Boxoffice Pro - October 2019

$6.95 / OCTOBER 2019 

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATRE OWNERS

DANIEL LORIA 

>> September gave us reason to cheer at the box 

office, with a handful of titles performing above 

expectations and ushering in what is sure to be a 

memorable fall and winter season at the movies. 

While the monster box office success of Warner 

Bros.’ It Chapter Two—opening at a strong $91 

million—was no surprise, subsequent debuts 

helped propel the month’s numbers to a higher 

range than our analysts had originally expected. As 

our chief analyst, Shawn Robbins, notes, strong 

debuts for mid-range titles like STX’s Hustlers ($33 

million), Focus Features’ Downton Abbey ($31 

million), Disney-Fox’s Ad Astra ($19 million), 

and Lionsgate’s Rambo: Last Blood ($18 million) 

combined to promote content diversity at the box 

office. It’s not all just car chases, dinosaurs, and 

superheroes. Or at least it shouldn’t be if we expect 

to cross the $12 billion mark domestically. September’s 

figures are a good preview of what a successful 

fall and winter could look like in the coming 

months, as more original movies and award contenders 

begin making the rounds in theaters. 

Speaking of programming, six of these year-end 

titles will be available to see at the latest edition 

of ShowEast. Lionsgate’s Knives Out, Disney-Fox’s 

Ford v Ferrari, Fox Searchlight’s Jojo Rabbit, Neon’s 

Clemency, and surprise screenings from Paramount 

and Warner Bros. are all part of the schedule in 

Miami, which will once again host exhibitors from 

the domestic and Latin American markets. You 

can read our extensive coverage of the event in the 

following pages, including interviews with several 

of this year’s honorees. 

We’ve also brought back our popular Ask the 

Audience segment, in conjunction with our partners 

at NCM, to find out which upcoming titles 

are most anticipated by audiences—and to learn 

about some of their unique moviegoing traditions. 

For our staff here at Boxoffice Pro, the coming 

months are our favorites on the release schedule, 

representing our heaviest moviegoing period of the 

year. We hope the same is true for the audiences 

visiting your theaters. 

Daniel Loria 

SVP Content Strategy & 

Editorial Director 

Boxoffice Media 

2 OCTOBER 2019

2019 VOL. 155 NO. 10 

HELLO 2 

TRADE TALK 10 

MEMBERSHIP NEWS 20 

CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 22 

SHOWEAST 

PREVIEW 

CELEBRATING MOVIES 

ShowEast in Miami Beach puts films first 36 

A FORMIDABLE TRIO 

ShowEast presents its 2019 Show 'E' Award 

to three National Amusements veterans 40 

EMPOWERED ELIZABETH 

AMC's Elizabeth Frank receives ShowEast's 

first-ever Empowerment Award 46 

AL SHAPIRO DISTINQUISHED 

SERVICE AWARD 

Joe Masher, Chief Operating Officer 

Bow Tie Cinemas 48 

A PASSION FOR PHILANTHROPY 

Warner Bros.' Scott Forman receives 

ShowEast humanitarian award 52 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE 

ShowEast honors Participant's 

David Linde with Bingham Ray Spirit Award 56 

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR 

OF THE YEAR 

Monique Esclavissat 

Warner Bros. International 58 

Top Women in Global Exhibition 96 

HOYTS GROUP 

Stephanie Mills 

CINÉPOLIS 

Luisa Ramirez-Diaz 

AMC THEATRES 

Elizabeth Frank 

BARDAN INTERNATIONAL 

Vilma Benitez 

UNIC CINEMA DAYS 60 

ASK THE AUDIENCE 84 

CINESHOW RECAP 90 

TECHNOLOGY 94 

SOCIAL MEDIA 102 

ON SCREEN 106 

EVENT CINEMA CALENDAR 118 

BOOKING GUIDE 120 

MARKETPLACE 128 

Boxoffice Pro has served as the official publication of the National 

Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) since 2007. As part of this 

partnership, Boxoffice Pro is proud to feature exclusive columns from 

NATO while retaining full editorial freedom throughout its pages. As 

such, the views expressed in Boxoffice Pro, except for columns signed 

by NATO executives, reflect neither a stance nor an endorsement from 

the National Association of Theatre Owners. 

INDIE FOCUS 

Digital Gym Cinema 

30 

TIMECODE 

The Editor Has His Say 

34 


FROZEN II 

MIDWAY 

Delivering 

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for the cinema 

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Frozen Forever 

DISNEY'S MEGA-HIT RETURNS FOR 

A SECOND SHOT AT SUCCESS 

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GEMINI MAN 

Skies Over the Pacific 

ROLAND EMMERICH'S WWII 

DRAMA DEBUTS 

68 

INSURANCE COVERAGE 

C O M P A N I E S 

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Two Smiths Are 

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ANG LEE PITS WILL SMITH AGAINST 

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BLACK AND BLUE 

Freedom Fighter 

KASI LEMMONS'S BIOPIC BRINGS 

HARRIET TUBMAN TO THE SCREEN 

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DEON TAYLOR BRINGS HIS SPORTS 

REGIME TO HIS THRIVING CAREER 

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OCTOBER 2019 

5

EDITED BY LAURA SILVER 

BOXOFFICE MEDIA 

CEO 

Julien Marcel 

SVP CONTENT STRATEGY 

Daniel Loria 

CREATIVE DIRECTOR 

Kenneth James Bacon 

VP ADVERTISING 

Susan Uhrlass 

SENIOR ADVISOR 

Andrew Sunshine 

WEBEDIA FORMS ‘THE BOXOFFICE COMPANY’ 

>> Webedia, the global media and technology network, has announced the 

formation of The Boxoffice Company, creating the largest and most prominent 

enterprise of its kind serving the publishing, technology, and data needs of the 

global cinema industry. 

The Boxoffice Company is an outgrowth of Webedia’s years-long aggregation 

of market-leading movie related assets, including Webedia Movies Pro. Its platforms 

account for 63.5 million unique visitors monthly in France (allocine.fr and 

boxofficepro.fr), Germany (moviepilot.de and filmstarts.de), Brazil (adorocinema. 

com.br), Spain (sensacine.com and espinof.com), Mexico (sensacine.com.mx), 

Turkey (beyazperde.com), and the U.S. (boxofficepro.com). 

Under Webedia Movies Pro branding, Webedia has also built a market-leading 

position in digital B-to-B services for the cinema industry, with the acquisitions of 

Cote Cine Group (France), 

Boxoffice Media (USA), and 

West World Media (USA) 

in 2015. The company also 

acquired Peach Digital (Scotland) 

in 2017. 

Webedia Movies Pro is 

the world’s number one provider 

of technology and data 

with products in search and 

discovery, as well as premier 

ticketing solutions, business 

intelligence, and digital 

marketing tools. In 2018, 

Webedia Media Pro generated 

over half a billion dollars 

in box office revenue by 

powering thousands of ticketing platforms for exhibitors worldwide. As a result of 

its collection of media, technology, and data, The Boxoffice Company is responsible 

for over 90 percent of internet audience movie show times and listings. 

“This epic corporate branding and consolidation of assets is rooted in a 

100-year-old love story with Hollywood,” said Julien Marcel, CEO of The Boxoffice 

Company. “The Boxoffice Company is dedicated to continuing to grow 

global audiences across their consumer platforms and delivering the ultimate 

global SaaS platform for the theatrical industry worldwide.” 

The Boxoffice Company is headquartered in North Hollywood, California, 

with offices and operations in Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Glasgow, Istanbul, Mexico 

City, São Paulo, New York, and Ridgefield, Connecticut. 

BOXOFFICE ® MAGAZINE 

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR 

Daniel Loria 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Kevin Lally 

MANAGING EDITOR 

Laura Silver 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

Rebecca Pahle 

CONTRIBUTORS 

David Binet 

Alex Edghill 

Moises Esparza 

Juan Lopez 

Vassiliki Malouchou 

Jesse Rifkin 

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT 

Ally Bacon 

BOXOFFICEPRO.COM 

CHIEF ANALYST 

Shawn Robbins 

ANALYSTS 

Alex Edghill 

Chris Eggertsen 

Jesse Rifkin 

DATABASE MANAGEMENT 

Diogo Busato 

ADVERTISING 

VP, ADVERTISING 

Susan Uhrlass 

63 Copps Hill Road 

Ridgefield, CT USA 06877 

susan@boxoffice.com 

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BOXOFFICE ® (ISSN 0006-8527), Volume 155, Number 10, October 

2019. BOXOFFICE ® is published monthly by Box Office Media 

LLC, 63 Copps Hill Road, Ridgefield, CT USA 06877, USA. corporate@boxoffice.com. 

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WOMEN IN EXHIBITION 

EXPANDS ITS OUTREACH 

AT SHOWEAST 

>> Women in Exhibition (WIE), a 

nonprofit organization created earlier 

this year for working professionals in 

cinema exhibition, will further expand its 

outreach and presence during this year’s 

ShowEast at the Fontainebleau Hotel, in 

Miami, Florida, October 14–17. 

WIE officially launched during 

the 2019 Geneva Convention in Lake 

Geneva, Wisconsin, where it presented 

the “Women in Exhibition” panel session 

during the conference. The panel included 

founding member and president, 

Heather Blair, who also spearheads the 

foundation; Melissa Boudreau, chief marketing 

officer, Emagine Entertainment; 

Kim Lueck, V.P. technology and chief 

information officer, The Marcus Corporation; 

Darryl Schaffer, EVP, operations 

and exhibitor relations, Screenvision; and 

Gina DiSanto, NATO of Pennsylvania, 

Independent Cinema Alliance. Rebecca 

Pahle of Boxoffice Pro moderated. 

As the foundation grows, the intention 

is to help bridge global cinema 

communities by identifying important 

women’s initiatives and addressing them 

through mentoring, education, and 

support programs. By fostering platforms 

for women entering exhibition for the 

first time, or those who are transitioning 

careers, WIE understands the constantly 

changing worlds in exhibition and the 

benefits of having valuable resources to 

succeed. Career opportunities, education, 

and guidance are key WIE objectives as it 

continues to formulate its programs. 

Outreach efforts by founding members 

that began last spring when WIE was 

first conceptualized have steadily grown 

its membership to nearly 100 professionals. 

During ShowEast, WIE will hold an 

informal reception to encourage other 

women to join and share their thoughts 

and ideas for cinema’s future. 

NEW ROLE FOR CRIPPS AT 

WARNER BROS. PICTURES 

>> Veteran film-distribution executive 

Andrew Cripps has been named president, 

international theatrical distribution, 

at Warner Bros. Pictures. The announcement 

was made by Ron Sanders, president, 

worldwide distribution, Warner 

Bros. Pictures, and president, Warner 

Bros. Home Entertainment, to whom 

Cripps will report. 

In his new role, Cripps will be responsible 

for overseeing all matters relating to 

the international theatrical distribution 

of the studio’s slate of motion pictures, 

which includes releases from Warner 

Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. 

He’ll also work closely with Sanders on 

the development of theatrical growth 

opportunities and additional revenue 

streams for the division, as well as oversee 

the team that manages sales and distribution 

efforts across Warner Bros.’ network 

of affiliates and licensees in more than 

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11

TRADE TALK 

125 territories worldwide. 

Cripps has more than three decades’ experience 

leading overseas theatrical distribution for a 

number of major Hollywood studios, including 

United International Pictures, Paramount, Imax, 

and, most recently, Fox. 

CJ 4DPLEX AND B&B TO LAUNCH 

SCREENX AMPHITHEATER 

>> CJ 4DPLEX, together with B&B Theatres, 

launched the world’s first-ever ScreenX Amphitheater 

in Overland Park, Kansas, inside B&B 

Overland Park 16. The newly arranged auditorium, 

which marks the second largest ScreenX theater 

in the world, opened to Warner Bros. Pictures’ It 

Chapter Two on September 6. 

ScreenX Amphitheater will feature projectors 

that line the ceilings of the auditorium, maximizing 

the view of the main screen and wings by up to 

50 degrees (22.5 on the left and 22.5 on the right) 

and project onto B&B’s signature Grand Screen 

(PLF). The ScreenX Amphitheater is equipped 

with heated leather recliners and DTS:X speakers 

embedded into the walls of the auditorium. 

This marks the second ScreenX auditorium 

with B&B Theatres. The first auditorium opened 

last year at B&B Theatres Liberty 12. Today, it is 

one of the top-performing ScreenX sites around 

the globe, where the latest ScreenX release, Sony 

Pictures’ Spider-Man: Far from Home, performed 

2.45 times higher than standard screens in its 

opening week. 

HUAXIA FILM DEBUTS CINITY 

CINEMA WITH GEMINI MAN 

TRAILER 

>> Huaxia Film Distribution Co. Ltd. held 

a launch in Beijing to formally introduce 

its Cinity Brand and the Cinity Cinema 

System, an innovation in advanced-format 

film projection. 

The event, themed “New Heights Lead to Premium 

Experience,” was graced by representatives from government 

organizations, film industry associations, and companies 

from the international 

film world. 

A trailer of Gemini 

Man, the new film by 

Oscar-winning director 

Ang Lee (Life of Pi, 

Brokeback Mountain), 

provided a showcase 

for the Cinity Cinema 

System. “When filming 

Gemini Man, we paid 

close attention to every 

small detail, trying to 

create a real-life impact 

with the help of technology. 

With the revolutionary 

Cinity Cinema 

system, we could achieve 

clearer and truer visual 

effects with a perfect 

presentation for 3-D at 

120fps, and 4K resolution details,” said Lee, 

who gave a video address to the audience at 

the launch event. 

Cinity is considered a trend for the 

future development of the film industry 

in China and around the world. “In the 

future, Cinity will lead the film industry 

into an unprecedented era of film-viewing. 

I will work together with Huaxia Film to produce more advanced-format 

movies to drive the long-term development of 

the film industry worldwide,” said Lee. 


TRADE TALK 

MARQUEE CINEMAS RENOVATES ITS 

CHARLESTON LOCATION 

>> Beckley, West Virginia–based Marquee Cinemas 

has begun renovations of its 12-screen theater 

located in Charleston, West Virginia. The theater 

will remain open during the remodel. 

Upon completion, all auditoriums will feature 

oversize luxury electric-powered recliners, including 

roomy armrests with cup holders and an elevated 

footrest. The highlight of the theater will be its two 

large-format Marquee Extreme Cinemas (MXC) 

auditoriums with 4K laser digital projection, new 

floating screens, and Dolby Atmos sound. 

Phase one will include studios 6–12, expected 

to be completed in late September. All studios 

will be equipped with new luxury seating, carpet, 

lighting, and sound panels. Phase two will follow 

with the completion of auditoriums 1–6 with a 

warm, contemporary, city-chic color palette for 

the lobby and common areas; new box office; 

concession stand with a Coke Freestyle machine; 

and completely remodeled restrooms. Expected to 

be completed in December, phase two will include 

digital displays, new wall coverings, carpet, and 

interior paint. The exterior elevation will encompass 

a blend of architectural design elements to 

complement the building. Project completion is 

scheduled for January 2020. 

Additionally, the theater will be adding reserved 

seating. Patrons may purchase their favorite seat 

prior to the movie, either online, at the box office, 

or at Marquee’s ticketing kiosk. 

KINEPOLIS ACQUIRES MJR 

>> European exhibition circuit Kinepolis announced its 

entry into the U.S. market through an agreement to acquire 

Michigan movie theater chain MJR Digital Cinemas. 

The deal will bring MJR’s 10 locations and 164 screens 

into the Kinepolis global network of theaters, which currently 

includes 97 cinemas and 884 screens in Belgium, Canada, 

the Netherlands, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, 

and Poland. 

The acquisition is valued at $152.25 million and includes 

a substantial corporation tax value of over $13 million. P.J. 

Solomon is serving as financial adviser and Honigman LLP as 

legal counsel to MJR Digital Cinemas. 

Kinepolis first entered the North American market with 

its acquisition of Landmark Cinemas, Canada’s second-largest 

circuit, in 2017. 

MJR is expected to continue operating under its existing 

brand name and retain current management, which will be 

integrated into the circuit at large by the European Kinepolis 

team and the Canadian Landmark team. 


TRADE TALK 

LINDE OFFERED MULTIYEAR DEAL 

WITH PARTICIPANT 

>> Media company Participant has extended David 

Linde’s contract as chief executive officer with a 

multiyear deal. 

Since joining Participant as CEO in late 2015, 

Linde has spearheaded the company’s realignment 

around its core content and social-impact imperatives 

and further positioned the company as a forerunner 

of impact media, the category that founder 

Jeff Skoll first conceptualized and began shaping at 

the company’s creation in 2004. 

During his tenure, Linde has overseen a content 

slate that has won 10 Oscars, including two Best 

Picture awards (for Green Book and Spotlight) and 

two Best Foreign-Language Film awards (Roma and 

A Fantastic Woman); rebuilt Participant’s global distribution 

structure across all platforms; restructured 

its approach to social impact with the hiring of 

chief impact officer Holly Gordon; and expanded 

the company’s content approach to include episodic 

television series and digital short-form video 

through the acquisition of SoulPancake. 

Last month at the Toronto International Film 

Festival, the company also announced a major 

rebrand that embodies Participant’s legacy of unifying 

art and activism, creativity and impact. 

“Since joining Participant, I’ve had the amazing 

opportunity of working with some of the most inspiring 

artists, thought-leaders, change-makers and 

professionals in our—or any—industry, all unified 

toward achieving a common goal: to create realworld 

change through the power of storytelling,” 

Linde said. “I’m incredibly grateful to Jeff’s passion 

and commitment and to his continued trust in me 

in helping carry out his vision of lasting impact.” 

GOLD MEDAL DEBUTS POPPER TECHNOLOGY 

>> Concessions equipment manufacturer Gold Medal Products 

Co. announced the launch of two new developments in 

popper technology: the Advanced Membrane 

Control Panel and the Touch Screen 

Control Panel, part of the PopClean Elite 

Series of poppers. 

The Advanced Membrane Control 

Panel is engineered to be convenient, 

sleek in design, and easy to operate. The 

membrane panel contains easy-to-understand 

icons and operating indicators. The 

Advanced Membrane Control Panel comes 

standard on any PopClean Elite Series 

Popper. There will be no price change 

from the previous pricing on the Pop- 

Clean Elite Series Poppers. 

The Touch Screen Control Panel has 

been launched as an optional upgrade. Its 

intuitive 7-inch touch screen display makes 

it simple to train employees, program 

recipes, reference videos, and access backof-house 

data. 

Adam Browning, president of Gold 

Medal, said, “Venues like movie theaters, 

stadiums, and other high-volume locations 

rely on having the best popper performance. 

Now, with the Advanced Membrane 

Control Panel and Touch Screen 

Control Panel, Gold Medal has raised the 

bar. This is the type of technology that translates into key 

advantages for our customers.” 


TRADE TALK 

AFIN TECHNOLOGIES 

ACQUIRES COUPON COMPANY 

ENTERTAINMENT 

>> Troy, Michigan–based promotional 

marketing company Entertainment has 

been acquired by Afin Technologies. Entertainment 

is the leading provider of local 

and national discount promotions in the 

U.S. and Canada. The deal means Afin 

Technologies will take over operation of 

the company, which connects businesses 

to consumers with promotional offers via 

physical coupons in its flagship Book, and 

through its Entertainment mobile app. 

As part of the deal, Afin will also take 

on fresh investment from Deepbridge 

Capital in the U.K. and investors in the 

U.S. This will support the creation of 50 

new jobs in Troy, Michigan, and 10 new 

jobs in Stockport in the U.K. Entertainment 

currently employs 77 people in 

the U.S. Afin Technologies was founded 

in Stockport, U.K.—initially under the 

name SurveyMe. 

The deal follows the U.S. launch of 

Afin’s Buxbo, a couponing app aimed 

at a young-adult audience, with a social 

gaming approach in which users team up 

to earn the best discounts. 

KINO ARENA AND 

MEDIAMATION TO OPEN 

FOUR MX4D AUDITORIUMS IN 

BULGARIA 

>> Kino Arena and MediaMation Inc. 

have signed an agreement to open four 

MX4D immersive auditoriums in Bulgaria. 

First up for an early fall opening is The 

Mall of Sofia. 

The imminent openings in Bulgaria 

mark the 24th country for MediaMation’s 

dedicated MX4D cinema auditoriums, 

now expected to exceed 400 installs this 

year worldwide. 

Upcoming releases in MX4D include 

the highly anticipated movies Terminator: 

Dark Fate, Charlie’s Angels, Jumanji: 

The Next Level, and Star Wars: The Rise of 

Skywalker. 

“MediaMation is proud to bring 

MX4D to the Bulgarian market in the 

beautiful Kino Arena theaters. They are 

great partners and we look forward to 

together presenting blockbusters in the 

coming years in our unique, fun, and immersive 

format,” said Howard Kiedaisch, 

CEO of MediaMation. 

“Kino Arena is constantly expanding 

its horizons and strives to offer audiences 

nothing less than the best cinemagoing 

experience. The installation of MX4D 

will allow us to continue delivering the 

latest cinematic innovations to make sure 

our customers have a better perception of 

the film content.” said Dimitar Manchev, 

CEO of Kino Arena. 

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA JOINS THEATEREARS 

>> TheaterEars, the app that empowers people to watch movies in the 

movie theater in Spanish, welcomes its newest global ambassador and investor: 

award-winning composer, lyricist, and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda 

(co-star of Mary Poppins Returns, right). As part of this new relationship, 

Miranda will create awareness among the Latinx and creative communities, 

as well as provide his expertise to the fast-growing start-up. 

“Shared family experiences are paramount in my household,” said 

Miranda. “As a member of the Latinx diaspora, English is not the only 

language spoken at home and in my family. Being able to go to see a 

movie as a family, thanks to TheaterEars, has opened a whole new world of 

entertainment for us to enjoy and discuss together regardless of ability to 

understand English.” 

To use the TheaterEars app, audiences can download the app and register 

an account, preferably before arriving at the theater. After selecting 

the movie, movie theater, and show time, the app will get the Spanish 

audio track on your phone. Once at the theater, open up the app, connect 

the earbuds, and press play once the movie begins. Within seconds, 

moviegoers will hear the movie in their ears in Spanish in perfect sync 

with the big screen. 

“We are truly honored that someone of Lin-Manuel’s talent and intelligence 

has recognized the value of our efforts,” said Dan Mangru, CEO 

of TheaterEars. “We’ve seen what a powerful voice for good Lin-Manuel 

can be, especially with all of the great work he has done for Puerto Rico 

and the Hispanic community. We share a common mission: to empower 

moviegoing audiences everywhere, regardless of language.” 


MEMBERSHIP NEWS 

BY DAVID BINET, DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP, NATO 

SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY 

AND SOME HOME COOKIN’ 

NATO STAFF HITS THE ROAD TO VISIT 

MEMBER LOCATIONS 

disarming. So once we arrived and quickly savored 

the indoor air-conditioning (keep in mind that it 

was August in Alabama), Craig gave us the tour. 

The cinema only boasts two regular auditoriums, 

but they installed the latest technology in 

both houses. In addition to the dual-motor recliners 

and immersive audio, each seat has an iPad on 

which to order food and drinks from the kitchen. 

The pre-show includes a quick tutorial for how to 

order, although the process seems intuitive. Outside 

the auditoriums, a bar and sitting area greet 

customers once they enter the doors. The building 

also includes meeting rooms and kitchen facilities 

for private events. 

Following my visit, Craig was gracious enough 

to share some background about the business: 

DAVID BINET 

NEXUS CINEMA DINING 

MOBILE, ALABAMA 

www.nexuscinemadining.com 

Host: Craig R. Hall, Vice President & COO 

Visit Date: Tuesday, August 20, 2019 

Movie: Where’d You Go, Bernadette 

Menu Selections: Fried oyster sliders, sea 

salt & pepper fries, brownie à la mode, 

soda water 

>> On a recent road trip to my hometown, I had 

the opportunity to visit a NATO member cinema 

that only opened its doors in early 2018. I remember 

meeting the executive team of the yet-to-benamed 

Nexus Cinema Dining in Las Vegas for 

CinemaCon 2017. They were eager to learn more 

about the industry, and I was excited to meet a 

new cinema operator from old Mobile. We agreed 

that a visit to their facility on my next trip home 

was in order. So after a 14-hour, two-day car ride 

through the South, that promise was kept. 

Nexus Cinema Dining sits in the western part 

of Mobile, juuust inside the city line. Since Mobile 

Bay forms the eastern border of the city, any 

expansion has to go west. That is where many of 

the newer developments are located. They stand in 

contrast to the older architecture found closer to 

the more historic downtown and midtown areas. 

We met Craig Hall, vice president and COO 

of Nexus Cinema Dining. You cannot miss him. 

He has a big, bespectacled smile to go along with 

a deep and affable Southern accent. It is pleasantly 

What attracted you to the cinema industry and 

how did you start? 

We had a multimedia company that produced 

science-education videos and science fiction 

movies, so exhibition was something that always 

intrigued us. We did approximately 18 months 

of research (traveling the country looking at best 

practices, theater design, and technology) and 

decided that we could develop a product unique to 

our area that would fill a need in our community. 

What factors went into choosing the location of 

the dine-in cinema facility? 

This was an easy decision for us: we owned 

the building and had the square footage to 

renovate. While there are better locations for our 

concept, our location was more than adequate to 

start our venture. 

How have the extra amenities (e.g., iPads, 

double-motor recliners, immersive audio) been 

received by your patrons? 

We chose to stay at the top of the technology 

curve. Our every-seat iPad ordering system has 

been a major hit with our customers. The ability to 

order throughout the movie, get served, and then 

pay at your seat has brought a new level of convenience 

and comfort to our customers. They love 

the comfort of the dual-motor recliners that allow 

them to eat and watch comfortably. Lastly, we 

constantly get praised for the quality of the picture 

from our 4K laser projectors, and most amazing to 

our guests is the Dolby Atmos sound system. We 


chose to utilize a minimum of 50 speakers in our 

theaters and had Dolby engineers tune the room. 

That truly does immerse you in the movie experience. 

No more asking, “What did he say?” or being 

blown out by too loud of a setting. The statement 

we hear the most is, “I’m spoiled, and I will never 

go to another movie theater.” 

What is your biggest challenge with the cinema? 

(Does anything keep you up at night?) 

Everything! Paramount to us is maintaining 

a superior customer experience. I cannot control 

whether they will like the movie, but I can create 

an experience that will build value and satisfaction 

to the customer. I grew up in a time when going 

to the movies was an event, an experience; you remembered 

it even when you did not remember the 

movie. That is what we are delivering, and I believe 

it is the future of exhibition. 

What is your favorite movie, and what concessions/food 

would you have while watching it? 

Field of Dreams. I lost my dad many years ago, 

and I know he can’t come back, but I look forward 

to playing a game of catch with him when 

we meet again. 

There’s nothing better than hot buttery popcorn 

and a cold Diet Coke! 


21

CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 

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COCA-COLA’S KRISTA 

SCHULTE NAMED VARIETY’S 

TEXAN OF THE YEAR 

by Rebecca Pahle 

>> At this year’s CinéShow, held August 26–28 

in Dallas, Texas, The Coca-Cola Company’s Krista 

Schulte, senior vice president, strategic partnership 

marketing, was named 2019’s Texan of the Year by 

Variety of Texas. With the Texan of the Year Gala 

in the rearview mirror, Schulte took the time to 

speak with Boxoffice Pro about The Coca-Cola 

Company’s work with the charitable organization. 

Congratulations on being named Variety’s 

Texan of the Year. How was the event? 

It was fabulous. A very well-run organization. 

in bags, like it came 

from Santa, and we 

customize it to their 

names, et cetera, so 

that it’s a very personalized 

thing. And then 

Variety delivers those 

to the children for us. 

That sounds so 

lovely. 

It’s beautiful. It really 

is. It’s heartwarming, 

because some of the 

things they ask for are 

so simple, and we all 

take them for granted. 

Like a football. 

Are you from Texas originally? 

Technically, I was born in Chicago. But I 

consider myself a Texas girl, because I grew up in 

South Texas from the third grade on. I call that 

my home. 

Could you talk a bit about the work Coca-Cola 

does with Variety? 

Coca-Cola has been involved with Variety for 

multiple decades. I’m not exactly sure how far back 

it goes, but for a very long time. From a Coca-Cola 

perspective, we have people participate on boards. 

For example, I myself was on the Variety board 

here in Georgia, and we have others around the 

country. We support them in multiple ways. 

Helping them raise money is probably the primary 

way, because that’s how we can add the most value. 

We provide things like sponsorship dollars. We also 

provide access to trips and experiences and prizes 

that people can bid on in auctions, to help them 

raise money. In this case, at the Texas Variety event, 

we provided a trip that was bid on for the actual 

family that was being honored during the event. 

