats, as third parties and streaming platforms “disrupted” the cinema industry, largely from the comfort of the audience’s home. The disruption, however, pushed exhibitors to innovate and offer unique cinematic experiences in their theaters. A key element of that innovation had been under way since the previous decade in the form of digital projection. In 2009, only 15 percent of screens worldwide had been digitally converted. Ten years later, the digital transition was nearly complete, as 97 percent of the world’s 200,000 screens were digitized. Digitalization established a new standard for cinema technology and raised the bar for premium offerings like 3-D, premium large-format screens, and immersive seating.
The digital transition was a global endeavor, and exhibition gained a distinctly multinational identity through increased technological exchanges and innovations and an expansion of global markets, which in turn transformed Hollywood films and the studio system.
The Digital Road Map: Reaching the Connected Moviegoer
The switch to digital tools, especially the smartphone, ushered in a second digital revolution for the movie theater industry. The adoption of new technologies expanded the reach of exhibitors, who were now able to communicate directly with their customers anytime and anywhere, giving them, perhaps for the first time in the history of the industry, the power to better know their audiences.
The push to innovate initially came from outside players, as third-party digital companies rushed to fulfill market needs that had been neglected by exhibition. Digital ticketing was such a market. In 2010, Fandango and MovieTickets.com, the biggest online ticketing companies in the U.S., celebrated their 10th birthdays. Their first decade had been marked by growth and innovation. In the 2010s, Fandango’s expansion was particularly aggressive: it acquired Ingresso and Cinepapaya to ground itself in Latin America, established a presence in the U.K. and Canada, and diversified its content with the acquisition of leading YouTube channel MovieClips, streaming platform M-Go, and review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. By the end of the decade, Fandango had created a comprehensive, international film hub with a strong, identifiable brand meant to accompany the movie fan on every step of their moviegoing journey. In November 2017, it acquired its longtime rival, MovieTickets.com, becoming the indisputable leader in digital ticketing.
Fandango, like MovieTickets.com, was an early adopter of one of the biggest trends of the decade: mobile ticketing. The results of mobile ticketing were promising as early as 2010. In an April 2010 article, West World Media CEO and founder Brett West shared encouraging figures: “In January, our daily average of all mobile users served was 13,846. In February, our daily average was up to 42,957.” The interest in mobile ticketing not only coincided with the popularization of smartphones but also with a new, mobile-centric, start-up culture. Companies such as Atom Tickets, which understood e-commerce primarily through mobile platforms, experimented with mobile apps, group ticketing, and dynamic pricing.
But Silicon Valley was not the only influence for this shift to mobile; China was leading the way. Per a December 2016 article, in 2015, 57.9 percent of movie tickets were bought online (as opposed to 20% in North America), and 9 out of 10 of those tickets were purchased using a mobile phone. “Mobile will be the key to the next stage of the cinema evolution,” said Will Palmer, CEO of Movio, in an interview in May 2016. “I was just in China, and there’s been a huge step forward in mobile ticketing there, and that will continue to gain importance for a number of reasons. One, it’s convenient, customers can transact quicker. And two, it enables you to capture all the data information you need to capture a consumer’s purchase behavior.”
In the 2010s, digital ticketing became more than a way to avoid long box office lines; it was all about reaching and understanding the “connected moviegoer.” A 2019 Boxoffice Pro white paper found that the entire journey of the moviegoer, from the discovery of the film to the purchase of tickets, increasingly took place online. From third-party ticketing companies to the growing trend of exhibitor apps and websites, one of the essential attributes of the mobile-first strategy was its overall convenience for the tech-savvy moviegoer. That meant a seamless, enjoyable, interactive, personalized platform that was always available.
In addition to reserved seating, exhibitors (like AMC in May 2019) and third parties, such as Atom Tickets for select theaters, introduced mobile concession ordering. In the latter half of the decade, it became clear that the next frontier was about finding the moviegoer at the source, on any platform where their cinematic research started, including search engines and voice-activated assistants like Amazon’s Alexa. According to Marine Suttle, SVP chief product officer at The Boxoffice Company (Boxoffice Pro’s parent company), in 2019, Google was the third most common source of showtime information for moviegoers, behind exhibitor websites and Fandango. In a September 2019 article, she summed up what that meant for the future of digital ticketing: “[It will become] easier for consumers to find showtimes and buy their tickets through a number of digital platforms, none of them necessarily exclusive to the cinema sector. The entry of digital publishers into the cinema e-commerce ecosystem signals this shift, as tech titans like Amazon, Facebook, and Google have begun to dip their toes into the business with unique offerings.”
Websites, mobile apps, third-party platforms, search engines, virtual assistants—the days of the unique sales channel for exhibitors were long gone. With a rapid multiplication of platforms throughout the decade, it became imperative to target moviegoers on as many of them as possible. Social media became an essential part of this strategy. In April 2011, the magazine’s publisher, Peter Cane, noted, “everybody knows that social networking is changing the landscape, but nobody can tell you definitively how important it really is, how much of a change it’s really made, and how far the change will go.”
