Boxoffice-January.2000

DIGITAL CINEMA
DISNEY GOES DIGITAL...AGAIN
Following the appointment of Phil Barlow,
executive VP of the Walt Disney Motion
Pictures Croup, to explore the development of
digital cinema and "Tarzan's" successful digital
launch in July (see National News, October
1999), Buena Vista announced six digital play
dates for "Toy Story 2," making it the first major
studio feature to be released day and date in
both digital and traditional film formats and the
first film to be entirely created, mastered and
exhibited digitally. Predicting success, the studio
will
also exhibit "Bicentennial Man," "Mission
to Mars" and "Dinosaur" digitally,
Instruments' DLP Cinema prototype.
LARGE FORMAT
using Texas
IWERKING ON THE BOTTOM LINE
Iwerks Entertainment reported revenues of
$7.6 million for the first quarter results for fiscal
2000, up slightly from revenues of $7.4
million for the quarter ending in September
1998. The large-format, ride-simulation and
specialty venue company experienced a net
loss of $1 .6 million, or 1
3 cents per share, for
the quarter. Part of that loss is directly attributable
to the Iwerks' touring operation. The
company has committed to selling the touring
operation's assets and focusing on its core
areas of business, including hardware sales,
which were up approximately 46 percent
over sales from the first quarter of fiscal 1 999.
WIRED WORLD
DTS DOT-COMS TECH CENTER
DTS has launched an online tech center at
www.dtsonline.com, making it
possible to access
product information, manuals, installation and
set-up photos, troubleshooting and post-production
guides and answers to frequently asked questions
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
NEW ONLINE CINEMA
Having already struck an advertising deal
with America Online, New Line Cinema continues
to focus its marketing energies on the
Internet, investing $5 million in Snowball.com,
a network of Websites that targets "Generation
I,"
or the 12- to 29-year-olds growing up during
the Internet revolution. In the multi-year,
cross-promotional agreement, Snowball's
sites—including ChickClick.com, ICN.com,
PowerStudents.com and lnsideCuide.com
will advertise New Line films, which will feature
product placement of the sites.
NOTHING BUT 'NET
CinemaScore, an audience market research
firm, has made its film data available to the
public through CinemaScore.com, a free
weekly e-mail newsletter that reveals audience
reactions compiled on films' opening
nights. The service's reports are based on age
plus surveys gathered over the past 18 years.
9 ON THE 'NET: Regal Cinemas' Chief Information Officer J.E. Henry I
Answers BOXOFFICE's Nine Questions About the Circuit's Website
and gender, and includes an archive of 2,000-
BOXOFFICE: Why did you devote a sizable
homepage footprint (and the minimum
$25,000 up-front cost) to Regal's
"ilovethemovies.com" branded e-mail?
What have the results been so far?
HENRY: Free e-mail is a great service.
Approximately 1,000 people have signed
up. The up-front cost was negotiated. We
negotiated a deal that allows Regal
Cinemas to share in advertising revenue.
BOXOFFICE: Why did you brand the e-
mail "ilovethemovies" rather than regalcinemas.com?
HENRY: We simply decided that we
should use something other than regalcinemas.com.
We were surprised that "ilovethemovies"
was available. We wanted something
that reflected a movie theme.
BOXOFFICE: Pepsi and Visa also receive
regal treatment on the homepage. How did
those deals come about?
HENRY: We have a
long-standing partnership
with Pepsi. We provide this visibility
to Pepsi at no expense. The VISA logo
displayed on the home page is part of a
Henry
negotiated short-term contract.
BOXOFFICE: Which areas are receiving
the most user hits on your website? Has
the value of the
comment cards
been experienced
more at the HQ or
manager level?
HENRY: Twothirds
of all hits on
our site are for showtimes,
with a significant
volume on
Thursday through
Saturday. We sell
several thousand dollars'
worth of gift certificates
each month,
Comment cards alio' our customers to provide
immediate feedback regarding their
experience at a specific theatre. This feedback
is critical to our continuing efforts to
enhance customer service. The comment
cards make us aware at corporate of problems
that should be addressed with general
managers in the field. The comment cards
also make us aware of those sites that are
meeting or exceeding expectations.
BOXOFFICE: Besides online gift certificates,
what e-commerce initiatives might
be forthcoming?
HENRY: We continue to explore new
opportunities. We believe that Internet ticketing
makes sense and will become an
accepted way of buying tickets in the
future. We also believe that reserved seating
could enhance the
ticket buying experience
in high demand
markets, and that fits
into the Internet ticketing
model.
BOXOFFICE: Given
the multiple designs
that various parts of
the site have, has
thought been given to
providing a unified
feel throughout regalcinemas.com
in the
future?
HENRY: We are in the process of re-engineering
the site. As a matter of fact, by the
time this article is released, our site should
look much different. We surveyed over 1 ,500
site visitors, and they told us what they wanted.
That input is driving the changes. The new
look will be more upscale in nature and will
provide for consistency throughout our site.
Our website has gone through three major
upgrades. We see our site evolving over time.
BOXOFFICE: You contract out your site
(with Knoxville local Media-pulse LLC)
rather than develop the site in-house.
What direct positives and/or negatives, if
any, have resulted?
HENRY: Mediapulse has been a great
partner. We manage all of the hardware and
security at Regal's corporate office.
Mediapulse handles the creative side. We
have found Mediapulse to be very responsive
to our needs. They are very customer
service oriented, and their prices are reasonable.
They have created a site that is
generally very fast regardless of what
browser is being used. Some sites have lots
of glitz and glamour but many of these sites
are very slow, which is frustrating.
BOXOFFICE: What thinking powered the
decision to offer visitors a Shocked version
of your website?
HENRY: The vision came from
Mediapulse, specifically Scott Spaid. We try
to be forward thinking in everything we do
as a company, and Mediapulse has been
able to utilize many creative technologies to
meet both short-term and long-term needs.
BOXOFFICE: What new content or directions
might regalcinemas.com see by the
time 2001 arrives?
HENRY: More customer feedback—what
our customers like about Regal Cinemas and
what they don't like. We believe the Internet
is a great way to solicit feedback about our
operations. We plan to start sending showtimes
to those customers who are willing to
share their
e-mail address with us and their
favorite Regal theatres. We believe that this
will be a great service
for our customers.
We would pro-actively
send showtimes
each Thursday for the
upcoming weekend.
We will definitely
start showing trailers
on our site. The technology
is improving
in this area. Internet
ticketing will likely be
done via our site
sometime in the year
2000.
January. 2000 55