Also, some specific things that we do here in 

Atlanta is, for my division, we’ve picked the Variety 

Children’s Charity of Georgia chapter to be our 

charity of focus. And for over a decade we have 

been working with Variety to get a wish list from 

a group of children. We go shopping for those 

gifts and we have a wrapping party. And it’s one 

of the highlights of our year. We put all the gifts 

Part of your role 

with Coca-Cola is 

working with partner 

companies. Does 

that help you to 

contribute to Coca- 

Cola’s charity efforts? 

Absolutely. With many of our partnerships, we 

get access to tickets. It could be airline tickets, it 

could be hotel stays, it could be experiences at a 

theme park. Or custom, unique experiences, like 

a VIP trip. There are two ways we leverage these 

tickets. One of the primary ways is, of course, 

charitable giving. It’s a perfect way to help the 

charities—and also help our partners raise money 

for other such things on a charitable basis. And 

we also use the tickets for consumer promotions 

as well. 

And do you work with theater chains with 

some of these charity partnerships? 

A lot of times we do [form] tri-alliances, or 

three-way partnerships. You’ll see that happen very 

often. For example, a certain cinema partner or 

circuit will come up with an idea with us, and we’ll 

partner, for example, with [the theater circuit and 

a] regional theme park partner for a special experience. 

Or there could be a movie connection tied to 

the actual theme park. So we do that all the time. 

We use them as prizes within the promotions, 

inside the theater. 

KRISTA SCHULTE 



DESPICABLE ME 

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 

TROLLS 

Kids got out of 

the summer heat 

to see Despicable Me, 

The Secret Life of Pets, 

Trolls, and more at 

the Malco Kids Film 

Fest. 

MALCO KIDS RAISES MONEY FOR 

LOCAL CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS 

>> Malco Theatres is pleased to announce that the 2019 Kids 

Summer Film Fest generated $45,000 for local children’s hospitals. 

The annual festival offered reduced-admission family-favorite 

films on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the summer at 

multiple locations in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, 

Missouri, and Louisiana. 

Beneficiaries included Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital 

(Memphis, Tenn.), Arkansas Children’s Hospital (Little Rock), 

Blair Batson Children’s Hospital (Jackson, Miss.), Norton 

Children’s Hospital (Louisville, Ky.), Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s 

Hospital at Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.), and Children’s 

Hospital of New Orleans. 

B&B TEAMS WITH 

VARIETY FOR NEW 

INCLUSIVITY MEASURE 

>> Following a recent company-wide 

meeting, B&B 

Theatres was inspired to 

launch a nationwide inclusion 

initiative in an attempt 

to make moviegoing a fun 

family event every day—for 

every single person. 

B&B Theatres—which 

has engaged in charity work 

through partnerships with 

Variety – the Children’s 

As part of B&B Theatres’ new inclusion 

initiative, Variety KC provides backpacks 

with sensory aids that can be checked out 

at the box office. Launched in Kansas City, 

the initiative is expected to expand to other 

B&B markets 

Charity for many 

years—held meetings to answer the question: “How can 

we make it possible for more moviegoers to be comfortable 

and enjoy the movies, not just during sensory-friendly 

show times, but at all times?” Variety – the Children’s 

Charity of Kansas City, aka Variety KC, had some ideas. 

B&B Theatres’ initiative starts with staff training and an 

emphasis on inclusion. Knowledge will empower B&B team 

members to compassionately handle a potential disrupting event. 

In addition, Variety KC provides backpacks with sensory 

aids that can be checked out at the box office for free while at 

the movies. These backpacks include weighted blankets and 

noise-canceling headsets, among other items. 

“One out of every four families has a member with some 

sort of disability,” explains Deborah Wiebrecht, the executive 

director of Variety KC. “What B&B Theatres is doing is serving 

the entire population, when[ever] the family chooses to go to 

the movies—not [only] when a special night is made available. 

That is truly inclusion!” Adds Variety executive director Erica 

Lopez: “This progressive initiative from B&B Theatres goes hand 

in hand with Variety’s work to make inclusion a part of our daily 

lives. We are thrilled to partner with them to ensure that all 

guests have the best cinema experience possible.” 

B&B Theatres will promote this initiative in an attempt to 

lead the industry with inclusive efforts. This promotion will also 

improve awareness among theater patrons, who in turn may 

be more understanding. This initiative will be launched in the 

Kansas City area before expanding to other markets that B&B 

Theatres serves. 

“The moviegoing experience should be one of joy, magic, 

and entertainment, and we want to do all that we reasonably 

can to permit our guests to enjoy the magic of the movies in an 

atmosphere of comfort and security. These sensory kits will go 

a long way toward making that ambition a reality for many of 

our families and guests,” says Paul Farnsworth, director of public 

relations for B&B Theatres. 



VARIETY HONORS JACK 

KLINE OF CHRISTIE 

>> Variety – the Children’s Charity of 

Northern California has honored digital 

cinema pioneer Jack Kline—former 

chairman, president, and CEO (and 

currently executive adviser to the CEO) 

at Christie—for his community outreach 

and charitable activities. With a history 

of involvement with numerous charities, 

Kline was celebrated at the Variety Gold 

Heart Classic golf tournament on September 

20, 2019, in San Rafael, 

California. 

Ayesha Williamson, 

executive director at Variety 

Northern California, commented, 

“Alongside his many 

business achievements, Jack has 

always managed to volunteer a 

generous amount of his time to 

charity for many organizations, including 

Variety. Our patrons are extremely grateful 

for his dedication.” 

PHOTO: CHRISTIE 

Kazuhisa Kamiyama, 

chairman and CEO at Christie, 

added, “Jack’s exceptional 

qualities as a leader have set 

a performance standard at all 

levels of our company. The positive 

example he set in business 

extends to his endeavors outside 

of work, including his involvement 

with a wide variety of charities. This 

public acknowledgment of his public 

service effort is richly deserved.” 

STUDIO MOVIE GRILL FURTHER 

EXPANDS ITS MOVIES + MEALS 

PROGRAM WITH SCREENINGS OF 

ABOMINABLE 

>> In keeping with its mission to open hearts and minds one story 

at a time, SMG launched SMG Access nationwide last summer, the 

only movie theater loyalty program focused on helping underserved 

children and community members. Through their purchases, SMG 

guests are able to assist SMG outreach in offering movies and meals 

to local nonprofits and underserved community members. Since 

the program’s inception, multiple studios have joined the movement, 

offering screenings and giving SMG the opportunity to give 

back more than 14,000 Movies + Meals in the program’s first year. 

“SMG is thrilled and enormously grateful to announce that 

Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Pearl Studio 

have joined us in offering special screenings of Abominable in 

support of our Movies + Meals program. The film has a wonderful 

message about helping others and the importance of family. We 

are so thrilled to be able to bring the film to underserved children 

in our local communities,” said Lynne McQuaker, SMG’s senior 

SMG Access helps underserved children with its Movies + Meals program, featuring 

special screenings of Universal’s Abominable. 

director of P.R. and outreach. 

Said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic theatrical distribution: 

“We are delighted to support SMG’s efforts by offering 

screenings of Abominable to local nonprofits providing services 

to underserved children in their communities and to join SMG 

guests in supporting purposeful outreach and a loyalty program 

designed to give back to local community members through Movies 

+ Meals. Abominable celebrates friendships and the importance 

of family, and we can’t think of a better partner to help spread that 

message of kindness and empowerment than SMG.” 

UNIVERSAL EXECUTIVE 

JOHN C. HALL HONORED 

BY STEP FOR HIS 

CHARITABLE WORK 

>> John C. Hall, executive vice president, 

distribution and marketing, at Universal 

Pictures, was recognized by STEP 

(Success through Education Program) 

during their 20th-anniversary An Affair 

to Remember gala. 

Hall’s unwavering support of organizations 

like STEP made him the perfect 

candidate for this award. Rocky Peter, 

a former “American Idol” contestant, 

serenaded the crowd before the evening 

culminated in a major donation 

from Variety of Southern California. 

STEP has raised over 

$1 million to provide inner city 

students the opportunity to 

receive a quality education. 

Hall started in the business 

over 20 years ago and has made 

philanthropy a central part of 

his life’s work. His tenure has seen him 

working on the marketing and distribution 

campaigns for over 350 theatrical 

releases, including major franchise titles, 

Oscar winners, and dozens of blockbusters. 

His altruistic side motivates him 

to serve on multiple charity 

boards and as a jury member at 

many renowned international 

film festivals. 

This spirit of altruism is 

also what drove Hall to both 

write the book Your Hollywood 

Pro: How To Make It in the 

Movie Business without Selling 

Out and co-found the nonprofit organization 

yourhollywoodpro.com, a unique 

mentorship portal that brings aspiring 

filmmakers together with seasoned entertainment 

industry veterans for one-onone 

advice. 


SOMETHING 

FOR EVERYONE 

TCM BIG SCREEN CLASSICS 

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY 

30 TH ANNIVERSARY 

GHOSTBUSTERS 

35 TH ANNIVERSARY 

© 2019 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

JAY AND 

SILENT BOB 

REBOOT 

BOLSHOI BALLET 

THE NUTCRACKER 

STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 

SPIRITED AWAY 

© 2019 Saban Films LLC 

INXS 

LIVE BABY LIVE 

© 2001 Studio Ghibli - NDDTM 

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL 

IN CINEMA 

FATHOMEVENTS.COM


PHOTO : ERIC CHARBONNEAU 

Michaela, aka Dazzling 

Wonder Girl, was treated 

by Lollipop Theater Network 

to the premiere of 

The Angry Birds Movie 2. 

(See our coverage of Lollipop’s 

Annual Superhero 

Walk in the June issue.) 

While it was Jojo Siwa 

(pictured) who caused 

Michaela to jump up and 

down with joy, Michaela 

was also thrilled to 

meet many other stars, 

including Josh Gad, Rachel 

Bloom, Viola Davis, 

Dove Cameron, Eugenio 

Derbez (Mom’s favorite!), 

Genesis Tennon, and 

Alessandra Rosaldo. The 

smile on Michaela’s face 

brought her mom to 

tears. 

Working with the Lionsgate team and longtime supporter 

Gerard Butler (center), Lollipop Theater Network treated 

two families from UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital to 

the Los Angeles premiere of Angel Has Fallen on August 

20. After watching the stars arrive on the red carpet, 

the families got a big surprise as the film’s star walked 

over to greet them. At the after-party, as Butler’s special 

guests, they were able to discuss the film with the star 

and meet other cast members. 

PHOTO : ERIC CHARBONNEAU 

UPCOMING EVENTS 

VARIETY – THE CHILDREN’S 

CHARITY OF ST. LOUIS 

Variety Theatre Presents 

Disney’s Mary Poppins 

October 18–27 / St. Louis, MO 

>> Variety Theatre’s 2019 production, 

Disney’s Mary Poppins, will bring this 

timeless story of magic and wonder to life 

like never before. Prepare to be inspired 

by the show’s talented children’s ensemble, 

comprising kids and teens of all abilities, 

as well as a professional cast and live 

orchestra. Dazzling sets, colorful costumes, 

memorable songs, and a classic story will 

combine to fill Touhill Performing Arts 

Center’s stage—and your heart—with joy. 

For tickets and show times, visit: www. 

touhill.org/events/detail/mary-poppins 

VARIETY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

28th Annual Golf Classic 

October 24 / Moorpark, CA 

>> Variety Southern California is 

hosting its 48th Annual Golf Classic on 

Thursday, October 24, at the beautiful 

Moorpark Golf Club in Moorpark, 

California. This year’s honorary golf chair 

is Mike Viane of STX Entertainment. 

This year, Variety anticipates yet another 

sellout exciting day with all proceeds 

benefiting children with special needs in 

Southern California. For more information, 

or to register, call Variety Southern 

California at (323) 655-1547. 

VARIETY DETROIT 

MaxMara Iconic Evening 

October 24 / Troy, MI 

>> On Thursday, October 24, the Max- 

Mara collection at Somerset Mall in Troy, 

Michigan, will support Variety Detroit. 

The evening will showcase their fall and 

winter line of clothes, with a portion of 

the proceeds from the evening going to 

support Variety. Please visit variety-detroit.com 

for more details. 

VARIETY NEW YORK 

Cocktail Party & Special Advance 

Screening 

November 6 / New York, NY 

>> Enjoy two hours of unlimited beer 

and wine, food, and an opportunity to 

chat before a special free advance screening 

of a major studio film at Manhattan’s 

Cinépolis Chelsea theater. Proceeds help 

children with special needs in New York 

City, Long Island, Connecticut, and parts 

of New Jersey. Tickets are available at 

www.varietyny.org/event. 

VARIETY DETROIT 

Variety Night Screening of A Beautiful 

Day in the Neighborhood 

November 21 / Bloomfield, MI 

>> On Thursday, November 21, Variety 

Night at The Maple in Bloomfield, 

Michigan, will hold an advance screening 

of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood 

to benefit Variety Detroit. Tickets can be 

purchased at themapletheater.com. 

Tom Hanks dons Fred Rogers’s famous cardigan in 

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. 


INDIE FOCUS 

b r o u g h t t o y o u b y 

SCREENS: 1 

CAPACITY: 46 seats 

DIGITAL GYM CINEMA 

SAN DIEGO, CA 

CONTRIBUTORS 

MOISES ESPARZA, PROGRAMMING MANAGER 

JUAN LOPEZ, CINEMA MANAGER 

HISTORY 

Digital Gym Cinema is part of Media Arts 

Center San Diego, a nonprofit organization that 

started 27 years ago with the San Diego Latino 

Film Festival, a yearly 11-day celebration of Latinx 

film, music, and art. Over the years, youth and 

teen film education programs were created. The 

organization moved to its current location in 2010, 

which used to be an auto-body shop. Over time 

the cinema concept was developed to cater to art 

house cinema, as the closest option at that time for 

those types of films was Landmark Theatres. The 

cinema opened in April 2013, and its current management 

team joined the organization in summer 

2013, initially as interns. Over the years their roles 

developed to include programming and cinema 

management. 

COMMUNITY 

Our audience is composed of film lovers. As an 


INDIE FOCUS 

film. We also host limited 

one-time screenings 

of theater productions 

or concerts such as the 

most recent sold-out 

screening of Iris: A 

Space Opera by Justice, a 

concert film of the electronic 

music duo Justice, 

distributed by CineLife 

Entertainment. 

I’M A LONER, DOTTIE. 

A REBEL. 

Outdoor summer 

screening featuring the 

cult hit Pee-wee’s Big 

Adventure 

art house cinema, we play films that are not 

typically part of a typical cinema’s slate, so 

people come to us for niche titles and films 

you can’t find anywhere else in the city. 

Our education programs attract students 

as young as 6 years old all the way to high 

school seniors. We teach the basics of filmmaking 

such as framing a shot, storyboarding, 

editing, and more! 

FOOD & BEVERAGE 

Our best seller is popcorn. After all, 

what’s a trip to the movies without popcorn? 

Apart from that, we don’t have a 

fountain soda machine—all our drinks are bottled. 

We don’t sell alcohol, but we carry a variety of craft 

sodas and snacks. 

PROGRAMMING 

Our films are typically not played anywhere else 

in the city, so we’re bringing really independent 

and limited-run films that are amazing but don’t 

always have as wide a distribution. We also partner 

with groups such as the Film Geeks San Diego, 

which organize yearly film series. This year they’re 

hosting Films of Pre-Code Hollywood or German 

Currents, the German Film Festival in San Diego, 

which organizes a monthly screening of a German 

GRASSROOTS 

MARKETING 

All of our marketing 

is essentially grassroots 

marketing. Since our 

films don’t have millions 

of dollars in marketing 

behind them, it forces 

us to be creative in 

getting the word out. 

For example, thanks to 

the Science on Screen 

grant provided to us 

by the Alfred P. Sloan 

Foundation, we were 

able to bring in speakers 

to films with a science 

component to come 

and talk about the science 

behind the films, 

including molecular 

biology or the science 

behind zombification. 

Apart from that, we also 

reach out directly to 

organizations when a film’s topic matter might appeal 

to it. These are some of the things that set our 

marketing apart from other cinemas in the area. 

CINEMA ADVERTISING 

On-screen advertising has been a great source 

of additional income at our theater. We’ve partnered 

with Spotlight Cinema Networks for about 

five years now, and our relationship with them has 

been great. I would highly recommend Spotlight 

to other art houses. They’ve been very attentive to 

our needs, and they make you feel like you’re their 

only client, even though they obviously manage a 

variety of other cinemas. 


TIMECODE 

BY KENNETH JAMES BACON 

THE EDITOR 

HAS HIS SAY 

BOXOFFICE FOUNDER BEN 

SHLYEN WROTE NEARLY 

3,000 EDITORIALS OVER 

A 55-YEAR CAREER. HERE 

ARE THREE. 

PART 10 OF OUR 12-PART DEEP 

DIVE INTO THE BOXOFFICE 

ARCHIVES 

>> As has been documented before, 

Kansas City–born Ben Shlyen founded 

this publication in 1920 when he was just 

18 years old—not even old enough to 

drink, though it became illegal to drink a 

week after he started this magazine (much 

to the delight of the Civella crime family). 

Sadly, we don’t have our very earliest 

issues, then called The Reel Journal; our 

archives begin in 1925. Here is a sampling 

of the precocious 23-year-old’s punchy 

prose from the January 24, 1925, issue: 

We don’t make it a habit to reviewing 

pictures, but when we see a fine one— 

one of real merit—we feel like getting up 

and shouting. 

At the Newman Theatre this week we 

saw such a picture—Broken Law. And what 

a picture! 

It will rank without doubt among the 

biggest pictures released during 1925 

and should register at the box office with 

greater success than did Human Wreckage, 

Mrs. Reid’s big hit of last year. [Dorothy 

Davenport was quaintly credited as Mrs. 

Wallace Reid.] 

ln Broken Laws, which is an F.B.O. production, 

there is much to commend. First, 

a story of strong human appeal; second, a 

cast of superb players: third, perfect continuity; 

fourth, intense interest and punch 

scenes that pack mighty big wallops; and 

many other elements that are so essential 

to a successful production. 

The story is so humanly simple, so naturally 

true to everyday life, that one cannot 

help but become wrapped up in it. The incidents 

that occur are nicely woven into the 

plot. The audience shrieked at the comedy 

situations and was held spellbound and 

quiet as the proverbial church mouse when 

the action reached its high points. … Broken 

Law is a masterpiece! Not an epic, not a 

history-making picture—but as nearly a 

perfect picture as one can hope for—a genuine 

box office attraction that will hit high 

money marks everywhere. [You can see an 

ad for this film in the back of this issue.] 

During the 1940s, Shlyen often 

addressed the war in Europe. Boxoffice 

was a big promoter of the war effort, and 

the somber covers did not feature any 

photography. The cover featured here 

(right) is from May 12, 1945, published 

just four days after Germany’s surrender. 

It was the first cover photograph since 

1938. Here is Shlyen’s editorial: 

Tuesday night the great white Statue of 

Liberty shone in a flood of light and its torch 

blazoned forth for the first time since Pearl 

Harbor. The dome of the Capitol in Washington 

again was floodlighted. Broadway, 

once more, was the Great White Way. And 

Main Streets the country over glistened in 

all their glory. In London, in Paris, in Moscow 

and throughout the liberated capitals 

of Europe, public buildings, thoroughfares 

and homes emerged from the darkness 

into light. For them it had been dark much 

longer than for their fellowmen in America. 

In America the lights in themselves 

gave off a sort of silent jubilation. For, 

while there was happiness that people 

felt within, it did not give way to external 

expression. The grim reality was plain: 

While, today, the lights are on on one side 

of the world, on the other side there still is 

darkness that must be lifted. 

There is realization of the high price in 

human life that was paid for the victory 

over a ruthless foe in Europe. There is realization 

that there lies ahead a Pacific war 

with its desperate conflicts. We must win 

that war as definitely and as finally as we 

have won in Europe, so the world may be 

free of threats to its peace for generations 

to come. 

All Americans thank God for the triumph 

of justice and for the fine young men 

and women in our armed forces whose immeasurable 

courage and amazing fortitude 

have made the European victory possible. 

To all those who have offered their 

lives and their services that liberty might 

triumph, we shall forever be indebted. 

No mere words can repay or replace. No 

amount of praise can be adequate. But we 

can all make a small payment on our great 

debt by pledging continued support and 

loyalty to their interests—in the buying and 

selling of more war bonds and in doing 

the necessary double duty to maintain our 

home industries for future well-being. 

We have gone two thirds of the distance 

to the goal of world peace. We are now on 

the homestretch. A rough, hard road lies 

ahead. But we can make it by continuing 

the team work through which the motion 

picture industry helped to achieve so 

much on the home front; in so thoroughly 

backing up the efforts of our fighting forces 

on the battle fronts. Let’s fight on with 

supreme confidence and keep on working 

together to hasten the day of an early and 

final triumph. A day when the light of liberty 

will shine again—all over the world. 


One of Shylen’s last bylines appeared 

over 55 years after his first, in the October 

9, 1978, issue (he sold the magazine a few 

months later). The topic—the lack of films 

for children—is notable in that it appeared 

in an issue that featured a porn movie on 

its cover. 

Kiddies matinees appear to have been 

almost totally abandoned during the past 

15 years in most areas, except, perhaps, for 

a few sponsored series during the school 

vacation months. It is realized that the 

additional supervision required for such 

showings hasn’t always appeared to be 

worth the effort involved; there have been 

instances of damage to theatre properties 

by unruly juveniles, and a few managers 

have complained that they did not care to 

work as “baby-sitters.” 

The possibilities for organizing children’s 

programs are almost endless, and 

there are numerous tie-ins to enhance the 

attractiveness of the entertainment package 

and to defray the cost. Area personalities 

whose names are a tremendous drawing 

card usually are delighted to cooperate with 

personal appearances. Business firms find 

such involvements profitable, both from the 

monetary and from the goodwill standpoint. 

Don’t forget the local library system. 

During the past couple of years, the 

media have had a field day with the “Why 

Johnny Can’t Read” problem which has 

beset our nation. Interestingly enough, 40 

years ago a metropolitan newspaper was 

quoted on this page as saying: “Since the 

motion picture took to the literary classics, 

children, and adults as well have been beating 

a path from the movies to the libraries ... 

This new development in juvenile education 

is impressing educators everywhere.” 

Obviously, what Johnny has lacked 

since TV became his sitter and mentor is 

genuine motivation! There has been no 

need to read. The adventures of cartoon 

creatures who are crushed by falling 

boulders and then leap over tall buildings 

a few seconds later do not, in all honestly, 

relate very well to any aspect of the reality 

that surrounds us. 

Of course, Johnny may not find the classics 

to his liking. However, with the current 

boom in book publishing, anyone undoubtedly 

could find a paperback somewhere 

which tells in depth the story of almost any 

film that is shown on the screen. 

Producers, too, might give serious 

thought, despite today’s inflated costs, to 

resuming the practice of making features 

designed expressly for the young set. We 

can recall the time, even back in the silent 

era, when substantial losses were incurred 

deliberately because of the awareness that 

these films would attract new audiences to 

theatres. Films of this genre even could be 

designed for the sole purpose of reinstating 

a long-lost theatrical institution: the 

family night. 

Today’s small losses can be the future’s 

huge profits. The building of theatre 

attendance by youngsters is building for this 

industry’s tomorrow. If it only cultivates the 

habit of regular weekly attendance, which 

can be nurtured through adolescence and 

into adulthood, it will have proven well 

worthwhile. 


35

CELEBRATING MOVIES 

ShowEast in Miami Beach Puts Films First 

BY KEVIN LALLY 

THE CAST OF RIAN JOHNSON’S WHODUNIT, KNIVES OUT 

Celebrating its 33rd year, ShowEast is the industry convention where the movies are front and center. 

The annual confab takes place at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach, October 14–17, in the early weeks 

of award season, making it a prime showcase for some of the year’s most anticipated films. 

>> At press time, ShowEast announced four movie 

screenings: Fox and Walt Disney Studios’ race car competition 

drama Ford v Ferrari, starring Matt Damon and 

Christian Bale; Fox Searchlight’s World War II satire Jojo 

Rabbit, directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok); Lionsgate’s 

comedic murder mystery Knives Out, starring Daniel 

Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, 

Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer, Don Johnson, LaKeith 

Stanfield, and Ana de Armas; and Neon’s Sundance Grand 

Jury Prize–winning prison drama Clemency, starring Alfre 

Woodard. In addition, Paramount Pictures and Warner 

Bros. will be unveiling “surprise” movies. 

The show will also offer two sessions of coming 

attractions, with distributors large and small providing 

sneak peeks at their upcoming product. The first follows 

the keynote address on Monday afternoon by Cineplex 

president/CEO and NATO chairman Ellis Jacob, with 

presentations by Sony Pictures Releasing, Entertainment 

Studios Motion Pictures, Neon, STX Entertainment, Fathom 

Events, 101 Studios, and Trafalgar Releasing. Part two 

happens on Tuesday morning, with previews from Focus 

Features, Lionsgate, United Artists Releasing, Universal 

Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, and Aviron Pictures. 

(continued on page 38) 


SHOWEAST 2019 

FORD V FERRARI 

JOJO RABBIT 

This year, ShowEast places a special focus on 

women in cinema, as The Coca-Cola Company 

presents the first annual ShowEast Empowerment 

Award to Elizabeth Frank, executive V.P., worldwide 

programming, and chief content officer at 

AMC Theatres. “The motion picture industry continues 

to thrive because executives like Elizabeth 

Frank have empowered others and approached the 

marketplace inclusively,” said Andrew Sunshine, 

president of Film Expo Group, which manages 

ShowEast. “With help from our friends at Coca-Cola, 

ShowEast has created the Empowerment 

Award to recognize industry champions of inclusion 

and diversity.” Frank will be part of a women’s 

leadership panel on Wednesday morning, October 

16, joined by Pat Gonzalez of Paramount Pictures, 

Darryl Schaffer of Screenvision, Anne Fitzgerald 

of Cineplex, Megan Colligan of Imax Corp., and 

Loren Nielsen of Xperi/DTS. 

Now that overseas grosses are such a huge part 

of any movie’s success story, the opening-day 

international program has become an essential part 

of the ShowEast schedule. Phil Clapp, CEO of the 

U.K. Cinema Association, will deliver the Monday 

morning keynote address analyzing the global 

cinema business, followed by distribution and 

marketing presentations from Paramount Pictures 

International, Sony Pictures Releasing International, 

and Warner Bros. Pictures International. 

The International Awards Luncheon this year 

honors Cinemark’s Alfredo Pourailly, Warner 

Bros. Pictures International’s Monique Esclavissat, 

United International Pictures’ Michael 

Murphy, and Disney’s Avengers: Endgame with 

Comscore’s Latin American Box Office Achievement 

Award. 

Then, a trio of business sessions commences 

at 4 p.m. Monday. Laura Houlgatte, CEO of the 

International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), leads 

a discussion on the progress made by the Global 

Cinema Federation since this new alliance of the 

world’s leading cinema operators was formed in 

summer 2017. Panelists include Eduardo Acuna of 

Cinépolis, Valmir Fernandes of Cinemark International, 

and Jackie Brenneman of NATO. 

Boxoffice Pro’s own Daniel Loria then 

moderates a panel on digital ticketing and engaging 

audiences online, featuring Mark Malinowski 

of National Amusements, Larry Etter of Malco 

Theatres, Kevin Shepela of Fandango, Max Lynn 

of Atom Tickets, and Steve Ochs of NCM. The 

final session, moderated by Cinionic CEO Wim 

Buyens, will seek to “demystify high frame rate 

and laser.” Panelists will include GDC Technology 

chairman and CEO Man-Nang Chong, Domien 

De Witte of Cinionic, and Brian Claypool of 

Christie Digital Systems. 

Other ShowEast highlights include the opening-night 

exhibitor relations soiree, a chance for 

distributors to network with exhibitors; the annual 

Hall of Fame induction ceremony saluting veteran 

executives; and the two-day trade show, Expo 2019. 

The show culminates with the closing-night 

awards ceremony. This year’s honorees are Mark 

Walukevich, Bill LeClair, and Duncan Short of 

National Amusements; Scott Forman of Warner 

Bros. Pictures; Joe Masher of Bow Tie Cinemas; 

David Linde of Participant Media; and Michael 

Rosenberg of Promotion in Motion, winner of 

the first NAC ShowEast Legacy Award. 



MARK WALUKEVICH 

A 

FORMIDABLE 

TRIO 

ShowEast Presents Its 2019 

Show ‘E’ Award to Three 

National Amusements Veterans 

by Daniel Loria and Kevin Lally 

>> The Dan Fellman Show “E” 

Award, ShowEast’s highest honor, 

this year goes not to an individual 

but to a trio of executives with a 

combined 113 years’ experience 

at National Amusements, North 

America’s 10th-largest theater 

circuit. Mark Walukevich, senior 

V.P. of film and event cinema 

worldwide; Duncan Short, 

senior V.P. of operations; and Bill 

LeClair, senior V.P. of food and 

beverage, will accept the prize 

during ShowEast’s closing-night 

award ceremony on October 17. 