The impact of social media on the entire cinema industry was nothing short of revolutionary. Social media changed marketing, programming, and even content itself. Boxoffice Pro documented this trend closely. To help exhibitors navigate these new tools, Boxoffice Pro started integrating Facebook and Twitter analysis into box office predictions in September 2009, presented the “Giants of Social Media,” with data and insights from exhibition’s most active social networkers, and launched the “Boxoffice Social Club” series in August 2014, with profiles of individuals and companies that made a difference in the way they harnessed the power of social media. Boxoffice Pro also gauged the interest of early “social networkers.” In a November 2010 article, an exhibitor from Alabama explained his enthusiasm: “Do it! At this moment, there is no better way to communicate with your customers—if for nothing else, think about how valuable it would be to have your customers read your name daily. Just think about that!”
The advent of social media allowed exhibitors to establish a direct line of communication with their fans, empowering them to enhance their brands and launch grassroots marketing campaigns. As audiences in North America and Europe became older, social media was a way to attract younger moviegoers. Social media metrics also became key to predicting box office performance. Facebook, Twitter, and later Instagram allowed exhibitors and studios to quantify “word of mouth.” The platforms gave moviegoers the power to make or break a film: Their ability, or lack thereof, to generate “buzz” could strongly impact a film at any point of its release, especially on the opening weekend. “Engaging with audiences on social media has to be done on the consumer’s terms, through the networks they use and sites they visit,” wrote Daniel Loria in June 2015. Similarly, “The internet is a place where users have a great deal of control,” said Jake Zin, V.P. of digital marketing for 20th Century Fox in July 2010. “That’s a good thing, but it’s also a challenging thing as a marketer—we have to be very strategic.”
Fortunately for marketing specialists, studios, and exhibitors, the tools that gave audiences more control were also the ones that granted the industry the power to be strategic. The key behind this was big data. Though cinemas often served as cultural centers for their communities, exhibitors had historically little information about their customers. With social media, mobile ticketing, and other digital tools, it became possible to use analytics to gather information about patrons and decipher their behavior, habits, and preferences. In October 2014, Marcus Theatres’ president and CEO Rolando Rodriguez highlighted the importance of data. “We should know our customers, including how they prefer to purchase tickets, and we should customize our conversations to them.”
Never had decision making in the industry been driven by data as much as in the 2010s. Reflecting the closer ties between exhibition and data, Boxoffice Pro was acquired by Webedia Movies Pro (later The Boxoffice Company), the world’s second-largest publisher of web and mobile movie platforms, in 2015. Naturally, the focus on data was already evident throughout the magazine, but it boosted its coverage of box office grosses, started using data for its predictions in 2010, and regularly profiled the main data players in the field.
Data greatly contributed to the development of loyalty programs and an experimentation with different price points. Using the data, however, required access to the data first. “The key word here is control,” said Malcolm MacMillan, at the time chief marketing officer of Webedia Movies Pro. While data was a potential gold mine for the industry, exclusive proprietary data and “data silos” were sometimes impediments to effective strategies and growth. In particular, the collaboration between distribution and exhibition was crucial for better programming, marketing, and the development of content. Julien Marcel, CEO of Webedia Movies Pro, stressed the importance of sharing in a panel on Big Data at 2017’s CineEurope, noting that “this data only is valuable when we can share it; digital is an economy of collaboration.”
The Digital ‘Disruptors’
The question of data and its control was central to the development of subscription services. In 2011, San Francisco–based MoviePass launched a subscription service that allowed audiences to attend up to one screening a day for a fee of $50, a price point later to be adjusted downward, depending on the market. Five years later, former Netflix and Redbox executive Mitch Lowe took over as CEO. MoviePass truly took off after the summer of 2017, when it was acquired by the data firm Helios and Matheson, which leveraged data from their subscribers for the purpose of targeted advertising and providing analytics to studios. The program was revamped, and membership prices were slashed to $9.99 per month. By January of 2018, MoviePass had gained more than one million subscribers, passing that milestone faster than Spotify, Hulu, and Netflix. The trade press quickly labeled MoviePass a “disruptor.” In February 2018, at the height of MoviePass’s popularity, Julien Marcel noted that “‘Disruption’ is an often-repeated buzzword in any business publication. (…) MoviePass isn’t new to the industry, and neither are subscription models, but its influence is stronger now than it has even been.” As proof that anything that sounds too good to be true usually is, in June of this year, the operators of MoviePass agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that they developed tactics to deny service to subscribers and failed to secure users’ personal data.
Subscription models, which were starting to pop up in every sector of the economy, were already well established on the other side of the Atlantic. In France, UGC launched its UGC Illimité, an unlimited subscription plan, in the 1990s as a response to the popularity of the cable channel CanalPlus. Cineworld, Odeon, and Gaumont Pathé also enjoyed success in implementing the concept. MoviePass brought the trend to the United States. Its early success revealed what could happen when the price factor was taken out of the equation and moviegoers were able to choose the theaters and films they truly enjoyed. As Boxoffice Pro’s editorial director Daniel Loria wrote in an interview with Mitch Lowe in February 2018, “The MoviePass effect sheds light on one of the biggest challenges facing American exhibitors after a 2017 marked by a downturn in attendance. After years of upgrades to the moviegoing experience, what can the industry do to drive more people to the cinema? And what can be done to have them come back more often?”
