Weekend Box Office Forecast: Venom: Let There Be Carnage, The Addams Family 2, & The Many Saints of Newark

This October’s box office has often been circled on the calendar as the start of the next phase in domestic box office recovery. With the month officially beginning this weekend, the time has come for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, The Addams Family 2, and The Many Saints of Newark to begin making that important impression on moviegoers and the industry at large as 2021 enters its final quarter. Sony’s Venom sequel is the obvious frontrunner commanding the lion’s share of attention this weekend. Following multiple delays during the course of the pandemic, few movies have been shuffled around the calendar as many times as the anticipated follow-up to one of 2018’s autumn breakouts. As discussed in our recent analysis, Venom scored a then-October-record $32.5 million opening weekend and crushed all expectations as part of one of the strongest fall box office slates in history....

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B&B Theatres Signs Expanded Four-Year Deal with Cinionic

Cinionic will serve as the exclusive projection technology partner for B&B Theatres under an expanded, four-year exclusive agreement with the exhibitor, it was announced today. With the new agreement, Cinionic will provide B&B Theatres with its Barco Series 4 and Cinionic Giant Screen (CGS) in order to “enhance” B&B’s large format Grand Screen, according to a press release, including at upcoming locations such as the recently announced Blacksburg, Virginia theater. “B&B Theatres’ premium Grand Screen auditoriums house some of the largest screens in the country, each of which was specifically designed to offer guests a cinematic experience unlike any other,” said Brock Bagby, EVP, B&B Theatres, in a statement. “Cinionic’s solutions have a proven track record of powering the latest and greatest in the industry, so we are excited to be expanding our work...

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Cinemark Expands Movie Club Membership Program with Platinum Tier Offering Additional Benefits

Cinemark is expanding benefits for its most loyal customers with Movie Club Platinum, a new premium tier of the exhibitor’s in-theater membership program, Cinemark Movie Club. The news was announced today. Movie Club Platinum will offer all customers who visit a Cinemark theater 25 times or purchase 60 tickets within a calendar year access to Platinum perks, which – in addition to their existing Movie Club benefits – include two bonus movie ticket credits, an increased concessions discount of 25%, and the ability to purchase up to five tickets at the member price per transaction, all at no extra cost. A member’s status will be upgraded when they hit the threshold, with the Platinum benefits remaining in place through the subsequent calendar year. Through December 31, 2021, Movie Club members can reach the Platinum tier even faster by visiting a Cinemark theater eight...

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Showcase Launches Multi-Million-Dollar Renovation of Warwick, Rhode Island Location; to Include XPlus PLF Auditorium

Showcase Cinemas is launching a multi-million-dollar renovation of its Showcase Cinemas de Lux Warwick on Quaker Lane in Warwick, Rhode Island, the theater chain announced on Wednesday (September 29). The theater plans to coincide the opening of its new XPlus premium large format auditorium with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which hits North American theaters on December 17. The renovated Warwick theater will feature the state’s first XPlus auditorium with laser projection. All 15 auditoriums will also be outfitted with all-reserved, fully powered recliners and upgraded sound and projection systems. The reimagined lobby, meanwhile, will include a brand-new concession and hot foods center featuring such brands as Nathan’s Famous, Uno Express Pizzas, and Pretzel Depot Hand-Rolled Pretzels along with sweet and savory gourmet popcorn and over 40 candy varieties....

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The Biggest Movies Coming to Theaters in October 2021

September had one huge movie: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which singlehandedly earned more than half the month’s box office. October seems poised to be much more diversified, with a mixture of several potential hits and awards contenders. Here are the wide releases set for the cinema that month. Venom: Let There Be Carnage Friday, October 1 Premise: Tom Hardy returns in the Sony Pictures sequel as Eddie Brock, a human controled by an alien parasite named Venom, the Marvel Comics character first introduced onscreen as a villain in 2007’s Spider-Man 3. Woody Harrelson plays the antagonist Cletus Kasady, a man who’s also controlled by an alien parasite named Carnage, hence the film’s title. Box office comparisons: 2018’s Venom was released the exact same weekend, the first weekend of October, and beat expectations with a $80.2M opening and...