“I started at National Amusements 

in 1980 as an advertising 

trainee,” Walukevich recalls. 

“The advertising department was 

a chaotic and demanding environment. 

Back in the ’80s, all of the advertising 

and show times were compiled manually, a job 

that was heavy on detail, timeliness, and accuracy. 

My longevity in the role was directly tied to not 

making a mistake. No detail was too insignificant 

to escape the eye of Sumner [circuit head Sumner 

Redstone], and if there was an error, you would 

hear about it.” 

Walukevich continues, “The transition from 

advertising to film booking was part of the 

overall plan, as both departments needed a liaison 

to communicate with each cinema regarding 

bookings and upcoming films. I was fortunate 

to have the opportunity to book our cinemas in 

Dayton, Washington, D.C., and Quad Cities, 

becoming part of the Monday morning booking 

team alongside George Levitt, Carl Reardon, 

and Sumner. In the midst of this environment, 

I learned the brazen language of the film buyer, 

among many other things. Most importantly, 

Sumner’s insistence that ‘good enough’ was never, 

ever good enough kept us motivated. 

“As we branched out internationally to the 

U.K., I took on the film buying role there, giving 

me the opportunity to travel and learn as much as 

possible about this new market. Later the company 

expanded into Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and 

Russia—each new territory providing new opportunities 

to collaborate with and learn from local 

partners. When George Levitt retired, I became 

senior V.P. of both domestic and international film 

and event cinema. Although more than half my 

career had been dedicated to international, the 

transition back to domestic was seamless, as most 

of the people I dealt with from the beginning were 

still in distribution.” 

“I started with National Amusements in the 

U.K. in 1987 and opened their first international 

multiplex cinema as the general manager,” Short 

recounts. “Prior to that, I had worked in cinema 

in the U.K. for 10 years—my current length of 

service in the cinema industry is now 41 years. 

While in the U.K., I enthusiastically got involved 

in the company’s international theater expansion 

into South America—specifically Chile and 

Argentina. Under my oversight, all new South 

American managers were trained in the U.K., and 

shortly thereafter I oversaw the management of all 

international operations. 

It was at this time it seemed most appropriate 

for me to relocate to our U.S.-based headquarters 

in Dedham, Massachusetts, as the director of international 

operations. 

In 2015, I assumed responsibility for all U.S. 

and international operations and was appointed 

senior V.P. I have proudly been living and working 

in the U.S. for 21 years, and I became a U.S. 

citizen in 2010.” 

LeClair has the longest National Amusements 

tenure of the trio. “I started in 1977 as an usher at 

Showcase Cinemas in West Springfield, Massachusetts. 

I worked my way up to an assistant manager. 

In 1980 I left Showcase to become a union 

projectionist. I returned to Showcase Cinemas in 

1983 as a manager. I think the core lesson I learned 

back then that still resonates today is the importance 

of customer service. You have to take care of 

your guest. I also learned that if you want to move 

ahead in a company, always have your replacement 

ready to take over for you.” 



DUNCAN SHORT 

He continues, “After returning to Showcase 

in 1983, I worked at various theater locations 

as managing director before being promoted to 

the operations department in the home office. I 

worked in operations for a number of years before 

being asked to move into the concessions department 

to help develop our U.S. concessions team. I 

continued to work my way up to my current role.” 

Working at a multinational circuit like National 

Amusements poses a special set of challenges. 

“Communication between territories is key,” 

Walukevich advises. “Lessons 

learned—or mistakes made—in 

one country may fit a need in another. 

Advance openings in other 

territories give you a feel for film 

expectations and performance 

elsewhere. However, our real 

strength lies with our team. Steve 

Cooper, Jack Monahan, Richard 

Leonard, Luiz Silva, and Mariela 

Mosso are highly regarded in their 

respective markets, are tremendously 

experienced, and are a 

pleasure to work with on a daily 

basis. We may be the oldest-tenured 

team in the business, with 

each member having decades of 

experience in the industry.” 

Short commends his management 

team as “highly flexible, given 

the need to adapt to the cultures, 

languages, and practices in multiple markets. 

In the international markets where large cinemas 

were just starting up, we were able to apply lessons 

learned from our longstanding, well-respected U.S. 

theater operation. Today, we actively seek to share 

best practices between all of our theaters in all of 

the markets where we operate.” 

LeClair’s concessions operation also encounters 

cultural differences. “There are a number of things 

that are different working with each country—just 

understanding the different cultures, from the way 

people greet each other to the foods they eat, For 

example, in the U.S. and Brazil we serve salted 

popcorn with butter-flavor topping; in the U.K. 

and Argentina we serve sweet popcorn that is actually 

popped with sugar. The U.K. loves their sweets 

and candy, whereas in Brazil they prefer nuts and 

fruits. Brazilians love their natural fruit juices. In 

the U.K. they love to drink their FCB [frozen carbonated 

beverage]. In the U.S. cocktails are huge 

sellers, but spirits sell less in the U.K. and South 

America, where we sell large amounts of beer.” 

The three executives have seen many dramatic 

changes over the decades. “I started in cinema 

when carbon arc projection was being phased out 

and Dolby stereo had just arrived,” Short notes. 

“I have seen cinema screen curtains disappear and 

multiscreening be the next big thing. Stadium-seat 

auditoriums vanished in favor of the parabolic 

curve. But the single most important concept I 

never lost sight of and that has guided me through 

the 41 years I have been in cinema is that we are in 

the entertainment business. This means knowing 

and caring about the entire customer journey. The 

customer experience starts the moment they decide 

to see a movie. We must do whatever it takes to 

make the entire customer-facing process a great 

experience—through new design, accessibility, 

technology, service, seating, the experience must 

be the modern-day version of what the old picture 

palace brought, that the total movie experience exceeds 

any other. Without doubt, cinema has had to 

adapt to changing circumstances, but through the 

years the industry has taken the twists and turns in 

the road and today the record-breaking box office 

results speak for themselves.” 

Walukevich observes, “With the prevalence of 

social media, patrons are better informed about 

upcoming releases, and this allows us to connect 

with them in a more direct manner. The growth 

of event cinema has also become an integral part 

of our strategy, as we create specialized experiences 

and diversify our programming as both an 

exhibitor and distributor. We are fortunate to have 

a talented team with Laura Correia, James Dobbin, 

and Beth Pridham leading programming and 

marketing efforts.” 

“I think expanded F&B has been a major 

change over the last number of years,” LeClair 

says, taking the culinary perspective. “When I first 

started in the cinemas, we sold popcorn, soda, and 

candy. Nowadays we have full kitchens in some 

locations, where we sell burgers and fries, steak 

tips and lobster. We have full lobby bars in most 

locations. Some theaters have restaurants in them, 

others have coffee shops.” 

Asked about the challenges facing exhibition 

today, Walukevich responds, “The one thing an 

exhibitor can truly control is the moviegoing 

experience. We must keep it relevant, fresh, and 



BILL LECLAIR 

adaptable to the changing needs and tastes of our 

audiences. The pressure from outside competition—whether 

that be Netflix or other streaming 

services—will always provide the motivation to 

change with the times, making the entertainment 

experience within our cinemas second to none.” 

Short adds, “Our challenges for the future 

continue as they have throughout the past. 

Watching a movie at the cinema is like no other 

moviegoing experience. We need to ensure that 

we maintain the window of opportunity to keep 

it that way.” 

The three have clearly had 

an impact at National Amusements, 

but who were some of 

their mentors along the way? 

Says Walukevich, “I’ve had the 

good fortune to work for the 

Redstone family, both Sumner 

and Shari. I also consider Ed 

Knudson, George Levitt, and 

Carl Reardon to be mentors as 

well. The learnings from each 

of them have been invaluable 

to me, both on a personal and 

professional level.” 

Short answers, “I have had 

the privilege to work with some 

terrific people over the years who 

have been very strong influences 

in my life. At the beginning of 

my career, my mentor, who I have 

maintained deep affection for, was Gerald Parkes—he 

was the first manager I worked under when 

I started. As an assistant manager, Gerald really 

understood what cinema was about. He was a real 

showman, and every moment I had the pleasure to 

work with him I consider to be a special moment. 

Gerald really shaped my thinking toward cinema 

for my future career. 

“John Bilsborough, the head of National 

Amusements’ international development, was extremely 

influential in my career and personal development. 

Even today, I try to think how J.B. would 

approach certain things. John was extraordinary at 

considering how to, rather than reasons not to. 

“Tad Jankowski, National Amusements’ executive 

vice president, continually challenges my 

thinking and pushes me to consider many options. 

There are always good solutions to be found and 

just as we agree and reach a comfort level on an 

initiative, Tad will ask, ‘What is next?’ Tad has 

enabled my thinking process to reach another 

level—which is awesome. 

“Finally and most importantly, [National 

Amusements president] Shari Redstone has been 

unbelievably influential in my career and personal 

development. Shari has been inspirational, her energy 

and excitement for the business and her confidence 

in our management team has allowed the 

individuals and the company to reach new heights 

of achievement. I feel very privileged to be part of 

the National Amusements exhibition team.” 

LeClair’s mentorship started at home. “Although 

my father never worked in this industry, I 

consider him my mentor. He taught me to go out 

in the world and to work hard and, more importantly, 

to treat everyone the way you would like to 

be treated—fairly and with respect.” 

In closing, we asked the trio to name 

their proudest accomplishments at National 

Amusements. 

“Selecting my proudest moment is a very 

difficult task because I have been given so many 

opportunities along the way,” Short says. “But a 

standout was when I was the general manager of 

the Showcase Cinema in Nottingham in the U.K. 

We had been open just one week and a middle-aged 

couple, the male being in a wheelchair, 

came up to me and thanked me for enabling them 

to be able to go to the cinema together. It was their 

very first date night out since the gentleman had 

been disabled many years prior in a car accident. I 

felt emotional at the time, and so many years later 

it still stays with me.” 

“The best thing about working for National 

Amusements,” LeClair says, “is that I have had the 

opportunity to work with so many great people 

along the way. I am so proud of the great group of 

people I work with, from all the staff in the theaters 

that are out there working the front lines, to 

our great group of managers, to all the folks I work 

with in the home office, to the best concessions 

teams anyone could ask for, that I work with in all 

our markets. It is all of them that make my job so 

much fun every day.” 

Walukevich concludes, “Being able to develop 

business opportunities and form lasting relationships 

worldwide over decades and the collaboration 

of our international teams makes me very proud, 

along with National Amusements being a successful 

and respected leader in each market.” 



EMPOWERED 

ELIZABETH 

AMCs’ Elizabeth Frank Receives ShowEast’s 

First-Ever Empowerment Award 


>> Wednesday, October 16, will see 

Elizabeth Frank, executive vice president, 

worldwide programming, and chief 

content officer at AMC Theatres, receive 

ShowEast’s first-ever Empowerment 

Award. Presented by The Coca-Cola 

Company, the Empowerment Award— 

per Andrew Sunshine, president of the 

Film Expo Group—recognizes “industry 

champions of inclusion and diversity.” 

“At Coca-Cola, we seek to empower 

women both in the workplace and 

throughout the world,” says Krista Schulte, 

Coca-Cola’s senior vice president, 

strategic partnership marketing. “We 

are honored to present Elizabeth Frank 

with the inaugural ShowEast Women’s 

Empowerment Award presented by 

Coca-Cola. Elizabeth Frank is a visionary 

leader who has decades of experience 

creating and executing successful growth 

strategies across industries and organizations. 

Her track record of delivering 

results is a testament to the value, leadership, 

and expertise she contributes to the 

cinema industry and beyond.” 

In advance of accepting the ShowEast 

Empowerment Award, Frank spoke with 

Boxoffice Pro about AMC’s dedication 

to diversity both on the screen and 

behind the scenes. 

Congratulations on receiving the 

ShowEast Empowerment Award. It 

must feel quite special, especially with 

this being the first time the award has 

been given. 

Thank you. Yes. Totally aside from 

me, I think that it’s a good thing for the 

whole industry to be focused more on 

inclusiveness and advancement of all 

different types of people, and also to continue 

to elevate the way we engage with 

all types of consumers in our theaters. 

There’s this narrative that streaming 

outfits like Netflix are the saviors of 

independent cinema, while theaters 

are best fit for big-budget tentpoles. 

What would be your response to that? 

We recently launched AMC Artisan 

Films at the end of June. The reason for 

this programming and marketing platform 

for us to make a very public corporate 

commitment [to independent film], is 

appreciating that there’s a need for many 

of our moviegoing consumers and many 

of our moviemaking talent to be able to 

connect. We have a unique opportunity as 

the largest exhibitor in the country—both 

of big, blockbuster films and of specialty 

films—to create a platform to connect the 

specialty moviemaker with the specialty 

movie lover. [The specialty movie market] 

is a significant business today, but it has 

the potential to be much, much bigger 

and stronger. So I think the narrative is 

off, to answer your question. 

AMC A-List has proven so successful— 

it puts you in a really strong position 

to gather data from customers and 

find out what specialty titles they 

might want to see. 

Exactly. And then the next step for 

us is to create a platform for those movie 

lovers to share and to recommend films 

to help others discover, because there’s so 

much about the moviegoing experience 

that’s really social and community-based. 

How important is diverse programming 

to AMC? Not independent titles 

per se, but niche genres like Bollywood, 

Latinx-targeted films, and faithbased 

content? 

They’re each very important. We program 

at the neighborhood level to find 

films that in some cases are alternative 

content—nontraditional films as well— 

that appeal most to local entertainment 

interests. And in some communities, a 

Bollywood film can be number one at the 

box office on a particular weekend. We 

have theaters that play Mandarin films. 

Both Chinese films and Mandarin-language 

versions of some blockbusters. We 

at AMC are committed to programming 

as diverse a set of entertainment options 

as the diverse audience that we serve. 

I go to the AMC Empire 25, where they 

have a lot of Asian titles. Every time I 

go to one, it’s always packed. The audience 

is obviously there. 

Some of the stuff is available online. 

In fact, a lot of the Chinese films are 

available pirated almost immediately. But 

seeing the films in theater is better, right? 

They’re funnier and scarier and more 

dramatic. That’s obviously a theme you’ve 

heard before, but it really is very true. 

What can companies like AMC do to increase 

diversity within the exhibition 

industry itself? 

I think some of it does start with the 

moviegoer and works back. We seek to 

employ people at the theater level who 

reflect the neighborhoods that they 

represent, and we seek to provide equal 

opportunity and training and advancement 

such that we pull that diversity 

from the neighborhoods up through our 

management ranks and into the corporate 

structure. That’s true from theater to 

management to corporate. [That’s also a 

goal] on the programming and film and 

marketing sides: recruiting and developing 

individuals who bring a whole variety 

of sensibilities to what we do. 

Something I’ve heard a lot in talking to 

women executives is the importance 

of giving people opportunities even if 


ELIZABETH FRANK 

they don’t feel like they’re ready for 

them, or even if they don’t look perfect 

on paper. 

I think that’s right. I think that individual 

passion and initiative go a long, 

long way. Being sensitive and receptive 

to ideas throughout the organization is 

important. And then giving people the 

opportunity to run with those ideas and 

for corporate leaders to both resource 

the ideas and to mentor the individual. I 

think that gets us all very, very far as an 

organization to being inclusive. 

I’m sure you’ve had moments early in 

your career when you thought, “Oh my 

God, I’m not ready for this. What am I 

doing?” I assume everyone has. 

Oh, for sure. 

But you were given those opportunities, 

and now look where you are. 

You have to be chasing something that 

you believe in. I think that’s where we 

see people succeed the most. You can see 

occasionally the contrary, where someone 

takes on the new project because they 

think it’s going to advance their career, 

whether or not they think the project is 

particularly important. I think that putting 

ambition ahead of purpose can work 

against people. 

What is the part of your job that you 

are most passionate about? 

I am most passionate about the team 

building of it, both within my groups 

but also across the company. The second 

thing I’m most excited about is the opportunity 

we have to connect filmmakers 

with their fans, building a much bigger 

business along the way. The third thing 

that I’m passionate about is using the 

data and insights that we have to figure 

out new and better ways to go about a 

business that’s existed for a hundred years 

and yet still has new things to be found 

and to be done. 

Are there any particular mentors that 

you had early on in your career who 

stand out to you now? 

There’s someone I worked with when 

I was first out of college who was a 

huge proponent of, “There’s no dumb 

question.” If it’s not clear to you, don’t 

assume it’s clear to anybody. So no 

matter what your role is, if you’re in 

the room and don’t understand, have 

the confidence to ask. I think that was 

really good advice, and it was especially 

good advice to give to someone who 

was junior and who was only going to 

be able to ask questions as opposed to 

answer them. 

For any industry, that’s fitting advice, 

but especially in something like film 

exhibition, where outside-the-box 

thinking is so important. 

I worked for someone who was very 

focused on competitors. Her perspective 

was, “There is something you can learn 

from everyone.” As you think about the 

market around you, always be on the 

lookout for good ideas. As an exhibition 

industry, one of the things that make us 

the strongest industry is that we’re really 

good at learning from each other. 

How would you evaluate the progress 

that women have made in the 

exhibition business since you joined 

AMC in 2010? 

I can’t speak to the whole industry. I 

can tell you that AMC has a phenomenal 

group of female executives and rising 

stars and theater managers whom it’s an 

honor to work with, and it’s exciting to 

watch their careers progress over that 

time period. 

I think it is important to AMC 

that we’re providing opportunities for 

everyone to develop and advance their 

careers. We appreciate that in the past, 

not everybody had the same opportunities 

or felt as comfortable sharing their 

unique circumstances. 


47


AL SHAPIRO 

DISTINGUISHED 

SERVICE AWARD 

Joe Masher, Chief Operating Officer, Bow Tie Cinemas 

by Daniel Loria 

JOE MASHER 

>> Joe Masher’s experience in exhibition 

dates back to his childhood. At age 12, 

he took over duties as “rewind boy” at a 

seasonal theater. That informal experience 

would be the beginning of a decades-long 

career in the movie theater business. 

In 1990, Masher was working for 

Loews and looking after five “hard tops” 

and one drive-in theater for the circuit. 

Only four years later, he was transferred 

to New York City with a marquee assignment: 

opening the chain’s new showcase 

theater—the Lincoln Square 12—which 

featured the first Imax auditorium in a 

commercial theater. He would go on to 

open another major location for Loews in 

New York City—the Kips Bay 15. 

Masher joined Clearview Cinemas 

in 2000 as a division manager, assigned 

to northern New Jersey, New York’s 

Westchester and Rockland counties, and 

Connecticut—and went on to create the 

chain’s first training program for floor 

staff. He joined Bow Tie Cinemas in 

2004, where he currently serves as chief 

operating officer. His tenure as COO has 

included two high-profile acquisitions, 

Crown Theatres in 2005 and Clearview 

Cinemas in 2013. 

Boxoffice Pro spoke with Masher 

about his career in exhibition ahead of 

his being honored at ShowEast 2019 

with the event’s Al Shapiro Distinguished 

Service Award. 

You got your start at an early age in 

this business. How did you come to 

find yourself in the projection booth? 

I started out by running 35-millimeter 

carbon arc projectors, at age 12, in the 

summers at a seasonal theater, but my 

professional career started at the Mohawk 

Mall Cinemas in Schenectady, New York, 

when I was just 14. I ran the projectors, 

sold concessions and tickets, and ushered 

at the seven-screen multiplex. I attended a 

small college in way upstate New York for 

a semester and was an assistant manager 

at the State Theater in Tupper Lake, New 

York, for a few months before going back 

to Loews while I finished my education. 

You were actually promoted to a manager 

at an early age. What was that 

experience like? 

I became the general manager of the 

long-gone Loews Cinema 7 in Latham, 

New York, when I was 17. It was a 

single-screen “dollar house” that was very 

busy. The theater was called “Cinema 7” 

because it was on Route 7 and was built 

before seven-screen theaters existed. We’d 

fill the 503-seat house nearly every Friday 

and Saturday night! 

After it closed, I opened the Rotterdam 

Square 6 in Schenectady, and in 

1990 I was transferred to Binghamton, 

New York. I spent four years there, where 

I oversaw the market transition from a 

triplex, a twin, five singles, and a drivein 

to one new 9-screen theater in Vestal, 

New York. 

That’s when the opportunity to come 

to New York City arrived. And it wasn’t 

just any movie theater—this was a 

prestige assignment. Where did your 

career take you from there? 

I was summoned to New York City in 

1994 to open what would quickly become 

the world’s busiest movie theater, the 

Sony/Loews Lincoln Square 12 & Imax 

Theater in Manhattan. I was there for the 

first five years of its life and met tons of 

celebrities at our weekly premieres. I next 

opened Kips Bay in Manhattan for Loews 

in 1999, then in 2000 joined Clearview 

Cinemas, where I became a division manager 

for several locations in New Jersey, 

New York, and Connecticut. 

In 2004, I got the calling for my 

dream job and joined the Moss Family to 

transition B.S. Moss Theaters into Bow 

Tie Cinemas with the opening of our theater 

in New Haven, Connecticut. Several 

new locations and acquisitions followed, 

and I’m honored to have been the chief 

operating officer of this company for the 

past 15 years. 

Is there any experience from your 

early days in exhibition that you still 

benefit from today? 

I learned quickly that keeping a 



theater well-maintained, clean, and comfortable 

were the most important things that would keep 

guests returning. Adapting to meet the needs and 

demands of guests keeps our business relevant 

and strong. 

You are deeply involved with the Theatre Historical 

Society of America (THS). What is 

its mission? 

THS is an organization dedicated to preserving 

the history of theater buildings, primarily in 

North America. We have an extensive archive, 

housed at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, 

and publish a quarterly magazine featuring stories 

on theaters, operators, and other historical matters. 

I joined in 1994, thanks to my then-booker 

at Lincoln Square, Steve Bunnell. … I led the 

charge in 2018 to purchase the single-screen Hollywood 

Theater in Pittsburgh’s Dormont neighborhood, 

which is the last single-screen, first-run 

house in the Pittsburgh area. We have a partnership 

with the Pittsburgh Area Theatre Organ 

Society, and our house organ is played before the 

show on weekends. The theater has also been the 

home to The Rocky Horror Picture Show for many, 

many years now. 

After spending so much time in cinemas, do you 

have a favorite movie theater? 

I have too many favorites to list, but speaking 

as a theater-architecture fan, the Loew’s Kings in 

Brooklyn is truly a wonder. As far as going to the 

movies, I like to go to all of our theaters as a “customer” 

to observe the operation; lately it’s difficult 

to get my friends to go to theaters that don’t have 

recliners, elevated food offerings, and a bar. 

You’ve also been engaged on an industry-wide 

level through your work at NATO. What have 

been some of your proudest achievements in 

this part of your career? 

I was always on top of the heap in collections 

for Will Rogers and Variety – The Children’s 

Charity of New York during my years as a manager. 

I remember going on TV in New York City to 

present the “giant check” each year. That’s where I 

first met Charley Moss! 

With NATO of N.Y. State, I am leading the 

charge along with Bob Sunshine, our executive 

director, on many things including changing archaic 

alcoholic beverage laws with regard to movie 

theaters. I’ve also been part of successful regional 

lobbies against cup-size legislation, predictive 

scheduling laws, trailer decibel levels, and menu 

labeling. Nationally I’ve been lobbying as part 

of NATO’s Government Relations and Political 

Action Committees on Capitol Hill. 

Do you have a mentor or mentors who have 

been influential in your career? 

Early on, I was heavily influenced by my Loews 

division manager, Mike Aidala, who passed away 

recently. We stayed in touch until the end. He 

was an Italian immigrant with a very strong work 

ethic. I’d also have to say that at Loews, Cindy 

Cronkhite and Chuck Goldwater were the people 

who moved me up and up, eventually to Lincoln 

Square. Through all of it, though, the person who 

taught me the most, how to be humble, keep my 

head straight, and don’t sweat the small stuff, was 

industry legend Charley Moss. He is truly remarkable 

and his accomplishments are extraordinary. I 

work closely with Charley and his son, Ben, whose 

degree of knowledge is remarkable. It’s an honor 

to have been involved with the Moss family for the 

past 15 years. I’ve also gained a great deal of insight 

from John Fithian and Bob Sunshine, with all 

things NATO. 

What does the future hold for exhibition? What 

do you believe are the keys to sustaining longterm 

success in this industry? 

The first key to sustaining our industry is 

product. People will always want to have the outof-home 

shared experience, and as long as the 

product is good, that’s the first part. The amenities 

that theaters are offering these days are the 

second most important thing. We’ve converted 

theaters from sloped floor or stadium seating to 

recliner seating, and our occupancy percentages 

have increased dramatically. It’s amazing to ponder 

that with 60 to 70 percent less seating, you’re 

seeing amazing increases in attendance. Offering 

quality food and beverages has been instrumental 

in attracting some of those guests. I’ve heard 

guests saying that they now go to the movies two 

or three times as often as they did in the past. 

Going forward, it’s going to be interesting to see 

what the effect of shrinking windows has on our 

business, but you still can’t get the same, giant-screen, 

big-sound, shared experience at home 

than you can at a movie theater. 



A PASSION FOR 

PHILANTHROPY 

Warner Bros.’ Scott Forman Receives ShowEast 

Humanitarian Honor 

by Kevin Lally 

SCOTT FORMAN 

>> Scott Forman’s 

passion for philanthropy 

was ignited 

at a very young age, 

when the 9-year-old 

son of an exhibition 

family first visited 

the Variety Boys 

and Girls Club in 

the Boyle Heights 

neighborhood of Los 

Angeles. That was 

the beginning of a 

lifelong devotion to 

charitable work for 

the Warner Bros. executive 

V.P. and general 

sales manager for 

domestic theatrical 

distribution. Forman 

continues to support 

that club and is on 

the board of directors 

of Variety Tent 25 

and the Will Rogers 

Motion Pictures Pioneers 

Foundation. 

In 2007, Forman and his son Jeremy created 

Jr. Variety, the first teen-based industry charity of 

its kind. Forman was also a driving force in the 

establishment of the popular charity auctions at 

ShowEast, ShoWest, and CinemaCon. 

Forman began his distribution career at Columbia 

Pictures, then served as regional director for 

Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco at MGM/UA. 

He joined Warner Bros. in December 1989 and 

was promoted to his current post in March 2017. 

ShowEast 2019 will honor Forman with its 

prestigious Salah M. Hassanein Humanitarian 

Award at the show’s closing-night awards ceremony 

on October 17. Boxoffice Pro spoke to the 

veteran executive by phone. 

Tell me about your early exposure to the Variety 

Boys and Girls Club. 

The other side of my family is with the Pacific 

Theatres/Arclight circuit. My father is Jerry 

Forman, who ran the circuit for a long time. 

We moved down from the Pacific Northwest to 

Southern California in late 1971, and shortly 

thereafter, at the Halloween party in October 

of ’71, my dad asked me if I was interested in 

going down to the Variety Boys and Girls Club. 

And that started what has turned into a lifelong 

association for me with the Variety Boys and 

Girls Club. It was a chance to really see how less 

fortunate people live day in and day out and how 

appreciative they were for anything and everything 

that the club provided for them. It connected 

with me and has been something that helped 

anchor me for the rest of my life. 

Is this a tradition that your father was involved 

with too? 

I continued a family tradition of caring for the 

industry and giving back. No, they didn’t spend 

the time that I’ve spent at the Boys and Girls Club, 

but the Pacific side of the family—my father, [his 

cousin] Michael Forman, and now [Michael’s son] 

Chris, who runs Pacific—has always been very 

focused on industry philanthropies. My dad’s connection 

to the conventions goes back to his being 

one of the original visionaries to create ShoWest, 

which became CinemaCon, all with the notion 

of giving back to the industry that had given him 

so much, and trying to bring people together for 

the greater good of everybody instead of just being 

focused on one’s own company. 

These humanitarian efforts really do seem to 

be pervasive throughout the industry. 

Well, I think that’s one of the most special 

things about the work we get to do. Obviously, 

it can be a lot of fun to work in entertainment 

and to talk about movies and the like, but one of 

the things that really separate our business from 

so many others are the close connections and 

sometimes multigenerational family connections, 

a lot of them with strong regional circuits aligned 

with philanthropy and giving back. In the olden 

days of our industry, the places where the Variety 

tents popped up were usually based on there 

being large exhibition companies in those cities 

and families that were committed to philanthropy 


driving those tents, which helped Variety take off 

so many years ago. 

This spread to another generation with Jr. Variety. 

How did that come together? 

My mom and dad introduced me to the Variety 

Boys and Girls Club when I was 9. And at about 

that age, my oldest son, Jeremy, who’s now 26, and 

subsequently his sister, Felicia, who’s now 23, and 

our youngest son, Bailey, who’s now 20, I tried to 

get each of the kids involved in charity and started 

regular trips down to the Boys and Girls Club 

with them. And Jeremy, when he was in sixth or 

seventh grade, came to me and said, “Dad, I want 

to do more than just give away our old clothes and 

have you and Mom write checks. What can we do? 

