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. The Tom Hardy-franchise is back with a core younger demographic to drive it, a crucial audience that has represented a high share of returning patrons at cinemas during the pandemic rebound.

Comparisons are still limited, but Let There Be Carnage has been trending strong in the final days before release. Combined social media impressions and pre-sale gauges have the Sony sequel far ahead of the pace of August’s The Suicide Squad (which opened to a disappointing $26.2 million), while not far behind that of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The latter, of course, has been a bastion of the post-summer market following a Labor Day record $75.4 million three-day opening and subsequently strong chase weekends.

Carnage is also comparable to this year’s F9 in some ways. The latter franchise has been known to pace more back-loaded in audience interest and pre-sale activity relative to many comic book franchises. However, the first Venom was an outlier in that regard itself thanks to diverse audience appeal of a makeup slightly different from Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. (Remember: Venom is part of Sony’s off-shoot Marvel franchise and, to this point anyway, has no substantial connection to the Disney & Marvel Studios franchise.)

Whether that back-loaded and casual audience turnout plays a factor again with Carnage, or if it proves to behave more in line with a typical comic book sequel, is one of the few remaining questions. Reviews had also been a question with an embargo in place until two days before opening, but the sequel is standing at 74 percent from 53 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as of early Thursday afternoon. Of this film’s many strengths, appeal to young male audiences is on fire — a crowd the first film dominated with via a 60 percent gender split, coupled with an overall 71 percent under-25 demographic breakdown.

The first Venom was more of a crowd-pleaser than a critics’ darling, but it was also front-loaded in its box office run with considerably less competition in later weekends than Carnage will face. The trade-off this time, though, is the long awaited first appearance of Carnage, played by Woody Harrelson, a very popular character within comic book fandom.

In terms of tracking against the predecessor itself, Carnage is expectedly not quite at the same level but seems to be retaining a large block of the target audience interest that boosted Venom. Of note, the first film had an inflated Sunday due to Indigenous Peoples’ Day landing on Monday, meaning an extended weekend for teens in grade school. That won’t be the case this time as the holiday will land one week later on October 11.

With all of that in mind, however, it’s been nearly one full month since audiences had a brand new, widely appealing tentpole film to draw them to theaters. That should play to Carnage‘s favor in a major way this weekend despite the road ahead, including direct competition from films like No Time to Die (October 8), Halloween Kills (October 15), and Dune (October 22).

Sony is distributing the sequel at 4,225 domestic theaters, including all IMAX and Premium Large Format screens. Previews begin Thursday at 4 P.M., one hour earlier than the first film’s start time three years ago this same weekend. It will also be exclusive to movie theaters, marking yet another advantage for box office performance.

For a welcome change of pace, this weekend sees two other nationwide releases as counter-programmers to the main comic book sequel event. It’s arguably the most mainstream-friendly variety the industry has seen from a collection of new releases during the pandemic so far and is likely to rival or outperform the doubleheader of A Quiet Place Part II and Cruella over Memorial Day weekend.

Up first, United Artists Releasing is sending The Addams Family 2 to theaters in a day-and-date strategy that also sees the animated sequel streaming as a paid PVOD option at home. The latter move was only made in recent weeks as it became clear that parents and adult women remain the most cautious returning to theaters, in large part because children under the age of 12 aren’t yet eligible for vaccines. That’s obviously Addams’ core crowd, so any comparisons to the previous film’s $30.3 million opening weekend two years ago aren’t particularly useful or valid here.

Nevertheless, The Addams Family 2 is trending relatively well compared to recent animated releases. For parents and kids who are choosing to safely return to cinemas, the sequel presents one of the very few family options in the market lately. Brand awareness and a lack of competition helped Paramount’s PAW Patrol: The Movie beat expectations late in the summer with a $13.2 million debut (despite Regal not screening the film at its theaters) after the likes of The Boss Baby: Family Business and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway captured similar box office results earlier in the summer.

Those are the most apropos comparison points for the Addams follow-up, but pent-up demand and increasing comfort level of audiences since those releases could arguably help it come in on the high end of expectations — especially with Halloween season in full swing as October begins.

Warner Bros. is also back at it this weekend with their prequel to The Sopranos series, The Many Saints of Newark.

As another day-and-date SVOD release, though, expectations have significantly diminished from what they once were. After the likes of Downton Abbey and Black Mass proved successful at the fall box office while courting a similar adult viewer base, recent Warner Bros. performances from Cry Macho, Reminiscence, and Those Who Wish Me Dead have shown that the target older audience has been opting to watch these movies for free at home on HBO Max. 

Newark could outperform those films just by nature of being part of a well-known and respected intellectual property, but otherwise, its impact is increasingly expected to be diminished considering its based on a series fans already spent years dedicating to watch on their television screens.

Elsewhere this weekend, Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company will release The Jesus Music at 249 locations, a film that has shown solid pre-sales signs in recent days, while NEON will open Titane at 562 theaters. Both, particularly the former, are contenders to crack the top ten this weekend.

Overall, the coming frame figures to be one of the busiest of the pandemic era yet. Only three weekends since March 2020 have exceeded $90 million combined at the box office, those being Labor Day weekend for Shang-Chi‘s release ($108.3 million), Black Widow‘s ($117.5 million) July debut frame, and F9‘s ($97.1 million) starting weekend in June.

Depending largely on Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s ability to hit or exceed expectations, this weekend is on pace to rank somewhere among those three pandemic era benchmarks.

Forecast Ranges

The Addams Family 2
Opening Weekend Range: $13 – 18 million
Domestic Total Range: $40 – $60 million

The Many Saints of Newark
Opening Weekend Range: $7 – 12 million
Domestic Total Range: $15 – $35 million

Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Opening Weekend Range: $XX – XX million
Domestic Total Range: $XX – $XX million

Weekend Forecast

Boxoffice projects this weekend’s top ten films will increase between 180 and 220 percent from last weekend’s $35.8 million top ten aggregate.

Forecasts to follow…

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.

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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 with them to ensure that all our sites are equipped with the technology needed to give guests the ultimate cinematic experience.”

Added Cinionic CEO Wim Buyens, “B&B’s on-going expansion is testament to their passion for cinema, commitment to the industry, and rich heritage in exhibition. We’re proud to share a dedication to delivering the best moviegoing experiences, now powered by the leading laser projection suite. Today, we leverage our joint history in the industry to enable unforgettable theatrical presentation that will remind audiences of the power of cinema and keep them coming back week after week.”