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CineEurope 2021 Preview: Interview with UNIC’s Laura Houlgatte-Abbott and Phil Clapp

CineEurope will return to Barcelona from October 4-7 for a week of screenings, distributor presentations, and industry panels. UNIC CEO Laura Houlgatte-Abbott and President Phil Clapp joined Boxoffice Pro’s Daniel Loria for a preview interview to discuss what attendees can expect from the event. Listen to this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast to hear the full interview Where does European exhibition find itself right now? Laura Houlgatte-Abbott: In a good place, I would think, compared to where we were last year around the same time, September 2020, when we all felt that second shut down was coming. We’ve had all our territories open since July, that’s 38 countries where cinemas have been allowed to reopen. New releases are coming out and we are expecting audiences coming back in big numbers.  Phil Clapp: When we gather in Barcelona, the message we want to...

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Unique X Names Claudia Stengel VP of Sales, Americas

Unique X has appointed Claudia Stengel as its new VP of sales, Americas, the company announced today. In her new role, Stengel will oversee all revenue, relationship management, and the business development of Unique X’s suite of cinema software solutions in North, Central, and South America. Based in the U.S., Stengel previously worked at Microsoft, West, and Gartner and has over 15 years of experience in software sales and customer management. “I am delighted to join the Unique X team at such an exciting time in the company’s growth and contribute to the expansion of our global footprint,” said Stengel in a statement. Unique X’s Chief Commercial Officer Phil Morris added, “We are delighted to have Claudia join the team, we believe she will be a great addition due to her experience and skills.” The post Unique X Names Claudia Stengel VP of Sales, Americas appeared first...

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Harkness Named Official CineEurope 2021 Screen Partner

PRESS RELEASE Harkness Screens the world’s leading screen technology company and thought-leaders in on-screen brightness is delighted to confirm that Clarus XC technology will be the screen of choice for 2D and 3D theatrical presentations during Cine Europe 2021. The show’s auditorium inside the CCIB will feature a 26.35m x 7.5m Clarus XC 170 screen used to showcase both 2D and 3D content from distributors.  Designed to work with all polarised 3D systems and regarded as a screen of choice for polarised laser 3D presentation due to its speckle mitigation properties, Clarus XC screens create visibly deeper 3D content which draws in the audience creating a more captivating viewing experience.  A whiter look under projection mean that colours look visibly richer and more accurate both in 2D and 3D resulting in a more defined, sharper and crisper picture.  “We’re...

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Tech Innovations from CinemaCon 2021 Aim to Boost Movie Theaters’ Recovery

CinemaCon 2021 provided an opportunity for some of the world’s leading cinema technology companies to meet with exhibition’s top executives for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The crisis has exposed cinema vendors to the same disruption and upheaval currently affecting exhibitors, with global sales stopping suddenly in March of 2020 and only now crawling back to operation. That impact was in evidence at this year’s CinemaCon trade show, where numerous tech providers faced obstacles like international travel restrictions and budgetary constraints that affected their usual presence. A number of top companies in the space,...

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Adding More Addamses: The Addams Family 2 Director Conrad Vernon Delivers a Sequel for Halloween

Regardless of your age or generation, you can probably sing “The Addams Family” theme song, finger snaps included. But many years before the iconic TV show, the macabre title family first appeared, in 1938, in a series of single-panel cartoons in The New Yorker, and afterward went on to star in a live-action movie franchise in the 1990s. In 2019, Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan directed The Addams Family, an animated installment that earned $97.8 million domestically and $200.6 million globally. Now, the two filmmakers are back for the United Artists Releasing and MGM family comedy sequel, The Addams Family 2, exclusively in theaters October 1. Vernon...

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Showbiz Cinemas to Reintroduce Sensory Friendly Screenings with The Addams Family 2

Dallas, Texas-based Showbiz Cinemas is resuming its Sensory-Friendly Screenings with the a special screening of animated sequel The Addams Family 2 on Saturday, October 9. Moving forward, Showbiz Cinemas Sensory Friendly screenings will be held once monthly. Upcoming screenings with tickets currently on sale are September 30 and October 9 showings of The Addams Family 2. Visit ShowbizCinemas.com for exact showtimes and to find more information. Upcoming films to receive sensory-friendly screenings from Showbiz will include animated films Ron’s Gone Wrong, Encanto, and Sing 2.  “The idea of Sensory Friendly Screenings is to create a safe...