What can me and my friends do?” And so Jeremy 

and I sat down and wrote up a program that 

became Jr. Variety, following the mission statement 

and the guidance of what big Variety does. I have 

always been involved with Tent 25 out of Southern 

California and was involved with International 

Variety for a while. We used the mission statement 

of Variety and created something that guided these 

kids. Jeremy and I started it, and then I brought in 

people from the industry, people like Pat Gonzalez 

from Paramount. During the nine and a half 

years that we had Jr. Variety up and running, Pat 

was my constant partner in philanthropy, as she 

is with all the philanthropic stuff I do. We put it 

into place when Jeremy entered ninth grade. It 

was for high school kids from different schools to 

come together, learn the basics of philanthropy 

and fundraising, and how to give back and make 

a difference. Many of these kids came from more 

affluent families and [the goal] was to get them in 

touch with the real world and let them experience 

what I experienced at the Variety Boys and Girls 

Club, that feeling of giving back and truly making 

a difference and being there to pick other people 

up instead of just always being on the receiving 

end. And with the industry support and a lot of 

support from people at Warner Bros., we were able 

to create something that was pretty special that 

brought a lot of kids together. I think we raised 

about $675,000 in those nine-plus years. 

But then my three kids aged out and I was 

looking to pass it on. And yes, it does take a decent 


53


amount of time and no one stepped up 

to continue it. But I hope and think that 

with all the kids that we put through the 

program—we had anywhere from 10 to 

15 kids on the board and they had regular 

monthly board meetings just like big 

Variety—I’m hopeful that they all got a 

little taste and flavor of what it is to be a 

philanthropist and to give back and help 

others, and hopefully throughout each 

of their lives they’ll go make a difference. 

Proudly, I can say that each of my kids has 

stayed involved and active, and whoever’s 

in town goes down to the Variety Boys 

and Girls Club Christmas party every year 

and they make a number of trips a year 

with me down to the club. I don’t know if 

they have the gene, but they certainly have 

the appreciation for philanthropic efforts 

and appreciation that we’re lucky to live 

the way we live, and if we can help others, 

great. And there’s been a tremendous 

amount of industry support to help us 

accomplish whatever we’ve accomplished. 

On top of all this, you started the charity 

auctions at ShoWest and ShowEast. 

Can you talk about the response 

you’ve gotten since that began? 

Again, it takes an army to get this 

stuff done. And you would be doing an 

injustice to give me all the credit for it. 

Mary Beth Garber and Pat Gonzalez 

were there with me when we created it. 

It was the idea of how to monetize some 

of these things that we had access to that 

because of our corporate responsibilities 

we couldn’t put on the internet. So we 

created the ShowEast and ShoWest options 

with the help of Mitch Neuhauser 

and the Sunshines—it was basically just 

going to them and saying, “Look, we run 

this convention and it’s a for-profit convention. 

There is not a philanthropic arm 

to the convention. What if we were to 

create an auction at these conventions?” 

And we brought all the materials and 

they helped us and allowed us space and 

supported our ability to put on an auction 

for delegates to bid and help make a 

difference in kids’ lives. And Mitch, along 

with the Sunshines, couldn’t have been 

better about it. We’ve had auctions now 

at ShoWest/CinemaCon and previously 

at ShowEast for a decade or so. 

Would you say that growing up in an 

exhibition family has given you an advantage 

in your job at Warner Bros.? 

I would certainly say I am very proud 

to be Jerry Forman’s son and to be part 

of the Forman family and what they’ve 

meant to the business and what they’ve 

contributed. Michael Forman and Chris 

Forman have had very deep philanthropy 

commitments at Pacific. And my dad’s 

been keenly at the forefront of running an 

awful lot of the industry-related conventions 

and causes for the greater good. 

So I think if you can get together with 

businesspeople and do business and have 

relationships, but also cross over for things 

like philanthropy and sports and other 

things in life, it’s gotta be an advantage. 

We all greatly respect leaders that we’ve 

worked with. I’m getting the award named 

after Salah Hassanein, and he recently 

passed away. I don’t think any of us in the 

industry don’t know who Salah was, any 

of us old enough to remember the Salahs, 

the Bernie Myersons, the Tom Sheraks of 

the world. It’s hard not to be impressed by 

the contributions these people have made 

to our industry and to society. 

You’ve been at Warner Bros. for 30 

years. Are there any secrets to your 

longevity there? 

Well, I don’t want to curse myself 

here. I would have to say that with all 

the philanthropy I’ve been able to do 

in my career, I wouldn’t have been able 

to do it if I didn’t have a boss like Jeff 

Goldstein who was willing to support the 

philanthropic endeavors that we’ve been 

committed to. And prior to Jeff, Dan 

Fellman. It takes a village to accomplish 

anything great, and it takes the team to 

do it. And I’ve been very blessed with 

having the Warner Bros. family and Jeff 

as a boss in particular, who not only 

would get involved but is very supportive. 

I wouldn’t be receiving this award, 

certainly, if I worked for someone who 

wasn’t a champion of charity themselves. 

As you know, it’s a turbulent time 

for the business, with new streaming 

services arriving and Disney and Fox 

merging. With all these seismic changes, 

what’s your general feeling about 

the future of the business? 

Well, I think we’ve run into seismic 

changes before with the invention of 

television and so many other things that 

have come our way. And every time 

there’s been a voice out there that said it 

was the end of what we’ve known, we’ve 

always reinvented ourselves and thrived. 

And I think we’ve seen, even with the 

conversations on windows and streaming 

and new things that challenge our business 

constantly, when there’s a movie that 

comes out that the public wants to see, 

the public finds it and all ships seem to 

rise. There has been so much talk over the 

last few years of where the industry was 

going and streaming and Netflix and windows, 

and last year was the biggest year 

in our industry’s history. And when you 

have interesting properties that are new, 

like Black Panther and Wonder Woman 

and Crazy Rich Asians that are celebrating 

all people, I think there’s a lot of opportunity 

out there for us to continue to find 

great stories and all celebrate an industry 

that’s been very good to us. 

During the golden age of Hollywood, 

every studio was known for its distinctive 

style, including Warner Bros. Does 

today’s Warner Bros. have a distinctive 

style that you can point to? 

Wow, that’s a good one. Well, for a 

long time we were based on the tentpole 

strategy at Warner Bros., and we still like 

to think we’re tentpole-driven. I think 

today we’re working harder than ever to 

be a best-in-class distribution company 

and the distribution company that exhibition 

most wants to work with, that 

gets the most out of their projects, and is 

a great partner. 


2019 ShowEast Award Recipients 

SHOWEAST EMPOWERMENT AWARD 

Elizabeth Frank, AMC Entertainment 

HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2019 INDUCTEES 

Lane Allen 

Bobbie Peterson 

Larry Allen 

Bruce Taffet 

Jennifer Amaya 

Dick Westerling 

Jack Kline 

Alan Davy 

Dan Fellman Show “E” Award 

Mark Walukevich, National Amusements 

Bill LeClair, National Amusements 

Duncan Short, National Amusements 

Al Shapiro Distinguished Service Award 

Joe Masher, Bow Tie Cinemas 

ShowEast Legacy Award 

Michael Rosenberg, Promotion in Motion 

FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT 

We Make The Brands You Love TM


MAKING A DIFFERENCE 

ShowEast Honors Participant’s David Linde with 

Bingham Ray Spirit Award 

by Kevin Lally 

Prior to joining Participant, Linde 

was CEO of Lava Bear Films, which 

produced the Oscar-nominated sci-fi film 

Arrival. Earlier in his career, he was chairman 

of Universal Pictures and co-founder 

of leading specialty distributor Focus Features, 

formed when Universal acquired 

production company Good Machine, 

where Linde was a partner. 

In this exclusive Q&A, Linde looks 

back at his four years at Participant and 

ahead to the future. 

DAVID LINDE 

What are some of your proudest 

achievements at Participant? 

I am proud to lead a company comprised 

of creative individuals producing 

content and developing impact campaigns 

that, in collaboration with our 

distributors and impact partners, greatly 

expand the reach of the film. We’ve been 

blessed to work with filmmakers whose 

films have received 73 Oscar nominations 

and 18 wins since Participant’s 

inception, including two Best Picture 

Oscars, not to mention well over $2 billion 

in global box office. But that’s only 

the beginning. It’s the contribution that 

these films and campaigns provide in 

accelerating positive social change that 

so uniquely defines the company. 

>> Since 2012, ShowEast has given the 

Bingham Ray Spirit Award, named after 

the late independent film icon, to an 

individual who has “shown exemplary 

foresight and creativity in the world of 

independent film.” This year’s honoree— 

David Linde, CEO of Participant—is 

especially apropos, since Linde worked 

closely with Ray when Linde was president 

of Good Machine International, 

which represented the overseas markets 

for all productions from Ray’s company, 

October Films. 

Participant is dedicated to entertainment 

that inspires audiences to engage 

in positive social change, through both 

the content it produces and accompanying 

social impact campaigns. Its 

distinguished track record includes two 

Best Picture Oscar winners (Spotlight 

and Green Book), two foreign-language 

Oscar winners (A Fantastic Woman and 

Roma), and the Oscar-winning documentary 

An Inconvenient Truth. In 

mid-September, the company extended 

Linde’s contract with a multiyear deal 

and announced a rebrand focused on 

building collaborative, longer-term 

campaigns that incorporate the artist 

along with the company’s distributors 

and impact partners. 

“David has done an exceptional job taking 

Participant to new heights the last four 

years,” founder Jeff Skoll said. “He possesses 

a rare combination of entertainment 

industry acumen, keen artistic sensibility, 

and a true passion to make a difference in 

the world through storytelling.” 

Can you talk about any significant 

changes that came out of Participant 

movies and impact campaigns? 

Participant celebrated a banner 

year with its social impact campaigns, 

including for Roma, which we launched 

in partnership with the National Domestic 

Workers Alliance and CACEH in 

Mexico to increase visibility and value 

for domestic workers. In collaboration 

with those amazing partners, the Roma 

campaign recently helped accelerate the 

passing of legislation in Mexico’s Congress, 

giving 2.4 million domestic workers 

labor protections, including minimum 

wage, paid time off, and health care. In 

the U.S., Senator Kamala Harris and Rep. 

Pramila Jayapal introduced on July 15 the 

National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights 


in Washington, D.C., that would give 

greater rights to domestic workers. 

Moreover, in the past year, Participant 

also executed a multiphase, nationwide 

impact campaign around Steve James’s 

acclaimed docuseries “America to Me,” 

which helped seed a national conversation 

on issues of race and equity and inspired 

more than 1,800 confirmed watch 

groups with more than 17,000 participants 

across 44 states. This past month, 

Participant also launched a new national 

campaign tied to the release of our new 

documentary American Factory that aims 

to seed a conversation around the dignity 

of work, bring visibility to the fractured 

compact between workers and employers, 

and build support for a future of work 

that benefits everyone. 

At what point in the development/ 

production process does Participant 

usually get involved with a project? 

Preferably, we are hands-on from the 

start. Participant produces and invests in 

a significant amount of content, probably 

more than people realize. Annually, that 

includes up to six narrative features, five 

to six documentary films, up to three 

episodic television series, and another 30 

hours of short-form video content for our 

YouTube channel, SoulPancake. We have 

an amazing team of executives developing 

ideas with filmmakers on a constant basis. 

While we will, on occasion, acquire a film 

for distribution (as we did with RBG), 

our preference is to integrate ourselves 

with the filmmakers as early as possible. 

Here in 2019, what is the public 

appetite for the kinds of films 

Participant supports? 

Participant was founded by Jeff Skoll 

in 2014 based on his core belief that 

storytelling can be an immense source 

for social change. Since then, we’ve seen 

that, in some ways, the world has really 

caught up with this philosophy. Storytelling 

is more important than ever, and the 

rapid growth of the “conscious consumer” 

has completely changed how consumers 

engage around any transaction, including 

what content they prefer to consume. 

Nowhere is this more evident than among 

millennials, and we have worked hard to 

provide them with the forms of engagement 

they seek through our content. 

That’s a core example of why we succeed. 

Tell me about some of your 

upcoming releases. 

We have two releases coming up, Dark 

Waters and Just Mercy, the latter of which 

just premiered to incredible response at 

the Toronto International Film Festival. 

With Dark Waters, we’re honored 

to partner with visionary director Todd 

Haynes and producer/star Mark Ruffalo 

on this inspiring story, which is based on 

the New York Times magazine article “The 

Lawyer who Became DuPont’s Worst 

Nightmare.” The film tells the story of 

the one-man crusade that sought justice 

for a community exposed to pollution 

for decades by the unregulated dumping 

of industrial waste. It is literally David 

vs. Goliath and incredibly inspirational. 

Just Mercy, on the other hand, is the 

powerful story based on the life of Bryan 

Stevenson, the acclaimed public interest 

lawyer and founder and executive director 

of the Equal Justice Initiative. The film, 

which features tour de force performances 

from Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and 

Brie Larson, follows a young Stevenson 

(played by Jordan) as he takes the case of 

Walter McMillian who, in 1987, was sentenced 

to die for the murder of a white 

woman despite an abundance of evidence 

proving his innocence. These films are 

beautifully inspiring stories of the human 

condition and the power of compassion. 

During your four years at Participant, 

what have you learned about making 

your action campaigns more effective? 

In its heart, Participant is a partnership 

company, and the past four years has 

really solidified that for me. We partner 

with great artists, who foresee the most 

pressing issues of our time; with distributors, 

who provide the creativity to engage 

audiences; and with impact organizations, 

who are working day in and day 

out toward lasting change. The reality is 

that none of them are used to working 

together, yet when connected they create 

immense power. In effect, we are the 

“trust accelerator” that provides the glue 

that enables us all to succeed. 

Please share some memories of Bingham 

Ray and what made him a force in 

the independent film world. 

The simple truth is that Bingham 

was not only a mentor for me, but also 

someone who impacted my and many 

other careers in a way that would never 

have developed as they did without 

him. When we started Good Machine 

International, my partners and I knew 

that if it did not succeed, then Good 

Machine itself would struggle. And 

Bingham was the first person to say, “I 

believe in what you are building,” and 

hired us to handle the overseas distribution 

of the October Films slate. The 

growth of the company was directly 

connected to his support. Just being 

around him was such a joy—he elevated 

everyone around him with his imagination, 

skill, and commitment to doing 

what was best and what was right. And 

I’ll never forget the sound of his yelling 

out “Linde!!!” wherever we were and 

whenever he wanted something! 

How important is it that your films be 

seen in theaters? 

Our goal is to inspire audiences to 

create change, and what better way to do 

that than in a setting that unites people. 

The collective experience of watching a 

film in a theater is undeniably powerful, 

and when it comes to the films Participant 

produces, we take great pride in 

the fact that strangers gathering to watch 

them can leave with a new common 

understanding and connection. And 

while we recognize that technology has 

brought a distinct change in how audiences 

view films, we remain committed 

to the theatrical experience and working 

with the distribution and the exhibition 

community to promote the beauty of 

the medium. 


57


INTERNATIONAL 

DISTRIBUTOR OF THE 

YEAR 

Monique Esclavissat, Warner Bros. International 


>> Warner Bros. International makes a 

splash at this year’s ShowEast, with Monique 

Esclavissat, executive vice president 

international productions/acquisitions 

& Latin America distribution, receiving 

the show’s International Distributor of 

the Year honor at Monday’s International 

Awards Luncheon. After joining Warner 

Bros. in 1998, Esclavissat now oversees 

LATAM distribution and local-language 

productions, both key components of 

Warner Bros.’ overall operations. 

Though some of Warner Bros.’ more 

successful international releases may not 

have name recognition stateside—think 

the pair of movies based on the manga 

Gintama, which together made shy of 

$70 million in Japan—they’ve proven a 

valuable and lucrative component of the 

studio’s overall business strategy. Through 

investing in local product, the studio 

offers up a diversified film slate, cultivates 

enthusiasm among local audiences, and 

invests in filmmaking communities. 

For Warner Bros., an investment in 

local productions doesn’t come at the 

expense of studio fare. In Latin America, 

Warner Bros. is a dominating force 

in horror, with its popular Conjuring 

Universe—including spinoffs Annabelle, 

Annabelle 2, and The Nun—consistently 

pulling in big numbers. As of press time, 

It Chapter 2 is dominating the Mexican 

market, having easily grabbed the number 

one spot in its debut weekend. 

Esclavissat spoke to Boxoffice Pro 

about the current state of distribution and 

Warner Bros.’ Latin American operations. 

With Disney buying Fox, there’s now 

one less major competing for audience 

MONIQUE ESCLAVISSAT 

attention. Does that have any impact 

on how Warner Bros. operates? 

There are always plenty of companies 

and product competing for audience 

attention. The biggest impact on our 

business continues to be the changes 

in consumer taste and habits and 

the competition for their time and 

attention. It is more important than 

ever that W.B. focuses on its content 

[and] variety of offering and stays 

connected with its customers. 

In terms of international markets, 

which are the territories where you’re 

seeing rapid expansion? 

In Latin America, the region I 

manage, we are seeing big expansion in 

Colombia, Central America, and also 

markets like Peru and Bolivia. Exhibitors 

are investing in the region and opening 

as well as renovating cinemas, so we can 

together reach new audiences with our 

product. Even in more established markets 

like Mexico and Brazil, there are still 

areas that are underserved and offer good 

expansion opportunities. 

Though a love of movies is universal, 

there are different cultural nuances— 

not to mention government regulations!—that 

have to be considered 

when you’re distributing to so many 

different markets. What does Warner 

Bros. do to manage this challenge? 

We work hard, supported by talented 

local executives, to understand and build 

into our plans the specific cultural and 

economic considerations, alongside the 

moviegoing habits for each individual territory. 

Getting that mix right is essential 

to the success of our overall operation. 

Related to this, in a number of the key 

markets we also have a growing local 

production operation. Working with local 

production partners, we have the opportunity 

to find great local talent and more 

diverse voices, creating an increasingly 

diverse slate for moviegoers. 

What year did you first join Warner 

Bros., and how has the company 

changed in that time? 

I joined W.B. in 1998 and have enjoyed 

a great and varied career, working 

with industry colleagues across the international 

markets. I have been very lucky 

to be offered new opportunities in the 

20 years at the studio as changes have 

occurred across both distribution and 

local production. It has been incredibly 

rewarding to shepherd projects from 

the green-light stage to box office and 

awards success. 

It’s a particularly exciting time of 

change across the whole industry at 

present, including here at Warner Bros. 

with the arrival of our new CEO Ann 

Sarnoff and being part of WarnerMedia. 

Ultimately it is the product, the franchises, 

the talent, the filmmakers, [and] the 

relationships Warner Bros. has secured 


that continue to be essential. As are the 

people behind those choices, who have 

been crucial to our success as the business 

and the landscape have evolved. As we 

approach the celebration of the studio’s 

centenary in 2023, content is even more 

key. I’m looking forward to the many 

new films yet to come. 

What are some of the upcoming Warner 

Bros. movies that you’re the most 

excited about? 

That is a tough question and you 

won’t be surprised to hear that I’d 

commend our whole slate. Looking to 

2020 and beyond, I am very excited 

about our female-led films such as Birds 

of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation 

of One Harley Quinn) and Wonder 

Woman 1984; Christopher Nolan’s 

Tenet, because he always brings something 

different and challenges us and the 

audience in a great way; and our more 

family oriented titles such as S.C.O.O.B. 

and the Tom and Jerry movie, which are 

what the Latin American family audiences 

want to see. 

What are some of the Warner Bros. 

properties that do particularly well in 

Latin American markets? 

W.B. is the market leader for horror 

[and] has released the top eight all-time 

horror films in the region, including the 

hugely popular Conjuring Universe and 

It and It Chapter Two. The company’s 

superhero films consistently perform at 

the top of the market, with Justice League, 

Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and Aquaman 

each garnering close to or exceeding $100 

million in the region. As cinemagoing in 

Latin America is driven by families, other 

genres that have also done well are animation, 

family films, and action adventure. 

What are some international films 

that did particularly well in their local 

markets for Warner Bros. in 2018–19? 

Our recent successes have included 

films from many territories such as: Der 

Junge Muss An Die Frische Luft (Germany), 

$36 million; Gintama 2: Rules Are 

Made to Be Broken (Japan), $33 million; 

and The Witch (Korea), $27 million. 

How important is supporting local 

films to Warner Bros. international’s 

strategic vision? 

It is a very important part of the 

overall strategic vision. W.B. has been 

involved in local film production since 

2000. There is a strong appetite for local 

films that W.B. can participate in. It is 

a great complement to the U.S. studio 

product. We want to invest in local 

talent and promote local filmmaking 

and creativity. We can share our 

expertise and provide support to the 

local industry. As a result, we can also 

help expand local audiences by offering 

more diversified product, being more in 

tune with the local culture, identifying 

new opportunities, maybe even local 

talent that wants to come and do a film 

in Hollywood. 


59

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF CINEMAS / UNIC 

BUSTLING 

BELGIUM 

EXHIBITORS GATHER 

IN BRUSSELS FOR UNIC 

CINEMA DAYS 


>> On October 28 and 29, representatives from UNIC’s 38 

member countries (a warm Boxoffice Pro welcome to the 

trade group’s newest member, Cyprus) will convene at the 

Radisson Blu Royal in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the trends 

facing the exhibition industry this year. Digital platforms and 

premium experiences are two of the major topics on the docket—but, 

UNIC CEO Laura Houlgatte assures us, there’s plenty of 

downtime between sessions to catch up with cinema compatriots 

and hash out solutions to some of our industry’s challenges 

over coffee or a cocktail. 

After welcoming words from Houlgatte on the afternoon of the 

28th, Cinema Days will start with a keynote debate between film 

producer Louise Vesth and exhibitor—and recent winner of the 2019 

UNIC Achievement Award—Peter Fornstam, founder and managing 

director of Svenska Bio. Explains Houlgatte, “It will be a discussion 

like we’ve had in previous years, examining big topics in the industry 

and getting [the speakers’] feelings about what they think, where we’re 

going, and what are the trends.” Phil Clapp, CEO of the U.K. Cinema 

Association and president of UNIC, will moderate. 

Following that opening discussion is a panel on platforms titled, 

“Cinemas and tech giants – partners or competitors?” moderated by 

Sarah Lewthwaite of Movio. “Basically, are [platforms] friends or foes? 

Do you have to work with them? How can you work well with them? 

How do you manage your bargaining power?” says Houlgatte. That 

panel will be followed by another on premium experiences. Though 

cinemas will, of course, be represented, Houlgatte is particularly excited 

about bringing another voice to the table. An operatic voice, one might 

say. “When I think about premium, I think about the opera,” Houlgatte 

says. “It’s a very special experience. How do they manage to sell 

this and market it? What is premium for them?” 

Day two begins a series of six rapid-fire sessions, pairing quick 

presentations on a variety of subjects—H.R., accessibility, untapped audiences, 

auditorium design—paired with Q&As. “Really quick, really 

snappy,” says Houlgatte. “Just to make sure we keep everyone on their 

toes!” Following that come two parallel labs, one on cinema marketing 

and the other on technology. 

As in past years, the UNIC Cinema Days schedule is packed with 

“loads of coffee breaks, which people always like,” and long breaks 

for meals, giving attendees—Houlgatte estimates that people from 

between 20 and 25 countries will attend—ample time to network and 

discuss issues brought up during the official UNIC programming in 

more detail. “We have usually a nice dinner somewhere, to make sure 

everybody can network with everybody. That lasts for three or four 

hours. It’s much smaller than CineEurope, so it has a much more intimate 

feeling, if you can call it intimate with 150 people. But you see 

what I mean. As intimate as it can be! … It gives you the space to have 

a proper chat with people, and that’s what we really want to create with 

this kind of smaller event. People actually get the chance to talk to each 

other and interact with each other.” 



Frozen Forever 

DISNEY’S MEGA-HIT RETURNS FOR A SECOND SHOT 

AT WORLDWIDE SUCCESS 

BY REBECCA PAHLE 

There are a lot of questions the kids of the world—and their 

parents and their babysitters and childless adults who just like 

a good animated movie—have about Disney’s Frozen II, hitting 

theaters in North America on November 22. Will it replicate the 

charm and resonant message of the original? Has snow queen 

Elsa truly come to terms with her ice powers? Are we ever going 

to find out what happened to Anna and Elsa’s parents, who mysteriously 

disappeared when the sisters were young? 

And, above all: Will there be another “Let It Go”–style earworm? 

AUTUMNAL EPIC 

WITH ITS WIDE VISTAS, 

FROZEN II IS MEANT FOR THE 

BIGGEST SCREEN POSSIBLE 


63

At the Frozen II press day, held in Los Angeles in 

early September, the movie’s team was understandably 

close-lipped about many of the specifics. 

Still, there were hints to be found. Frozen II 

sees Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, reindeer Sven, and walking, talking 

snowman Olaf take to an enchanted forest to—just maaaybe—discover 

the source of Elsa’s ice powers. Along the way, 

they’ll meet several new characters, one of whom (voiced 

by Sterling K. Brown) will possibly provide insight into the 

childhood of Anna and Elsa’s father. 

Another newcomer to the franchise, “Westworld” star 

Evan Rachel Wood, voices Anna and Elsa’s mother in a 

flashback. Co-director Jennifer Lee played that role in the first 

film, delivering Queen Iduna’s only line—“She’s ice cold”— 

with … let’s just say, reasonable competence. Jokes Lee about 

not being recast: “It’s the first time I’d ever been fired.” 

As for the “Let It Go” question: Frozen II sees the return 

of the Frozen songwriting duo of Kristen Anderson-Lopez 

and Robert Lopez. And one of the musical numbers shown 

at the press day—Idina Menzel as Elsa belting out “Into the 

Unknown,” a classic Disney “I want” number—was stuck in 

my head for a few days. So … make your own guesses, but 

prepare to add another song to your karaoke repertoire just to 

be safe. 

(Another note for the musical hounds among Boxoffice 

Pro’s readership—Frozen’s filmmakers, despite casting 

Broadway star Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, didn’t actually have 

him sing. This time around, Lee assures, he’ll get to show off 

his pipes.) 

Explains Frozen II producer Peter Del Vecho—whose other 

credits with Disney include The Princess and the Frog, Winnie 

the Pooh, and the first Frozen—Disney “never makes sequels 

unless the filmmakers have a story to tell and a desire to tell 

it.” Frozen may have made over a billion dollars at the worldwide 

box office—one of only nine animated films to do so— 

but the existence of a sequel depended on Lee and co-director 

Chris Buck wanting another spin on the ice. 

“The funny thing is, when we finished Frozen, we were 

like, ‘We’re done!’” recalls Lee. Then came the 2015 short 

film Frozen Fever, which played in theaters alongside Disney’s 

live-action Cinderella remake. And all of a sudden, Lee and 

Buck found that they couldn’t quite “let it go” after all. 

Watching the animation dailies for Frozen Fever, Buck recalls, 

“was the first time we saw our characters moving again. 

It probably had been at least eight months or so. Almost a 

year. Just seeing them again, it was like seeing old friends. So 

we went, ‘Oh my gosh, I love these characters.’ We were also 

starting to think about what would be next for our characters. 

What would be true to these characters? What would be the 

next journey?” 

Buck’s and Lee’s own lives played a role in answering those 

questions. Both are parents dealing with the inevitability of 

BFFS FOR LIFE 

The friendship between a reindeer 

and a talking snowman. What could 

be better? 

IN TUNE 

Idina Menzel gives Elsa her powerhouse 

voice yet again with musical 

number “Into the Unknown.” 


ICE TO MEET YOU 

Anna meets new character 

Lieutenant Matthias, voiced by 

Sterling K. Brown. 

OCTOBER 2019 65

INTO THE UNKNOWN 

Judging by Anna and 

Elsa’s facial expressions, 

everything’s not fun and 

fancy-free in Frozen II. 

Sven the reindeer looks 

unconcerned. 

children growing up, going to college, and venturing 

out into the world. “As you grow up, things 

get thrown your way. Life isn’t as easy as it used to 

be. The first film wasn’t that easy for any of them!” 

Buck admits. “But this time, we went back to our 

kids. We were inspired by that. It’s that time of your 

life where you go, ‘OK, now what? What is the 

world going to offer me? What do I have to offer 

the world?’ The world gets a little more complex. 

There are a lot more questions for them as they go.” 

The development of the characters’ emotional 

maturity can be seen in Frozen II’s color palette, 

which has graduated from the ice blues and jewel 

tones of the first film to a more autumnal look. 

Hints of Anna and Elsa’s evolution can be 

found in a bit of character theory that the Frozen 

II team kept coming back to over the course of 

the press day. Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell), the 

young, peppy, optimistic girl surrounded by supernatural 

goings-on, is the archetypal fairy tale heroine. 

Elsa, on the other hand—whose ice powers are 

both a gift and an enormous responsibility—is a 

mythic heroine. “We had just come back from our 

research trip” to Norway, Iceland, and Finland, Lee 

recalls. “I happened to be in England and had a 

book on myths that I’d started reading. And [Chris 

and I] called each other and said, ‘Oh my gosh. 