B&B Theatres is the sixth largest exhibitor in the U.S., with nearly 500 screens across 55 locations.

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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 times or purchasing 24 tickets before the end of the year.

According to a release, Cinemark conducted “extensive customer research” about how to make the existing Movie Club program more enticing. Through surveys, the exhibitor determined that active members “were overwhelmingly enthusiastic” about the addition of a premium reward-based tier with extra benefits.

Launched in December 2017, Cinemark Movie Club is a component of Cinemark Movie Rewards, Cinemark’s tiered loyalty program that awards movie lovers one point for every dollar spent at a Cinemark theater. Movie Club is a paid loyalty tier ($9.99 per month) that includes one ticket per month, a 20% concessions discount, one companion ticket at the member price per transaction, waived online fees, and the ability to roll over unused tickets.

“We developed Movie Club Platinum the same exact way we developed our industry-leading Movie Club program – by listening to our moviegoers and giving them what they really want,” said Wanda Gierhart Fearing, Cinemark CMO and CCO, in a statement. “This premium tier of our monthly membership program rewards our highest frequency moviegoers with bigger savings and bonus tickets, making a trip to the theatre even more valuable for those who love it most. Cinemark is always striving to roll out the red carpet for our guests, and offering this amazing reward is our way of giving our most loyal members the celebrity treatment. With the outstanding film lineup coming to the big screen, there is no better time to get more out of moviegoing.”

You can learn more about Movie Club at Cinemark.com or on the Cinemark mobile app.

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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. A new lobby bar will boast cocktails on tap, premium spirits and craft beers as well as a Starbucks espresso bar with lounge seating. Coca-Cola Freestyle machines, ICEE frozen beverages, and a new “state-of-the-art” box office will also be added during the renovation.

“Our XPlus premium large format auditorium is one of the most technologically advanced, incredibly comfortable and larger than life ways to see a movie, so it’s fitting that Showcase Cinema de Lux Warwick on Quaker Lane is introducing XPlus with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home,” said Mark Malinowski, Vice President of Global Marketing for Showcase Cinemas, in a statement. “With XPlus you get everything a modern moviegoer could want – crystal-clear laser projection, Dolby Atmos immersive sound, power recliners with personal trays and a massive screen!”

This fall, Showcase Cinema de Lux Warwick on Quaker Lane is also partnering with the Warwick Public Library to host a free “Showcase Together” storytime program at 11 a.m. on the last Tuesday of the month (October 26, November 30, and December 28). During these storytimes, a librarian will read two stories that will be simultaneously projected on the theater screen.

The theater will remain open during this fall’s coming renovation while offering customers new $6 Bargain Tuesdays, Senior Wednesdays, and Student Thursdays. Corporate events and Open Caption screenings are also available. The theater currently features a newly installed air purifying system in all auditoriums.

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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.

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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 $213.5M domestic total.

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The Addams Family 2

Friday, October 1

Premise: The iconic characters from the 1930s comics, 1960s television show, and 1990s live-action movies return for this second animated installment from United Artists Releasing. In this one, the family — including Wednesday, Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Fester, and Cousin Itt — take a road trip around America. Read our interview with co-director Conrad Vernon about the movie here.

Box office comparisons: 2019’s original animated The Addams Family opened to $30.3M and earned $97.8M domestic. In terms of second installments based on these characters, 1993’s second live-action installment Addams Family Values opened to $14.1M ($31.2M adjusted for ticket price inflation) and earned $46.2M domestic ($102.4M adjusted).,

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The Many Saints of Newark

Friday, October 1

Premise: Tony Soprano, protagonist of the eight-season 1990s/2000s HBO drama The Sopranos, gets a feature film origin story taking place in 1960s-70s New Jersey in this Warner Bros. crime drama. The future mob boss is portrayed as a teenager by Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini, who played the adult character in the television series. Read our interview with the film’s director Alan Taylor here.

Box office comparisons: Other comparable 2010s gangster/mobster movies include The Town ($23.8M opening / $92.1M total), Black Mass ($22.6M opening / $62.5M total), and Gangster Squad ($17.0M opening / $46.0M total). 

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No Time to Die

Friday, October 8

Premise: James Bond returns in what Daniel Craig promises will be his fifth and final appearance as the British secret agent character, for United Artists’ and MGM’s action-adventure sequel. This installment finds 007 enjoying his Caribbean retirement when he’s inadvertently swept up into one last espionage mission, involving people he thought he’d left behind years ago.

Box office comparisons: The most recent James Bond installment, 2015’s Spectre, opened to $70.4M and earned $200.0M domestic. Prior installment Skyfall set the bar as the highest-grossing Bond film ever, at least in terms of pure dollars, with with an $88.3M opening and $304.3M total. (Although such 1960s installments as Goldfinger and Thunderball beat Skyfall when adjusting for ticket price inflation.)

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Halloween Kills

Friday, October 15

Premise: A full 43 years after 1978’s original horror classic Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis is still back as Laurie Strode, the woman trying to fend off the masked serial killer Michael Myers, still played by Nick Castle. This 12th installment in the franchise is a sequel to 2018’s movie, also called Halloween. A sequel to this movie has already been announced for October 2022, titled Halloween Ends.  

Box office comparisons: 2018’s Halloween beat nearly all expectations with a $76.2M opening weekend and $159.3M total, coming out that same mid-October frame as Halloween Kills.

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The Last Duel

Friday, October 15

Premise: Matt Damon and Adam Driver star in the true story of two friends in medieval France who duel to the death, after one man’s wife (played by Jodie Comer) accuses the other man of raping her, in this 20th Century Studios historical drama. Ridley Scott — already nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Director for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down — directs.

Box office comparisons: Other 2010s action dramas set in medieval times include King Arthur: Legend of the Sword ($15.3M opening / $39.1M total) and Assassin’s Creed ($10.2M opening / $54.6M total).

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Dune

Friday, October 22

Premise: Timothée Chalamet stars in this Warner Bros. adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 intergalactic sci-fi novel. The ensemble cast also includes Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Oscar Isaac, and Javier Bardem. It’s the first of an intended two parts, though a release date for a supposed second installment has not yet been officially announced.

Box office comparisons: Two recent “cerebral sci-fi” films also directed by Denis Villeneuve include Arrival ($24.0M opening / $100.5M total) and Blade Runner 2049 ($32.7M opening / $92.0M total). 1984’s original Dune earned $27.4M total, or $74.8M adjusted for ticket price inflation.

