Movie Theaters Reduce Hours

[Bobby Henderson]

If the big movie studios end up taking over theaters they'll likely do some things different. Prior to the home video revolution in the 1980's it was common for single screen theaters in big cities to play in the same movie for months or even over a year. I don't think we'll ever go back to that. But we could see some wildly different lengths of theatrical windows for different movies. If a company like Disney is fully vertically integrated from production all the way down to its own company-owned cinemas they could hold over a specific movie in a specific theater for however long they liked. They get to call the shots on when the movie appears on PVOD, Blu-ray, etc. With retail disc sales continuing to crater everything is pointing to download-based movie purchases or rentals for the home market. They can milk a theatrical release for all its worth and then immediately pivot to download version releases once the foot traffic begins to dry up. Disney owns the ABC TV network and has its own streaming service; they can use those two platforms to spam the hell out of a given movie release for pretty much nothing (although they'll cook the books to show many millions supposedly spent in ad dollars). Universal can use NBC to do the same thing. Likewise between Paramount and CBS.

Given the parent companies of these movie studios own broadcast networks it's also possible they'll book other non-movie types of programming into studio-owned cinemas. It could be the premiere of some TV series, a major sporting event, some type of live event. Since they have their own easy outlets of network TV advertising it will be easier (and cheaper) to promote. Amazon, Netflix and Google/YouTube could do some unusual things if they started opening their own cinemas.

[Mike Blakesley]

If things were normal, it'd be fun to give some studio ownership of my theater for say, two months. Then they could see the first hand the insanity of making me play a new movie for 3 weeks.

[Bobby Henderson]

The last attempt to franchise theatres (Jerry Lewis Cinemas) back in the 1970's didn't last too long or end well. While the industry has changed a lot since then, and many of the issues that killed JL Cinemas would not exist if the distributors were the one doing the franchising, I still see lots of potential problems. The devil would be in the details.

I don't see the movie studios "franchising" theaters out to other partners to share costs and operational tasks. In the whole scorched earth model, any emerging theaters would be 100% company owned. Given how they could use leverage to strong arm terms with property owners or local city governments the movie studios could force thru some pretty advantageous deals.

Not every big national company does franchise setups. Take In-N-Out Burger. The company is 100% privately held and 100% of their locations are all company owned. There are ZERO outside partners. If I was running a major movie studio it would be tempting to set up company-owned theaters where you get to call the shots 100% of the time. Adding in a wild card, given the current legal setup, there is nothing stopping outfits like Amazon, Apple, Google/YouTube, etc from opening their own theaters just to showcase their own in-house developed content. That wrinkle in the fabric could make it more critical for studios like Disney and Warner Bros to maintain direct operational control and ownership of their own theaters.

[Mike Blakesley]

How is BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC doing for you? It's a wonderful movie!

We did probably twice the business with "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Jurassic Park" than we did with Bill and Ted, sadly. Partly it was because we only just played it last week and it was already out on streaming, and then also it is football season here so it's always the worst time of year for us anyway.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

> start franchising theatres

The last attempt to franchise theatres (Jerry Lewis Cinemas) back in the 1970's didn't last too long or end well. While the industry has changed a lot since then, and many of the issues that killed JL Cinemas would not exist if the distributors were the one doing the franchising, I still see lots of potential problems. The devil would be in the details.

[Martin McCaffery]

Let's call this the first phase before franchising. The studios suck whatever life is out of existing theatres, and then franchise new theatres. With a franchise, the studios do not have to pay to build or maintain the theatres all that is dumped on the franchisee, who may have to take out a loan to build the theatre. A loan from the studio, of course.

An interesting possibility could be the decline of the multiplex as getting the money to build one of these starts to evaporate, and the product to fill them shrinks.

[Bobby Henderson]

Instead of putting all the theatres out of business, they take advantage of the end of the Paramount Consent Decrees and start franchising theatres. No matter where you go anywhere in the country you can have the exact same corporate experience. The theater operators have to buy their movies and concessions and cleaning supplies from corporate and have to sell everything under rules set by corporate.

I think that scenario is a very realistic possibility. But they can still put all the existing theaters out of business and then later take advantage of that situation.

Step 1: The movie studios can use the combined effects of pandemic-related theater closures and very slim theatrical release windows on very little product to snuff the life out of existing theater chains and independents. The movie distributors are all owned by parent companies with deep pockets and also have alternative home and broadcast outlets to generate revenue. Theater chains aren't diversified like that. The movie distributors can literally orchestrate a monumental purge of the existing theater business.