Something’s coming to light.’” 

Elsa “carries a special power that can also be 

dangerous for her,” Lee says. “She will always be 

different.” As Elsa wrestles with her abilities, sister 

Anna “wants [Elsa] to be everything she deserves 

to be and wants her to be OK and not carry all the 

burdens of the world on her shoulders.” 

Frozen and Frozen II are Lee’s first and second 

films as a director—she wrote Frozen as well—and 

it’s her sureness about the inner lives of her characters 

that made jumping into the hot seat relatively 

seamless. “I want to say, when you were directing, 

how quickly you picked that up,” Del Vecho tells 


MOMMIE DEAREST 

Evan Rachel Wood joins 

the Frozen world as 

Anna and Elsa’s mother 

(above). 

Lee. “I know you went to school for it, but it was a 

really natural fit between [Lee and Buck]. It was a 

good balance.” 

Explains Lee: “What I was very anxious 

about—but at least felt secure about—is that 

Chris, as a veteran in animation, would know 

how to speak to all the production departments.” 

(Buck previously contributed Tarzan to the Disney 

canon, in addition to doing animation and 

design work on Pocahontas, The Little Mermaid, 

The Rescuers Down Under, and more.) “He would 

know how to speak to all the production departments. 

And I felt concerned. Would I come 

in and know what to say, to contribute? And I 

realized, one of the things [animators] rarely get 

is the writer in the room. And so I could always 

bring that point of view of what’s going on in 

[the characters’] heads. I never had to tell an 

animator what to do. My job was to say, ‘Here’s 

what the character is feeling.’ And we would talk 

about it so much that if [Chris] couldn’t be in 

the room I was OK, and vice versa, because we 

stayed connected.” 

Picking up the technical side of things “became 

much more intuitive, because you realize you’re 

working with the best in the world at their jobs. 

And your job is to make sure the vision of the film 

is clear and give them room and inspire them. 

[Chris] taught me that. I didn’t have to come into 

the room with all the technical knowledge. Over 

time, you start to know what artists can do and 

how to push.” 

As Elsa, Anna, and their crew venture out in 

search of answers, Buck notes, “an epic mystery 

starts to unfold.” All told, it’s a “bigger and more 

epic” experience than the first film. “We’re working 

on sound design right now, and you want to feel 

it,” adds Lee. “I want the seat to shake! Being immersed 

in the theater experience—certainly we’re 

aiming for that.” 

OCTOBER 2019 67

Skies Over the Pacific 

ROLAND EMMERICH’S WWII DRAMA DEBUTS 

AFTER DECADES IN THE MAKING 

BY JESSE RIFKIN 

>> June 1942’s Battle of Midway was a turning point on the 

Pacific front. The battle gave the Japanese their first major decisive 

loss at America’s hands after Pearl Harbor, at the cost of 

3,364 total dead on both sides. That monumental story comes 

to theaters on Friday, November 8, with Lionsgate’s Midway. 

Director Roland Emmerich has previously directed such blockbusters 

as Independence Day, The Day after Tomorrow, Godzilla, 

and The Patriot. He spoke to Boxoffice Pro about his 20-yearplus 

effort to get Midway made, directing foreign-language 

scenes for the first time in his career, and why today’s audiences 

have higher expectations for films based on true stories. 


You’d wanted to make your own version of this 

movie for more than 20 years. Why did it take 

so long to get this project off the ground? 

I had a huge deal at Sony Pictures, 21 or 22 

years ago. I was doing Godzilla for them, but I 

wanted to follow that up with something more 

realistic. I watched a lot of different documentaries, 

because I felt a big battle movie would be 

a great thing. I came across a documentary on the 

Battle of Midway and immediately fell in love with it. I 

went to [Sony’s then-chairman] John Calley, who also 

thought it was a really good idea. 

But at that time, it was much more difficult 

to make a movie like this, because visual effects—the 

water, the explosions—were just really 

difficult. He asked me if I could do it under 

$100 million. I said, “I don’t think I can.” So we 

had to go to the Japanese. They said, “We’re not 

financing a $120 million movie where we’re the 

losers.” At that time, a friend of mine was running 

TriStar Pictures, which also belonged to Sony/Columbia. 

They offered me the script of The Patriot. I fell in love 

with that, so that’s what I did. But I never, ever 

forgot that [Midway] story. 

Then maybe five years ago, I came across 

this young writer, Wes Tooke. I ask every young 

writer, “What is the picture which you think you 

should write?” Without even thinking, he said, 

“The Battle of Midway.” Oh, that’s interesting. We 

started talking and made the decision to develop a 

script together. That’s how it got started. 

The Patriot, which you directed, was about the 

American Revolutionary War. What was similar 

and different about directing a World War II 

movie? 

In the case of a Revolutionary War movie, 

you need a lot of muskets, a lot of people, a 

lot of horses. Only then can you start shooting. 

When you’re doing World War II sea battles, you 

realize there’s nothing left. Not one ship is still in its 

original state. What you learn pretty fast is you have to 

build everything, do a lot of CGI, a lot of blue screen. 

It’s a tough undertaking. And it’s a movie where you 

have to have really good visual effects, because if 

the visual effects don’t hold up, people immediately 

feel cheated. 

LUKE EVANS AS LIEUTENANT COMMANDER WADE MCCLUSKY 

MANDY MOORE AS ANNE BEST 

TADANOBU ASANO AS REAR ADMIRAL TAMON YAMAGUCHI 

PATRICK WILSON AS LIEUTENANT COMMANDER EDWIN T. LAYTON 

WOODY HARRELSON AS ADMIRAL CHESTER NIMITZ 

What were the other most challenging 

aspects of making this film? 

Let’s take an aircraft carrier. An aircraft carrier 

is quite big, so we had to build a big enough platform 

to sell it. Then you realize all this other stuff. 

You have to bring in wind machines, because 

these things drive by fast. All these endless things 

which add on, add on, add on. Then you realize 

that some of these planes no longer exist, and 

the ones that do aren’t the exact same color 

they were then. So we pretty much had to build 

everything. Then you do the flying scenes and 

realize, oh my God, most of the time their canopy’s 

open. So we had to give the cockpits wind. Endless stuff 

like that, which make the whole shoot quite challenging 

for everybody. 

But a nice thing when we came to Oahu and 

Pearl Harbor, they have a real submarine there. 

I asked very politely if maybe they could stop 

showing it to tourists. They closed it down for 

two days and we shot in a real submarine. It 

was pretty hot. It was super tight, too. The flight 

deck was shot on a stage in Montreal, which is the 

biggest indoor film stage in North America. It’s huge. 

That stage is 400 feet or something like that. 

What are some of your best stories from the set? 

The interesting thing for me was first we did 

all the American stuff, then at the very end it 

became a Japanese movie. It was kind of strange. 

I had never done that, to shoot a movie in a 

different language. But that’s maybe 25 or 30 percent 

of the film. I was quite nervous. People were 

speaking in Japanese and I don’t speak Japanese, so 

you turn around and talk to the woman you hired for 

that job. She’ll give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, or say, 

“This one line was not quite right.” They’re actually 

some of the strongest scenes. 

I very clearly realized the differences of culture. 

Everything is much stiffer; they don’t like to show 

emotions. So I didn’t move the camera much 

when it comes to the Japanese. It’s quite interesting 

to see the contrast between the American 

scenes and the Japanese scenes. When we tested 

it, it was quite nice to see the audience liked it very 

much. The Japanese are real characters and not just “the 

bad guys.” Because they were not bad guys, they were just 

doing their jobs—like everybody else. 

What other films did you look to when 

directing this? 

I have a couple of real favorite movies and I 

watched them all again. I watched A Bridge Too 

Far, which I think is probably one of the best war 

movies ever made. The Longest Day, which is also 

a great war movie. Then Steven Spielberg’s Saving 


69

AT THE MOVIES 

WITH ROLAND 

EMMERICH 

MOVIEGOING 

MEMORY 

“When I was in film 

school, I traveled to 

Paris. They showed the 

original English version 

of Close Encounters of 

the Third Kind in a big 

theater. After I saw it, 

I immediately lined up 

for the next screening.” 

AT THE 

CONCESSION STAND 

“Those little chocolate 

ice cream things [Dibs]. 

I forget what they’re 

called!” 

Private Ryan, which I also love a lot. I 

also saw Tora! Tora! Tora! again. That one 

actually had different directors for the 

American part and the Japanese part. 

Those were the movies I really studied 

carefully. It’s always interesting how other 

directors did it. 

Did you similarly consider getting a 

different director for the Japanese 

parts of Midway? 

No [laughs]. I like directing the whole 

movie. But even when doing the American 

parts, you constantly have all these 

military advisers around. They correct 

you, they correct the actors. As a director, 

you have to find the fine line—where you 

listen to them and where you don’t. 

We had this great old gentleman, 

Chuck, who was working in the ’60s on 

aircraft carriers. In the ’60s, they were still 

the aircraft carriers from World War II, but 

they had altered them. He gave us a lot of 

insight on how life on an aircraft carrier 

was. There’s a great documentary called 

Our Fighting Lady. It was shot in 1943 and 

won the Oscar for best documentary that 

year. We watched it together. 

Which of the film’s aspects diverge 

most from the history? 

Don’t forget, you have characters in 

there and dialogue for the historical figures, 

but you never know what they said 

exactly. So there’s always a certain dramatic 

license you have to use. But we tried to 

be as close as possible to history, because 

we felt that’s important. Naturally, it’s 

still a movie, not a documentary. So once 

in a while you have to tell it in a shorter 

form or a simpler form. The battle itself 

was a very complicated battle, so we tried 

to simplify it so people could understand 

what’s going on. 

Ten years ago or 15 years ago, you 

would have gone, “Let’s do this, let’s do 

that.” Today, you cannot [fabricate] as 

much anymore. I think because of the 

internet and people’s attitudes, it has 

changed. Real-life stories, people love 

them, but they want to have them more 

real-life now. For example, look at a movie 

like Pearl Harbor [the seventh highest-grossing 

film of 2001, even though 

it was critically panned]. I don’t know if 

it would be as successful today, because 

it’s just a totally invented story. They 

even used different planes! Today, people 

would not buy into that as much. 

The real Battle of Midway occurred 

in June. Was there any thought to 

releasing this movie in June? Most of 

your big-budget movies of the past 25 

years have been summer releases. 

I think it’s a good idea to release it on 

Veterans Day weekend. It feels better. In 

the summer, you would compete with 

other big movies. Veterans Day weekend 

is a better release date for us. I’m quite 

happy about that. 

In this era of streaming and home 

entertainment, why is it important for 

audiences to see this at a cinema? 

Because it’s a big movie [laughs]! I 

think when you see it, you will understand. 

The most exciting thing is our 

dive-bombing scenes. When you see it 

on a TV, you like it too, but it’s not as 

impressive. 


Two Smiths Are Better Than One 

ANG LEE PITS WILL SMITH 

AGAINST HIS YOUNGER SELF IN GEMINI MAN 

BY REBECCA PAHLE 

WILL SMITH 

>> Ang Lee has never been one for 

keeping still. Over his nearly three-decade 

career, the director has bounced around 

from the costume drama (Sense and 

Sensibility) to the sensual spy thriller (Lust, 

Caution) to the wuxia actioner (Crouching 

Tiger, Hidden Dragon) to the superhero film 

(Hulk), along the way winning Best Director 

honors at the Oscars for Brokeback 

Mountain and Life of Pi. A through line for 

the director is constant experimentation. 

That extends not just to genre but to technology, 

an area in which Lee has proven 

himself a pioneer. In 2012’s Life of Pi, he 

took 3-D to new heights. In 2016, he did 

the same thing—albeit to a less rapturous 

critical reception—with high frame rate in 

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, shot (and, in 

a select number of theaters, projected) in 

120 frames per second. 

Lee continues to push boundaries in his latest. In Gemini Man, out October 

11 from Paramount Pictures, Will Smith plays a hit man being hunted 

down by a younger clone of himself, also played by Smith. (A particularly 

fun bit of marketing saw a trailer begin with an introduction by Fresh 

Prince–era Smith, complete with camcorder artifacts and a JULY 25, 1989, 

time stamp: “So this is for myself like 30 years in the future. You should 

come back to Philly a lot, y’know, visit people. But also you should do a 

movie, like, called Gemini Man, and you should, like, release the trailer so 

people can see it. So that’s my advice for the future me.”) 

“More realism” was “a requirement” in making Smith into his younger 

self, Lee explains. “To make a young Will Smith that is Will Smith. Not 

casting another actor or hiring his son to do it or changing his hairstyle and 

makeup. So we have a different approach. A digital approach, that is.” 

Lee’s dedication to the cutting-edge in filmmaking was put on display 

at this year’s CinemaCon, where he was on hand to help launch the Cinity 

Cinema System. A joint venture between Christie Digital Systems, GDC 

Technology Limited, and the China-based Huaxia Film Distribution Co., 

Cinity was designed to provide a new standard in digital projection for advanced-format 

movies. Officially introduced to the world—or at least lucky 

attendees at Huaxia’s late-August Beijing event—with an advanced-format 

trailer for Gemini Man, Cinity is capable of projecting the film the way Lee, 


WILL SMITH WITH DIRECTOR ANG LEE 

with cinematographer Dion Beebe, shot 

it: 120FOPS, 4K, 3-D. Lee serves as a 

consultant in the creation of the Cinity 

Film Lab, which will facilitate experimentation 

in the area of advanced-format 

filmmaking. 

Speaking over the phone, Lee went 

into more depth about his digital philosophy, 

as it pertains to both filmmaking 

and showing the art of film to the world. 

You shot using high frame rate in 

Billy Lynn, and now again with 

Gemini Man. It’s only been a few 

years between the two films, but 

technology can move pretty fast. How 

has digital filmmaking evolved for 

you in that time? 

Well, I’ve found it’s a new language 

since I did Life of Pi. In Life of Pi, I used 

a very small amount of 3-D. It was kind 

of flat. It was 3-D, but not 3-D as I think 

it ought to be. Because when I tried that, 

it was very strobe-y. You cannot watch it. 

Things looked strange to me. Lighting. 

Acting. Everything about the movie feels 

a little strange. So I began to ponder: The 

movie I believed in since childhood— 

what happened to it? I started to ask 

questions I never asked before. Ten years 

later, I’m still searching. 

It’s a new type of language, a new 

expression, a new way of absorbing dramatic 

events. I’m in the process of that. 

I learned that around a hundred frames 

per second, the strobe left, and I could 

stare at 3-D comfortably. But I found 

many questions. So I started to strip off 

a lot of artifice that comes along with 

moviemaking and movie viewing. And 

that’s a strange place. 

I found a unique story, which is Billy 

Lynn’s story [in which a soldier returns 

from war to participate in a football 

half-time show]. You take the war and 

compare it to the half-time show. That 

was the idea. Apparently, people would 

rather watch the half-time show. They 

didn’t want to go to war! That was that 

experience. A quite precious experience. 

I was very proud. Everybody who 

worked with me jumped in and took a 

huge leap. 

So here comes Gemini Man, which is 

a genre film. And you have a big movie 

star. I tried to make it look different 

than [if it had been shot on] film. Last 

time I was imitating life, and this time I 

try to make it pretty. This time I jumped 

to the opposite direction and tried to 

find an aesthetic I think digital filmmaking 

ought to have. That’s the experiment. 

That’s a test. It’s a leap of faith. We took 


73

many things on. One big thing is young 

Will Smith, of course, which [is the sort 

of thing that] has never really been done 

before. And we’ll just see if people like 

the look this time. 

When I got into [Gemini Man], it 

was really humbling. A lot of what I 

know doesn’t really work. Some works. 

Some doesn’t. I have to make believe. 

How do I bring people into this story, 

into this situation? It’s not just adding a 

[third] dimension—the whole rules of the 

game have to change somehow. 

Whether you’re looking at something 

like Gemini Man and Life of Pi or 

something less technically advanced, 

like The Ice Storm or Lust, Caution, 

your films are always real visual 

experiences. 

People say “Story, story, story.” I don’t 

quite buy that. I think cinema can do a lot 

more than just storytelling. It’s a precious 

experience. Whether you’re making it or 

people are watching that story, they go 

through something. How you connect 

with the media, how they experience the 

movie at the moment, and how it changes 

your life afterwards. I think it all counts. 

It’s more than just telling a story or portraying 

a theme. It’s an experience only a 

movie can express. You cannot write about 

it. It’s a provocation. It should make you 

feel. I think that’s very important. 

It’s using image to evoke emotion in 

the minds of moviegoers. 

The viewer is creating their story, their 

experience. I rather think it’s a mystery, 

that we never know what we’re doing. 

I do have this superstition—we’re not 

supposed to know! 

With characters that are—at least 

in part—digital creations, how do 

you balance hyper-realism with the 

emotion of the performances? 

[Digital technology is] a tool for your 

expression. I think it’s wrong [if only 

realism] is the goal. I think [being] hightech 

can allow you to go to even more 

abstract, if you know how to use it. And I 

would like to see digital cinema go there 

someday. I think you can go to your subconsciousness 

or something more abstract 

[and] make more wonders with digital 

effects. And visual effects can become like 

visual art. 

The goal is to make your heart feel and 

your head think. It’s a provocation. 

In August, a Gemini Man trailer 

screened in Cinity Cinema. Have you 

gotten to see the film in Cinitiy yet? 

No. I was about to see it this Friday, 

but then we had some technical issue. I 

have to do it next week. I have not seen 

it! I saw like 15 minutes of a test two 

weeks ago, three weeks ago. Nobody 

really has seen the whole movie yet. 

From what I understand, the specs 

of how Cinity will screen Gemini Man 

matches how you filmed it—so this 

would be the best way to see the 

movie, no? 

Cinity is close to what I think digital 

cinema should be. It’s strobe-free. It 

looks brighter, so you don’t have to worry 

about bulb lighting. It’s digital. It’s more 

accurate, so your eyes can agree with each 

other and you can start doing dimensionalized 

filmmaking. We’re not ready for it 

yet. But I think that should be the standard. 

Last time I tried. This time I think 

we should have a little bit more high dynamic 

range. Cinity has all that. Huaxia, 

investing in Christie, they’ve created this 

new projector that has [all the basics of 

what I want from a digital projector]. 

I think you can have a good taste at 

60[fps] and 2K in a regular theater, which 

is how we’re going to release the film. In 

3-D we only provide 60 frames, which 

was blended down from 120 as we shot 

it. It comes down from 4K to 2K. And 

we’ll provide whatever illuminance they 

have in the theater. Dolby Vision can 

show 120[fps], high dynamic range, and 

at 14 footlamberts. A regular 3-D theater 

can show seven footlamberts. [With 

those], we will only provide 60 frames 

per second, which we call 60 plus, or 3-D 

plus. It’s smoother than 60, because we 

blend two frames to one. 

With that, you have a really good 

taste of it. But, of course, Cinity is more 

perfect. That’s what we shot. 

So will any theaters in North America 

be equipped for the whole thing—4K, 

3-D, 120fps? 

No. Only in China. Since [Huaxia] 

invested in it, they’re only putting it in 

Chinese theaters. 

Gemini Man was your first time working 

with a new cinematographer— 

Dion Beebe [Memoirs of a Geisha, Collateral, 

Chicago]. 

Yes. I’m very lucky. He was willing to 

put aside everything he knows and try 

something different. I think most cinematographers 

will not do that. He knows so 

much about cinematography, and whether 

we use [his knowledge] and twist it or do 

something else, he is there to experiment, 

to discuss, to learn. The focus puller didn’t 

know how to [set focus for the shots]. The 

first shot, I said “See what I told you? I’ve 

been telling you for two months!” 

How long was the pre-production? 

About two years. The post was one 

year. We shot for a pretty regular amount, 

80 days. We had three months of tests. 

So that’s just trying a bunch of things 

out, seeing what looks good and what 

maybe looks too uncanny valley? 

Yeah. We, quote unquote, wasted a 

lot of money, at least as far as the investor 

is concerned. We shot in February. 

In October we did tech scouts. And then 

we did three months of tests. And that’s 

all costly. 

It’s great that Paramount didn’t try to 

nickel and dime you out of doing that. 

Yeah. In some ways I wish we could do 

even more. But it’s costly. I’m very thankful 

that the studio supported it this far. 

I guess at some point you do have to 

shoot the movie. 

Absolutely. It’s not a lab! 


Freedom Fighter 

KASI LEMMONS’S BIOPIC BRINGS THE SAGA OF 

HARRIET TUBMAN TO THE BIG SCREEN 


>> She’s a legendary figure in American history, such an icon that 

the U.S. Treasury has chosen her to be the first person of color to 

appear on the nation’s currency (in 2028). But how much do we 

really know about Harriet Tubman? Many know her as a major 

force in the mid-1800s Underground Railroad, guiding dozens of 

slaves to freedom after fleeing herself for the safety of Pennsylvania. 

But did you know that, during the Civil War, she was the first 

woman to lead an armed expedition, a raid that freed more than 

700 slaves? 

PHOTO BY SIMON FREDERICK 

KASI LEMMONS 

Focus Features’ Harriet, opening on November 

1, is the long-overdue biopic of Tubman, 

brought to life in a magnetic performance by 

Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple) 

in her first lead movie role. The film co-stars 

Hamilton Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr. as abolitionist 

William Still; Janelle Monáe as free-born 

ally Marie Buchanon; Joe Alwyn (The Favourite) 

as Harriet’s young master, and country music 

star Jennifer Nettles as his mother; Clarke Peters 

(“The Wire”) and Vanessa Bell Calloway as Harriet’s 

parents; and Vondie Curtis-Hall as Samuel 

Green, a real-life Maryland pastor who helped 

slaves escape. 

Writer Gregory Allen Howard (Remember the 

Titans) has been working on the project since the 

1990s, and producers Debra Martin Chase and 

Daniela Taplin Lundberg ultimately turned to 

Kasi Lemmons to direct the film and work on the 

screenplay. Lemmons’s debut feature, Eve’s Bayou 

(1997), is a landmark in African American cinema 

for its depiction of black Southern culture; it won 

the Independent Spirit Award and was selected for 

the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. 

A former actress, probably best known for her 

roles in The Silence of the Lambs and Candyman, 

Lemmons has also directed The Caveman’s Valentine, 

Talk to Me, and Black Nativity, and is a professor 

in the Graduate Film Program at New York 

University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Lemmons 

spoke with Boxoffice Pro by phone about her 

journey with Harriet. 

I learned so much about Harriet Tubman 

watching this film. I knew about the 

Underground Railroad, but there were so many 

other dimensions that I didn’t know. What did 

you learn that you didn’t know before? 

I thought I knew about Harriet Tubman, but 

I did about seven months of pure research and I 

learned so many things. In terms of things that 

went into the movie that mattered to me, definitely 

the spirituality. That was really interesting. Just the 

strangeness of praying that her master would die, 

and he died. The thing that affected me the most 

deeply was that it really was a family story, and 

that’s one of the things I tried to bring out: her as a 

woman, but also as a daughter and a sister. When 

you read about a hero, you can disengage a little 

bit from their courage, but everybody can understand 

wanting to go back to your family. I wanted 

to show what people had to go through to be 

free—the horrible decisions of leaving people behind. 

That really resonated for me—who’s willing 

to do that and who’s not willing to do that. 

I saw Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple on 

Broadway, and her performance gave me 

chills. I was surprised that you gave her the 

opportunity to sing in the film. Is that based on 

the real Harriet? 

Oh yeah, absolutely. That’s how she communicated. 

That’s how she called the enslaved people, 

through song. It was like a coded message—because 

when the slave owners heard the slaves 

singing, they thought they were happy. They didn’t 

suspect that the music could signal an uprising or 

a call to freedom. It was the way enslaved people 

communicated—only certain people would understand 

the message. 

Tell me about the rapport you had with Cynthia. 

She’s the key to the success of this film. What 

kind of a connection did you make? 

It was and still is a very deep connection. We 

had to be that way. Our rapport was very important 

to us—it’s really how we got through it. We 


CYNTHIA ERIVO 

AS HARRIET TUBMAN 


77

looked in each other’s eyes, we held each 

other’s hands, we really tried to invoke 

her together. We talked about it a lot, trying 

to channel her and access her so that 

other people could. It was actually the 

most profound experience I’ve ever had. 

With Leslie Odom Jr. in the film, 

you’ve got two of the biggest recent 

Broadway stars in your movie. Did you 

find their stage discipline was an asset 

for you on this project? 

I think of them as actors who just happen 

to also be able to star in Broadway 

shows and win Grammys. They’re just really 

talented people, but when they were 

on set, it was like directing any actor. All 

actors are a little bit different, depending 

on their training and their approach. To 

me, it’s all directing. 

I have to believe that for both your 

black and white actors, it was 

uncomfortable in a lot of ways to be 

playing slaves and slave owners. How 

do you deal with that as a director? 

Well, everybody understands why 

they’re there, and we rehearse so everyone 

is comfortable. You cast carefully—you 

choose people who are there for the right 

reasons and who are good people and 

who are uncomfortable—they shouldn’t 

be too comfortable. So we just discuss 

it and try to give the characters as much 

backstory as possible, even the white slave 

owners, things that actors can relate to. 

This is probably the biggest production 

you’ve ever done. What were the big 

challenges for you? 

Just trying to get it all into our schedule 

and into our budget. And shooting 

outside, shooting in the woods at night, 

in the rain, and dealing with the elements. 

The interesting thing about her journey is 

that she covered a lot of ground! 

You have a great cinematographer on 

this project, John Toll [two-time Oscar 

winner for Braveheart and Legends 

of the Fall]. How did you land him for 

this film? 

Well, it’s funny. We were at the 

Sundance Lab together. I’m a longtime 

Sundance adviser and John has done the 

Lab several times. I sat next to him and 

said, “So, John, what are you working on 

next?” And he said, “I don’t know.” “Do 

you think you want to do another big 

movie or a small movie?” He said, “You 

know, I think I might try a small movie.” 

And I said, “So, do you like Harriet Tubman?” 

The conversation kind of went like 

that. There was a screening of my movie 

Eve’s Bayou at Sundance and he watched 

it, and then he asked for a script. 

LESLIE ODOM JR. 

Are you and Focus Features doing 

anything special to make sure this film 

reaches a young audience? 

We certainly hope it does. I think that 

they are very actively trying to reach that 

audience. That’s very important to me. I 

made it for the audience and I made it to 

appeal to everyone, from 10-year-olds to 

their great-grandmothers. 

Did you have that audience in mind as 

you were making it? Were there little 

touches you added to try to make sure 

it reached a young crowd? 

The mission was to make something 

that could reach a wide audience. I wrote 

the role of Walter thinking of the younger 

audience. That character [a slave hunter 

turned liberator] is very important to me; 

he’s played by my son [Henry Hunter 

Hall]. One thing we were very conscious 

of was trying to make an adventure 

movie, trying to keep it exciting, Her life 

is inherently an adventure story, and we 

wanted to capture that. 

I remember you in The Silence of the 

Lambs. Do you miss acting at all? Are 

you thinking of ever going back to it? 

Not really. This is very fulfilling and 

keeps me absorbed. I spend most of my 

time as a writer and there’s something 

fulfilling about that, working from your 

imagination. It’s a different muscle. 

There’s something comforting about 

acting, and it would be a relaxing break 

from directing. But I like the gig that I 

have, which is being a professor and a 

writer and director. 

It was nice to see your husband 

[Vondie Curtis-Hall] in the film. I’ve 

always liked his work. Is he kind of a 

good-luck charm for you? 

Yeah, I enjoy him being in my movies. 

He’s dependably great, and he’s always 

good to have around. But I don’t try to 

put a square peg in a round hole—if 

there’s a part that’s right for him, then I’m 

interested and he’s interested. He read the 

script and did a lot of research about Reverend 

Green, and he decided he wanted 

to play that character. 

I have to congratulate you on having 

Eve’s Bayou in the National Film 

Registry. What does that mean to you? 

It meant so much—I have an absurd 

amount of excitement about it. It’s a film 

that’s very close to my heart. I was incredibly 

flattered and grateful for that honor. 

How important to you is it that people 

see Harriet in theaters? 

I very much believe in seeing films in 

theaters. There’s something so immersive 

about it; it really lets you go on an 

incredible journey with other people. We 

made this film for the audience and it 

plays wonderfully with a full audience. I 

very much hope people get to experience 

it that way. 


Slam Dunk 

BLACK AND BLUE DIRECTOR DEON TAYLOR 

BRINGS HIS SPORTS REGIMEN TO A THRIVING MOVIE CAREER 


>> When you’ve made it to the ranks of Division 1 and professional 

basketball, you’ve surely learned how to hustle. And that 

work ethic has carried over to Deon Taylor’s other career, as a 

filmmaker: Black and Blue, which Screen Gems releases on October 

25, is his second wide release this year, following the studio’s 

The Intruder in May. And another film Taylor has already wrapped, 

Fatale, was just sold to Lionsgate. 