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Ron’s Gone Wrong

Friday, October 22

Premise: In a futuristic world where every child has their own talking and moving digital assistant called a “B-bot,” one middle school boy’s version named Ron is comically defective. Zach Galifianakis voices the title character in this animated family comedy from Disney and 20th Century Studios. 

Box office comparisons: This year’s other animated family films include The Boss Baby: Family Business ($16.0M opening / $57.2M to date as it nears the end of its theatrical run), Raya and the Last Dragon ($54.7M total), and Tom & Jerry ($46.0M total).

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Last Night in Soho

Friday, October 29

Premise: A woman transports back to mid-Sixties London but something is amiss, in this psychological thriller from Focus Features starring Anya Taylor-Joy and directed by Edgar Wright.

Box office comparisons: The trailer is so weird that there truly may be no comparisons here, but several of Wright’s other films have earned roughly similar amounts: The World’s End with $26.0M, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with $32.8M, and Hot Fuzz with $23.6M.

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A Mouthful of Air

Friday, October 29

Premise: Fresh off her Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination this past year for Mank, Amanda Seyfried stars in Sony Pictures’ drama about a new mother who attempts to overcome her severe postpartum depression, based on the novel by Amy Koppelman.

Box office comparisons: Other movies about new parenthood include 2012’s What to Expect When You’re Expecting ($10.5M opening / $41.1M total) and 2008’s Baby Mama ($17.4M opening / $60.4M total), though Air is likely expected to earn less than both of those. Other 2010s adult dramas about women with mental illness include Still Alice ($18.6M total) and Blue Jasmine ($33.4M total).

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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 give is one of thanks. Thank our governments that have provided funding for cinemas to allow them to retain staff and  get to the other side of this period; to colleagues in the industry for being there; exhibitors for showing strength and  support for each other; and to our colleagues in distribution who showed faith in the industry at a time when others didn’t. More than that, it will be a message of confidence that the recovery is underway. It’s not going to be a straight line, there will be some setbacks along the way, and [the recovery] may differ from territory to territory, but the direction of travel is now clear. We see a clear sign that audiences want to come back to the cinema, that they find cinemas comfortable and safe places to be. 

What does the success of Dune’s release in Europe, ahead of its debut on HBO Max in the United States, tell us about the importance of theatrical exclusivity and the ripple effects of decisions made in the U.S. in relation to the rest of the world?

Laura Houlgatte-Abbott: I don’t like to draw conclusions, but I’m going to draw a conclusion on this one: theatrical exclusivity is there to serve not only cinemas, but the industry as a whole, and to the benefit of audiences. The impact of decisions made in the US affect us in Europe. We saw that last year, when we reopened during the summer, a majority of our members were ready and welcoming audiences but we were missing the content. We knew we were paying the price for the pandemic situation in the US. We all know how interlinked this industry is, it’s a global industry, and it was really obvious last year, when we had to go through three or four months with very little content. 

Looking at CineEurope, what does it mean to European exhibitors to be hosting this event at this juncture of the recovery?

Laura Houlgatte: It means a lot. We are ready to meet in person, it is the first time a lot of us will be able to see each other in flesh and bone. It makes a massive difference in our business, not only to be able to talk and have our panels but also to have those informal conversations that can really help our industry thrive. I saw that at Cannes in July and at the French exhibitors’ convention in Deauville; the dynamic is very different. We have the studios coming to present their slates to the whole exhibition communit. I think there’s no better sign to communicate that this is the full start of the recovery, that we have confidence about our future.

Phil Clapp: We’ve put on a whole range of events and we always attempt to make them as engaging and valuable as possible to the people participating. I don’t think any of us are under any illusions that the real value comes from those human interactions that Laura talked about. I’m not suggesting the cinema industry is unique in that regardm but there’s a particular aspect of the cinema industry that thrives on people sharing experiences, sharing woes, and sharing triumphs. And while Boxoffice Pro and others have done brilliant work in keeping everyone connected, it’s still not the same as it is in person. We recognize, and certainly our colleagues at NATO running CinemaCon recognize, that we will face challenges because of travel and financial restrictions that will affect our numbers this year. We absolutely understand that some people who would love to be there in Barcelona this year won’t be able to be so, but we’d like to remind them there is another CineEurope coming in June. We’ll be planning CineEurope 2022 as soon as our feet hit the ground on our way back from this year’s event. So if we can’t see you in Barcelona this year, we hope to do so at CineEurope 2022.

For those folks that can’t make it to the event. Could you share some interesting case studies and initiatives that you’ve seen from your members?

Laura Houlgatte-Abbott: We compiled various audience initiatives, for example, that you can find our website. CineEurope is an occasion for us to showcase what our members have been doing. We’ll be talking about local content in a roundtable looking at the future of the industry. We’re also going to talk about what the audience expect now, share some new best practices and inititatives ranging from home delivery of popcorn to partnering with online platforms like Mubi, and private cinema screenings.

Phil Clapp: The vast majority of venues that UNIC represents are not multifunction companies, they’re cinemas, and if the tap is turned off for people coming to watch films, they can’t rely on other revenue streams. That’s why we’ve seen this level of innovation across a variety of territories, driven by a recognition of the need to keep your existing audience engaged. Just one example is the Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast, a small local venue that launched its own online streaming platform to great success. What we’ve seen over the last 18 months is a huge amount of innovation. Our colleagues at the UNIC office  spend most of their time trying to dispel the notion within the European Commission that cinema is somehow aan unimaginative, backward looking sector lacking in innovation. We have demonstrated over the last 18 months that nothing could be further from the truth.

What do you think the role of local content will be as we emerge from the pandemic, considering the current instability of the slate from major studios?

Laura Houlgatte-Abbott: Before the pandemic,  countries that had the best box office and admissions were those that had a very strong local slate. I think that will be even truer post-pandemic. It’s really striking when you look at the figures in markets like Denmark and the Netherlands. It’s not only about the film’s from your own country, but also also about diversifying your content overall. We need blockbusters, no one denies that, we absolutely need them to attract certain demographics. But you also need the whole variety of content you can have in a cinema, and that includes European films, Asian films, and films from all other countries in the world. The more diversified you are, the better you can address the needs of your audience. I think that’s going to be essential for cinemas’ recovery.