Subscription services skyrocketed in 2018. Following the rapid rise of third-party providers, North American theaters introduced their own in-house offerings, often as expansions of their loyalty programs. In December 2017, Cinemark became the first major U.S. circuit to launch its own unlimited subscription service with Cinemark Movie Club, which experimented with concession discounts, shareability, and rolling credits. Just a few months later, AMC launched its own service with AMC Stubs A-List, a premier tier of its loyalty program. Studio Movie Grill, Studio C, Showcase Cinemas, Regal, and Alamo Drafthouse also introduced their own subscription services.
The idea behind in-house subscription services was to boost the attendance of frequent moviegoers. Jean-Marie Dura, who was part of the UGC team when they first launched their subscription service, explained in April 2019 that to increase the frequency of attendance, you need to appeal to the audiences who support you the most. “The airline industry perfected this: If you’re a frequent flyer, you get a first-class experience all around. Similarly, we need to take care of our most frequent moviegoers. Our best customers are our greatest allies.” Ultimately, while in-house solutions remained, MoviePass, after internal power struggles and a reckoning with the reality of an unsustainable business model, interrupted its service on September 13, 2019. Cash shortages, emergency loans, and a plummeting stock price led to a series of decisions by MoviePass executives to secretly limit customers’ use of the service, irreparably damaging its brand reputation and ultimately leading to the above-mentioned FTC ruling. Despite its short-lived success, MoviePass was a catalyst in the introduction of exhibitor solutions. But MoviePass’s experiment also underscored the resilience of the exhibition industry against the big threat of the 21st century: “disruptors.”
At the January 2017 Art House Convergence, producer/screenwriter James Schamus detailed the “latest” headlines from the trade press emphasizing the imminent demise of theatrical exhibition. The catch was that the entire presentation used clippings from 1916. “The alarmist, doom-and-gloom storyline has been around for over a century, renewed by today’s increasingly tired tropes of tech stories vying to break the latest ‘disruption du jour,’” commented Boxoffice Pro’s editor in the May issue. In his State of the Industry address at CinemaCon in 2018, NATO’s John Fithian reassured the audience: “The word ‘disruption’ is thrown around way too much. Nothing needs to be disrupted when it comes to the basic goal of our industry: bringing people together to share a communal experience,” he proclaimed. His comments were also pointed toward streaming and exclusivity windows.
The debate began with premium video on demand (PVOD), an experiment proposed by a handful of studio executives in the early 2010s to counter the declining sales of their cash cow, DVDs, affected by piracy and the low cost of streaming outfits. The idea was to make films available via video on demand or streaming following a much shorter theatrical window, just 30 to 60 days after a film opened in theaters. While “exhibitors and the creative community responded aggressively, and the experiment failed,” as summarized by Fithian in May 2012, the threat of streaming was just beginning.
In August of that year, Patrick Corcoran, vice president and chief communications officer at NATO, wrote, “The world has fundamentally changed, we are told. The internet—and now the myriad of devices that connect to it—has altered forever the relationship between content creators and the people that consume it.” Streaming platforms had surely changed the way films were consumed at home. But their challenge to exhibition began in 2014, when Netflix announced a deal with Imax and The Weinstein Company to release Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming platform. Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, provoked the ire of the industry when he announced that “movie distribution is pretty stuck in old models. We need to stop distinguishing the experience by access. Many movies are just as good, if not better, at home.” Corcoran critiqued Sarandos’s position in a December 2014 article stating that “the entire argument for simultaneous release is founded on bad faith, shoddy data, and mysterious bookkeeping.” Fithian also rebutted the economic argument put forward by Netflix, saying that “it makes absolutely no business sense to accelerate the release of the lowest value in the chain.” In May 2016, in his takeaways from that year’s CinemaCon, Fithian argued that “third parties will not decide movie distribution models. … To be sure, more sophisticated window modeling may be needed for the growing success of a modern movie industry,” he wrote. “But those models will be developed by distributors and exhibitors in company-to-company discussions, not by third parties.”
At that CinemaCon, another unlikely “disruptor,” Amazon Studios, made a point in front of exhibitors with the presentation of its upcoming films, including Manchester by the Sea and The Neon Demon. “Amazon simply gets it,” wrote Fithian in March 2019. “Though Apple [which entered streaming in 2019] does not have an established record of release patterns yet, the company has begun to entertain theatrical windows as it enters into movie deals. … The one clear exception to all of this, of course, is Netflix.”
In a strategic shift, in 2018 Netflix announced a limited theatrical run prior to a streaming release to boost the chances of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Susanne Bier’s Bird Box. While the plan allowed a small period of theatrical exclusivity and gave Netflix its first Academy Award for a feature film, exhibitors condemned the move because of the shortness of the window, as well as Netflix’s refusal to divulge its data.
Despite the tension between exhibitors and SVOD players, toward the end of the decade the conversation on streaming moved from pure antagonism to complementarity—if the rules of the game were respected. In fact, an Ernst and Young survey commissioned by NATO in 2018 revealed that the more time people spend streaming at home, the more times they go to the cinema. At 2019’s CinemaCon, Fithian also noted that streaming platforms could help audiences get exposed to more content that would in turn boost theatrical attendance. That was the case with the documentary renaissance of 2018, when 14 documentaries grossed over $1 million each.
