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! Famous<br />
INTERNATIONAL NEWS BRIEFS<br />
NORTHERN EXPOSURE<br />
Canadian News Notes by Shlomo Schwartzberg<br />
THE UNION PROJECTIONIST ISSUE: BOOTH SIDES OF THE STORY<br />
With a recent contract settlement. Ontario's projectionists face new restrictions on<br />
the amount of hours they can work in the province's cinemas. Instead of unlimited<br />
hours of employment, they can now only work a maximum of 40 hours in any one<br />
house, which means they may not be there for the first show of the day. Their shift ends<br />
when the last show of the day has started; previously they would stay till the final<br />
screening was over. In addition, houses with six screens and under are now to be management-run<br />
(up from three screens and under), and on Mondays and Wednesdays, the<br />
least busy days of the week, non-union managers run the projection booths.<br />
These developments are the fallout from the months-long lockout of projectionists<br />
by Cineplex Odeon in late 1996 when the corporation demanded that they agree<br />
to major cuts in their hourly salaries, citing its increased costs of operations and what<br />
Cineplex felt were excessively high wages for automated work. The result was a<br />
In the latest round of negotiations, entered into after the two-year contracts<br />
expired, both Cineplex and Famous asked for further salary cuts to CSS an hour. The<br />
projectionist's union managed to prevent that, only losing CS0.50-CS1 (US$0.35-<br />
$0.69) an hour, but found their hours curtailed instead.<br />
Asked about the rationale for Famous Players' and Cineplex Odeon's tactics. Rob<br />
McPherson, acting business agent and region "A" representative of IATSE Local 173,<br />
told <strong>Boxoffice</strong>. "they're trying to get rid of the union entirely." Replying to<br />
McPherson's charges. Marci Davies, Cineplex Odeon's senior vice president of marketing,<br />
told <strong>Boxoffice</strong>. 'As a publicly traded company, we're financially responsible to<br />
our shareholders and employees to do what's in the best interests of the company." The<br />
contract arrived at with the projectionists was "fair and responsible." she said.<br />
Asked about reported problems with projecting films, especially "Magnolia," which<br />
is being shown by both Famous Players and Cineplex, Davies cited the film's three-hour<br />
VULCAN FORGES<br />
LIONS GATE FINANCING<br />
Lions Gate Films seems to be out of the<br />
financial rough with the recent announcement<br />
that it is receiving an infusion of C$33<br />
million (US$20.4 million) though the sale of<br />
new preferred stock and warrants. Vulcan<br />
Ventures, run by Microsoft co-founder Paul<br />
Allen. European broadcast group SBS<br />
Broadcasting and German broadcaster/producer<br />
Tele Munchen, are the investors in this<br />
financing deal which, according to Peter<br />
Wall, spokesperson for Lions Gate, bodes<br />
decrease of the total number of projectionists (from 250 to about 180) and salaries well for the company. "It is a boost of confidence<br />
slashed to an average of CS15 (US$10.37) an hour from the base rate of CS22-S33<br />
and a validation for people [who<br />
(USS15-S23). (Projectionists for Famous Players, facing a lockout situation as well,<br />
agreed to the same conditions the following summer.<br />
believe in the company]." Wall told <strong>Boxoffice</strong>.<br />
He added that the deal also means that<br />
Lions Gate may take its studio facility, currently<br />
up for sale, off the market. "With an<br />
increase in television production, it may<br />
make sense to hold onto the studio facility."<br />
he said. Admitting that Lions Gate went<br />
through a "rough patch." and pointing to the<br />
nearly simultaneous purchase of Time<br />
Warner by AOL, he predicted a "future that<br />
is going to contain some sort of merger<br />
between content and delivery. That's the same<br />
type of vision that has always been at Lions<br />
Gate from day one." As a sign of its renewed<br />
confidence. Lions Gate will be asking stock<br />
length. "It puts tremendous pressure on the bulbs; it has nothing to do with the capability<br />
of people operating the film." Managers who operate projection booths at help finance its expansion plans. The compa-<br />
investors in Canada to pony up $30 million to<br />
Cineplex. she pointed out. have been trained for the job and are "fully licensed". (A ny will be selling "units"—convertible preferred<br />
shares of stock and common share pur-<br />
spokesperson for Famous Players said that the problems with the print of "Magnolia."<br />
which premiered at Famous Players' Paramount multiplex and broke down several chase warrants—in effect allowing those<br />
times in the first month of its run, probably had to do with a stock problem.)<br />
"unit" holders to buy shares in Lions Gate.<br />
Currently, Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon are negotiating similar terms with<br />
Quebec projectionists and have recently settled with projectionists in Alberta.<br />
IWERKS However. GOES TO EXTREMES<br />
British Columbia's projectionists are in the tenth month of a lockout over<br />
Iwerks Entertainment and<br />
equivalent issues in that province. AMC's<br />
Showmax Inc.<br />
projectionists are non-union.<br />
have announced that they will install an<br />
Iwerks Extreme Screen 3-D Large-Format<br />
WWF(AMOUS)<br />
Players will be showing World Wrestling Federation<br />
pay-per-view matches in 17 theatres across Canada. It's part of<br />
:he company's plans to maximize use of its burgeoning multiplexss<br />
across the land.<br />
pNE SMALL STEP FOR "MAN"...<br />
Famous Players also recently installed two digital cinema sysone<br />
in its Paramount theatre in Toronto, the other in a<br />
ilverCity in Vancouver. Each of the cinemas is showing<br />
Bicentennial Man" in the new format. They're the first Canadian<br />
inemas dedicated to showing digital cinema presentations.<br />
LIFE IS GOOD, ONTARIO<br />
Film and TV production in Ontario hit record highs in 1999.<br />
A total of C$914 million (US$566.7 million) was spent in the<br />
province last year, a major jump from last year's record-breaking<br />
C$750.1 million (USS465.1 million). Indigenous Canadian production<br />
was significantly down, however, as Ontario lost out to<br />
3ther provinces offering homegrown filmmakers belter financial<br />
and tax incentives.<br />
theatre system in the new Montreal Forum Entertainment Center,<br />
formerly the old Montreal hockey palace. The Forum. The 450-<br />
seat theatre with its 60-foot screen is the key component of the<br />
unique entertainment venue, slated to open in August.<br />
KISS OFF FROM A ROSE<br />
Lewis Rose has left Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc.<br />
after three years as the company's president. Alliance<br />
announced his departure as part of a streamlined, more focused<br />
approach by the company, which has seen its stocks lose almost<br />
half their value in the past year. David Ginsburg, Los Angelesbased<br />
president of the Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Group,<br />
has also left the company, and seven other positions in L.A.<br />
were axed as well.<br />
KNIGHTTIME<br />
Canadian company Knightscove Entertainment has received<br />
insurance for up to SI 00 million, allowing it<br />
to make from 10 to<br />
20 feature films, mostly for the family market, over the next four<br />
years. Average budgets will range from CS4 to C$8 million<br />
(US$2.8 to $5.5 million).<br />
March, 2000 47
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