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Nils Büker Becomes Co-Managing Director of Cine Project

On October 1, Nils Büker will join Cine Project (CP), the German cinema integrator, as Co-Managing Director. A physicist, Büker was previously a member of the top management of the Japanese company USHIO at its European headquarters near Amsterdam. For 23 years there, he focused primarily on the cinema markets in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) and CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent States, or nations that were formerly Soviet republics). Founded in 1995, Cine Project is a provider of cinema technical equipment, intelligent media technology, and installation in Germany. The company also offers solutions for the design, renovation, and digitization of movie theaters. “Especially in difficult times, I appreciated Cine Project as a reliable partner in my role as a supplier and many CP customers tell me the same from the customer’s point of view. I am very...

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New Largest IMAX Screen Set to Open in Germany on September 30

The largest IMAX screen on earth will open Thursday at the Traumpalast Multiplex in Leonberg, Germany, measuring 69 feet high and 125 feet wide. The 574-seat auditorium will premiere with the new James Bond film No Time to Die, the first entry in the franchise featuring sequences shot with IMAX cameras — about 40 minutes’ worth. This particular IMAX screen weighs more than 500 pounds, and had to be installed by a specially designed robotic arm. It marks the eighth IMAX theater in Germany. “The IMAX at Traumpalast redefines the ‘big screen’,” IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond said in a press release. “With Lochmann Filmtheaterbetriebe, we’ve created an unforgettable moviegoing experience where fans can truly immersive themselves in the world’s biggest blockbusters on the world’s largest screen. As we continue to grow in Germany and open new iconic locations around the world,...

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Cineplex Launches National Brand Campaign Where Escape Begins About the Cinema Experience

Cineplex, the largest exhibition circuit in Canada, rolled out a new brand campaign Monday, Where Escape Begins, starting with a 50-second spot tauting the benefits of the big screen experience. Where Escape Begins was developed by creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, alongside the Cineplex in-house marketing team. It includes a stirring 50-second spot directed by Canadian James Arthurs, digital and social assets, radio, and out-of-home. The campaign is also reflected across all consumer touchpoints including Cineplex’s social channels, interior digital media, and exterior banners at Cineplex’s 160+ locations across Canada. It will be positioned prominently as part of Cineplex’s preshow. “Now, more than ever, movie lovers want to reconnect and recharge with loved ones. An escape to a Cineplex theatre is the top choice of Canadians looking to disconnect from the world for...

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National CineMedia (NCM) Names Ronnie Y. Ng as Chief Financial Officer

PRESS RELEASE — National CineMedia, the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., has appointed Ronnie Y. Ng as chief financial officer (CFO), effective September 27, 2021. With 20 years of finance, investment banking, accounting and managerial experience, Ng joins NCM from Allen Media Group, LLC (AMG), a diversified media and entertainment company, where he was CFO and head of corporate development. At AMG, he led the company’s finance organization and oversaw multiple large-scale acquisitions and the refinancing of its capital structure. Prior to AMG, Ng served as vice president in the fixed income group for TCW Group, Inc. (TCW) where he evaluated investments in the media and technology industry, including investment grade corporate bonds, high-yield bonds and leveraged loans. Before joining TCW, he was an investment banker for approximately...

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Making of a Made Man: Alan Taylor Revisits the World of Tony Soprano with The Many Saints of Newark

Tony Soprano is one of the most influential characters in television history, clearing the way for such memorable antiheroes as Don Draper in “Mad Men,” Walter White in “Breaking Bad,” and Vic Mackey in “The Shield.” The saga of the New Jersey crime boss with nagging business and personal problems earned 21 Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards during its six-season run on HBO. Now, 14 years later, series creator David Chase returns to the mob scene with The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel that explores the environment that shaped the young Tony Soprano, played by relative newcomer Michael Gandolfini, the son of the late, much-loved “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini. The script, written by Chase and Lawrence Konner, is set in Newark in the turbulent late ‘60s and early ‘70s and follows Tony’s relationship with his beloved uncle, gangster Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola)....

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