BoxOffice® Pro - April 2011

EXECUTIVE SUITE
JOHN
FITHIAN
NATO
President
and Chief
Executive
Officer
THE VIEW FROM VEGAS
The state of exhibition at the exciting launch of CinemaCon 2011
Iwelcome all our loyal readers of Boxoffice to the inaugural
CinemaCon convention. The members and staff of
the National Association of Theatre Owners are thrilled
to bring you this new and exciting event, and we’re proud
that it’s the largest and most significant gathering of movie
theater owners and operators in the world.
I want to use this space to highlight some of the key
data and issues concerning this wonderful business of theatrical
exhibition, and to draw a few connections between
those issues and the convention. Equally important,
the remainder of the year—and continuing into 2012—I
believe that exhibition’s growth will continue here and
abroad. CinemaCon attendees will get a taste of many of
these exciting movies during the convention, with the
strong support of six of our studio distribution partners.
Their feature presentations, trailers and product reels will
be exhibited in Caesars Palace’s wonderful, state of the art
Colosseum, where all attendees will gather in one place.
The rapid roll-out of digital cinema and 3D exhibition
will no doubt help to drive growth in movie ticket sales.
however, I want to thank publicly some of the leaders that
made this event possible.
First up, let’s talk about the state of our industry.
While many other entertainment sectors continued to
suffer during the ongoing economic challenges of 2010,
exhibition thrived. Global box office in 2010 reached
$31.8 billion—an increase of 8 percent over 2009 and an
all-time record. Developing markets in the territories of
Asia Pacific (21 percent increase) and Latin America (25
percent increase) led the way. CinemaCon organizers have
scheduled a special program during International Day to
recognize and discuss the importance of these markets.
Here in the U.S. and Canada, the 2010 box office repeated
the record $10.6 billion of 2009. The number of
tickets sold in the U.S. and Canada declined 5 percent to
1.34 billion, returning to the 2008 level. But the industry’s
investments in digital cinema and 3D have begun to show
real dividends, with 3D releases nearly doubling their
share of the box office from 11 percent in 2009 to 21 percent
in 2010.
NATO members know that admissions can be cyclical
in the short term, driven primarily by brief fluctuations
in the commercial appeal of the movies on offer. Over
the long haul, however, our ticket sales continue to grow.
In the decade just completed, average annual ticket sales
climbed to $1.43 billion from $1.28 billion in the ’90s,
$1.133 billion in the ’80s, and $995 million in the ’70s.
So far, the 2011 domestic numbers have been disappointing.
But as I look at the strong slate of pictures in
Consider the numbers: In 2010 there were 25 3D movie
releases in the United States, which played on between
3,300 3D screens in January and 7,800 by December as 3D
screen counts more than doubled. This year, there are at
least 33 3D movie releases on the schedule and by Christmas
2011, the screen count will double again to 14,000.
In most territories abroad, international exhibitors are
installing digital 3D equipment even faster than their colleagues
here in the states.
Speaking of the digital cinema transition, I want to
congratulate the motion picture distributors and all our
equipment vendor partners for teaming with exhibitors
to make this historic transition possible. Through the
development of technical standards, high-quality equipment
and shared business models, the entire industry
came together to make this happen. It is fitting that NATO
opens its first CinemaCon convention with the strong
support of these studio and vendor partners. From the
trade floor, to the demonstration suites, to the equipment
used in our new projection booth in the Colosseum, to
the private meetings held throughout the convention, the
great success story of digital cinema will affect every part
of this special week. I am also grateful that our partners
at the International Cinema Technology Association and
the National Association of Concessionaires have worked
closely with us to support this sold-out trade show.
Beyond digital cinema, exhibitors continue to innovate
in many different ways which CinemaCon is glad to
(continued on page 10)
8 BOXOFFICE PRO APRIL 2011