Boxoffice - October 2018
The Official Magazine of the National Association of Theatre Owners
The Official Magazine of the National Association of Theatre Owners
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SHOWEAST <strong>2018</strong><br />
SHAPIRO<br />
AL<br />
MARK BORDE<br />
PRESIDENT, THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION<br />
ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES<br />
SERVICE AWARD<br />
AWARD<br />
DISTINGUISHED Interview by Daniel Loria<br />
Aveteran of the motion<br />
picture industry, Mark<br />
Borde has a career that<br />
reaches back to the early<br />
1970s, when he joined<br />
the family business as an<br />
independent distributor.<br />
Borde has helped bring dozens of films<br />
to screens across the United States—all<br />
with the insight and understanding of<br />
an executive with direct experience in<br />
production and exhibition. <strong>Boxoffice</strong><br />
spoke with Borde ahead of ShowEast,<br />
where he will be receiving this year’s Al<br />
Shapiro Distinguished Service Award,<br />
and asked him to reflect on a career full<br />
of memories—including the in-theater<br />
marketing campaigns that continue to<br />
reverberate today.<br />
CLAIRE HOLT AND MANDY MOORE<br />
IN 47 METERS DOWN<br />
How did you first get involved in the<br />
industry?<br />
My father was a division salesman for<br />
Disney when I was growing up, so the<br />
movie business has been in my blood<br />
ever since I was a little boy. I remember<br />
for my birthdays he would bring home<br />
16-millimeter movies of animated films<br />
like 101 Dalmatians. My friends would<br />
all sit around the living room floor and<br />
watch movies—then we’d get tickets to<br />
Disneyland! So the movies are part of<br />
my heritage, my legacy, since I learned<br />
to walk.<br />
I didn’t plan to go into it; I was going<br />
to be a lawyer, went to law school. But<br />
I also got married early and needed a<br />
job, so I asked my dad if he would let<br />
me work in the family business. He had<br />
started a company called Seymour Borde<br />
and Associates. He let me in but had me<br />
start at the bottom. I was in the shipping<br />
room, pasting labels onto 35-millimeter<br />
cans for years, putting them on trucks.<br />
It happened a lot like Al Shapiro’s<br />
experience; I started off the same way. I<br />
was a theater usher, then I was a theater<br />
cashier, then I was a theater assistant<br />
manager, then I was a theater manager.<br />
All during my teenage years, I had the<br />
smell of popcorn all over me, wearing<br />
that old tuxedo suit that never fit. That<br />
was part of my background. I put in<br />
78 BOXOFFICE ® OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong>
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