DEON TAYLOR 

Black and Blue, Taylor’s seventh theatrical feature, 

leaps fearlessly into one of the most divisive 

issues confronting modern America: the tension 

between minority communities and neighborhood 

police who are often viewed more as a trigger-happy 

threat than a trusted protector. Naomie Harris, 

Oscar nominee for Moonlight, stars as Alicia West, 

a rookie cop in New Orleans who suddenly finds 

herself fighting for her life after she inadvertently 

captures a fellow officer’s murder of a drug dealer 

on her bodycam. Tyrese Gibson from the Fast & 

Furious franchise plays a convenience store manager 

who becomes her reluctant sole ally. 

Taylor was immediately drawn to the combination 

of action, suspense, and substance in Peter 

A. Dowling’s screenplay. “I got the script from 

[Screen Gems senior V.P. of production] Eric 

Paquette, who said, ‘You should read this, it’s a 

really good vehicle for you.’ As I turned the page, 

I was going, oh man, what a great canvas! The 

action was so fun, and the fact that I had never 

in my life seen a black female actress play a police 

officer in the leading role—I couldn’t think of one. 

And I said, man, this is right up my alley. I love 

the action. I love the thrill. I love the suspense, I 

love that it really puts me in the driver’s seat like 

all the action movies that I love. And then I fell in 

love with the fact that the movie had a heart, it actually 

had a pulse. Unlike a lot of the films we get 

today where you’re being injected into so much 

fast-paced, full-throttle action, but you don’t get 

a message. And I said, man, this is a cool movie 

because you actually get something.” 

That something is a reflection of what’s happening 

in so many struggling neighborhoods. “There’s 

so much going on right now in our world, it’s like 

you can’t even keep up with the headlines, you 

know?” Taylor says. “But one of the things that has 

been consistent is the split between police officers 

and people in communities. Just as an African 

American filmmaker, I’ve really been vigilant in 

the streets and marching and pushing and helping. 

Part of my whole makeup is that I’m a philanthropist—we 

do outreach programs and I’m really in 

these places people talk about. And I thought the 

movie was incredible—first, the commercial ability 

for it to be a Training Day or a Sicario and to have 

all the great action and excitement. But what I am 

most proud about is the core of the film—it’s a 

human movie, it’s about right and wrong. It’s not 

about the judicial system and how many different 

ways can you analyze a body camera. It’s about the 

fact that she sees somebody on this side of the law 

kill somebody, and wrong is wrong—she takes a 

stance. Here’s a cop running from other cops and 

then she tries to go to the community and the 

community is like, get outta here. I just love the 

moment in the movie where she says, ‘I’m so tired 

of them versus us.’ She wants to blur the lines. 

There shouldn’t be a blue line, it should be a line 

where community is involved.” 

Taylor says part of the solution is “bringing 

police officers on who can really see through 

what type of clothes you’re wearing or what skin 

color you are or what your hat says or what your 

hair says. We have some brilliant police officers 

in our communities, and we also have some guys 

that have a tendency to just want to have wealth 

and power.” 

Taylor grew up on the rough streets of Gary, 

Indiana, and later moved to Sacramento, California, 

where he played high school basketball. He 

received a full scholarship from San Diego State 

University, where he excelled as a Division 1 player, 

and later forged a career as a professional basketball 

player in Germany from 1998 to 2003. 

“While I was overseas,” he recalls, “I just had 

this craving to write a screenplay and to get into 

the film business. And I had no real resources, no 


one I could call on. 

No one I knew was 

in the film business. I 

went on this journey 

for almost three and 

a half years, trying to 

get a movie made. I 

would just fly back 

and forth to Los Angeles 

with a backpack 

on, meeting everyone 

in the world that you 

could possibly meet 

and being told no at 

every stop. So I decided 

that I would make 

my own film, I would 

raise my own money. 

And during that process, 

I ended up meeting 

Robert Smith, and 

he changed my life.” 

Smith is the 

founder and CEO of 

Vista Equity Partners 

and the country’s 

wealthiest African American, with a net worth of 

about $6 billion. This past May, he made headlines 

when he announced his plans to pay off the entire 

student-loan debt of the 2019 graduating class at 

Morehouse College. 

“At the time he wasn’t the giant he is today,” 

Taylor says of his initial encounter with Smith. 

“He was a young, up-and-coming, vibrant 

businessman who was worth a couple hundred 

million dollars. And he said I haven’t met very 

many people who have the passion you have or the 

will to not quit. And I told him I don’t know any 

other way. I come from a really crazy place where 

we don’t make it out, and I’ve made it out. I come 

from a place where we don’t dream, and I’m a 

dreamer and I want to make this work in my life. 

And he got behind me, and 13 years later we’re still 

together and we have an incredible company together 

[the production company Hidden Empire]. 

We both understand that it’s about what you do to 

affect and help other people, not about yourself. 

And I try my hardest to make movies that deal 

with people overcoming adversity. So no matter if 

I make a comedy, a fun movie, or a horror movie, 

the main story line is always going to be about 

adversity. How do we win? How do you beat evil? 

And that’s my life, man.” 

Smith and Taylor’s Hidden Empire is also 

behind “Be Woke,” a Webby-nominated web series 

encouraging young people to vote that has enlisted 

such celebrities as Jamie Foxx, Kim Kardashian, 

will.i.am, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters. 

Another of Taylor’s valued collaborators is 

veteran cinematographer Dante Spinotti, his D.P. 

on Traffik (2018), Black and Blue, and Fatale. 

“When you’re blessed enough to have the opportunity 

to work with someone like Dante ... you’re 

talking Michael Mann—that’s the best of the 

best. When you think of films like L.A. Confidential, 

The Insider, or Heat … to have a legend 

behind the camera with you is nothing short of 

amazing. Black and Blue is a movie where if you 

turn the sound down, you could understand the 

film. You would be able to watch the movie from 

beginning to end and go, oh, I know exactly 

what’s going on and what she’s fighting for. 

Dante is one of those prolific storytellers with the 

camera—that’s his genius. Every day on set, it’s 

me, six foot three, former basketball player that’s 

hyper-energy, and a 73-year-old Italian man. And 

people are like, you guys are brothers. We call 

ourselves the odd couple. I love him to death. 

FREEZE! 

Naomie Harris plays 

an NOPD rookie who, 

with the help of Tyrese 

Gibson’s Milo “Mouse” 

Jackson, attempts to 

expose the murder of a 

drug dealer committed 

by a fellow officer. 


81

When we’re not working, we’re having dinner 

together or trying to see a movie together. It’s a 

real relationship.” 

Taylor’s next film, Fatale, features The Intruder 

star Michael Ealy and Hilary Swank in the Fatal 

Attraction–like story of a married man who comes 

to regret his impulsive one-night stand. Lionsgate 

has announced an October 9, 2020, release date. 

“When you talk about Hilary Swank,” Taylor says, 

“you quickly realize it’s not a mistake that she has 

two Oscars. How she approaches film, how she 

sits down with the script, how she articulates what 

she thinks, how she builds a character—she’s doing 

so many different things in the movie, and you 

don’t even realize the mechanics until you watch 

playback. And then I rolled right into working 

with Naomie and they are like spitting images of 

each other. They’re pros, they’re all-stars. That’s 

what they do. It’s just a beautiful thing when an 

actress walks on set and not only does she know 

all of her lines, she knows everyone else’s lines. 

And they’re taking the time to understand all of 

the ad libs that they can do, all of the beats that 

that character can deliver.” 

Taylor continues, “I feel like film is just like athletics. 

It takes that same mental mindset, it takes 

that type of energy, it takes that much practice. 

And here I am now as a filmmaker, 40-plus years 

old, and I just told a buddy of mine I gotta get 

better. I gotta learn more, I gotta do more, I gotta 

figure out how to tell better stories, I gotta figure 

out how to move the camera [better]. If you’re not 

doing that, then you’re lying to yourself and you’re 

lying to the film business. When you look at how 

prolific, incredible, some of our greatest storytellers 

are ... it took time for Clint Eastwood to be that 

good, and part of why Clint is so great is because 

he’s like a seasoned wine. He understands that less 

is more. Spike Lee understands that when I pull 

you on this [dolly] down the hallway, you’re not really 

walking but you’re moving visually. I’m telling 

the story within a story. And you get that much 

closer to being great when you work with people 

like Hilary and Naomie.” 

Taylor says his basketball background has been 

a tremendous boon to both his filmmaking career 

and his overall work ethic. “The basketball aspect 

of it is me working relentlessly on the court, drilling 

myself when practice is over, doing another 

hour or two hours’ worth of work. I’ve applied 

that to film learning, making sure you’re around 

the right coaches, people that could actually help 

you get to the next level. That’s Dante, that’s 

being around someone that has light years more 

experience than me and shutting up and listening 

to them tell you why things are the way they are. 

Why is the light that way? Why does the camera 

move that way? ‘Deon, that’s a great idea, but how 

about we do it this way?’ I’m taking constructive 

criticism, right? In basketball a coach yells at you, 

‘You didn’t do that right. You needed to go left 

and you went right.’ It’s the same exact thing on 

film. ‘Hilary or Naomie, I really thought this was 

a great idea, but it was wrong when I watched it 

back. You should have went that way.’ Having 

no ego—it’s a team sport. I apply that to film. If 

you ask anyone that’s been on any movie set with 

me, it’s the most lively, funnest movie set you’ll 

ever be on. We play music. I ask questions. We 

say quiet and everyone’s quiet. We do a scene. I 

ask the people that’s holding the lights: What did 

you think? The guy that’s holding the light or the 

P.A. that’s picking up trash, if I say, ‘Hey, man, 

come here, watch this thing’ and they don’t like it, 

then chances are the audience is not gonna like it. 

Because he is the audience.” 

And Taylor wants that audience to be inside a 

cinema. “One of the most amazing things you can 

do is to see a movie in a theater. The theater has 

the ability to transport you to other worlds. It’s a 

time machine. And that’s why it will never go out 

of business, no matter what platforms are built. 

Yeah, it’s fun, man. You can download and stream 

and watch a movie on your phone. But there’s no 

business like the movie business, and watching a 

film inside of a theater, the dark room, the cool 

seats, the popcorn, the screen that’s the size of a 

building, where you actually have to turn your 

phone off and go to that world. Part of growing 

up in an inner city for me was the treat of having 

enough money when my mom was able to take 

us to the movies. That was like the biggest thing 

all week. The fact that you pay your money, you 

sneak in some candy [laughs], and you transport 

to another world. Seeing Stallone on the screen in 

Rambo and Arnold in Conan, and Eddie Murphy—there’s 

no experience that can be higher 

than that. No matter how great a movie is, it 

can never equal the value of seeing it in a theater 

versus seeing it in your living room. So that’s why 

it’s important to go see Black and Blue. The movie 

was shot for the theater. The movie is shot for you 

to sit back, drink a Coke, and experience a runchase 

film with a heart.” 


BIG DATA 

COURTESY OF NATIONAL CINEMEDIA 

ASK THE 

AUDIENCE 

THE HOTTEST TITLES OF THE 

FALL & WINTER MOVIE CALENDAR 

WHICH FALL/ 

WINTER RELEASES 

DO MOVIEGOERS 

PLAN TO WATCH IN 

THEATERS? 

Moviegoers ages 55+ 

chose CATS significantly 

more than those 

ages 35–54 

Moviegoers ages 18–34 

chose CHARLIE’S ANGELS 

significantly more than those 

ages 35–54 

Moviegoers ages 18–34 chose 

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP 


ages 35–54 and 55+ 

Moviegoers ages 55+ 

chose FORD V FERRARI 


ages 18–34 and 35–54 

KEY INSIGHTS 

Statistically Significant 

Differences in Viewing 

Plans by Age 

Moviegoers ages 18–34 

chose FROZEN II significantly 

more than those 

ages 35–54 

Moviegoers ages 55+ chose 

GEMINI MAN significantly 

more than those ages 18–34 

and 35–54 


MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL 

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

M 

CATS 

F 

WHICH 

OF THE THESE 

FALL / WINTER 

FILMS ARE YOU 

PLANNING TO WATCH 

AT THE MOVIES? 

Statistically Significant 

Differences in 

Viewing Plans by 

Gender 

M 

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER 

F 

M 

F 

100% OF RESPONDENTS 

M 

F 

COLOR BARS INDICATE 

PERCENTAGE OF GENDER 

WHO CHOSE THE FILM 

M 

F 

DOCTOR SLEEP 

GEMINI MAN 

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE 

M 

F 

M 

F 

M 

F 


JOKER 


M 

F 

M 

F 

M 

F 


85

BIG DATA 

FAVORITE FALL/WINTER HOLIDAY FOR MOVIEGOING 

AGE GROUP 

GENDER 

HOLIDAY TOTAL 18-34 35-54 55+ M F 

HALLOWEEN 12% 18% 14% 5% 12% 12% 

THANKSGIVING 20% 17% 21% 21% 22% 18% 

HANUKKAH 1% 0% 1% 2% 1% 0% 

CHRISTMAS 36% 32% 32% 46% 38% 34% 

NEW YEARS 4% 4% 4% 5% 3% 5% 

VALENTINE'S DAY 1% 1% 1% 0% 1% 1% 

I DON'T GO TO THE MOVIES ON HOLIDAYS 26% 28% 26% 22% 22% 29% 

KEY INSIGHTS 

74% of respondents indicated that they go to the movies during a fall or winter holiday, 

with the most popular being Christmas. 

Statistically Significant Differences: 

Moviegoers ages 18–34 and 

35–54 chose HALLOWEEN 

as their favorite moviegoing 

holiday significantly more than 

those 55+. 

Moviegoers ages 55+ chose 

CHRISTMAS as their favorite 

moviegoing holiday significantly 

more than those ages 18–34 

and 35–54. 


MOVIEGOING DECISIONS 

HOW MUCH DO THE FOLLOWING FACTORS INFLUENCE YOUR MOVIEGOING 

CHOICES DURING THE HOLIDAYS? BLACK BARS REPRESENT PERCENTAGE 

REVIEWS 

ROTTEN TOMATOES 

METACRITIC 

SOCIAL MEDIA 

BUZZ 

OSCAR 

BUZZ 

CRITICS TOP TEN 

LISTS 

1 2 3 4 5 

1 2 3 4 5 

1 2 3 4 5 

1 2 3 4 5 

1 2 3 4 5 

NO INFLUENCE 

LARGE INFLUENCE 

NO INFLUENCE 


NO INFLUENCE 


NO INFLUENCE 


NO INFLUENCE 



87

BIG DATA 

HOLIDAY MOVIEGOING TRADITIONS 

SELECTED QUOTES FROM OUR RESPONDENTS 

“I’m Jewish, so I go to 

the movies every year 

on Christmas Day. I also 

love this time in movies 

because this is when all of 

the Oscar movies typically 

come out.” 

“I love going to the 

movies with my family 

during Christmas/New Year’s 

when we’re all off from work 

and school. We’ll pick a day 

and watch at least one film 

together. I look forward to 

that every year. The holiday 

stress is over and we can 

all relax!” 

“We always go to 

the movies early on 

Thanksgiving, while the 

turkey is roasting, and then 

we always watch National 

Lampoon’s Christmas 

Vacation that same evening, 

after dinner.” 

“I like to go on 

the Friday after 

Thanksgiving with my 

wife. We catch an early 

show and go out to eat 

something that is 

not turkey.” 

“While I enjoy summer 

movies with my wife and 

child every chance we get, 

we love scary movies in 

the Halloween season. 

Especially before we head 

out to haunted houses or 

haunted theme 

park attractions.” 


LOOKING FORWARD: MOST ANTICIPATED Q1 2020 FILMS 

AGE GROUP 

GENDER 

RELEASE 

DATE 

FILM TOTAL 18-34 35-54 55+ M F 

1/17/20 BAD BOYS FOR LIFE 31% 31% 33% 29% 31% 32% 

1/17/20 THE VOYAGE OF DR. DOLITTLE 21% 26% 19% 22% 18% 24% 

2/7/20 BIRDS OF PREY (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) 49% 59% 48% 41% 57% 40% 

2/12/20 THE KING'S MAN 40% 46% 39% 37% 43% 37% 

2/14/20 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 11% 17% 10% 5% 12% 9% 

3/6/20 ONWARD 29% 39% 29% 21% 32% 27% 

3/13/20 GODZILLA VS KONG 37% 41% 39% 32% 48% 27% 

3/20/20 A QUIET PLACE 2 39% 47% 38% 33% 44% 34% 

3/27/20 MULAN 42% 58% 40% 34% 37% 47% 

brought to you by the point of sale you know 

RTS 


89

PHOTO : CIGI TIPTON / MIRRORLESS MIND STUDIO 

Kathi Gilman (Cinergy 

Entertainment, center) 

joined by Jeffrey Benson 

(Cinergy Entertainment, 

left) and Charlie Gomez 

(Ricos Products , right) 

accepts the CinéShow 

2019 Frank Liberto 

Award. 

Eventizing 

Cinema 

CINÉSHOW 2019 SHOWCASES 

HOW EXHIBITOR MARKETING 

IS ADAPTING TO REACH 

TODAY’S AUDIENCES 

by Daniel Loria 

>> It was a tense start to the week at CinéShow 

2019, with details of the negotiations over a theatrical 

run for Netflix’s The Irishman being leaked 

through industry trade outlets. There was anxiety 

in the air, especially as the streaming giant prepared 

to screen its remaining slate of titles during 

major festivals in the subsequent weeks: Telluride, 

Toronto, and Venice all on the schedule. Uncertainty 

about how the rest of 2019 would play out 

prevailed until official news came down midweek 

that Netflix would give The Irishman a cursory 

theatrical release under a shortened theatrical 

window. With the status quo still in place, the 

week’s sessions at CinéShow provided compelling 

insights into how the region’s exhibitors are 

planning to tackle the coming months and their 

corresponding titles. 

Perhaps the most standout feature of this year’s 

programming at CinéShow was the inclusion of 

the Independent Cinema Alliance (ICA), which 

helped shed light on the priorities and concerns 

of different players in the independent sector. Of 

note was an operations-themed session focused on 

building a positive workplace culture. Representatives 

from Cinema World, Galaxy Theatres, and 

Studio Movie Grill all contributed examples of how 

to build winning teams through a combination of 

location-specific and company-wide initiatives that 

simultaneously prepare and motivate employees. 

The prevailing theme of the week’s panels centered 

on the challenges of exhibitor marketing in today’s 

rapidly changing media landscape. While new 

movies remain the primary driver for attendance, 

exhibitors have begun branching out to include premium 

amenities, expanded concessions, and event 

screenings as part of their promotional strategies. 

Loyalty programs have proved particularly 

valuable in today’s outreach plans for exhibitors, 

allowing companies to directly engage with their 

audiences through customized messages. “For us at 

Flix Brewhouse, the single most important marketing 

tool we have are our customers’ email addresses. 


It’s not even close,” said Greg Johnson, director of 

marketing at Flix Brewhouse. Flix recently transitioned 

to Movio Cinema’s Dynamic Content after 

having worked with MailChimp for several years, a 

shift that Johnson claims has helped better tailor his 

outreach to specific segments of his audience. 

Custom messaging is crucial to effectively 

communicate with your audience; bombarding 

clients with too many emails—or worse, irrelevant 

offers—can mean the difference between 

an unread email and a ticket purchase. Knowing 

your local audience off-line, however, still plays a 

major role in offering the right programming at the 

right time. “I have to pay really close attention to 

the Texas A&M football schedule,” said Jim Bob 

McKown, house manager at the Queen Theatre 

in Bryan, Texas, an independent cinema minutes 

away from College Station. “If there’s a game going 

on, I know to make that Saturday a Ladies Night.” 

Over the past decade, social media has emerged 

as another vital platform for engaging with audiences. 

Jason Ostrow, V.P. of development at Star Cinema 

Grill, noted that his fledgling circuit has found 

success by marketing itself as a lifestyle brand by 

creating moments in a cinema visit that guests can 

share online. “Memorable experiences are the most 

valuable marketing opportunities you can get,” he 

said. “Whether it’s through a dine-in experience, a 

comfortable chair, or a commemorative beverage— 

anything you can do so they can share it on social 

media is invaluable as a marketing tool.” 

“The power of your guests marketing for you is 

incredible,” agreed Flix Brewhouse’s Greg Johnson. 

“If you can find a way for your customers to 

actively promote your brand for you, it can make 

all the difference.” 

B&B Theatres saw the power of this sort of 

marketing firsthand after installing the largest 

ScreenX panoramic screen system in their flagship 

Liberty, Missouri, location. “With ScreenX you’re 

offering the audience something they can’t get at 

home, an experience they’ve never had before,” 

said Chris Tickner, director of marketing and 

special events at B&B. “It’s something consumers 

market for us. When you go watch It Chapter 2 

and see Pennywise walk across that panoramic 

screen—you’re going to go home and talk about 

that with your friends. That’s the best sort of marketing 

you can get.” 

Star Cinema Grill’s own tech investment in 

Samsung’s Onyx direct-view LED screen has 

similarly produced positive social media influence. 

“Since we’re not a large national chain, Samsung 

engaged several local influencers with 30, 50, or 


The Flix Brewhouse 

Frisco/Little Elm location 

served as the site of the 

opening-day luncheon 

and exhibitor-focused 

sessions. 


91


Studio Movie Grill 

founder and CEO 

Brian Schultz accepts 

the CinéShow 2019 

Visionary Award. 

100,000 followers for the Onyx launch,” said Ostrow. 

“Social influencers are an economical way to 

spread your message quickly and efficiently; we’ve 

found that to be very successful for us.” 

Social influencers are the latest marketing trend 

to enter the exhibition space, with different chains 

using differing approaches to the concept. “I can’t 

tell you how many times a day—honestly, every 

day—that we get emails from people with 2,000 

followers who say they’re influencers,” said Annelise 

Holyoak, national director of marketing and 

communications at Cinépolis USA. “We’d rather 

not alienate them—we’ll offer them free tickets 

or something like that—but we try to work with 

people with over 300,000 followers at minimum.” 

While a large following makes sense for a 

multinational brand like Cinépolis, a regional 

leader like B&B Theatres—which is mostly concentrated 

in the midwestern United States—takes 

a more local approach when working with influencers. 

“We are starting to work with micro-influencers 

because we’re not on the coasts, we’re in 

cities like Kansas City and Tulsa—it doesn’t make 

sense for us to hire an influencer out of L.A. or 

New York,” said B&B’s Tickner. “We can get 

more out of our investment if we partner with 

a ‘mommy blogger’ from Kansas City, who can 

share posts with her 5,000 to 10,000 followers 

that live close to our cinemas.” 

Alternative programming like repertory screenings 

and event cinema has also emerged as a popular 

option for cinemas looking to offer a distinct 

experience to their patrons. While potentially popular, 

they represent a unique marketing challenge 

for exhibitors who may not be used to promoting 

films with date-specific show times without the 

marketing muscle of a major studio. “Obviously, 

studios take care of the large bulk of the marketing 

for regular films,” said Cinépolis’s Holyoak. “We 

have to put in an extra effort to build the audience 

for our event cinema titles.” 

This can lead to a trial-and-error process that 

not every exhibitor might willing to invest in. 

“Everybody is aware of when the next Avengers is 

coming out—even McDonald’s is talking about 

Avengers. With event cinema you have to put a 

concerted effort into making sure people understand 

what it is and why you’re doing it,” said Flix 

Brewhouse’s Johnson, who admits they’ve had their 

share of events that haven’t worked as well as they 

had hoped when building out their highly popular 

themed-screening evenings. 

The Queen Theatres’ McKown brought up his 

own experience in programming a Harry Potter 


series targeting the college-aged audience 

in neighboring College Station. While 

the first three films of the series brought 

out lively crowds, the exhibitor admitted 

that audiences slowly dissipated as the 

series ran into its final weeks. “You have 

to make sure you can sustain that initial 

interest,” he said. “I don’t care how big 

a fan of something you are, it’s a really 

big commitment for a fan to go to every 

single one of these events.” 

Moreover, event screenings shouldn’t 

be seen as a “plug-and-play” solution. 

Crafting events tied to local audiences—and 

promoting them accordingly— 

might be a task best suited for smaller 

exhibitors, as Johnson, who has been 

with Flix since it only had one location, 

noted during a panel session. “I remember 

those days very well, when you could 

put a lot of time and effort in putting 

together an event for your cinema,” he 

said. “That gives you a real competitive 

advantage if you have one or two locations; 

it’s really hard to do once you start 

getting up into a half dozen locations 

or more. It can be like herding kittens 

because you just don’t have the same control 

over it across each location. If you’re 

a single-unit operator, you own your 

domain—your eyes are on everything.” 

The future holds even more innovations 

that exhibitors have only just 

begun to explore. In a panel covering 

microcinema and on-demand screenings, 

Tony Adamson, SVP of strategic 

planning at GDC Technology of 

America, spoke about the potential of 

his company’s cinema on-demand offering, 

GoGoCinema. The service, first 

announced at CinemaCon 2018, allows 

patrons to book a private screening 

from a list of titles hosted by GDC. 

Patrons would then be able to visit their 

closest participating cinema to enjoy 

their title of choice in the comfort of 

a big-screen auditorium. While the 

concept might be difficult to scale in the 

United States, Adamson noted that it’s 

finding success in Asia through the rise 

of microcinemas—makeshift screening 

rooms in spaces not typically associated 

with commercial exhibition. Some 

cinemas have actually outfitted small 

auditoriums for private bookings, a concept 

similar to booking a private-room 

karaoke session. 

Ultimately, CinéShow 2019 helped 

highlight the ways exhibition is currently 

competing with in-home and destination 

entertainment options through its own 

avenues of innovation. As content availability 

beyond studio tentpoles becomes a 

growing concern with the rise of streaming 

platforms, marketing efforts like those 

described above will play a bigger role in 

engaging audiences and promoting repeat 

cinema visits. Five out of the last seven 

years have introduced new record-setting 

tallies at the domestic box office; 

the audience is already there. The key to 

sustaining this success, as these marketing 

initiatives show, rests on finding ways to 

keep bringing that same audience back to 

theaters as often as possible. 


93

TECHNOLOGY 

BY VASSILIKI MALOUCHOU 

TheaterEars 

DRIVING DIVERSITY THROUGH TECH 

Hispanic audiences are America’s most active moviegoers. According 

to the MPAA, they represent 18 percent of the U.S. population 

but 24 percent of frequent moviegoers. They make up the highest 

annual attendance per capita compared to any other ethnic group, 

going to the movies an average of 4.7 times in 2018 (despite being 

significantly underrepresented in both cast and crew). Yet the language 

barrier prevents still more Latinx people from enjoying the 

moviegoing experience. 

DAN MANGRU 

>> TheaterEars, a free, ad-based mobile app 

that lets moviegoers access a Spanish-language 

soundtrack on their phones, wants to bring more 

Spanish speakers to the theater. The Florida-based 

start-up uses the phone’s microphone to identify 

and sync the film with its official Spanish audio 

track, allowing viewers to listen 

to it discreetly with a pair of 

headphones as their screen dims. 

The app is available in all theaters 

in the United States and Puerto 

Rico, with plans for an international 

expansion in the making. 

TheaterEars CEO Dan Mangru 

describes the inspiration for 

his app: “I was in Boca Raton, 

Florida, and when two of my best 

friends, Larry and Virginia— 

who’s Colombian—got married, 

Virginia’s mom came with her from Colombia. 

Like many immigrants, she didn’t speak English 

and she never really learned, as is the case with 

many people who come to the U.S. after the age 

of 30. As time went on, they had family movie 

nights and they wanted to bring the mother-inlaw, 

Maria, to the movies. She just didn’t want to 

go because of the language barrier. The idea was, 

why don’t we make an app in Spanish so that 

she can go to the movies? So, we started to work 

on TheaterEars,” says Mangru, whose mother is 

from Puerto Rico. “This couldn’t have happened 

20 years ago, but when the technology was ready, 

I really wanted to pursue this and make it into 

something real. I just knew how important that 

was to individuals and how empowering it was 

because language is such a barrier.” 

According to a Pew Research study, more than 

37 million Latinx people speak Spanish at home, 

making it the most widely spoken language in the 

U.S. after English. About 12.5 million Hispanics 

ages 5 and older—or 30 percent of this group—are 

not proficient in English. Another 3.2 million, 

most of them foreign born, say they do not speak 

English at all. Currently, almost half a million 

people use TheaterEars, with 97.8 percent of them 

speaking primarily Spanish. 

The app was launched in 2017 with Disney’s 

Coco, picking up more subscribers with blockbusters 

such as Jumanji and Rampage. But the 

project was years in the making, with almost 

four years of R&D before the launch. Constant 

attention to detail as well as innovation was necessary 

to develop the app. “Dealing with audio, the 

track can’t be pretty, or kinda, close,” says Mangu. 

“It needs to be exactly dead-on or it’s going to be 

a big strain. The technology always has its challenges 

and it’s always evolving. 