Then came November 12, 2019. In a watershed moment for the industry, Disney launched its own streaming platform, Disney Plus. As explained by a Boxoffice Pro writer, Disney’s capacity to leverage millions of fans due to its IPs “will not only drive subscriptions but help drive interest in further theatrical films.” He concluded, “Disney Plus might be the first streaming service to show how the two can coexist and thrive together.” Other studios quickly announced their plans to launch their own platforms in 2020, altering the dynamic with exhibitors. On the exhibition front, exhibitors also understood the value in building a platform that not only allowed them to adapt to the streaming and data era, but also to enhance their own brands and build a stronger, more direct relationship with their fans. Already in the late 2010s, circuits like Canada’s Cineplex, Mexico’s Cinépolis, and, since November 2019, AMC, had launched their own streaming services for the members of their loyalty programs.
Toward a Premium-Experience Economy
Just as it came to pass with the advent of radio, TV, Betamax, VHS, and DVDs, streaming revealed that the resilience of theaters lies, at least partly, in the unique, communal experience they provide. The experiential value of exhibition was frequently defended by exhibitors and filmmakers, including Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Aaron Sorkin, Sean Baker, Greta Gerwig, and Jordan Peele. With this new context of heightened competition with home entertainment and a better knowledge of the expectations and habits of their loyal customers, exhibitors fully embraced the “experience economy.” To provide a moment that could not be replicated at home, it became necessary for exhibitors to create a unique and memorable experience at a premium price point. Jay Baer, a digital marketing and online customer service expert, highlighted this at the 2018 CinemaCon. “It’s not about providing a better experience than another theater chain or the cinema across town,” he said, “but about how your experience compares to everything else.” Just as exhibitors were improving the moviegoing journey with digital ticketing and mobile apps, they were improving the moviegoing experience at the theater with large-format screens, luxury and immersive seating, and premium food and drink options.
The digital transition introduced the concept of premium ticket prices with 3-D. The industry had James Cameron’s Avatar to thank for their new moneymaker. “Any remaining doubt about the power of 3-D exhibition evaporated with the runaway success of Jim Cameron’s Avatar, a name applauded so often in Vegas, it would have made Elvis jealous,” wrote Fithian after the first-ever CinemaCon in May 2010. Opening in 2009, Avatar became the top-grossing film of all time with $2.7 billion in global ticket sales, more than 80 percent of which came from 3-D screenings. Critics within the industry like Roger Ebert and Walter Murch took the view that 3-D was nothing more than an overpriced gimmick. Yet its effect on the box office was astounding. In 2010, according to NATO, 8 percent of box office revenues came from the 3-D/2-D ticket price differential. In March 2014, MasterImage 3D estimated that the surcharge for 3-D added $1.5 billion to box office sales worldwide in 2013, increasing profits as much as 30 percent in some markets. In that year, more than a third of U.S. screens were equipped to display the format. Nevertheless, the 3-D hype did not last long in the U.S. Disappointing performances of films like Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Titanic compelled studios to scale down their investments. But 3-D had already left its mark on the premiumization of the industry. “The proliferation of [PLF] formats in the last half-decade has to be considered alongside the decline of 3-D box office revenue in recent years,” wrote Daniel Loria in May 2019. The rise of PLF and immersive seating in the last part of the decade showed that premium pricing at cinemas wasn’t eradicated—it merely diversified.
Data from IHS Markit showed that the number of PLF auditoriums worldwide nearly doubled between 2014 and 2017, jumping from 1,667 to 3,202. Imax, a pioneer of PLF, solidified its presence throughout the North American market and abroad in the 2010s. In 2015, Dolby ventured into the market with the launch of its branded premium cinema offering, Dolby Cinema, in Barcelona and Eindhoven, Netherlands. Dolby Cinema coupled Dolby’s immersive sound system—Dolby Atmos, introduced in 2012—with its high dynamic range (HDR) projection system, Dolby Vision. More PLF solutions, including RealD, ScreenX, CGS, and Samsung’s Onyx LED cinema screen, proliferated, employing the latest developments in projection technology, including laser, HDR, and RGB. Though these global PLF brands accounted for 57.4 percent of total PLF screens in 2018, exhibitor-branded screens such as CinemarkXD rose 16.8 percent, creating a more cluttered space. The rise of in-house PLF solutions was often motivated by a desire for greater control by exhibitors. A case in point is CGR’s ICE technology, which adds ambient light effects and peripheral video to a large-format screen and allows exhibitors to keep control of their ticketing revenues, as it is based on a zero third-party royalty business model. The concept was introduced in 2018 in France before expanding to the Middle East and North Africa in 2019 and finally reaching Los Angeles in early 2020 at Regal’s L.A. Live flagship.
The PLF trend was preceded by a boom in luxury seating. “For years now the home-theater market has been trying to bring the movie theater experience into the home,” said Gaylord Stanton, V.P. of sales at First Class Seating in December 2014. “Now, exhibitors are bringing the comfort of home to the theaters.” The concept of luxury seating was already present in premium theaters like iPic and Cinépolis, but it was truly popularized after 2014. For instance, luxury seating, mostly comprising an array of premium recliners, was a key component of Marcus Theatres’ $50 million investment in premium features in 2014–2015. The investment was aimed at boosting attendance and adding revenue. In a December 2014 article, AMC credited recliners as a catalyst for enhancing the productivity of its existing assets after the average attendance in theaters with premium seating went up by 76 percent despite a seat loss of 62 percent.