Phil Clapp: There is a particular UK angle on this because, as you know, we have benefited to a large degree from the fact that we share a language with the Hollywood studios. That has made it much more difficult for audiences to differentiate between what is a British film and what is a US film. There’s a live conversation going on in the UK at the moment, where the experience of last summer when studios decided to move films out of that window made it really challenging to find film content that audiences wanted to see. To a degree, we look jealously at a number of European territories who will be recognized at CineEurope for for their efforts, who were able to rely on a strong stable of domestic films. I think coming out of this, in the UK at least, that will be a discussion without detracting from the importance of the major US studios and their titles. Those titles get produced because they drive a mass audience, but we still need to arrive at a more diverse film mix and encourage audiences to see a more diverse range of films rather than just the ones that have the loudest voice in the market.

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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.”

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Harkness Named Official CineEurope 2021 Screen Partner

PRESS RELEASE

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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 delighted to continue our long association with the biggest and best movie convention in Europe providing our Clarus XC technology to such an incredible venue,” explains Richard Mitchell, VP Global Marketing & Commercial Development at Harkness Screens.   “Each year the Film Expos Group along with the team at Kelonik transform the auditorium within the CCIB into a state-of-the-art cinema for presentations, slate reels and special screenings showcasing the best cinematic content to our industry.  At such a pivotal moment in the recovery for cinema, we’re honoured to see our technology once again performing such an important part in this first-class venue and we’re delighted to support colleagues in distribution to showcase what promises to be an amazing array of content throughout the remainder of 2021, 2022 and beyond,” he adds.

At its core, Clarus XC technology features 4th generation d-smooth coating technology which has specific properties more commonly seen in white screens.  This technology enables Clarus XC screens to benefit from significantly wide viewing angles, improved colour and contrast and better light distribution compared to traditional 3D silver screens. 

For further information on Clarus XC screens, visit www.harkness-screens.com/clarus-xc

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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, however, were able to attend with their usual presence—overcoming logistical hurdles in order to meet with colleagues in person.

“[Covid-19] is not going to go away completely,” says Cinionic CEO Wim Buyens, whose own presence at the event came down to the last minute due to the strict travel restrictions in place for European executives. “We have to learn to live with it as we resume our business and activities. Being at a show like this allows us to meet in person with our customers, make plans again, discuss opportunities, and see how we can get people back into theaters. Yes, we’ve been doing a lot of this on [videoconferences], which has been great, but it is different when you are face to face.” 

These meetings come at a critical juncture for the cinema industry. The cinema recovery effort is currently stalled in the lingering final phase of the pandemic: while vaccines are readily available in most of the world’s top box office markets, the emergence of new variants has eroded part of the momentum from the spring and summer months. In the weeks leading up to and following CinemaCon, several major studios announced a new batch of release delays—renewing concerns from exhibitors about the prospect of another barren winter slate.

A string of box office hits in August and September, however, helped assuage those fears. Titles like 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy and Candyman set the stage for the dramatic, record-setting debut of Disney’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The film outperformed all expectations to claim a $75 million three-day debut, the second-highest opening weekend of the pandemic, and becoming the highest-earning Labor Day weekend release of all-time with $90 million. 

Within days of the performance, Sony announced it would be moving its super-hero sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage up by two weeks. Disney in turn granted the remainder of its 2021 slate theatrical exclusivity. 

Exhibition is now counting on a consistent stream of high-profile titles through the rest of the year. With that piece in place, cinema technology providers believe the industry is positioned for a renaissance driven by their latest innovations.

Several of the tech providers at CinemaCon cited the last turning point for exhibition—the transition to digital cinema that came on the heels of a wave of circuit bankruptcies and consolidation—as an example of how technology can spur an industry-wide recovery. The process to implement new technology standards may be slow, but innovation will ultimately help distinguish the moviegoing experience from the home—especially when the same content is available at both places simultaneously.

“It took six and a half years to transition to digital—there was no reason not to do it, it had all these advantages—and yet, it took six and a half years to get somebody to move on it,” remembers Jack Kline, the CEO of Cinity. Kline helmed Christie, one of the major manufacturers of digital projectors, during that period. 

During those years, Kline was tasked with evangelizing the concept, abandoning proven analog systems in favor of a nascent technology. It didn’t help that this transition represented a considerable investment, with the obvious benefits of transitioning to digital being a mid-to-long-term proposition. “We’ve come a long way since, moving from digital projection to laser and doing amazing things with audio,” says Kline.

While companies like Christie still offer xenon-based digital projectors, other major players like Cinionic exclusively offer laser projectors. “The technology has advanced so much, we’re already on our third generation of laser,” says Buyens. “We have a whole lineup—2K, 4K projectors, up to 55,000 lumens—which means laser is now mainstream. People do not consider lamps anymore if they are updating or building a new location. There are exceptions, but I would say 80 to 90 percent of the customers we talk to are not considering lamps for those projects.”

Buyens cites two principal reasons why laser is the new norm for digital cinema: a superior viewing experience and lower total cost of ownership over the lifetime of a projector. Cinionic’s Laser Upgrade program converts existing xenon-based Series 2 projectors to laser alternatives; the company announced earlier this year it was converting 300 sites across India and South Asia to laser under this initiative. 

More recently, theater renovations like that at CMX Cinemas’ Dolphin 19 location in Miami, Florida have similarly transitioned to laser through Cinionic. Its “Laser Now” program provides financing assistance to those cinemas looking to make the transition while still dealing with the financial pitfalls of the pandemic. 

In August, Cinionic went one step further in promoting laser projection—announcing a consumer-facing marketing campaign alongside Cinemark to educate moviegoers on the benefits of laser.

Investment in new technology may seem counterintuitive for an industry in the midst of a financial crisis. With a reduced exclusivity window, however, cinemas are turning to tech upgrades to distinguish themselves from the same content being available at home. 

“As the business recovers and investments begin to happen, we’re seeing Premium Large Format (PLF) becoming one of the first things that exhibitors turn to,” says Christie CEO Brian Claypool. According to the executive, most Christie projects that were disrupted by the pandemic have resumed, as theaters look to leverage new technology for the release of titles like No Time to Die in October. 

Cinonic has found traction in the PLF space with Cinionic Giant Screen (CGS), attracting exhibitors abroad—in markets like India and Saudi Arabia—and domestically.

