BoxOffice® Pro - May 2013

alternative
content
Digiplex Cinema Center
Camp Hill, PENN.
Up-and-coming Digiplex Destinations fulfills ‘the promise of
digital cinema’ with alternative content
What we can do is deliver a theatrical release
with a great deal of dedicated marketing
expertise to support [the] launch [of a film].
Then to follow that launch, we’ll sell the DVDs
and downloads right in our theaters … and
follow on when it gets to TV and cable and
help promote that too because we own it and
because we believe these are quality products
that should be seen.
the future is now
by Annlee Ellingson
n Founded in 2010, Digital Cinema Destinations Corporation (Digiplex)
marks a culmination of sorts for chief Bud Mayo. The concept,
which prioritizes alternative content right alongside traditional Hollywood
programming, combines the expertise he developed as the head
of Cinedigm and before that Clearview Cinemas. For Mayo, Digiplex
makes good on “the promise of digital cinema”—using the technology to
fill seats.
To that end, the circuit has twin businesses in building a theater
chain—Digiplex currently operates 18 cinemas with 178 screens in Arizona,
California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio—and
curating content for those screens both through its DigiNext initiative and
from other sources like Fathom Events.
“It is from an exhibitor’s viewpoint a challenge and an opportunity
because it means in one respect doing a lot more work than we used to,”
he says.
BoxOffice® Pro chatted with Mayo about the company’s strategies
for circuit growth and content programming.
Why start a new theater chain? What does Digiplex
offer that other exhibitors don’t?
Bud Mayo, chairman and CEO: We love Hollywood movies, and there’s
nothing here we intend to do to change that. What we’re looking to do
is to try to find ways to fill seats that are empty during these off-peak
periods, in particular Monday to Thursday. … Our whole company is
geared to doing it.
What are your expansion goals for the theater
side of the business?
Job number one is to build a circuit, and there our goal is 1,000 screens
in 100 locations in the top 100 DMAs of the country. And we’ve got a
lot of work left to do. This year we hope to get to 300 screens … and
think that’s a very achievable goal. All by acquisition. We’re not building
anything. We’re buying good existing theaters that have made money, in
some cases for decades.
Talk about your joint venture with Nehst, Digi-
Next, which you describe as “a curated series of
independent films.”
Documentaries such as Running
the Sahara, Standing Silent, and
The Standbys seem to be key to
your strategy with DigiNext.
It’s the low-hanging fruit for us, and it’s an
underserved marketplace. We have found that
market, and we have no illusions about what
the theatrical part of the job is. … We’re not thinking about a theatrical
release of $6 million. That would be phenomenal. A million would be
phenomenal. Right now we’re talking about learning as a company how
to introduce this content, how to connect it with audiences, and how to
participate in the marketing of it through its life.
Digiplex recently started screening films in
Spanish.
We’re launching with G.I. Joe a Spanish version of all of the major Hollywood
movies on Monday nights in selected theaters, and we hope to roll
that out in markets that make sense. We’re also looking into some Asian
languages. … There’s no extra cost to the studio, but we will promote it,
and we will find those audiences.
You’ve been hiring additional executives,
including senior VP Chuck Goldwater, chief
marketing officer John Halecky, and general
counsel Warren H. Colodner. What do they bring
to Digiplex?
What they’re doing is formalizing the final pieces of the senior management
team in the
company for the next
hopefully five or 10
years. … We have a
team of people who
can finish each other’s
sentences, and you
can’t get too much
better than that. Now
we have to grow to
deserve that kind of
quality of team, and
that makes it a lot easier.
We finally reached
the point where we
could justify having
those people here on
a full-time basis. … It
was a major step for
us that really makes
our growth much
more seamless going bud mayo
forward.
52 BoxOffice ® Pro The Business of Movies may 2013