There’s always a new iPhone, a 

new operating system. You’re 

constantly working on improvements.” 

An additional challenge 

to launching the app was the 

team’s lack of ties to the entertainment 

industry. “I didn’t come 

in from the industry with 20 

years of entertainment contacts; 

we had to introduce ourselves. 

“The thing that we see the 

most when people talk to us is 

that the app helps them get closer. It’s bringing 

people closer together and enables them to share 

an experience that they couldn’t have before,” says 

Mangru. In that same spirit of creating community, 

the TheaterEars team works with social media 

influencers for its marketing initiatives. 

Studios, which provide the official audio for the 

movies, play a central role in marketing campaigns. 

With Disney-Pixar’s Coco campaign, for example, 

news about the newly launched TheaterEars was 

picked up by various media outlets. But Spanish-language 

influencers have really propelled the 

app’s publicity. “What’s really interesting is that 

we don’t have a formal influencer program,” says 

Mangu, “but we had people who genuinely enjoyed 

and needed the product. Spanish-language influencers 

found us. We’ve been very fortunate that 


people have reached out to us 

and said, ‘Hey, how can we help 

with what you guys are doing? 

Because now we can go to the 

movies.’” Eugenio Derbez, 

Coco’s director Lee Unkrich, and 

Pitch Perfect’s Chrissie Fit were 

among the celebrities to endorse 

the product. Award-winning 

actor and lyricist Lin-Manuel 

Miranda was also recently 

welcomed as a global ambassador 

and investor to help raise 

awareness about the start-up. 

On the app itself, bonus 

content, including tagged 

trailers in Spanish, movie 

reviews (by influencers such as 

@ElAlexGoncales), and exclusive 

interviews and celebrity promos, enhances that 

sense of community. Eugenio Derbez’s special 

message to TheaterEars users for Dora and the Lost 

City of Gold garnered 23,600 views on Instagram 

alone. “We found that our users wanted a 

feature-rich experience. The interest in movies 

was so high that they wanted to engage with 

them. I think that TheaterEars became a hub for 

multi-language engagement with 

movies,” says Mangru. 

At the heart of TheaterEars’ 

offering is building an audience 

among untapped demographics. 

For Mangru, “with competition 

for entertainment being 

as high as it is now, putting an 

emphasis into expanding into 

diverse audiences is beneficial 

to everybody.” 

Recently, other products 

geared toward Hispanic moviegoers 

have entered the market. 

MyLingo, a similar app that 

offers a dubbed version of mainstream 

movies in Spanish, is 

TheaterEars’ direct competitor, 

but exhibitors and tech providers 

have jumped on the bandwagon 

as well. On the tech side, 

First Class Seating showcased an 

innovation at CinemaCon 2019 

that would allow viewers to 

access a foreign-language track 

through a headphone jack built 

into the chair. In May, Atom 

Tickets announced a partnership 

with Ticketòn, a ticketing 

company for the U.S. Hispanic 

market. And My Cinema has 

built a focus on marketing a 

diverse slate of films to Hispanic 

audiences. On the exhibitor 

side, Maya Cinemas is dedicated 

to building cinemas in underserved 

Latino neighborhoods in 

the U.S. 

But while initiatives looking 

to drive more Hispanics to the 

movies are flourishing, little 

progress has been made regarding 

on- and behind-the-screen representation. A 

report from USC’s Media, Diversity, and Social 

Change Initiative found that in the 100 top films 

of 2016, Latinos were represented by just 3 percent 

of speaking parts. A study by the USC Annenberg 

Initiative released in August revealed that little has 

changed since. In fact, the proportion has remained 

stable over the last decade. Of the 1,200 titles 

that were examined, 568 (4.5%) 

did not feature a single speaking 

Lantinx character, and 61.9 

percent of Latinx characters 

were shown engaged in illegal 

activity, either as gang members 

or drug dealers. 

But ultimately, as Mangru 

puts it, going to the movies is 

about connection: connection 

through better accessibility but 

also proper representation. “We 

get to connect with the movies, 

the experiences of other people; 

we connect with the people 

that are sitting next to us. 

But we also connect with the 

characters on screen. It’s part 

of a shared human experience. 

I don’t think that will ever go 

away. That’s where the moviegoing 

theatrical experience is so 

valuable and so important.” 


95

PART 5 

IN THE 

SERIES 

TOP WOMEN 

IN GLOBAL 

EXHIBITION 2019 

EDITED BY REBECCA PAHLE 

Earlier this year, Boxoffice Pro partnered with Celluloid Junkie to present the 

fourth-annual list of Top Women in Global Exhibition, published in our CinemaCon 

issue. Throughout 2019 and early 2020, Boxoffice Pro will continue to 

honor the women who have an immeasurable impact on the exhibition industry 

with a series of in-depth profiles. 


HOYTS GROUP 

Stephanie Mills 

Director, Sales, Marketing, 

and Content 

>> Since her inclusion on last year’s 

Top Women in Exhibition list, Stephanie 

Mills (right) has been promoted to 

the director of sales, marketing, and 

content of Hoyts’ Australian and New 

Zealand operations. Said Hoyts Group 

CEO and president Damian Keogh 

in a statement at the time of Mills’s 

promotion, “Stephanie is a key leader 

in our business and well-respected in 

the industry. She already works closely 

with our corporate solutions team to 

ensure we are aligned on priorities and 

deliver consistent branded experiences 

for our customers, so it is a natural 

progression for these functions to now 

fall under the guidance of Stephanie’s 

leadership.” 

How did you come to join the exhibition 

industry? You joined Reading 

Entertainment as their marketing 

manager in 2007—what were you doing 

before then? 

I moved from Canada to Melbourne, 

Australia, in 2002 and actually joined 

Reading that year as a temp in their 

finance team. It was a purely random way 

into the industry. Luckily, they provided 

me with a lot of opportunities, and I 

ended up staying in Australia and working 

with them for 11 years. I had several roles 

within the company over my time there, 

learning a lot about the industry along the 

way. I was with Reading until 2013, at 

which time I moved up to Sydney to join 

Hoyts in a marketing role. 

Can you talk a bit about your work as 

a committee member on the Natalie 

Miller Fellowship? 

The NMF is about recognizing and 

nurturing the next generation of female 

leaders in the Australian screen community 

and inspiring them to reach the very 

top of their fields. This is done through 

everything from providing a fellowship 

each year to running conferences like the 

Brilliant Careers’ program. A committee 

member on the NMF helps arrange 

networking events for women in the 

screen industry and helps to shortlist the 

fellowship applications. There are extraordinary 

women who form part of the NMF, 

including the NMF president Sue Maslin 

(producer of The Dressmaker, Japanese 

Story, and Jill Billcock: Dancing the Invisible, 

to name just a few). 

Are there any women who supported 

and mentored you as you were coming 

up in the film industry? 

I have had a fortunate career in that 

I have been surrounded by people, both 

men and women, who have been very 

generous with their time and knowledge. 

There were not a whole lot of women in 

senior roles when I was starting out in 

this industry, but that has changed a lot 

over the years. There are several women 

who head up the movie programming 

in Australia, and several women in CEO 

positions in our industry; it’s been a really 

positive shift. 

“Sales, Marketing & Content” seems 

like a really wide job description—can 

you talk a bit about what your day-today 

job at Hoyts entails? 

At the heart of it, I am responsible for 

the departments that drive admissions. 

The sales, marketing, programming, and 

loyalty teams all work together under one 

clear departmental strategy. It is a wide 

remit, but having these functions working 

together toward a clearly defined strategy 

has eliminated silos and has ultimately 

helped to drive our “customer first” approach. 

My day-to-day is varied and never 

boring! I am fortunate to have a team of 

smart and passionate people working with 

me, both within my own team and within 

the broader business. I love my job and the 

challenging opportunities that it provides. 

What are some ways in which the 

exhibition industry in Australia has 

evolved over the past decade? 

It’s hard to imagine now, but it was 

really only a decade ago that digital 

projection was introduced to cinemas. 

This digital evolution has touched more 

than projection: online ticketing, digital 

menu boards, in-cinema kiosks, in-cinema 

posters, advertising … the list goes 

on, but these things are generally not 

how they were a decade ago. Other major 

changes we have seen in Australia include 

homogeneity of content across cinemas, 

with several traditional art house circuits 

starting to screen mainstream content, and 

a movement toward the premiumization 

of cinema offerings, including specialty 

screening programs, premium seating, and 

expanded food and beverage offerings like 

hot food and alcohol. 

What’s the number one challenge 

facing the Australian exhibition 

industry? 

We are in an era of rapid change facil- 


97

TOP WOMEN IN GLOBAL EXHIBITION 2019 

itated by new technologies. How people 

are consuming content is changing, and 

the options are rapidly expanding, so it is 

a challenge for cinema to hold its position. 

But with any challenge sits a great opportunity, 

and cinema is anything but dead. 

We have put a tremendous amount of 

investment into redefining and improving 

the cinema experience. It is this shared 

and social experience that sets it apart. On 

the marketing side, the media landscape is 

incredibly fragmented, and being able to 

“cut through” is getting harder. Knowing 

how to make sense of, and utilize, the data 

we have is becoming increasingly vital to 

our ongoing success. 

In 2017, Hoyts launched its ticketing 

collaboration with Qantas. Is that still 

going on? How have your customers 

responded to it? 

Qantas is Australia’s number one 

airline, and the partnership with such an 

iconic brand felt like a natural fit for us. 

Our partnership with Qantas Frequent 

Flyer and our Hoyts Rewards program 

has been amazing, and our loyalty 

members have responded extremely well. 

Our Hoyts Rewards members can earn 

Qantas Points for every dollar they spend 

at Hoyts. To extend this partnership, 

we wanted to add something more; we 

became Qantas’s first “redeem” partner, 

which means that members of the Qantas 

Frequent Flyer program can redeem their 

Qantas Points at Hoyts just as they would 

cash. It has been very popular, and we 

have loved collaborating with them as 

their exclusive cinema partner. 

What’s your proudest achievement of 

your time so far at Hoyts? 

Seeing my role expand in the way 

it has. I started with Hoyts in 2013 as 

senior marketing manager, so to be able 

to contribute to the broader business in 

the way I have through my expanding role 

has truly been fantastic. It is so exciting to 

work on so many big projects that enhance 

the customer experience with so many 

talented people. 

My family jokes that I couldn’t have 

found a better-suited career. I grew 

up in a small town in rural Ontario, 

Canada, that had one single-screen 

movie theater that I spent a lot of time 

in; truly, I would see just about every 

movie that hit that cinema screen. My 

earliest memories of going to the cinema 

are circa 1980. I was hooked from 

then on. In terms of an experience 

that really stands out for me, though 

… I remember the first Ghostbusters 

movie was unlike anything I had ever 

seen before. The movie itself was 

filled with cutting-edge special effects, 

but it extended beyond the cinema 

screen and seemed to permeate 

society as a whole: a number one 

song, Ghostbusters on everything from 

T-shirts to toys, and pretty cool product 

placement. It was an aha moment 

for me, as it really highlighted the 

power of cinema. 

What are the key accomplishments you 

would still like to make during your 

time at Hoyts? 

There are too many to list! I want to 

continue to look for opportunities to grow 

our business in exciting ways and work 

with my team to achieve this. 

How would you evaluate the progress 

women have made in the exhibition 

business in the past few years? 

I’m seeing more and more women in 

senior roles outside of those traditionally 

held by women. In my team, for example, 

the head of sales and the head of movie 

programming are roles held by women. 

In other companies, more and more 

women are leading up the programming 

teams. It’s encouraging. 

What advice would you give to women 

just entering the movie exhibition 

business? 

Take personal responsibility to learn the 

things you don’t know, and never, ever be 

afraid to put yourself forward for new opportunities. 

These things go hand in hand. 

Tell me about the most important 

lesson you learned while you were 

starting out in this industry. 

One of the biggest lessons was that if 

you’re going to be in this industry, you 

truly need to be an advocate for it in all 

respects: being militant about antipiracy, 

truly wanting to ensure that the experience 

on offer is one that is worthy of a 

customer’s visit, and having a passion and 

vision to continue to evolve the experience 

to meet customer expectations. Being 

comfortable is never OK. Continuing to 

challenge yourself is essential. 

What can companies like Hoyts do to 

encourage diversity and increased 

representation within the exhibition 

industry? 

Over the past five years, Hoyts has set 

its sights on getting ahead of the curve 

when it comes to customer experience. 

We’ve invested heavily to redefine the 

customer journey, to a point where what 

was new and innovative three or four 

years ago is now a mainstream experience 

that many of our competitors are 

implementing. In alignment with this, we 

need to challenge ourselves to be a social 

enterprise, representative of the communities 

in which we operate by reinventing 

our employee experience to maintain our 

competitive advantage. What was once 

seen as alternative is now becoming mainstream, 

with new ways of thinking about 

hierarchy, teams, and how work activities 

are undertaken. 

Part of the answer lies in connecting 

the strategic needs of our business to the 

capability that can deliver on the activity 

at hand. When we think about diversity, 

we consider the diversity of thought that 

we can leverage in bringing in new ideas, 

capability, and ways of working born out 

of individuals with different backgrounds, 

values, and experiences.. 


TOP WOMEN IN GLOBAL EXHIBITION 2019 

AMC THEATRES 

Elizabeth Frank 

Executive Vice President, Worldwide 

Programming and Chief Content Officer 

>> To read more about Elizabeth Frank (right), check out 

our ShowEast coverage on page 46. At this year’s show, 

Frank is receiving the inaugural ShowEast Empowerment 

Award, presented by The Coca-Cola Company. 

In college, there was 

this group of people, and we were all new 

freshmen in a dorm. You’re new, living in a 

new place, and you don’t know very many 

people. And we all went out to see a 

rom-com. I can’t even tell you the name 

of it now, but the experience of going 

to this place together and laughing and 

enjoying the movie connected us and 

made us feel really comfortable in a 

way that we might not have been feeling 

so comfortable before. 

– Elizabeth Frank 

CINÉPOLIS 

Luisa Ramirez-Diaz 

Design & Innovation CoE Director 

>> Described as the leader of the team that was the “creative 

geniuses behind Cinépolis’s complex and innovative 

designs worldwide,” Luisa Ramirez originally joined the 

business back in 1999. Working her way up and initially 

being put in charge of architecture and construction, her 

team was tasked with the efficient design and build of 

cinemas. Ramirez is an innovative thinker, instrumental 

to the development of the kids’ club “Cinépolis Junior” 

concept and the VIP Luxury Cinemas. 

BARDAN INTERNATIONAL 

Vilma Benitez 

Chief Executive Officer 

>> After four decades with Latin American and Caribbean 

cinema systems integrator Bardan, Vilma Benitez 

continues to look to the future of cinema. Working with 

the Barco joint venture Cinionic, Bardan has brought 

all-laser cinemas to Chile (in partnership with Cineplanet) 

and El Salvador (in partnership with Cacinesa)—in both 

cases, the first theater of its kind in its respective country. 

Over the last year, Bardan and Cinionic have also brought 

laser projection to cinemas in Argentina and Mexico. 


SOCIAL MEDIA 

BY ALEX EDGHILL 

DIFFERING DEMOGRAPHICS 

VARIATIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA INTEREST HELP PREDICT A MOVIE’S POTENTIAL 

HUSTLERS 

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3— 

PARABELLUM 

Reporting on social media from “reliable” sources across the web has to 

take into account the full gamut when it comes to the demographics for 

each service. This has to do with how the sources gauge usage, as their 

methods are almost always proprietary. Since the social media giants 

themselves are notoriously tight-lipped about the details of who accesses 

their services, the numbers quoted by marketing websites and gurus is a 

matter of conjecture. To further complicate matters, these huge sites are 

international, and in most cases North America makes up only a small 

percentage of total users 

>> It’s our working hypothesis that 

different social media services have 

varying engagement levels for different 

genders and ages. This is important for 

many reasons, most notably because 

many films appeal primarily to a particular 

demographic, and the buzz on 

platforms most used by that demographic 

should have a disproportionately 

high level of activity. Following this 

logic further, we can draw inferences 

for the potential of future films that 

have a clear target audience. 

To test this hypothesis, let’s take a 

look at a variety of films that have opened 

recently, see what their stated demographic 

breakdowns were, and then compare 

that to how they ranked in the month 

prior to release on Twitter, Facebook, and 

Instagram to see if any patterns emerge. 

At first glance, to the untrained eye 

there would appear to be zero correlation 

between platform and target audience, 

but drilling down further there are clearly 

nuggets in the data that offer clues to 

their respective potential. 

Hustlers made it onto our list of interesting 

titles because its audience skewed 

female (68% female versus 32% male), the 

majority of whom were over 25. Its biggest 

performance came on Instagram, where 

it ranked second in total likes during the 

month leading up to its release. Given the 

younger population on Instagram and its 

even split of men and woman, combined 

with the film’s star power, it made sense 

that Hustlers exploded on the service. 

Facebook and Twitter were solid as well 

but not nearly as big, which speaks to how 

well the film performed in the under-35 

demographic that Instagram appeals to. 

John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum 

had a high male-skewing audience on 

opening weekend (64% to 36%), so its 

strength on Facebook was understandable, 

especially in light of its strong international 

opening. While it performed 

well on the other services, its numbers 

indicate that its sweet spot was in the 

25–35 age range, slightly older than 

Instagram’s core demographic and slightly 

younger than Twitter’s core. 

(contiuned on page 104) 


SOCIAL MEDIA 

TWITTER 

330 million monthly 

active users 

(134 million daily 

active users) 

63% users are 

35–65 years old 

34% female 

66% male 

500 million tweets 

each day 

Source: Twitter, theVAB 

INSTAGRAM 

1 billion monthly 

active users 

(500 million daily 

active users) 

88% of users are 

outside the U.S. 

71% of users are 

under 35 years old 

Evenly split globally 

between men 

and women 

Source: Instagram, Statistica 

FACEBOOK 

2.41 billion 

monthly active 

users (1.59 billion 

daily active users) 

In North America, 

25- to 34-year-old 

females are the 

biggest single group 

(12.4% of total 

users) 

Globally, 25- to 

34-year-old males 

are the biggest 

single group (19% 

of total users) 

55% female 

45% male 

in North America 

57% male 

43% female 

globally 

Source: Statistica, Facebook 

SPIDER-MAN: 

FAR FROM HOME 

Spider-Man: Far from Home was included as a 

control marker for the most part, as it ruled in two 

of the three services by a wide margin. It was also 

the only summer film to score a win on Twitter 

and Instagram, which is a good indication of its 

broad appeal across both gender and age lines. 

Aladdin predictably scored big on Facebook 

and Instagram while Twitter was lukewarm, indicating 

a failure to connect as strongly with older 

men. Meanwhile, Detective Pikachu was huge on 

Twitter and Instagram but didn’t have much of an 

impact on Facebook. 

This closer look does offer some clues, but there 

are a lot of moving parts here. The specific marketing 

campaign’s strengths and weaknesses, the film’s 

international appeal, whether it’s a brand-new social 

media property or an existing one from a franchise, 

and many other factors play a role in how well a film 

does on these services. That being said, in a broad 

sense we can draw meaningful inferences from 

this analysis. For instance, if a film is performing 

strongly across all three social media services, there is 

a very high chance of broad appeal on opening and 

ALADDIN 

a likely strong debut. Also, with the broad understanding 

that Twitter is strongest with older men, 

Instagram with younger audiences, and Facebook 

with a large overall presence that is especially potent 

with the 25–44 age group, we can obtain clues 

about the buzz for upcoming films. For instance, the 

upcoming James Bond 25, No Time to Die, already 

has a very strong showing on Twitter despite not yet 

having a trailer (no. 3 in terms of likes over the past 

month, behind only Star Wars: The Last Jedi and 

Joker), which is a very positive sign of the buzz it is 

creating for its core demographic. 

Coming out of this exercise it is clear that 

demographics on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram 

vary significantly enough to impact the consumption 

and reaction to upcoming films based on their 

marketing pitches and target audiences. While this 

is a useful tool for pundits to gauge potential, it also 

offers a roadmap for marketers, theaters, and promoters 

as to how to tailor their pitches. What clips 

to show, which interviews to push, engagement 

with fans: This is the difference between passable, 

good, and great marketing campaigns, a Rubik’s 

Cube that more and more distributors and theater 

chains are attempting to solve than ever before. 


ON SCREEN BY KEVIN LALLY 

WIDE RELEASES 

NAOMIE HARRIS 


OCT. 25 / SONY-SCREEN GEMS 

A rookie New Orleans cop has to run 

for her life when her bodycam captures 

a fellow officer murdering a drug dealer. 

This is director Deon Taylor’s second 

wide release for Screen Gems this year, 

following The Intruder with Michael Ealy, 

Meagan Good, and Dennis Quaid. 

CAST NAOMIE HARRIS, TYRESE GIBSON, 

FRANK GRILLO, MIKE COLTER, REID SCOTT 

RATING TBA RUNNING TIME 108 MIN. 

ELIZABETH LAIL 

COUNTDOWN 

OCT. 25 / STX 

ENTERTAINMENT 

A nurse discovers an app that predicts 

when you’re going to die— 

and it tells her she only has three 

days left to live. Guess she didn’t 

need to download that aging app. 

Justin Dec is the writer-director. 

CAST ELIZABETH LAIL, ANNE 

WINTERS, PETER FACINELLI, TOM 

SEGURA, CHARLIE MCDERMOTT 

RATING TBA RUNNING TIME TBA 


THE LAST FULL 

MEASURE 

OCT. 25 

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS 

William Pitsenbarger was an Air Force medic who 

stayed behind and saved over 60 men during a horrific 

battle of the Vietnam War. Writer-director Todd 

Robinson’s drama chronicles the efforts by his father and 

comrades to award him the Congressional Medal of 

Honor 20 years later. 

CAST SEBASTIAN STAN, CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, 

SAMUEL L. JACKSON, WILLIAM HURT, ED HARRIS, 

GRANT GUSTIN, PETER FONDA, JEREMY 

IRVINE, BRADLEY WHITFORD 

RATING TBA RUNNING TIME 

110 MIN. 

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 

WESTERN STARS 

OCT. 25 / WARNER BROS. 

Bruce Springsteen performs his latest 

album, Western Stars, in a barn on his 

property in New Jersey, accompanied 

by a 30-piece orchestra. Co-directed 

by Springsteen and Thom Zimny, the 

concert film weaves together images 

from the veteran rock star’s home 

movies and footage shot at Joshua 

Tree. 

FEATURING BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, 

PATTI SCIALFA RATING PG RUNNING 

TIME 83 MIN. 


107

ON SCREEN 

HARRIET 

NOV. 1 / FOCUS FEATURES 

Harriet Tubman, the iconic Underground Railroad 

“conductor” who guided many slaves to freedom, 

finally gets a motion picture biopic, brought to life 

by Tony-winning The Color Purple star Cynthia 

Erivo in her first lead role. Kasi Lemmons, whose 

1997 film Eve’s Bayou is in the National Film Registry, 

directed the epic story of faith and courage. 

CAST CYNTHIA ERIVO, LESLIE ODOM JR., JOE 

ALWYN, JANELLE MONÁE, CLARKE PETERS, JENNIFER 

NETTLES, VONDIE CURTIS-HALL, VANESSA BELL 

CALLOWAY, HENRY HUNTER HALL RATING TBA 

RUNNING TIME 125 MIN. 

CYNTHIA ERIVO 


EDWARD NORTON 

MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN 

NOV. 1 / WARNER BROS. 

Director Edward Norton adapts Jonathan Lethem’s acclaimed 

novel and stars as Lionel Essrog, a private detective with 

Tourette’s syndrome determined to solve the killing of his 

mentor. Norton moves the time frame from the 1990s to the 

1950s and adds a corrupt and powerful city planner modeled 

after Robert Moses. 

CAST EDWARD NORTON, BRUCE WILLIS, GUGU MBATHA-RAW, 

WILLEM DAFOE, BOBBY CANNAVALE, ALEC BALDWIN, CHERRY 

JONES, MICHAEL KENNETH WILLIAMS, LESLIE MANN, ETHAN 

SUPLEE RATING R RUNNING TIME 144 MIN. 


109

ON SCREEN 

LINDA HAMILTON 


NOV. 1 / PARAMOUNT 

Linda Hamilton, last seen as the heroic 

Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment 

Day, returns to the sci-fi action 

franchise after 28 years. This time, she’s 

helping a human-cyborg hybrid battle 

an upgraded liquid Terminator from the 

future. Series originator James Cameron 

co-wrote the story and is a producer, 

but Tim Miller of Deadpool fame is in 

the director’s chair. 

CAST LINDA HAMILTON, ARNOLD 

SCHWARZENEGGER, MACKENZIE DAVIS, 

NATALIA REYES, GABRIEL LUNA, DIEGO 

BONETA, EDWARD FURLONG, STEVEN 

CREE, ENRIQUE ARCE RATING R RUNNING 

TIME TBA 


ARCTIC DOGS 

NOV. 8 

ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES 

In his quest to join the Arctic delivery service, a fox named Swifty 

stumbles upon an evil plot by Otto Von Walrus to melt the polar 

ice caps and flood the world. This animated adventure was co-written 

and directed by Aaron Woodley (Spark: A Space Tail). 

VOICE CAST JEREMY RENNER, HEIDI KLUM, ALEC BALDWIN, JOHN 

CLEESE, JAMES FRANCO, ANGELICA HUSTON, MICHAEL MADSEN, 

OMAR SY RATING PG RUNNING TIME TBA 

DOCTOR SLEEP 


Danny Torrance, the kid with the extrasensory powers 

from Stephen King’s classic The Shining, is all grown 

up now and being played by Ewan McGregor. In this 

adaptation of King’s sequel novel, Danny is recruited by 

a teenager who shares his gift to do battle against a nefarious 

cult. Director Mike Flanagan helmed the spooky 

Netflix series “The Haunting of Hill House.” 

CAST EWAN MCGREGOR, REBECCA FERGUSON, KYLIEGH 

CURRAN, JACOB TREMBLAY, CLIFF CURTIS, CARL LUMBLY, 

BRUCE GREENWOOD RATING R RUNNING TIME TBA 

EWAN MCGREGOR 


111

ON SCREEN 

EMILIA CLARKE AND HENRY GOLDING 

LAST CHRISTMAS 

NOV. 8 / UNIVERSAL 

Emilia Clarke of “Game of 

Thrones” plays an aspiring 

singer recovering from a 

serious illness who takes a job 

as an elf at a Christmas store. 

There, she meets the dashing 

Henry Golding from Crazy 

Rich Asians. Oscar winner 

Emma Thompson co-wrote 

the screenplay, inspired by 

the classic holiday song by 

George Michael, whose music 

fills the movie. Paul Feig 

(Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters) 

directed. 

CAST EMILIA CLARKE, HENRY 

GOLDING, MICHELLE YEOH, 

EMMA THOMPSON, PATTI 

LUPONE RATING PG-13 

RUNNING TIME TBA 

MIDWAY 

NOV. 8 / LIONSGATE 

Director Roland Emmerich (Independence 

Day, The Day after Tomorrow) 

re-creates the famous World War II 

battle between American forces and the 

Japanese Imperial Navy. That momentous 

event was the subject of a 1976 

film of the same name starring Charlton 

Heston and Henry Fonda. 

CAST WOODY HARRELSON, PATRICK 

WILSON, ED SKREIN, AARON ECKHART, 

MANDY MOORE, LUKE EVANS, DENNIS 

QUAID, NICK JONAS, KEEAN JOHNSON 

RATING TBA RUNNING TIME TBA 

ETSUSHI TOYOKAWA 


PLAYING 

WITH FIRE 

NOV. 8 

PARAMOUNT 

Firefighters rescue three 

children from a raging 

wildfire, then are forced to 

babysit them when their 

parents can’t be located. 

No doubt, comedy chaos 

ensues. Director Andy 

Fickman has covered this 

turf before in films like 

Parental Guidance and The 

Game Plan. 

CAST JOHN CENA, KEEGAN- 

MICHAEL KEY, JOHN 

LEGUIZAMO, BRIANNA 

HILDEBRAND, DENNIS 

HAYSBERT, JUDY GREER, 

TYLER MANE, CHRISTIAN 

CONVERY, FINLEY ROSE 

SLATER RATING TBA 

RUNNING TIME TBA 

JOHN CENA AND CHRISTIAN CONVERY 

Projectors Audio Servers 

Seating 

Screens Drapery 

Lighting Closed Captioned NOC 

ON YOUR TEAM 

Audiences’ expectations have never been 

higher. American Cinema Equipment is your 

support team to create the experiences you 

demand. Meeting expectations may be the 

industry standard; exceeding them is ours. 