Image Provided by Cinionic

“We wanted to target the total solution at an affordable price, because we know there are strong brands out there—which is great—but we felt there was a need in the market for an offering that has the chance to [complement] what exhibitors currently have,” says Buyens. “For example, we have exhibitors who want to elevate their own PLF brands by bringing a ‘Powered by Cinionic’ giant screen.”

Buyens describes Cinionic’s PLF strategy as an outcome-based model. “You buy the performance of the system. And that’s slightly different than when people buy a projector or a screen, which ages over time. Here, you buy an outcome. By making [it] affordable and having CGS power your existing PLF brand, exhibitors can take control of the full package.”

Circuits looking to complement branded PLF screens from providers like Imax and RealD have begun turning to bespoke packages from tech companies to boost premium auditoriums under their own brand. 

In Cinity’s case, their principal distinguishing factor is the ability to accommodate High Frame Rate (HFR) projection. While HFR has yet to achieve the ubiquity of 3D, immersive seating, or Imax, Cinity’s Jack Kline remains confident it will eventually catch on with the public once filmmakers begin implementing it in their films with more frequency. 

Cinity auditoriums have begun sprouting up in China. In the United States there is currently only one system installed, at the Harmony Gold private screening room in Los Angeles, where filmmakers can screen and workshop their content with the new technology.

As with any emerging technology, the concept is still being introduced to potential stakeholders before the launch of a consumer-driven awareness campaign. 

“We have to educate the studios, filmmakers, and ultimately exhibitors on what it is—but everything starts at the beginning of the food chain, making the movie,” says Kline. 

“24 frames per second is over 100 years old,” explains Kline. “We went from film to digital, took audio to immersive sound, improved the contrast ratio, the color gamut with laser—but we’re still making movies at 24 frames per second.”

Jack Kline speaking at a recent event. Image provided by Cinity

Cinity has the advantage of having two major filmmakers evangelizing the HFR format. Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Gemini Man were both shot in HFR, the latter going up to 120 frames per second. Kline notes that James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar sequels will be shot at 48 frames per second. “People called digital 3D a gimmick until Avatar came out. They saw what the technology could do once you married it with cinematic storytelling, and that was what launched 3D globally.”

“I’m facing the same challenge I had when we were moving from film to digital,” adds Kline. “People said, ‘Oh, that’ll never work. It looks like TV.’ Nobody says that anymore.”

While the transition to digital cinema represented a revolution for the industry on every level, the current drive to premiumization is part of a trend that Moving Image Technologies’ Joe Delgado calls the “amenity-based model,” which was already on the rise before the pandemic. “You started seeing exhibitors of all sizes—small, medium, large, multinational—going to an amenity-based business model: the recliners, the elevated food and beverage menus, the premium technology,” he says. “These amenities were the catalyst to seeing per cap creeping up across the country. And in this industry, we live and die on two metrics: box office and per capita spending.”

Delgado’s company, Moving Image Technologies, was founded in 2003—right as the industry recovered from a string of bankruptcies and the consolidation that followed. Despite the uncertain outlook of the time, MIT was uniquely positioned just as the global cinema industry began its transition to digital, playing a crucial role in the process and minting its reputation as one of the industry’s top technology players. Delgado is celebrating another milestone for MIT in an uncertain time: the company went public during the pandemic, in July 2021, an important next step for its future. 

“Exhibitors recognize that going to the movies is an out of home experience that requires more amenities to get you to expand your out of home dollars. We were very fortunate in that we were right there when Alamo Drafthouse started to grow and the dine-in cinema business model took off. I think that’s the future: better amenities and better customer service. We were well on our way in that direction before Covid-19 got in the way.” 

One of those new amenities that found some traction before the pandemic was the introduction of DCI-certified directview LED screens designed and optimized for cinemas. Moving Image Technologies is the only company in the United States that has done directview LED cinema screen installs, having outfitted the Samsung Onyx screen at Pacific Theatres’ Winnetka, California location and Star Cinema Grill’s Houston, Texas site. MIT is also working closely with the other tech manufacturers currently offering DCI-certified directview LED screens. 

“It’s breathtaking when you see it in person,” Delgado says about the technology. “Like 3D, but without the glasses. The image is so crisp and sharp, even with the house lights on, that it allows you to optimize the auditorium for other uses, like private rentals for company presentations or gaming tournaments.”

“Covid definitely took the wind out of that sail,” he says about LED’s adoption by major cinema chains around the world. “But as the price of the technology goes down, I think it has a chance to have an ubiquitous roll-out and, eventually, in the next three to five years, become more of a reality. We’re at the forefront of that move and excited about its future.”

While the pandemic has slowed the adoption of high-end technology like directview LED screens, it has also opened the door to other innovations. Christie began developing a disinfecting UV light solution with Ushio back in 2013, exploring the feasibility of ultraviolet light that could eliminate pathogens inside an auditorium at a frequency that would not affect patrons or the moviegoing experience. The two companies developed a patent for it and signed a licensing agreement before the pandemic took hold. When it did, the companies worked together to bring the product to market. 

“There are other products that can be used for lower ceiling applications, like offices, but there is no other device specifically designed for auditorium ceilings of 28 or 22 feet,” says Christie’s Claypool. “The problem with other devices is that the higher up they’re installed, the less effective they are. We made a device that’s specifically targeted for rooms with high ceilings like cinemas.”

Claypool notes the UV fixtures usually aren’t operated during a movie—the screen could see shades of light depending on their installation, and the fan noise could affect certain scenes of a film—but that’s ultimately up to the exhibitor. The UV solution can be automated to run on a schedule between screenings, decreasing the sanitation time before the next showtime starts. 

Cinionic’s Buyens expects challenges from the pandemic to linger into 2022 but remains optimistic about an eventual recovery. “I think it is still going to be a difficult year. We’ll still have constraints on the financial health of our customer base, exhibitors,” he says. “I believe most cinemas will be open in 2022. I believe the content pipeline will keep content flowing to cinemas; the slate looks very strong for the second half of this year. Those are the fundamental pieces for the recovery: making sure cinemas are open with fresh content.”

MIT’s Joe Delgado echoes that assessment, confident the industry can bounce back by focusing their efforts on the moviegoing experience. “70 percent of the folks that I started with in the late 1980s are still here because they stuck to a simple formula: offer your customers the best possible presentation,” he says. “If you go back years ago, the cinema industry used to take a beating in the media—it was always the same, the sticky floor, the expensive popcorn. We have evolved so far from all that.”