Luxury seating coincided with the rising trend of high-end cinemas. In the middle of the decade, boutique cinemas—a new take on art house and luxury theaters—offering premium amenities for a more general audience emerged in North America. Chains such as iPic Theatres, Alamo Drafthouse, Movie Tavern, and Landmark Theatres differentiated themselves with premium amenities and expanded and elevated their menus. The trend had originated a few years earlier in Asia, just like immersive seating, which after its success in the APAC region and Latin America began to pique the interest of North American exhibitors. “Since synchronized sound in the 1920s, we’ve been only using hearing and our vision; we haven’t been using the other senses,” said Mervi Heinaro, CEO of the Finnish immersive seating company Flexound in September 2019. Immersive seating became a way to expand the moviegoing experience by adding another amenity that could not be replicated at home. According to European cinema trade body UNIC, immersive seating grew 39 percent worldwide in 2018. All major 4-D companies expanded their footprint in the 2018–2019 period. CJ 4DPLEX, with its 4DX immersive seating concept, announced a major deal with Cineworld in 2019 to increase its presence at Regal locations in the U.S., grew in Saudi Arabia, and entered the Latin American market with Cinépolis. Canadian immersive seating provider D-Box, which celebrated its 10th birthday in 2019, clinched high-profile deals with major players like Cineplex and Hoyts, extending its footprint in Canada and in Australia. MediaMation’s MX4D did so in five continents with deals with B&B Theatres, Cine Colombia, and Nigeria’s Filmhouse Cinemas. Emerging markets, where the construction of new theaters was still on the rise, witnessed the largest growth, while Western Europe and its mostly saturated market lagged behind.
A Global Industry: Between Uniformity and Diversity
The digitalization and the premiumization of the industry in the 2010s shared a common strategy: optimizing individual admissions instead of trying to maximize mass admissions. They shared another commonality: they both had global roots and a global reach. Mobile ticketing started in China, subscription services in France, immersive seating in Asia and Latin America. The 2010s made clear that exhibition was now a globalized industry.
“Exhibition is itself becoming a global business,” proclaimed John Fithian in March 2017. “U.S.-based AMC is going into Europe with the acquisitions of Odeon and Nordic. Chinese company Wanda has invested in AMC and has acquired Hoyts in Australia. Korean-based CJ CGV has acquired Mars in Turkey and is opening cinemas in the U.S. Mexico-based Cinépolis operates now in four continents, with cinemas across Latin America, India, Spain, and the U.S.” Mexico’s second-largest circuit, Cinemex, opened its CMX upscale dine-in theater in Miami and acquired Cobb Theaters in 2017, the same year that Kinepolis Group acquired Canada’s Landmark Cinemas. Cineworld, the U.K.’s leading cinema circuit, acquired Regal in 2018.
The globalization of the industry led to the birth in June 2017 of the Global Cinema Federation (GCF), a volunteer-based organization meant to represent the global cinema exhibition community and to advocate for global stakeholders. Its creation, however, came at a moment when the future of globalization was under fire by politicians everywhere. “In many territories in the world, including Europe and the United States, nationalism is on the rise,” Fithian wrote in March 2017. “Voters in many countries are supporting candidates who seek to reduce immigration, to pull back on international alliances, and to impose barriers on free trade. In this author’s opinion, those trends are bad for the exhibition industry.” NATO, GCF, UNIC, and other multinational trade bodies vowed to protect free trade and the global movement of people and goods in order to sustain the competitiveness of global markets. The interconnectedness of the industry also created unprecedented vulnerabilities, exemplified by the 2014 Sony Pictures hack. In November of that year, the studio was attacked by a hacker group, allegedly linked to the North Korean government, who leaked confidential data and demanded the withdrawal of The Interview, the controversial film about a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader.
Regardless, emerging markets, such as Russia, Nigeria, the newly opened Saudi Arabia (where cinemas were legalized in 2018 for the first time in four decades), and APAC countries, created an international moviegoing audience of billions of moviegoers, often younger than North America’s graying audiences. But no other market intrigued American exhibitors and studios as much as China and its 1.44 billion inhabitants. An Ernst and Young report published in the magazine in 2013 predicted that China would overtake the North American box office by 2020. Tapping into that market, however, meant that U.S. studios and exhibitors needed to overcome strict regulations, quotas, and censorship. According to the MPA, the global box office increased by a whopping 15 percent in the first five years of the decade. In a December 2012 article entitled “Our Future Is Linked to Asia,” a Boxoffice Pro writer stated that “success at home will feel empty to Hollywood studios if they haven’t also hit the bullseye in key international markets. … The number of films that appeal only to Americans will shrink very rapidly,” he predicted.