Step 2: Movie studios experiment with "Premium Video On Demand" releases. We all know how that will play out. PVOD won't generate anything near the revenue levels of theatrical releases. But they'll stick with it for awhile while getting ready for Step 3.

Step 3: Thousands of empty cinema locations nationwide will create levels of desperation in property owners and even local city governments. Those levels of desperation will worsen over time. Movie theaters are very important "anchor" businesses in shopping centers and districts with outlets of dining, nightlife and entertainment. The movie studios and their parent companies know they will have bargaining leverage in negotiations to re-open an existing theater or build a new one. We're talking low rent levels, low or non-existent tax levels and even establishment of TIF zones.

In short, the movie studios will only make a move to re-open an old theater or build a new one under their studio branding if the property owner and local government makes the deal sweet enough. They might even see if the local government will pay for renovations of an old building or bankroll the construction of a new building. If it works for sports stadiums why not theaters?

Step 4: Dealing with any political fallout from vertical integration of studios and theaters. Basically the studio bosses can deliver a "take it or leave it" message to anyone crying foul. If you want to be able to watch a movie in a theater you will do so only on our terms.

As more and more cinemas close their doors or reduce their hours, those still open may grow more "crowded," making me even less likely to attend.

That was my first thought when I saw the updated schedules at our one operational movie theater here in Lawton. Most of the auditoriums at AMC's Patriot 13 theater have only one show time. For instance, the IMAX shows of "Tenet" are only at 5:30pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They have every other row blocked out. Plus additional rows are only for disabled customers. IIRC, if you reserve a seat the ones adjacent to it are blocked out from other customers.

[Ian Puffenberger]

On the Virginia side of the DC area, theaters have been running reduced hours ever since they opened. Even on Tenet's opening weekend no one generally had any shows before noon or later than 10pm. Over the last few weeks they've cut all matinees during weekdays, with shows starting around 4pm Mon-Fri. One independent theater that caters to older audiences does still have morning shows all week.

[Ian Puffenberger]

Well, if we are going to, let's do it.

Instead of putting all the theatres out of business, they take advantage of the end of the Paramount Consent Decrees and start franchising theatres. No matter where you go anywhere in the country you can have the exact same corporate experience. The theater operators have to buy their movies and concessions and cleaning supplies from corporate and have to sell everything under rules set by corporate.

Hey no more booking headaches, you just show what gets pushed through. No percentage bartering, they take the same amount for everything. And when your theatre get old and worn out, well, they just license a new one, maybe to you, maybe to someone else.

Granted, a lot of movie theatres are pretty close to this already [not Mike's or Frank's], but the sooner they can kill of the fools who think that it is SHOW business, not show BUSINESS, the sooner they can get back the the vertical integration of the "Good Old Days."

As an outside observer, I've been thinking this for quite a while.

[Mike Blakesley]

Theater owners have been completely unreasonable about experimenting with pay-per-view and the like, completely unreasonable about allowing the studios to experiment with home video release dates closer to the theatrical release.

This part, I don't agree with. Theater owners have done only one thing: Refused to play movies that are released to the home day and date (or within a couple of weeks) of the theatrical release. That's ALL. All of the other "experiments" have done nothing but reduce the theater industry's share of the pie, and this we're supposed to welcome with open arms? This writer must be too young to remember the early days of home video, when it would be a solid YEAR before movies would come to home video. Ahhhhh, those were the days.

The rest..... well, if it walks like a duck...

[Leo Enticknap]

I wish the studios would think outside of the box a little bit. They say they're waiting for New York and L.A. I'm beginning to wonder if they are now looking at this as a way to just get rid of the theater industry.

This op-ed writer agrees with you. I know that he's a writer for a website that is known for being politically polarized, and we obviously have to read the article in that context. I'm not totally on board with the political spin he puts on it (Democrats and China), and I am absolutely not on board with some of the language he uses; but he does have a point in linking the two facts (the Paramount Decree going away, and theaters in NYC and LA still being under closure orders), and noting that the prolonged closures are potentially beneficial to the big studios.

Nolte: China’s Box Office Rebounds While America Bankrupts Its Theater Owners

“The China box office bounced back this weekend to its pre-pandemic levels,” reports the far-left Variety.

In other news…

“Cineworld confirms that it will be temporarily suspending operations at all of its 536 Regal theatres in the U.S.”