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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 previously directed or co-directed Shrek 2, Monsters vs. Aliens, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, and R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party. He spoke to Boxoffice Pro about the challenges of recording a voice cast from home, especially when you have noisy neighbors, why the film’s title changed during production, and how Snoop Dogg wrote an original song for the film.

Where were you in the production process on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, “the day everything changed”?

We were still in storyboards. We hadn’t started animation or effects or anything like that. This was a very shortened schedule that we were on. We went from script to screen in two years.

What were the biggest challenges with making this movie during the pandemic?

Making it at home was a challenge, for sure. But once everyone was at home, they had their setups, their rigs at their houses—it went pretty smoothly. The biggest challenge was really just getting this done in time and making it as good as we could.

Many of us had to work from home during the pandemic, but it’s hard to picture making a movie from home!

The whole cast did have to do it from home. Oscar [Isaac, who voices Gomez] did go into a studio, but he was dropped off at the back door, let in with a mask, and then left completely alone. Everybody else did it from their houses. We had to mail them a microphone and a computer with the [audio-recording] program. Then they had to have people come in, with masks and everything, to set up the microphone and the baffles [which provide better acoustic balance].

I think Bette [Midler, who voices Grandmama] did it all by herself. There was like a good hour before we recorded where the tech team was on Zoom with her saying, “You’re going to hit this button, then you’re going to take this and put it over here …” She kept saying, “Isn’t technology amazing?” She couldn’t believe it.

When you’re dealing with recording people at home, there’s cars going by, there’s gardeners with their leaf blowers. There’s all this stuff that we had to stop and wait for. Chloë [Grace Moretz, who voices Wednesday] actually had to go out once and ask the gardeners across the street at her neighbors’ house to stop blowing for half an hour.

Can you get her to come over and ask my neighbor, who’s always using his chainsaw, to knock it off?

[Laughs.] I’ll see what I can do.

Credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In this installment, the family goes on a road trip to visit iconic sites around America. How did you decide which sites they would visit, and whose idea was it for Pugsley to blow up the Grand Canyon?

The idea for blowing up the Grand Canyon came from the writers, though I don’t know exactly who. I think that was always in the script.

We had other destinations planned for the movie. They went to Vegas at one time, they went to Seattle at one point, they took a wrong turn and wound up in Alaska. But that was a one-line gag, so we said, “Let’s not build Alaska [in the computer animation] just for one line!” So we did take out certain locations.

We were mainly thinking, where do people typically go when they’re taking a family road trip, but then where would the Addamses go? Death Valley is the happiest place on earth to them! They went to Sleepy Hollow [a village in New York state that some believe to be haunted], where they camped out. They go to San Antonio to visit the Alamo. So it was a mixture of typical family vacation places like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon and Addams Family types of destinations.

Addams Family Values, the second installment for the live-action movie series, came out in 1993. When thinking about how to approach the concept of an Addams Family second installment movie, did you look to that film in any way?

We try to stay away from those. Not because we don’t like them—we love them, they’re really great—but we want to make sure these stand on their own. You don’t want people saying, “Yeah, they just animated the live-action movies.”

During production, the studio held The Addams Family Voice Challenge, in which anybody online could submit a recording of their best “spooky voice,” and one winner would be selected to record a voiceover in the actual film. How did that work out?

Our marketing team did that. They came up with the concept and picked the winner, who went into a studio somewhere and recorded some lines. What’s funny is we cut out the scene that the winner was going to be in, so we had to have them back to re-record and put them in another part of the movie. It was just a bit part, a crowd member at a Cousin Itt concert [voiced by Snoop Dogg]. 

Speaking of Snoop Dogg, I don’t know which two songs I was expecting to play in the trailer, but they definitely weren’t Ridin’ by Chamillionaire and What’s My Name? by Snoop Dogg. How did you approach the music for this film?

We listened to a ton of different Snoop songs for the Jet Ski scene. Not a bad way to get paid! [Laughs.] Rock Mafia wrote songs for the first movie [including My Family by Snoop Dogg featuring Migos and Karol G] and they also wrote songs for this movie. They make the movie’s style unique. It’s all its own, because of them. Snoop wrote another song for this one as well.

As far as the score, we have Mychael and Jeff Danna returning. For both movies, we wanted a kind of gypsy feel to the score, which felt very singular to the Addamses.

Credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What was the hardest thing to animate?

The end of the movie. I don’t want to give it away, but it’s pretty spectacular. We spent a lot of time animating each one of those shots, because there was so much going on. There were other challenges, things that you wouldn’t think would be challenging. The beach, having the sand crunch under their feet. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard, but you need to make footprints. Then when Morticia is dragged through the sand, her dress drags through it, which makes the sand move differently.

Most other animated sequels from the past year had a subtitle—The Boss Baby: Family Business, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, The Croods: A New Age. That really seems to be the trend with animated sequel titles. Why did you choose not to?

We wanted to! We had The Addams Family, a colon, and then there was some play on words. I can’t remember exactly, but it was something related to the phrase “road trip,” but then we had the word “death” in there somehow. But everyone just rolled their eyes whenever we said it. So we all just decided to call it The Addams Family 2 and leave it at that. One of our first teasers has Wednesday breaking the fourth wall and saying “A sequel. How original.” So we leaned into that.

Why should audiences see this on the big screen?

Going to the movies is a communal experience. The movie is more fun, it’s funnier, it’s more exciting when you’re watching it on a big screen, surrounded by people. And when you go to a theater to see it on the big screen, you see things that you don’t notice on a smaller screen. You also have this feeling of an entire audience laughing or screaming or cheering. We human beings crave that. To be able to sit in a movie theater with a hundred or so people and hear an audience around you, it’s very contagious. Perhaps that’s not the word I should use during these times. Strike that! [Laughs.]

But that excitement, that thrill, it uplifts people. It makes them feel that they’re part of something bigger. You don’t pause and go to the kitchen to do the dishes in the middle of it. You don’t say, “Oh shoot, I’ve got this email to write for work.” For two hours, you turn the rest of your life off and you’re taken on a ride.

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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 and fun space for little children who may frighten easily, or those that might have other sensitivity to normal theater film presentations,” says Showbiz Cinemas Vice President Marketing & Content Jeremy Devine. “The house lights are kept a bit higher for a good blend of visibility and presentation. The sound is turned down a bit,  so as not to be jarring or frightening. All films are first run theatrical engagements.”