The writer was right. Overseas appetite for foreign films changed Hollywood. It was the era of mega-franchises, of superhero movies and blockbuster IPs that championed universal ideas and themes. Conversely, midbudget films were increasingly struggling to compete, frequently finding homes on streaming platforms. As the studio system adapted its stories to cater to vast global audiences, the global box office responded accordingly. With fewer movies accounting for larger percentages of annual revenues, the international marketplace brought profitability to domestic flops. It also contributed to the trend of unprecedented, massive opening weekends. Marvel’s The Avengers and its record-breaking opening weekend started this phenomenon in 2012. “We are now living in a new era for blockbusters,” commented one writer in June 2012. “An opening of $150 million is no longer the ultimate goal—and that’s kind of insane.” The Avengers records were soon dwarfed by those of many other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Star Wars saga.
Hollywood’s international strategy required studios to be more sensitive to foreign cultural values. But studios also began to look inward, realizing the potential of their overlooked audiences at home. “Our rapidly globalizing industry has helped bring about a welcome wave of inclusion and diversity, just as Hollywood studios begin to capitalize on the rewards of inclusiveness when it comes to their tentpole productions,” wrote Julien Marcel in April 2018. Although much remains to be done, and the “newfound” interest in diverse audiences has periodically manifested itself in other periods of exhibition history, the industry ramped up its efforts to appeal to its underserved audiences in an unprecedented manner in the 2010s. Trade events increased their panels on diversity and inclusion. Boxoffice Pro, too, increased its coverage of such issues significantly, offering studies on underserved moviegoers, interviews with more diverse filmmakers, and launching a series showcasing the most influential women in the industry. Vendors like Dolby and QSC began offering accessibility products such as descriptive audio and captioning for patrons with disabilities. More independent films, such as Moonlight and Get Out, were centered on the African American experience to great commercial and critical success. Exhibition also increased its targeting of America’s biggest movie fans: Hispanic audiences, who are consistently overrepresented among frequent moviegoers. Just a few examples of this effort include the launching of TheaterEars, an app providing dubbed content in Spanish for non-English-speaking moviegoers; the partnership of ticketing company Ticketón with Atom Tickets in 2019 to serve Hispanic audiences; and Marcus Theatres’ introduction of the CineLatino Hispanic Film Festival in 2017. Finally, the massive successes of Coco, Crazy Rich Asians, and Black Panther shattered the myth that films led by persons of color couldn’t draw in diverse audiences. There were no more doubts that diversity was paying off, domestically, and globally.
The industry’s diversity strategy occurred, however, against the backdrop of increased consolidation. The trend was evident in exhibition, but more so in distribution. At CinemaCon 2019, for instance, Annapurna and MGM announced their merger to revamp United Artists. Nothing could compare to the shock produced by Disney’s presentation at CinemaCon, where the studio touted its own slate as well as that of 20th Century Fox. After more than a decade of stunning acquisitions, including the purchase of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012, and 20th Century Fox in 2019, Disney had total dominance. In 2019, Disney claimed the top five highest-grossing movies in North America with Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen II, and Captain Marvel. Owning the most lucrative IPs with the Star Wars universe, Marvel, and Pixar, Disney controlled nearly 40 percent of the domestic market by the end of the decade.
The decade came to a close with the announcement of the end of the Paramount Decrees, in place since the late 1940s. Seventy years after the landmark ruling that prohibited it, vertical integration was once again on the table.
Despite an uncertain landscape full of “disruption” and consolidation, in the 2010s the industry learned to use the digital revolution to its advantage, reinvented its premium strategy, and expanded across the globe. In 2019, global box office receipts surpassed $42 billion for the first time ever. The domestic box office clocked in at $11.4 billion, the second highest-grossing year of all time, and international revenues passed the $30 billion mark. The sky did not fall, and exhibition not only survived but thrived. The 2010s were another testament to the power of the cinematic experience. Just like the nine decades of Boxoffice Pro’s existence before that, the 2010s proved that the larger-than-life theatrical experience was still an essential part of moviegoers’ lives everywhere in the world.
That fundamental truth would be called into doubt by naysayers yet again at the beginning of this decade; Covid-19 and its aftermath continue to spark conversations about the theatrical exclusivity window, competition from at-home viewing, the shifting balance between domestic and international markets, and the expansion and contraction of the industry through mergers and acquisitions. The challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic are significant but not unsurmountable; as we’ve shown in this 10-part series, they’re not even new. The story of exhibition is a story of resiliency, of an industry that’s jumped every hurdle put in its path, from radio and TV to a global pandemic. It’s a story that Boxoffice Pro has been proud to tell for 100 years and looks forward to telling for 100 more.
For our fellow exhibition history buffs: Keep an eye out for the December issue of Boxoffice Pro, in which we celebrate our own centennial and honor the generations of Boxoffice Pro reporters and editors for their contributions to this industry.
Lionsgate will be releasing sports biopic American Underdog on Christmas Day, December 25, 2021. The film stars Zachary Levi as Kurt Warner, Anna Paquin as Brenda Warner, and Dennis Quaid as Dick Vermeil. It is directed by brothers Jon and Andrew Erwin.
