Kino Industries, creator of the interactive CtrlMovie technology that gives film and TV audiences real-time collaborative influence over the direction of a project’s plots and characters, has entered into a creative and co-financing partnership with Rocketman financier Starlings Entertainment. The announcement was made by Kino Industries CEO Chady Eli Mattar, president Scott C. Silver and Starlings Entertainment CEO/executive producer Karine Martin.
In a move that may offer some clues regarding the ways that exhibitors and streaming companies can work together effectively, Cinemark announced today that it will be showing Netflix’s Army of the Dead in both Cinemark XD and digital cinema auditoriums across its domestic circuit beginning May 14. Tickets are on sale now at Cinemark.com and on the Cinemark mobile app to watch the much-anticipated Zack Snyder film in theatres before it is available on Netflix on May 21.
This June 22-27, a consortium of trade associations, movie theatre chains and other cinema-related businesses will launch Cinema Week as a means of celebrating the culture of moviegoing—and supporting the hard-hit exhibition industry. During Cinema Week exhibitors will showcase exclusive in-theatre content and activities, as well as giveaways and special guests, in hopes of reenergizing audiences around the theatrical experience.
March offered two major signs of recovery for the beleaguered cinema business, according to the latest report from Gower Street Analytics, London. Firstly, there was the impressive international opening of Godzilla vs Kong; the first global hit since the pandemic began over a year ago. Secondly, the long-awaited re-opening of cinemas in New York City and Los Angeles helped the U.S. Domestic market to achieve the highest grossing month in a year. With the first challenging quarter of 2021 behind us, wrote Gower Street analyst Thomas Beranek, the recovery of the global theatrical market, while still fragile, looks as promising as it has in months.
The grand opening of Cinemark’s Totem Lake and XD theatre within The Village at Totem Lake in Kirkland, Texas was held last Friday, March 19. “Cinemark is thrilled to be opening a brand-new theatre in The Village at Totem Lake,” said Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi.
Can movies and TV shows be successfully archived on DNA? That question has been raised by an ad hoc working group of the international JPEG Committee. While that and many other questions remain unanswered, one thing is known: researchers recently stored an episode of the German Netflix TV series Biohackers on DNA.
For the past few years, it was a safe bet that the technology priorities for chief technology officers in broadcast and other professional media verticals involved a move to the cloud, however where it fell on the list of priorities varied widely. With so many media and technology professionals “finding the time” to move their infrastructure to the cloud, it was happening on the weekend, in the evenings, during quiet days in the office, and for some, it was little more than a hobby. The pandemic changed priorities heavily by demanding a development that has been a long time coming—a complete move to the cloud.
Resiliency is not a new term for the cinema industry. The industry has faced adversity in the past but economically has always survived. Cinemas are no longer just a place to go and watch a movie. They are entertainment destinations catering to increasingly diverse patron expectations.
Last month, as is widely known, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the United Nation’s World Food Program for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict. What is, perhaps, less widely known is the important role that cinema advertising has played, and continues to play, in that effort. That role is led by SAWA, which was founded in 1954 as the Screen Advertising World Association. The name was changed to SAWA the Global Cinema Advertising Association in 2015, the same year the group partnered with the UN on its efforts to end world hunger. My conversation with SAWA CEO Cheryl Wannell began there.
I last spoke with B&B Theatres executive vice president Brock Bagby in April as businesses across the country were shutting down in response to COVID-19. At that time all of their theatres were dark and the company had furloughed nearly 2,000 employees. I recently emailed Bagby to see if he would agree to a follow-up interview. His response was to say yes, adding, “But it’s been a rough seven months.” B&B Theatres, the sixth largest theatre chain in North America, is not just any independent cinema chain. For nearly a century, the company has understood better than most of their competitors that they don’t just show movies; they are in show business. They believe that movies are magic and their theatres amplify the experience like few others.