And…

“Small-Town Theaters Face Bleak Future Without New Movies: ‘We Desperately Need Help”

And…

“Movie Theaters Face a Winter of Bankruptcy as More Films Push to 2021.”

While China, the country responsible for the spread of this terrible disease, opens up its society enough to resurrect its movie business, America is annihilating theater owners by refusing to open movie theaters in a whole host of states, including New York and California, which has created a vicious circle killing all movie theaters.

The vicious circle works like this….

Because California and New York theaters are shuttered, Hollywood is either moving its big movie releases to 2021 and 2022, or releasing them digitally (like Disney’s Mulan), so that even the theaters that are open are starving for product, are paying their employees and to keep the place air conditioned with almost no product and almost no customers.

Why is being allowed to happen over a virus where better than 995 out of a 1000 people who catch it survive?

And if the World Health Organization is correct, ten percent of the world’s been infected, which means we’re talking about a survival rate of around 999 out of 1000?

We’re going to destroy one of America’s greatest industries over numbers like that?

Never before has this country locked down and quarantined the healthy. This is outrageous. We’ve had much worse pandemics in the past. We lived through the everyday pandemics of smallpox and polio without shuttering the healthy, destroying lives, businesses, and industries like the movies… But look at us now…

Cowering while China — the bastards who started it — romp all over us and go on with their lives.

In my county here in North Carolina, and the five surrounding counties, we’ve had fewer than 75 coronavirus deaths and around 5,000 reported cases. That’s it. But the movie theaters are all closed.

What the hell is going on?

Want to know what I think?

Just one man’s opinion, but I smell a rat…

When this weekend’s Saturday Night Live broadcast is allowed to have a live audience in New York City and movie theaters are still closed in New York City, I smell a rat, and this is the rat I smell…

A federal judge recently overturned the 1948 Depart of Justice ruling that destroyed the old Hollywood Studio System, that forced the studios to sell their movie theaters. Studios could no longer own the means of production and exhibition, and the Studio System that created a great American art form was lost forever.

Well, what’s known as the Paramount Decrees is no more. As of last year, movie studios are once again allowed to own movie theaters, and since most movie studios are owned by mammoth multinational corporations, well… You see what I’m getting at?

Democrat governors in New York, California, North Carolina and elsewhere have singled movie theaters out for closure, and now the theater owner go out of business, and now the multinationals might be able scoop them up for a song, and now we have a half-dozen or so multinational corporations that not only own the production of movies, they also decide what will and will not be exhibited.

The studios hate the theater owners, and not without cause. Theater owners have been completely unreasonable about experimenting with pay-per-view and the like, completely unreasonable about allowing the studios to experiment with home video release dates closer to the theatrical release.

Nevertheless, just a year after the Paramount Decrees is overturned, you have the same Democrats who are super-chummy with Hollywood and the multinationals deliberately killing theater owners for no valid reason.

Am I the only one who smells a rat?

[Geoff Jones]

Mike, I'm not sure how well your analogy fits. It certainly doesn't fit for me.

I will only got to a restaurant if I can eat outdoors well away from anyone else.

I will only go to a cinema if the attendance is tiny and no one is sitting anywhere near me. I recently saw TENET in a 300 seat auditorium with 7 other people in it. A few months earlier, I saw JAWS in a 140 seat auditorium with 4 other people in it. I had a much better time at the movie that was long past its sell-by date.

I also won't buy concessions at the cinema because I will be wearing my mask the entire time.

As more and more cinemas close their doors or reduce their hours, those still open may grow more "crowded," making me even less likely to attend.

It all feels like a no-win situation and makes me very sad.

PS: How is BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC doing for you? It's a wonderful movie!

[Mike Blakesley]

The reason bars and restaurants are drawing good crowds is because they're able to offer their full menu of food and drinks.

Right now theaters are like a bar that only serves Budweiser, and a handful of microbrews (and the Budweiser is past the sell-by date). No wonder attendance isn't perking up.

[Martin McCaffery]

Just noticed our AMC has dropped back to 5 days a week (closed Weds & Thurs)

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's hard to look into people's minds, but like Mike indicated, bars and restaurants are open and they draw relatively good crowds, alas, better crowds than cinemas.

The fact that Tenet did relatively well over here, is a clear indication that the biggest problem the industry faces right now is simply the lack of product. While the willingness of people to go to a movie theater almost certainly is affected by the ongoing pandemic, I'm pretty certain the situation would look different if there would be some actual movies to watch, especially movies people actually want to see.