American Underdog is based on the life of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), whose career took him from grocery store stockboy to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback. The film centers on Warner’s unique story and years of challenges and setbacks that could have derailed his aspirations to become an NFL player – but just when his dreams seemed all but out of reach, it is only with the support of his wife, Brenda (Anna Paquin) and the encouragement of his family, coaches, and teammates that Warner perseveres and finds the strength to show the world the champion that he already is. American Underdog is an uplifting story that demonstrates that anything is possible when you have faith, family and determination.
“This movie perfectly aligns with the emotions of the holiday season: The power of faith,” said Joe Drake, Chair of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, during the studio’s CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas. “A drive to bring out the best in all of us. The strength of family. And of course, the height of the NFL championship season. When you take all of that together, the perfect release date for this movie is Christmas day, and that’s where we have decided to date it.”
Late summer has been known to deliver its share of hit debuts from the horror genre, and this weekend looks to continue that trend with the release of Nia DaCosta’s Candyman.
The film, a sequel to the 1990s cult classic franchise, has generated a growing wave of momentum in the final week leading up to release. That’s thanks in part to a flow of strong reviews from critics, which registered around 86 percent from 127 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday evening.
Comparison titles have been all over the map in recent weeks as industry tracking tries to sort out the relevancy of pre- and mid-pandemic box office metrics alongside the roller coaster that is consumer sentiment right now. Our own first public forecast for Candyman was trending toward an opening weekend between $9 million and $14 million back in late July, a range that is now almost certainly bearish at this point.
Marketing has provided a big boost to Candyman‘s prospects with the latest trailer release back in June having generated over 60 million views since going online. That followed an already aggressive social strategy from producer and co-writer Jordan Peele back in pre-pandemic times of February 2020, which helped the film trend on major social outlets ahead of the first peak at footage.
Peele’s involvement is a fair asset here. Even though he didn’t direct the film, his following and pedigree after writing and directing Get Out and Us both elevate the profile of Candyman to some extent — especially with a predominately Black cast, an audience that should turn out in strong numbers for the horror revival given its weaving of social issues into a narrative that also promises plenty of jumps and scares.
Those aforementioned late summer sleepers from the horror genre include the likes of 2016’s Don’t Breathe and 2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which opened to $26.4 million and $20.9 million, respectively. Social trends and trailer views for Candyman are comparable to those films at the same point in the pre-release cycle.
The remaining X-factor, as always these days, is the pandemic itself. How much of Candyman‘s target audience will opt to wait for a home release — which is likely to happen by the middle or end of September under Universal’s current windowing strategy — due to Delta variant and unvaccinated moviegoer concerns among the more cautious patrons?
It’s still an unknowable answer, prone to shift week by week, but the positive news is that quality and high-profile releases have been attracting audiences off and on all summer. The most recent example, of course, is Free Guy which beat expectations on opening weekend and proceeded to deliver an excellent sophomore frame that saw it drop only 35 percent.
Other films like Jungle Cruise continue to hold well in their chase weekends, a trend previously shared by the likes of F9, Cruella, and A Quiet Place Part II in recent months. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It has also out-legged its 2016 predecessor in terms of sheer multiplier from opening weekend (as has F9 from its own direct predecessor).
Candyman will have the added price boost from premium format screenings this weekend, cutting into some of Free Guy‘s own share (although the latter will retain most of its IMAX screens). Sales in those formats are robust for Thursday night and throughout the weekend, as expected.
If there’s anything weighing down on Candyman at this point, it could be genre fatigue after the glut of horror pics that have hit domestic cinemas this summer — including everything from Spiral to the aforementioned Conjuring threequel, The Forever Purge, Old, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, and Don’t Breathe 2. There’s not exactly a pent-up demand for the genre itself, but in fairness, most of those films didn’t have the buzz or pre-opening word-of-mouth that Candyman does.
For an industry that continues to endure caution amid fits and starts of recovery at the global box office, this weekend at least looks to provide about as strong a finish to August’s domestic market as could have been hoped for as the back half of summer made it obvious that some audiences will continue taking their time returning to cinemas.
With Candyman aiming squarely for an under-40 and over-15 crowd (though some of those older 1990s fans will show up, too), its target audience is squarely within the youthful range at the heart of some of this year’s best box office performers so far.
Notably, around two-thirds of universities will be back in session nationwide by this Friday, which might aid the film in being slightly less front-loaded to opening shows than this summer’s previous genre films have been.
As far as staying power goes, that will ultimately come down to real-world audience reception. Having a strongly received horror pic in theaters — and mostly competition free, in terms of genre, through September — could bode well for longevity going into the fall and Halloween season.
Opener Forecast Ranges
Candyman Opening Weekend Range: $16 – 26 million
Domestic Total Range: $40 – $75 million
Weekend Forecast
Boxoffice projects this weekend’s top ten films will decrease between 1 and 15 percentfrom last weekend’s $59.1 million top ten aggregate.
