Boxoffice® Pro - March 2014

EXECUTIVE
SUITE
TOO MANY MOVIES,
OR TOO FEW?
A PARADOX OF THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION
AND EXHIBITION
by John Fithian,
President and CEO, NATO
Cinema operators in New York
and Los Angeles have described to
me the sheer volume of requests
they receive to exhibit more movies
than they can possibly manage.
Members in other markets tell
me they wish they had more
commercial product to choose
from, particularly in the “off-peak”
months. Does the industry have
too many movies, or too few?
n Paradoxical though it may seem, the answer
may be both. There may be too many movies
playing on a limited number of screens with
little or no chance of breaking into a wider
theatrical run. At the same time, there may be
too few movies that secure a wider theatrical
footprint and have real commercial viability.
Earlier this year a famed film critic for the
New York Times, Manohla Dargis, wrote that
“there are too many lackluster, forgettable and
just plain bad movies pouring into theaters.”
Indeed, nearly 900 movies were reviewed by
that newspaper in 2013.
Why do distributors want screen time
if box office receipts will likely be very low?
Often, a theatrical release satisfies a contractual
agreement with financiers. Similarly, the simple
fact of a theatrical release can be used to drive
home release deals and sales. And many publications,
such as the New York Times, publish
film reviews principally for movies released
theatrically, and those reviews can be helpful
for the ancillary markets. Some distributors
are so desperate to get a theatrical release that
they pay to “four wall,” or rent out, a cinema
auditorium(s) just to legitimize the claim that
their movie played in theaters.
At the same time, though, exhibitors
outside the two leading markets of Los Angeles
and New York often have a different experience.
In a recent chat with the independent members
of the NATO executive board, for example,
I heard all four of those exhibitors explain
that they would like more movie choices with
commercial appeal for exhibition, particularly
during the months of February, March, April,
September, and October. The major studios
with their big distribution and marketing
machines often ignore some or most of those
months when it comes to titles they consider
potential hits. Compounding the problem, the
number of movies released by the major studios
has been in consistent decline. The six major
studios who are members of the Motion Picture
Association of America, and their subsidiaries,
released 189 movies in 2007 compared with
128 in 2012 (see chart).
In terms of domestic box office receipts, the
increasing concentration of returns is troubling.
In 2013, 829 movies recorded a domestic gross,
according to Rentrak. But a mere 31 of those
movies, all of which grossed more than $100
million, accounted for 54.4 percent of the total
box office, while the 100 top-grossing movies
accounted for 89 percent.
Not only have the major studios distributed
fewer movies, they have also reduced the
breadth of genres they offer. In their desire to
make tentpoles, the studios have concentrated
189
168
158
MAJOR STUDIO FILM RELEASES
MPAA STUDIOS WITH SUBSIDIARIES
SOURCE: NATO
141 141
128
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
12 BoxOffice ® Pro The Business of Movies MARCH 2014