Boxoffice - October 2018

From 20-somethings at our weekly late-night series, After
Hours, to young children experiencing movies for the first time
at the monthly Family Day on Aragon, CGAC draws from the
multitude of peoples living in the region. Miami itself is a melting
pot, and the cinema speaks to that: it provides a welcome
space for everyone to share a communal experience. By presenting
foreign films in particular, the cinema is, in a way, a gateway
to other destinations.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Popcorn and bottled water reign supreme at our concession
stand. But besides traditional movie theater food, we serve
specialty gourmet products from local vendors. For us, being a
community theater extends beyond the patrons we serve. People
especially enjoy a concession item if it has a story. Some of the
local vendors we serve include Zak the Baker, Panther Coffee,
and Cacao Art. We do serve beer and wine and, as you might
expect, it’s a huge hit especially at our late-night screenings on
Saturdays. We like to say popcorn goes well with a glass of wine!
PROGRAMMING
We focus on our demographic and target audiences that attend
our theater. Even though our offerings are the main reason
to patronize us (or anyone else for that matter), we find that
mainstream theaters present prefabricated programming without
regard for their specific communities. It is thanks to the extensive
experience in South Florida film exhibition of our director of
programming, Nat Chediak, that we are so able to focus on the
unique audiences that attend CGAC.
While our first-run films are our bread and butter, we believe
it’s important to provide South Florida a film education like
no other, which is why we consistently present repertory films
in new restorations or in retrospectives. As mentioned before,
this year saw great success with 2001: A Space Odyssey on 70
millimeter, Almodovar: The Top Ten, and The Complete Studio
Ghibli. Another program of note unique to South Florida was
Forbidden Fruit: Cuban Independent Film in the 21st Century, a
9-program 25-film salute to the intrepid Cuban indie filmmakers
who’ve been carving out a niche for themselves armed with little
more than their immense talent.
At CGAC, you can find almost any kind of program: family-oriented,
late-night classics, repertory film series, National
Theatre Live presentations, live concerts, and the best new indie
and foreign films.
GRASSROOTS MARKETING
We find that our patrons respond best when we directly
engage them and not only advertise our films. Some examples
include posting photos of a sold-out crowd on our social
media and sending a personalized invitation to an event—basically,
showing a human side to the organization. As a result,
we are shifting our marketing strategies to focus more on this
kind of outreach.
CINEMA ADVERTISING
Spotlight Cinema Networks is important to us for three key
reasons: 1) It helps fund our operations, allowing us to continue
bringing great films to the community; 2) Ads on the network
are top-tier quality and often elicit appropriate responses from
our audience, either laughter when it’s comic or a simple “wow”
when it’s an exceptionally produced piece; 3) Many filmmakers,
such as Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze, cut their teeth directing
commercials, and because the ads Spotlight runs are much more
artistic, as stated before, it makes sense for an art house to feature
ads that might be from a director who’ll make a movie they’ll see
in the future! For these reasons, as well as Spotlight’s super-simple
approval process, I would wholeheartedly recommend it to
other art houses. n
OCTOBER 2018 BOXOFFICE ® 97