Film
Distributor
3-Day Weekend Forecast
Projected Domestic Total through Sunday, August 29
Location Count
% Change from Last Wknd
Candyman
Universal Pictures
$20,000,000
$20,000,000
3,569
NEW
Free Guy
20th Century Studios
$10,900,000
$76,700,000
3,940
-41%
PAW Patrol: The Movie
Paramount Pictures
$6,900,000
$24,800,000
3,189
-48%
Jungle Cruise
Walt Disney Studios
$4,400,000
$99,700,000
3,370
-31%
Respect
United Artists Releasing / MGM
$2,500,000
$19,900,000
2,607
-34%
Don’t Breathe 2
Sony Pictures / Columbia
$2,200,000
$24,000,000
2,703
-57%
The Suicide Squad
Warner Bros. Pictures
$1,700,000
$52,300,000
~2,500
-50%
The Protégé
Lionsgate
$1,400,000
$5,400,000
~2,577
-52%
Reminiscence
Warner Bros. Pictures
$1,100,000
$3,900,000
~3,265
-44%
The Night House
Searchlight Pictures
$1,000,000
$5,100,000
2,240
-65%
All forecasts subject to revision before the first confirmation of Thursday previews or Friday estimates from studios or alternative sources.
Theater counts are updated as confirmed by studios.
In today’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast’s Daily CinemaCon Edition, co-hosts Daniel Loria and Rebecca Pahle cover the third day of CinemaCon 2021, including slate presentations from Universal, Focus Features, and Neon. The day’s studio presentations offered a glimpse of the diverse series of titles coming to theaters in the months ahead: from tentpole releases to specialty award contenders.
Today’s episode concludes with an exclusive recording from Monday’s global executive roundtable featuring Mooky Greiding, CEO of Cineworld; Alejandro Ramirez Magaña, CEO of Cinépolis; Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President of Distribution at Universal Pictures International; and Mark Viane, President of International Theatrical Distribution at Paramount Pictures.
Listen to a full recap of the day’s events by subscribing on any major platform or visiting podcast.boxofficepro.com
Universal’s presentation opened with Jim Orr, the studio’s president of domestic distribution, taking the stage and expressing his support for a revival of the cinema industry. Orr emphasized Universal’s current efforts in producing more original titles: only three of the nine films from its CinemaCon slate were part of an existing franchise. His counterpart in international distribution, Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, also joined the event in person to introduce a series of video messages from stars promoting their upcoming releases.
New footage from Universal presentation included clips from animated title Sing 2, horror sequel Halloween Kills, the thriller The Black Phone from producer Jason Blum, female-driven global spy flick The 355, the romantic comedy Marry Me starring Jennifer Lopez, the broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, the Michael Bay heist flick Ambulance, and the upcoming animated movie The Bad Guys. Universal closed its presentation with preview clips from stars involved in Jurassic Park: Dominion, which will bring together cast members from the original Jurassic Park films with those appearing in the current Jurassic World titles.
On the specialty side, Focus Features head of distribution Lisa Bunnell came on stage in person to deliver her portion of the presentation. Bunnell introduced clips with video appearances from filmmakers showcasing upcoming Focus titles. Edgar Wright unveiled footage from Last Night in Soho, stressing in his remarks that he was personally involved in securing a fall theatrical release date for the film. Kenneth Branagh introduced footage from his upcoming film, Belfast, and Robert Eggers unveiled early footage from The Northman, the period viking drama that is still in production. The Focus presentation closed with footage from the new Downton Abbey film, Downton Abbey: A New Era, scheduled for release in March 2022.
During the day’s breakfast presentation, fellow specialty distributor Neon showcased a trio of award contenders in its 2021 slate. The presentation included trailers from Palm d’Or winner Titane, the animated Sundance award winner Flee, and an early, exclusive look at a scene from Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana.
Cinema management software provider Vista today announced the launch of the first version of Vista Cloud, a new generation of cloud-hosted cinema software, fully managed by Vista. The platform will initially be available to select customers before being made more widely available in 2022. Vista Cloud signifies a major evolution of Vista’s solutions, with the full suite of Vista functionality being transformed into Vista Cloud.
Features of Vista Cloud include:
Fully hosted, managed, and monitored, the software enables teams to make the most of Vista’s technology, as well as reduce and simplify network maintenance and infrastructure costs
Automatic updates, multiple new feature bundles, and sandbox environments
Greater reliability with automatic scaling during peak times, offline availability, and access anytime, anywhere
Real-time data insights, with Vista’s ‘Horizon’ data warehouse underpinning the Vista Cloud platform for all customers
Ongoing expansion of APIs and extensibility points to ensure Vista Cloud supports customers’ enterprise architecture roadmaps
Increased security with automatic backups, disaster recovery, and 24×7 observability
Simplified access to digital channels to provide unified moviegoer experiences
Capabilities that power all areas of business, from on-site operations to head office management and access to a comprehensive API platform
“At Vista, we strongly believe in the power and importance of cinema” said Leon Newnham, Vista CEO. “I’m thrilled to see the launch of Vista Cloud, our latest offering, which equips exhibitors with technology to focus on the moviegoer experience more than ever before.”
“The launch of Vista Cloud is a pivotal moment in Vista’s history and the result of years of our team’s dedication and hard work to support our clients and industry” said Mark Pattie, Vista VP of Product. “We are excited at the prospect of seeing our ongoing stream of innovation reach customers faster in Vista Cloud than it was ever possible with our previous technology.”
Vista CEO, Leon Newnham, unveiled Vista Cloud today at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, the most prominent gatherings of exhibitors on the industry calendar. More information can be found at cloud.vista.co.