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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 much looking forward to work with the competent Cine Project team and to the new challenge,” Büker said in a press release. “Our customers can look forward to innovations meeting the changes in the market and the needs of their visitors.”

“The cinema and film industries are in a state of flux and was just hit hard by the [COVID-19] crisis. I am glad [to hire] Nils Büker, an expert with many years of experience as well as an excellent technical and business education, for Cine Project,” CEO Franz Kober added. “With him, the Cine Project Group will be even better able to meet the demands of our customers and our expansion into new markets and regions will be realized even faster.”

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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, the IMAX at Traumpalast will become an exciting flagship location at a critical time for fans seeking premium, differentiated experiences.”

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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 a few hours, and be immersed in the sights and sounds, and of course popcorn, only found in the theatre,” Cineplex’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Sara Moore said in a press release. “Our new campaign celebrates and revels in those moments – moments that remind us of our shared experiences and of our humanity.”

Watch the video below.

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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 10 years. He served as executive director of UBS Investment Bank’s Global Media Group where he managed, advised and structured various financings and merger and acquisition transactions. Ng’s other previous experience includes working at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Houlihan Lokey, Inc. and Arthur Andersen LLP.

“Ronnie is an accomplished financial executive with nearly 20 years of experience around complex financial situations. His deep financial expertise and experience in media and entertainment will be a critical asset for NCM,” NCM CEO Tom Lesinski said in a press release. “We are excited to welcome Ronnie to the leadership team and his background will be instrumental as the movie industry continues to recover and to advance our strategic initiatives.”

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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). The impressive cast also features Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Ray Liotta, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen, and Vera Farmiga as Tony’s emotionally withholding mother, Livia.

Also returning to the “Sopranos” family is the prequel’s director, Alan Taylor, who helmed nine episodes and won an Emmy for directing the season-six episode “Kennedy and Heidi.” Taylor’s feature credits include Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys, and his many TV gigs include “Game of Thrones,” “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “Oz,” “Sex and the City,” “Deadwood,” “Lost,” and “Mad Men,” the latter earning him a Directors Guild Award.

“Like the series, it’s not just a gangster movie,” Taylor says of The Many Saints. “It’s got that ‘Sopranos’ combination of tones of humor and absurdity and strangeness, and the occasional dreamy moments that David Chase put in the series.” The Warner Bros. release arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on October 1.

How long has this project been in the works, and at what point did you get involved?

It’s been in the works a long time, mostly because of Covid. I didn’t hear about it until it was ready to go. David sent me the script in 2019, and that was the first I’d heard there was even a project in the works. I read it, we met for lunch, and he told me he wanted me to do it. Then he and Larry and I developed the script for several months, and we had a normal prep period and started shooting. And then we were shut down by Covid and had to scramble. Our production manager was smart enough to pull the shoot back together as quickly as we could when Covid backed off a little bit. As he predicted, we had an opening where we could shoot, and then things started to close down again. We managed to finish shooting the movie in that window. We completed the movie early this year, and again because of Covid the release date was shifted by Warner Bros. So, it’s been long in gestation. In some ways, that was kind of a good thing … because it gave us a chance to reflect on the movie we were making. David actually added a couple of scenes that I think ultimately helped shape the movie.

I’m amazed you were able to get this done during the pandemic. That must have been so challenging,

An industry cropped up to handle it. A good friend of mine wound up overseeing the Covid protocols, and that’s become an industry unto itself. A lot of productions managed to do it. But it’s crazy. Everybody has to be in a separate bubble, and you have to be tested three times a week. And the risk of having to shut the whole production down because one person tests positive is looming the whole time. We had to take scenes that we intended to shoot as interiors and move them to exteriors. But some of the changes we were forced to do wound up making it better.

It’s been 14 years since the series ended. How did it feel coming back into that world?

Even when I read the script that David gave me, it felt really good, because there’s such a specific voice to that show and such a specific take on the big questions. Bringing Michael into it was a big part of the return to the show because of his connection to his dad. But there wasn’t that much overlap with the show in the actual shooting, except when we built Satriale’s, the pork store. When people walked onto that set, you could see it affecting them. For me and the crew and some of the friends coming to visit, it was a powerful moment, because you felt like when you walked onto the stage 14 years ago.

How much of a gamble was it to give Michael Gandolfini this big responsibility?

I think in the end it was not a gamble at all, but yeah, up front it seems like it could have been one. We were looking at other young actors to play that part while we were still ruminating on the possibility of it being Michael. There were a lot of questions. One was whether Michael wanted to, whether he would be emotionally up to taking on something that would be so personal for him. Then once we decided we wanted to try it, he had to come in and audition for me and David and show that he could handle it. Because it wouldn’t be good for anybody if he wasn’t quite up to it, But the audition was really, really good. We also just felt the rightness of it in the room, being around him. Right before we even started shooting, we had a final dinner with the cast, and Michael stood up at one point and said he wanted to thank everybody for giving him this chance to say hello to his dad again, and to say goodbye again. And there was not a dry eye in the house. At that point we hadn’t even started shooting, but it became so clear that we were doing the right thing. So when we went into the movie, it didn’t feel like a gamble anymore—none of us wanted to make a movie that didn’t have him in it by that point. I don’t know about other directors, but I second-guess everything and live in the constant agony of anxiety and regret. But occasionally there are decisions that just feel right. And getting Michael into the movie was one of those.

Did you have to work with him much to evoke Tony Soprano, or did that come naturally to him?

I think some of it came naturally, for obvious reasons, but he did work on it. He immersed himself in the show, which apparently he had never watched before. So you can imagine how strange and emotional that would have been to hole up in his apartment and watch season after season of his dad. But he did it rigorously, to get the gestures and the mannerisms and the voice down. There was a real range of tones for the character, because this is Tony before he darkened and hardened up. So we’re seeing a particular flavor of the character in the movie, partly because Michael has a different disposition than Tony. Allowing him to bring that side of his personality into the performance was really important.

I’m sure you’re proud to be part of what’s considered one of the greatest TV series of all time. How are you dealing with people’s expectations about the movie?

