The Big Picture

Last Friday, September 25th, digital cinema history was made and the course of cinema advertising and marketing changed forever, with the release of a 60-second commercial promoting the United Nations’ Global Goals initiative. The upbeat ad, titled #WeHaveAPlan, was animated by Aardman Animations, directed by Sir John Hegarty and narrated by Liam Neeson and Michelle Rodriguez with music from Peter Gabriel. The ad was mixed in Dolby 5.1 and Dolby Atmos immersive sound technology, and mastered and distributed to more than 30 countries in all cinema formats by Unique Digital. It was the first global cinema ad ever distributed and was done on behalf of SAWA the Global Cinema Advertising Association. In the U.S the ad will run on the networks of Cinema Advertising Council members National CineMedia, Screenvision and Spotlight Cinema. The ad premiered in New York’s 42nd Street AMC Empire prior to its worldwide exhibition and will continue running around the world for a year.

Screenvision has announced an innovative interactive advertising campaign that puts the spotlight on Volvo. This first-of-its-kind 90-second advertisement allows moviegoers to directly interact with the content on the big screen by using movement, and is now available in 100 Screenvision theatres.

Esteban Sune is the fourth generation of his Argentinian family in the exhibition business. His great grandfather opened the family’s first theatre in 1910 to show silent films. Some eighty years later, the theater concept changed from the big single screen houses to multiplexes and Cinemacenter was born. Sune, the company’s managing director, recently installed his country’s first laser projector – an NEC NC1100L. I spoke with him about that experience and about the exhibition business in general.

HBO has acquired U.S. rights to Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists, directed by Leah Wolchok and produced by Davina Pardo. An offbeat meditation on humor, art and the genius of the single panel, the feature-length documentary debuts December 7 exclusively on HBO, following a limited theatrical run November 20 through December 3 in New York at Lincoln Plaza, in San Francisco at the Roxie Theater, and in Los Angeles.