Boxoffice - October 2015

her entire life and considers high-speed Internet and
Netflix her birthrights, could not stop talking about
the comfy seats. Sometimes, we really don’t know
anything. But our customers do.
When we consider the customer experience, we
often talk about immersion, but that consideration is
limited. Stadium seating gave our customers the best
sight lines they had ever experienced. The days of craning
your neck to see around the person in front of you
were gone. Digital projection meant a flawless visual
experience. Every time. Giant screens and immersive
audio further created an all-encompassing experience.
But let’s take a closer look at that experience. As
theater owners, we privilege the theatrical experience,
always citing the size of the screen and the communal
experience, but is that the full extent of what we offer?
Before we answer that question, let’s consider what
the home experience offers. There are three things
that the home entertainment experience offers, to my
mind.
Convenience. This is obvious, and has been the
case for 60 years. It’s right there, a click or two away.
No argument there.
Price. In many ways, the home experience is
already paid for, whether it is a cable
subscription, broadband access,
or a subscription VoD plan.
Control. This, I think,
is the most compelling
argument for the home experience.
You choose. What you watch.
When you watch. How loud it is. Pause.
Rewind. Click back and forth between
channels. Text a friend. Call them
on the phone (OK, I’m old.)
Besides the quality of the experience,
movie theaters offer their customers
something unique—surrender. We ask our audiences
to give themselves up to an experience that is not under
their control. It starts and stops on a schedule set
by the filmmaker and the theater. If you are here, you
are here on our terms. There is a real value in that—it
is, I think, a purer experience, but it requires trust,
and execution. This is where the comfy seats become
much more than merely comfy seats. That comfort
sets a mood and builds trust. It prepares the audience
for anything. “Sit back. We’ll take care of you.” That
is why customer service is so important. Not just for
the simple pleasure of being catered to—though that
is important. Rather, the feeling of trust, of comfort,
prepares the audience for the movie. The movie is
better for the experience.
But there is debris offshore, and the surf can be
hazardous. To industry analysts, every home offering
that tries to incorporate some simultaneous or near-simultaneous
theatrical element in its distribution plan
is the newest threat to theatrical exhibition. But these
analysts always leave out the most important element
in what new distribution scheme will change theatrical
exhibition forever, and that is the simple fact
that the overwhelming majority of theaters
simply don’t play those movies. A high of
about 350 screens is the widest release that
any of these hybrids have attained. When
you consider that there are 40,000 theater
screens in the U.S., the inconsequential
nature of these experiments becomes clearer.
How is exhibition changed by what’s
playing on seven-tenths of one percent of
our screens?
This summer? For exhibition, the
water’s fine. n
It was a great summer
of Amy Schumer as her
Trainwreck snuck past
the $100 million mark in
domestic grosses.
OCTOBER 2015 BoxOffice ® Pro 21