Boxoffice-Febuary.1998

INTERNATIONAL NEWS BRIEFS
NORTHERN EXPOSURE
Canadian News Notes by Shlomo Schwartzberg
LEAD STORY:
FORMER ALLIANCE EXECS FORM RED SKY ENTERTAINMENT
The newest Canadian film distribution company, Red Sky Entertainment,
is doing things a little differently from the established companies. For one,
it's based in Vancouver, instead of Montreal or Toronto, where the bulk of
Canada's film distributors reside. It's also going to specialize in Western
Canadian and British Columbia filmmakers and television producers. But
that doesn't mean the rest of Canada will be neglected, says Anna Maria
Muccilli, vice president of publicity and promotion. "The focus [will be on
Western Canada] but we're also going to be involved with films from other
parts of Canada, if we find something we like."
Muccilli is one of four longtime Alliance Releasing senior executives who
left the Toronto-based company to move to Vancouver to set up the twomonth-old
Red Sky Entertainment. The others are Tony Cianciotta, Red
Sky's president; Dave Forget, vice president of sales; and Mary-Pat Gleeson,
vice president of marketing. "It's very exciting," says Muccilli about the new
venture.
Red Sky has already inked a deal to distribute films from Equinox Entertainment
(the name Quebec-based company France Film goes by as a
distributor in English-speaking Canada). Eight to 12 Equinox films are
expected to be released in the next two to three years. Titles already
announced are "La comtesse de Baton Rouge" by Quebec filmmaker Andre
Forcier and Paul Chart's "American Perfekt."
SILVER SCREENS
Famous Players recently unveiled its newest multiplex, the 10-
screen Famous Players SilverCity, located in Mississauga, Ontario.
(Mississauga, along with East York, North York, Scarborough and
Etobicoke, are now part of the new Megacity of Toronto, per a new
government determination consolidating the former boroughs with
the metropolis). SilverCity boasts 2,988 seats, cost C$4.5 million
(US$3 million) and will create 1 50 full- and part-time jobs. It' s one
of the latest multiplex builds from Famous Players, whose sixmonth-old
Coliseum is currently the top grossing theatre in Canada.
By the end of 1997, five other SilverCity complexes were
opened in Canada, in the provinces of Ontario and British
Columbia.
Other recent builds such as a six-screen in Fhnnce George, B.C.,
brought Famous to 555 screens in 108 locations by the end of 1997,
part of the 77-year-old company's largest expansion in its history.
"We're really gratified with the response of the public," says
Dennis Kucherawy, director of corporate public relations for Famous
Players. "The [opening of the] SilverCity Mississauga was
an enormous success."
Kucherawy points out that the expected cannibalization of audiences
by the two Famous Mississauga complexes, the SilverCity
and the Coliseum, never occurred. "Alien Resurrection" at the
Coliseum was the highest-grossing film in the greater Toronto area
its first weekend, but the same film was the fourth-highest grosser
for the same region at the SilverCity multiplex. "People are responding
to the types of theatres that we're building and audiences
are growing," Kucherawy observes. Late-night screenings are another
new wrinkle that were not expected to take off in the suburbs
but are drawing the customers in, he adds.
Among the major Famous Players houses set to open in 1 998 are
The Empress Walk in North York, Ontario ( 1 screens, 3,000 seats)
opening this spring, and two multiplexes slated for the fall: the
spaceship-shaped Colossus in Vaughn, Ontario (18 screens, 4,800
seats) and the York-Eglinton Centre in midtown Toronto (nine
screens, 2,800 seats).
CINEPLEXING
Canada's leading chain, Cineplex Odeon, is
not idle, either. It's added six screens to its
downtown Toronto Varsity two-plex, opened
the Ajax 10 Cinemas in Ajax, Ontario, the 11-
screen 401 & Momingside Cinemas in Scarborough,
Ontario, and has recently announced a
new state-of-the-art 10-plex in Barrie, Ontario.
"Cineplex" s expansion plans are on par with
those of Famous Players," says Howard Lichtman,
Cineplex' s executive VP of marketing,
pointing out that by the end of 1997, Cineplex
reached a total of 1728 screens in 321 locations
in North America. Lichtman attributes the building
boom to a "rejuvenation of the theatres." But
is there enough of an audience for so many new
cinemas? "Hopefully with the theatres that
we're building, the audience will go up," he says.
THE ART OF THE DEAL
Toronto's repertory and art-house scene is also
expanding, with Leonard Schein, owner of
Vancouver's Fifth Avenue Cinemas, sub-leasing
two Famous Players houses in Toronto—the four
screen downtown Cumberland and the two-screen
west end Runnymede— in which he'll be showcasing
art-house and foreign language product.
In effect, Schein has ensured that art-house films will run yearround
instead of being squeezed out during the Christmas and
summer rushes. The Vancouver-based Schein, who also operates
two single houses. The Park and The Varsity, in addition to the
Fifth Avenue five-plex in that city, is enthusiastic about penetrating
the Toronto market. "Toronto has always been a good market for
art-house and festival type films," he notes. As with Fifth Avenue,
patrons will be able to save C$2 (US$1.34) off the cost of a first
run ticket if they take out a C$12 (US$8.04) annual membership,
which also entitles the bearer to discounts on concession items.
Smdents will be given C$1 (US$0.67) off ticket prices. Cappuccino
machines will be installed in both theatres.
Schein won't be using the Festival Cinemas company name, as
he does in Vancouver, as that would create confusion with the
already existing Festival Cinemas repertory chain in Toronto,
which is headed by Tom Litvinskas. To be known as Lumiere
Cinemas, Shein ' s theatres did not have their debut slates confirmed
at press time, though the restored National Film Board Canadian
classic "Mon Oncle Antoine" and the Australian thriller "Kiss or
Kill" will be reportedly be among the op)eners.
Meanwhile, Litvinskas' Festival Cinemas, which currently operates
five rep houses in Toronto and the Capitol theatre, is adding
two more theatres. The Royal and The Music Hall. With another
rep house, the refurbished Roxy, also scheduled to open in Toronto,
the city is undergoing a major jump in second run options.
Litvinskas doesn't think it's a risk to go with more single screen
houses. "We offer big comfortable seats, low admission and we
only show good movies," he says.
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February, 1998 47