Mostly lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, with self-doubt and anxiety—that’s normal. In some ways it was the hardest job I ever did, partly for that reason. I felt such respect and pride for the original, and the idea of stirring it up again was daunting. Wanting to make sure that we were true to the show, but also make it cinematic. And not wanting to disappoint the fans, but not wanting to disappoint David Chase himself, which was a horrific prospect. I think I took it on partly because the challenge was so enticing: How do you take this and put this on a big screen? One of the great insights of “The Sopranos” the show was to take the classic gangster movie and put it on the small screen and make it contemporary. When you take that and make it period and put it on the big screen, you’re taking away some of the things that defined the show. So you think about what the essence of “The Sopranos” is and how you translate that to a bigger screen in a way that’s in a continuum with the show. How the camera moves or doesn’t move, what lenses we use, the tone of the humor—those are things I certainly wrestled with. How to bring the aesthetic of the show to the big screen.

Aside from “The Sopranos,” you have an amazing list of TV credits. Does it still feel very special to you to make a feature for movie theaters?

Yes, for all kinds of reasons. I think all directors feel like the distinction between what’s considered TV and what’s considered a movie is getting vaguer and vaguer, and the border between them is getting softer and softer. From the golden age of TV onwards and with things as big-budget as “Game of Thrones,” TV was certainly getting more and more cinematic. And at the same time, a lot of the movies people go to see are basically episodic—you know, Spider-Man 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, sort of episodes in the grand continuum. So it’s harder and harder to say what the difference is between movies and TV, but I do still carry some of that snobbery. I went to NYU, and we all want to be filmmakers, not TV makers, so I have some residual visual snobbery from that. But the scale of the image that you’re seeing in the theater, and also sharing it as an audience, is a big difference. I think there’s still something different and exciting about creating something that’s more meant to be a social experience than seen on your laptop. Many Saints in a way was really personal for me, because it was a chance to fuse my TV experience and my movie experience, which I’ve never been able to do before.

Vera Farmiga really captures the tone of Nancy Marchand’s Livia Soprano. Casting the younger versions of the TV series’ characters must have been one of the fun parts of the process.

It was fun partly because there’s so much respect for the “Sopranos” property and so much respect for David that we had access to wonderful actors who wanted to do it. So getting Vera as Livia, getting Corey Stoll to be Junior, getting Jon Bernthal to be Johnny Boy—we could really reach for who we wanted, and people trust the world enough that they were ready to come on board. They’re also so good at what they do that they were all striking the right balance between their performance of the character and the performance of the previous actor.

Alessandro Nivola is such a solid actor. I always thought he should be a bigger star than he is.

I was very aware of him, and his work is always great. But he’s never had that breakout role. David and I both fell in love with him for this. And then he did an audition on his own on tape and just nailed it. It was clear that he was the right guy. I do hope this becomes a breakout for him, because it really is his story and his character goes through absolutely everything. … Dickie is a “Sopranos” leading man in many ways, because he’s torn in the same way that Tony is. He knows he’s got a monster in him and he’s trying to wrestle with that.

Was it a deliberate goal of David Chase to explore the racial tensions in Newark at the time, considering what we’ve been through in the past two years?

It’s interesting how that’s played out. I don’t think David would say he was interested in exploring the racial tensions. I think he was interested in trying to capture that time that he experienced and all its volatility. The funny thing is, we wrote this and started shooting before the explosion of George Floyd, before the explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement. So when we paused midway because of Covid and then got back into finishing it, it was a little daunting to think: Is the movie we made before all this going to speak to the world that we’re in now? I’m relieved and grateful that it actually does seem to transfer well. In fact, there were some people who saw the movie who couldn’t believe we’d come up with it before all this happened, because it seems to speak to our current moment. I was waiting to see what key people thought, like Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Harold—he saw the film and was happy with it. So that was sort of, OK, I think we got this right. But it does seem to be supercharged in terms of concerns that have become very foregrounded recently. It’s challenging stuff. Like all of David’s stuff, it’s about America as much as anything else. It was risky to take that stuff on, but I think it’s done in a way that holds up.

Here you are making a period crime film. Were there role models in your head as you were doing it?

I tried to have the [TV] show be a big compass on how to do things. You can’t get into this territory without Scorsese dominating your peripheral vision, because it’s American gangsters in New Jersey and New York, early ’70s. What I ended up doing was focusing on the things that made us different from everything else. There are things in David’s voice that only take place in the “Sopranos” world, that set it apart from other gangster movies or other filmmakers who go into this world. And part of it is there’s a slight surrealism at times in “The Sopranos,” a dreaminess. In the show we’d frequently drift into dreams, and you didn’t really know you were in one until you emerged from it. There’s a sense of the absurd you’d feel in the show that I think is in our movie too. Anything I could find where I could say, “OK, this would not happen in a Scorsese movie,” that was like a guidepost for how to approach things.

But there was always this deliberate Goodfellas connection to “The Sopranos” [including cast members Lorraine Bracco and Michael Imperioli]. And you strengthened it even more by casting Ray Liotta in this film.

We had lunch with him, and we just knew that we really wanted him. I had heard that David and Ray were actually talking about Ray being in the series at some point. I’m not sure exactly what they had in mind, but that never happened. Yeah, you’re firmly into Scorsese territory. I would say that you’ll see that we did something interesting with the way Ray’s cast that puts it firmly back in “Sopranos” and David Chase territory. It’s a connection to the Scorsese vision, but it’s a little strange.

Can you talk a bit about David Chase and the influence he’s had on your career?

I feel like I sort of grew up on “The Sopranos.” I came out of film school, and I had done maybe one TV thing and one feature. David saw the feature and hired me for the first season of “The Sopranos.” I don’t even know if he liked the movie, but it took place in New Jersey, so I think that sort of reassured him that at least one of his directors had worked in the streets of New Jersey. So I was there for season one, and off and on throughout the series, and I was there towards the end. It became one of the constants in my filmmaking life. … I learned a lot from David’s rigor on what was right and what was wrong—there was a way to shoot “The Sopranos” that was not like other shows. I remember when I was shooting “The Sopranos,” I was also shooting “Sex in the City,” speaking two completely different languages. There was one occasion where I did a dolly shot that really belonged on “Sex and the City” and did not belong on “The Sopranos.” And David came down and yelled, “We don’t do this!” That was a way of learning how the camera is a language and how it’s appropriate for every show to ideally have its own language. And I applied that later to the process of, what is the language of “Game of Thrones”? What is the language of “The West Wing”? What is the language of “Deadwood”?

The post Making of a Made Man: Alan Taylor Revisits the World of Tony Soprano with The Many Saints of Newark appeared first on Boxoffice.

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