LMS 

Technician Help 

Messaging Mail Web Music 

[ 503] 285-7015 

1927 N. Argyle Street, Portland, OR 97217 

[ 503] 285-6765 orders@cinequip.com 

cinequip.com 


113

ON SCREEN 

CHARLIE’S ANGELS 

NOV. 15 / SONY-COLUMBIA 

“Charlie’s Angels” was a popular TV series in the 1970s and 

the basis for two hit movies in 2000 and 2003. Now, a new 

generation of charismatic crime-fighting women takes over 

the franchise, led by Kristen Stewart. Elizabeth Banks (Pitch 

Perfect 2) wrote and directed the globe-trotting intrigue. 

CAST KRISTEN STEWART, NAOMI SCOTT, ELLA BALINSKA, 

ELIZABETH BANKS, DJIMON HOUNSOU, NOAH CENTINEO, SAM 

CLAFLIN, PATRICK STEWART RATING TBA RUNNING TIME TBA 

NAOMI SCOTT, KRISTEN STEWART, AND ELLA BALINSKA 


NOV. 15 / DISNEY-FOX 

In 1966, automotive designer 

Carroll Shelby (Matt 

Damon) and British-born 

driver Ken Miles (Christian 

Bale) collaborated on a new 

race car for the Ford Motor 

Company, with the goal 

of competing against Enzo 

Ferrari’s winning cars at Le 

Mans. James Mangold (Logan, 

I Walk the Line) directs 

their epic story. 

CAST MATT DAMON, 

CHRISTIAN BALE, JON 

BERNTHAL, TRACY LETTS, 

CAITRIONA BALFE, JOSH 

LUCAS, NOAH RUPE 

RATING PG-13 RUNNING 

TIME 152 MIN. 

MATT DAMON AND 

CHRISTIAN BALE 


THE GOOD LIAR 


British acting royalty Helen Mirren 

and Ian McKellen co-star in this 

tricky drama about a con man 

who romances an affluent widow. 

Filmmaker Bill Condon previously 

guided McKellen in his Oscarnominated 

role as Frankenstein 

director James Whale in Gods and 

Monsters. CAST HELEN MIRREN, IAN 

MCKELLEN, RUSSELL TOVEY, JIM 

CARTER, MARK LEWIS JONES, PHIL 

DUNSTER RATING R RUNNING TIME 

109 MIN. IAN MCKELLEN AND HELEN MIRREN 

THEATER 

ARCHITECTS 

& ENGINEERS 

GRAND RAPIDS 

PHOENIX 

TRAVERSE CITY 

www.paradigmae.com 

p:616.785.5656 


115

ON SCREEN 

LIMITED RELEASES 

JOE PESCI AND ROBERT DE NIRO 

IN MARTIN SCORSESE’S 

THE IRISHMAN 

THE CURRENT WAR 

OCT. 25 / 101 STUDIOS 

Once a Weinstein Company release 

and finally arriving in theaters after two 

years, this drama chronicles the intense 

competition between two pioneering 

inventors: Thomas Edison and George 

Westinghouse (assisted by the young Nikola 

Tesla). Both seek to bring electricity 

to America, but Edison champions D.C. 

technology while Westinghouse believes 

in the A.C. current. Cue the song “Dirty 

Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” Alfonso Gomez-Rejon 

directed. 

CAST BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, MICHAEL 

SHANNON, NICHOLAS HOULT, TOM 

HOLLAND, KATHERINE WATERSTON, 

TUPPENCE MIDDLETON, MATTHEW 

MACFADYEN RATING PG-13 RUNNING 

TIME 107 MIN. 

FRANKIE 

OCT. 25 / SONY PICTURES 

CLASSICS 

This ensemble drama from director Ira 

Sachs (Love Is Strange) takes place over 

the course of one day in the picturesque 

town of Sintra, Portugal, as a celebrated 

French actress schemes to marry off her 

son to an American hairstylist, just one of 

many romantic complications that arise. 

CAST ISABELLE HUPPERT, MARISA TOMEI, 

BRENDAN GLEESON, JÉRÉMIE RENIER, 

GREG KINNEAR, PASCAL GREGGORY, 

SENNIA NANUA, ARIYON BAKARE, VINETTE 

ROBINSON RATING PG-13 RUNNING TIME 

98 MIN. 

THE KILL TEAM 

OCT. 25 / A24 

Dan Krauss directs a narrative version of 

his 2013 documentary about the moral 

quandary of a young American soldier in 

Afghanistan who witnesses his fellow recruits 

murdering innocent civilians, egged 

on by a sadistic sergeant. 

CAST NAT WOLFF, ALEXANDER 

SKARSGÅRD, ADAM LONG, JONATHAN 

WHITESELL, ROB MORROW, OSY IKHILE 

RATING R RUNNING TIME 87 MIN. 

SYNONYMS 

OCT. 25 / KINO LORBER 

A young Israeli moves to Paris to make 

a fresh start in life, but his belongings 

are stolen soon after he moves into the 

apartment he didn’t realize was unfurnished. 

Writer-director Nadav Lapid’s 

existential tale, based on his own experiences, 

won the Golden Bear at the 2019 

Berlin Film Festival. 

CAST TOM MERCIER, QUENTIN DOLMAIRE, 

LOUISE CHEVILLOTTE, URIA HAYIK RATING 

NOT RATED RUNNING TIME 123 MIN. 

THE IRISHMAN 

NOV. 1 / NETFLIX 

Martin Scorsese’s much anticipated crime 

epic stars Al Pacino as Teamsters president 

Jimmy Hoffa, Joe Pesci as Pennsylvania 

mob boss Russell Bufalino, and 

Robert De Niro as Bufalino and Hoffa’s 

“muscle,” Frank Sheeran. A big chunk of 

the rumored $200 million budget went 

toward de-aging the stars for the movie’s 

early sequences. 

CAST ROBERT DE NIRO, AL PACINO, JOE 

PESCI, RAY ROMANO, ANNA PAQUIN, 

HARVEY KEITEL, BOBBY CANNAVALE, 

JESSE PLEMONS, STEPHEN GRAHAM, JACK 

HUSTON, ALEKSA PALLADINO RATING R 


WAVES 

NOV. 1 / A24 

Trey Edward Schults, who wrote and 

directed the acclaimed Krisha and 

It Comes at Night, returns with this 

provocative drama about tensions 

within a suburban African American 

family. Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Luce) is a 

high-school wrestling star, newcomer 

Taylor Russell is his sensitive sister, and 

Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us”) is their 

demanding father. 

CAST KELVIN HARRISON JR., STERLING K. 

BROWN, TAYLOR RUSSELL, LUCAS HEDGES, 

RENÉE ELISE GOLDSBERRY, ALEXA DEMIE, 

NEAL HUFF, CLIFTON COLLINS JR. RATING 

TBA RUNNING TIME 135 MIN. 

MARRIAGE STORY 

NOV. 6 / NETFLIX 

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson 

earned raves in Venice, Telluride, and Toronto 

for their performances in this drama 

about a couple—a New York theater 

director and his main actress—dealing 

with a painful divorce and fighting over 

custody of their son. The film has been 

praised as a career high point for director 


Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, The Squid 

and the Whale). 

CAST ADAM DRIVER, SCARLETT 

JOHANSSON, LAURA DERN, ALAN ALDA, 

RAY LIOTTA, MERRITT WEVER, JULIE 

HAGERTY, WALLACE SHAWN, AZHY 

ROBERTSON RATING R RUNNING TIME 

136 MIN. 

HONEY BOY 

NOV. 8 / AMAZON STUDIOS 

Actor Shia LaBeouf wrote the screenplay 

for this drama based on his own life as a 

child star brought up by a drug-addled, 

abusive father (played here by LaBeouf 

himself). Noah Jupe of A Quiet Place 

plays the very young actor (here called 

Otis Lort), while Lucas Hedges of Manchester 

by the Sea portrays the 22-year-old 

Otis forced into rehab. Documentarian 

Alma Ha’rel (Bombay Beach) makes her 

narrative directing debut. 

CAST SHIA LABEOUF, LUCAS HEDGES, 

NOAH JUPE, FKA TWIGS, MAIKA MONROE, 

LAURA SAN GIACOMO, MARTIN STARR 

RATING R RUNNING TIME 93 MIN. 

THE LODGE 

NOV. 15 / NEON 

A stepmom-to-be finds herself snowed in 

with her fiancé’s two children at a remote 

vacation lodge. Just as they start to bond, 

strange and eerie things begin to happen. 

Directors Severin Fiala and Veronika 

Franz created the creepy Norwegian 

chiller Goodnight Mommy. 

CAST RILEY KEOUGH, JAEDEN LIEBERHER, 

LIA MCHUGH, RICHARD ARMITAGE, ALICIA 

SILVERSTONE RATING TBA RUNNING 

TIME 100 MIN. 

THE REPORT 

NOV. 15 / AMAZON STUDIOS 

Adam Driver has his second high-profile 

role of the month as Daniel Jones, 

the Senate staffer who spent five years 

investigating how the CIA misrepresented 

the effectiveness of its Detention and Interrogation 

(aka torture) Program begun 

after the September 11 attacks. Scott Z. 

Burns, whose screenplay credits include 

The Bourne Ultimatum and Contagion, is 

the writer-director. 

CAST ADAM DRIVER, ANNETTE BENING, 

JON HAMM, TED LEVINE, MICHAEL C. HALL, 

TIM BLAKE NELSON, COREY STOLL, MAURA 

TIERNEY, SARAH GOLDBERG, MATTHEW 

RHYS RATING R RUNNING TIME 119 MIN. 

THE WARRIOR QUEEN OF 

JHANSI 

NOV. 15 / ROADSIDE 

ATTRACTIONS 

Swati Bhise directed this epic story of 

Indian folk hero Rani Lakshmibai, the 

24-year-old female general who in 1857 

led a battle against the British Empire 

that changed history. 

CAST DEVIKA BHISE, RUPERT EVERETT, 

NATHANIEL PARKER, BEN LAMB, JODHI 

MAY, DEREK JACOBI RATING TBA 



117

EVENT CINEMA CALENDAR 

CINELIFE 

ENTERTAINMENT 

cinelifeentertainment.com 

310-309-5774 

HALLOWEEN (1978) 

Fri. 9/27-Thurs. 10/31 

Classics 

SNOOPY, COME HOME 

Sun. 9/29, Thurs. 10/3, Sat. 10/5 

Kids & Family 

A NIGHT WITH JANIS 

JOPLIN 

Tues. 11/5-Mon. 11/11 

Theater 

GAUGUIN FROM 

THE NATIONAL 

GALLERY 

Tues. 1/21-Mon. 1/27 

(U.S. release) 

Art 

CINEMA LIVE 

www.cinemalive.com 

PLÁCIDO DOMINGO: 50TH 

ANNIVERSARY GALA EVENING 

Tues. 10/1 

Opera 

THE ROYAL EDINBURGH MILITARY 

TATTOO 2019 

Sun. 10/6 (Canada Only) 

Music 

BILLY CONNOLLY: 

THE SEX LIFE OF BANDAGES 

Thurs. 10/10 

Comedy 

NORTHERN BALLET: DRACULA LIVE 

Thurs. 10/31 

Ballet 

FATHOM EVENTS 

fathomevents.com 

855-473-4612 

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: TURANDOT 

Sat. 10/12 (live), Weds. 10/16 (encore) 

Opera 

TCM BIG SCREEN CLASSICS: 

ALIEN 40TH ANNIVERSARY 

Sun. 10/13, Tues. 10/15, Weds. 10/16 

Classics 

SKID ROW MARATHON 

Mon. 10/14 

Documentaries 

JAY & SILENT BOB REBOOT 

Tues. 10/15, Thurs. 10/17 

Premieres 

WESTERN STARS 

Sat. 10/19, Weds. 10/23 

Premieres 

QT8: THE FIRST EIGHT 

Mon. 10/21 

Documentaries 

JEEPERS CREEPERS 3 

Thurs. 10/24 

Horror 

BILLY CONNOLLY: THE SEX LIFE OF BANDAGES 

THE RELIANT 

Thurs. 10/24 

Originals 

THE MET: LIVE IN 

HD: MANON 

Sat. 10/26 (live), Weds. 

10/30 (encore) 

Opera 

BOLSHOI BALLET: 

RAYMONDA 

Sun. 10/27 

Ballet 

STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2019: 

SPIRITED AWAY 

Sun. 10/27 (dub), Mon. 10/28 (sub), Weds. 

10/30 (dub) 

Anime 

FAUSTINA: 

LOVE AND MERCY 

Mon. 10/28 

Inspirational 

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL 

IN CINEMAS PRESENTS LUZIA 

Tues. 10/29 

Performing Arts 

CHRISTMAS JARS 

Mon. 11/4 

Inspirational 

THE DIVINE PLAN 

Weds. 11/6 

Inspirational 

LYNYRD SKYNYRD 

LAST OF THE 

STREET SURVIVORS 

FAREWELL TOUR 

Thurs. 11/7 

Music 

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: 

MADAMA BUTTERFLY 

Sat. 11/9 (live), Weds. 11/13 

(encore), Sat. 11/16 (encore) 

Opera 


THE GODFATHER PART II 

Sun. 11/10, Tues. 11/12, Weds. 11/13 

Classics 


JOHN FOGERTY - 50 YEAR TRIP: 

LIVE AT RED ROCKS 

Mon. 11/11 

Music 

KONOSUBA -GOD’S BLESSING ON 

THIS WONDERFUL WORLD!- 

LEGEND OF CRIMSON 

Tues. 11/12 

Anime 

THE TWILIGHT ZONE: 

60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

Thurs. 11/14 

Television 

BOLSHOI BALLET: LE CORSAIRE 

Sun. 11/17 

Ballet 

STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2019: 

PRINCESS MONONOKE 

Sun. 11/17 (dub), Mon. 11/18 (sub), Weds. 

11/20 (dub) 

Anime 

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: AKHNATEN 


Opera 


THE MAGIC FLUTE HOLIDAY ENCORE 

12/7/2019 only 

Opera 



Sun. 12/1, Tues. 12/3 

Classics 


MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS 

Sun. 12/8, Weds. 12/11 

Classics 

INXS: LIVE BABY LIVE AT 

WEMBLEY STADIUM 

Mon. 12/9 

Music 

BOLSHOI BALLET: 


Sun. 12/15 

Ballet 

STUDIO GHIBLI 

FEST 2019: THE TALE 

OF THE PRINCESS 

KAGUYA 

Mon. 12/16 (dub), Weds. 

12/18 (sub) 

Anime 

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: WOZZECK 


Opera 



THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS 

Sat. 2/1 (live), Weds. 2/5 (encore), Sat. 2/8 

(encore) 

Opera 

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: AGRIPPINA 


Opera 


DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER 


Opera 

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: TOSCA 

Sat. 4/11 (live), Weds. 4/15 (encore), Sat. 

4/18 (encore) 

Opera 

THE MET: LIVE IN HD: MARIA 

STUARDA 


Opera 

MORE2SCREEN 

www.more2screen.com 

WISE CHILDREN 

Thurs. 10/31 

Theater 

GAUGUIN FROM 

THE NATIONAL 

GALLERY, LONDON 

Tues. 10/15 (U.K./ 

Ireland), Fri. 11/1 (Int’l) 

Art 

42ND STREET – 

THE MUSICAL 

Sun. 11/10, Tues. 11/12 (U.K./ 

Europe) 

Musical 

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER LIVE 

NEW YEAR’S EVE CONCERT 

Tues. 12/31 (U.K./Republic of Ireland) 

Music 

KINKY BOOTS – THE MUSICAL 

Tues. 2/4, Sun 4/9 (except North America) 

Musical 

JONAS KAUFMANN MY VIENNA 

Tues., 2/11 

Opera 

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER LIVE 

SEASON FINALE CONCERT 

Fri. 6/12 (U.K./Republic of Ireland) 

Music 

MYCINEMA 

www.mycinema.live 

ARTIK (DREAD CENTRAL) 

Sun. 10/18 

Horror 

HOAX (DREAD 

CENTRAL) 

Sun. 10/25 

Horror 

AMITYVILLE: A 

NEW GENERATION 

Weds. 10/28 

Horror 

AMITYVILLE: 

IT’S ABOUT TIME 

Thurs. 10/29 

Horror 

AMITYVILLE: THE EVIL ESCAPES 

Fri. 10/30 

Horror 

MURDEROUS TRANCE 

Fri. 11/1 

Premiere 

GAUGUIN FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON 

HARPOON 

Fri. 11/1 

Premiere 

APOCALYPSE 

NOW: FINAL CUT, 

VETERAN’S DAY RE- 

RELEASE 

Weds. 11/11 

Classics 

MAN’S BEST FRIEND, 

VETERAN’S DAY 

Weds. 11/11 

Premiere 

LE CIRQUE ALIS 

Tues.11/24 

Arts 

ROYAL OPERA 

HOUSE 

roh.org.uk/cinemas 

cinema@roh.org.uk 

DON PASQUALE 

Thurs. 10/24 

Opera 

CONCERTO/ 

ENIGMA VARIATIONS/ 

RAYMONDA ACT III 

Tues. 11/5 

Ballet 


COPPÉLIA 

Tues. 12/10 

Ballet 


Tues. 12/17 

Ballet 

Opera 

SWAN LAKE 

Weds. 4/1 

Ballet 

FIDELIO 

Tues/ 3/17 

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 

Thurs. 1/16 

Ballet 

LA BOHÈME 

Weds. 1/29 

Opera 

NEW MARSTON / 

NEW SCARLETT 

Tues. 2/25 

Ballet 

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI 

Tues. 4/21 

Opera 

THE DANTE PROJECT 

Thurs. 5/28 

Ballet 

ELEKTRA 

Thurs. 6/18 

Opera 

BRANAGH THEATRE LIVE: A WINTER’S TALE 

TRAFALGAR RELEASING 

trafalgar-releasing.com 

ROGER WATERS US + THEM 

Fri. 10/2 

Music 

METALLICA AND SAN FRANCISCO 

SYMPHONY: S&M² 

Fri. 10/9 

Music 

SHAKIRA IN 

CONCERT: 

EL DORADO 

WORLD TOUR 

Fri. 11/13 

Music 

BRANAGH THEATRE 

LIVE: THE WINTER’S 

TALE 

Weds. 12/4 

Theater 


119

BOOKING GUIDE 

FROZEN II 

Wed, 11/22/19 WIDE 

C Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell 

D Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck 

NR · Ani · IMAX / 3D 

Dolby Vis/Atmos 

STAR WARS: 

THE RISE OF SKYWALKER 

Fri, 12/20/19 WIDE 

C Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver 

D J.J. Abrams 

NR · Act/Adv/SF 

3D/IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

ONWARD 

Fri, 3/6/20 WIDE 

C Chris Pratt, Tom Holland 

D Dan Scanlon 

NR · Ani · 3D 

AMAZON STUDIOS 

THE AERONAUTS 

DEC. 6, 2019 

EDDIE REDMAYNE AND FELICITY JONES 

MULAN 

Fri, 3/27/20 WIDE 

C Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen 

D Niki Caro 

NR · Fan/Act/Adv · 3D/IMAX 

BLACK WIDOW 


NR · 3D 

A24 

646-568-6015 

LOW TIDE 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C Keean Johnson, 

Alex Neustaedter 

D Kevin McMullin 

R · Dra 

THE LIGHTHOUSE 

Fri, 10/18/19 LTD 

C Willem Dafoe, 

Robert Pattinson 

D Robert Eggers 

R · Dra/Thr 

THE KILL TEAM 

Fri, 10/25/19 LTD 

C Nat Wolff, Alexander Skarsgård 

D Dan Krauss 

R · Act/Dra/Thr 

WAVES 

Fri, 11/1/19 LTD 

C Sterling K Brown, 

Kelvin Harrison Jr, 

D Trey Edward Shults 

R · Dra 

IN FABRIC 

Fri, 12/6/19 LTD 

C Marianne Jean-Baptiste, 

Gwendoline Christie 

D Peter Strickland 

R · Com/Hor 

UNCUT GEMS 

Fri, 12/13/19 LTD 

C Adam Sandler, 

LaKeith Stanfield 

D Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie 

R · Com 

FIRST COW 

Fri, 3/6/20 LTD 

C John Magaro, Orion Lee 

D Kelly Reichardt 

NR · Dra/Wes 

AMAZON STUDIOS 

310-573-0652 

brian.flanagan@amazonstudios.com 

HONEY BOY 

Fri, 11/8/19 LTD 

C Shia LaBeouf, Noah Jupe 

D Alma Har’el 

R · Dra · Dolby Vis/Atmos 

THE REPORT 

Fri, 11/15/19 LTD 

C Adam Driver, Annette Bening 

D Scott Z. Burns 

R · Thr 

THE AERONAUTS 

Fri, 12/6/19 LTD 

C Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones 

D Tom Harper 

PG-13 · Act/Adv 

BLUE FOX 

ENTERTAINMENT 

William Gruenberg 

william@bluefoxentertainment.com 

SOMETIMES ALWAYS NEVER 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C Bill Nighy, Sam Riley 

D Carl Hunter 

PG-13 · Com/Dra/Mys 

DISNEY 

818-560-1000 

Ask for Distribution 

MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF 

EVIL 

Fri, 10/18/19 WIDE 

C Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning 

D Joachim Rønning 

NR · Fan · IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

ARTEMIS FOWL 

Fri, 5/29/20 WIDE 

C Ferdia Shaw, Josh Gad 

D Kenneth Branagh 

NR · Fan · 3D 

SOUL 

Fri, 6/19/20 WIDE 

C Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey 

D Pete Docter 

NR · Ani · 3D 

JUNGLE CRUISE 

Fri, 7/24/20 WIDE 

C Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt 

D Jaume Collet-Serra 

NR · Act/Adv 

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN 

Fri, 8/14/20 WIDE 

NR 

THE ETERNALS 

Fri, 11/6/20 WIDE 

C Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie 

D Chloé Zhao 



ENTERTAINMENT 

STUDIOS MOTION 

PICTURES 

310-277-3500 


ARCTIC DOGS 

Fri, 11/8/19 WIDE 

C Jeremy Renner, James Franco 

D Aaron Woodley 

PG · Ani 

FOCUS FEATURES 

424-214-636 

HARRIET 

Fri, 11/1/19 WIDE 

C Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr. 

D Kasi Lemmons 

NR · Dra/Bio/His 

DARK WATERS 

Fri, 11/22/19 LTD 

C Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway 

D Todd Haynes 

NR · Dra 

UNTITLED TOM 

McCARTHY PROJECT 

Fri, 11/6/20 LTD 

C Matt Damon, Abigail Breslin 

D Tom McCarthy 

NR · Thr 

FOX 

310-369-1000 

212-556-2400 


Fri, 11/15/19 WIDE 

C Matt Damon, Christian Bale 

D James Mangold 

PG-13 · Dra · IMAX / Dolby 

Atmos 

SPIES IN DISGUISE 

Wed, 12/25/19 WIDE 

C Will Smith, Tom Holland 

D Nick Bruno, Troy Quane 

NR · Ani 

UNDERWATER 

Fri, 1/10/20 WIDE 

C Kristen Stewart, T.J. Miller 

D William Eubank 

NR · Act 

FOX 

UNDERWATER 

JAN. 10, 2020 

KRISTEN STEWART 

Magna-Tech Electronic Co. 

www.magna-tech.com 

(305) 573- 7339 

Cinemas . Museums . Planetariums . Conference Halls . 

Meeting Rooms. Sport Arenas . Shopping Malls . 

Cruise Ships . Theaters . 

Educational , Medical and Corporate Facilities . 

Architectural Design . Equipment Supply and Service . 

Worldwide Distributor . 

Audio / Video system integrator . 

Legacy Film Equipment . 


121

BOOKING GUIDE 

KINO LORBER 

SYNONYMS 

Fri, 10/25/19 LTD 

C Tom Mercier, 

Quentin Dolmaire 

D Nadav Lapid 

NR · Dra/Com 

LIONSGATE 

310-309-8400 

JEXI 

Fri, 10/11/19 WIDE 

C Adam DeVine, Rose Byrne 

D Jon Lucas, Scott Moore 

R · Com 

MIDWAY 

Fri, 11/8/19 WIDE 

C Woody Harrelson, 

Patrick Wilson 

D Roland Emmerich 

NR · Act/Dra/War 

LIONSGATE 

KNIVES OUT 

NOV. 27, 2019 

DANIEL CRAIG 

KNIVES OUT 

Fri, 11/27/19 WIDE 

C Daniel Craig, Chris Evans 

D Rian Johnson 

PG-13 · Dra/Sus 

THE KING’S MAN 

Fri, 2/14/20 WIDE 

C Ralph Fiennes, 

Gemma Arterton 

D Matthew Vaughn 

NR · Act/Adv 

CALL OF THE WILD 

Fri, 2/21/20 WIDE 

NR · Dra 

THE NEW MUTANTS 


C Anya Taylor-Joy, 

Maisie Williams 

D Josh Boone 

NR · Act/Hor/SF 


THE WOMAN IN 

THE WINDOW 

Fri, 5/15/20 WIDE 

C Amy Adams, Gary Oldman 

D Joe Wright 

NR · Cri/Dra/Mys 

FREE GUY 


C Ryan Reynolds 

D Shawn Levy 

NR · Com/Act 

BOB’S BURGERS 

Fri, 7/17/20 WIDE 

C H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen Schaal 

NR · Ani 

EMPTY MAN 


NR · Cri/Dra/Hor 

DEATH ON THE NILE 

Fri, 10/9/20 WIDE 

NR · Cri/Dra/Mys 

FOX SEARCHLIGHT 

212-556-2400 

LUCY IN THE SKY 

Fri, 10/4/19 WIDE 

C Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm 

D Noah Hawley 

R · SF 

JOJO RABBIT 

Fri, 10/18/19 WIDE 

C Roman Griffin Davis, 

Thomasin McKenzie 

D Taika Waititi 

PG-13 · Com 

A HIDDEN LIFE 

Fri, 12/13/19 WIDE 

C August Diehl, Valerie Pachner 

D Terrence Malick 

PG-13 · Dra/War 

FREESTYLE RELEASING 

310-277-3500 


IMMORTAL HERO 

Fri, 10/18/19 LTD 

C Hisaaki Takeuchi, 

Yoshiko Sengen 

D Ryuho Okawa 

NR · War 

IFC FILMS 

bookings@ifcfilms.com 

GREENER GRASS 

Fri, 10/18/19 LTD 

C Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe 

D Jocelyn DeBoer, Dawn Luebbe 

NR · Com 

RADIOFLASH 

Fri, 11/15/19 LTD 

C Brighton Sharbino, 

Dominic Monaghan 

D Ben Mcpherson 

NR · SF/Thr 

KNIVES AND SKIN 

Fri, 12/6/19 LTD 

C Marika Engelhardt, 

Grace Smith 

D Jennifer Reeder 

NR · Dra 

EN BRAZOS DE UN ASESINO 

Fri, 12/6/19 MOD 

C William Levy, Alicia Sanz 

D Matias Moltrasio 

NR 

BOMBSHELL 

Fri, 12/20/19 WIDE 

C Charlize Theron, 

Margot Robbie 

D Jay Roach 

NR · Dra/Bio 

RUN 

Fri, 1/24/20 WIDE 

C Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen 

D Aneesh Chaganty 

NR · Sus 

LAS PILDORAS DE MI NOVIO 

Fri, 2/21/20 WIDE 

C Jaime Camil, Sandra Echeverría 

D Diego Kaplan 

NR · Com 

I STILL BELIEVE 

Fri, 3/20/20 WIDE 

C K.J. Apa, Gary Sinise 

D Jon Erwin, Andrew Erwin 

NR · Dra 


UNTITLED JANELLE 

MONÁE FILM 

Fri, 4/24/20 WIDE 

C Janelle Monáe 

D Gerard Bush, 

Christopher Renz 

NR 

UNTITLED SAW FILM 

Fri, 5/15/20 WIDE 

C Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson 

D Darren Lynn Bousman 

NR · Hor 

BARB AND STAR GO 

TO VISTA DEL MAR 

Fri, 7/31/20 WIDE 

C Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo 

D Josh Greenbaum 

NR · Com 

FATALE 

Fri, 10/9/20 WIDE 

C Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy 

D Deon Taylor 

NR · Sus 

MAGNOLIA PICTURES 

212-379-9704 

Neal Block 

nblock@magpictures.com 

WRINKLES THE CLOWN 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD. 

D Michael Beach Nichols 

NR · Doc 

MISTER AMERICA 

Fri, 10/11/19 LTD. 

C Tim Heidecker, 

Gregg Turkington 

D Eric Notarnicola 

R · Com 

SCANDALOUS 

Fri, 11/15/19 LTD. 

D Mark Landsman 

NR · Doc 

CUNNINGHAM 

Fri, 12/13/19 LTD. 

D Alla Kovgan 

PG · Doc 

MYCINEMA 

480-430-7017 

AMITYVILLE: 

A NEW GENERATION 

Fri, 10/28/19 LTD. 

C Ross Partridge, Julia Nickson 

D John Murlowski 

R · Hor 

PARAMOUNT 


NOV. 1, 2019 

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER 

AMITYVILLE: 

IT’S ABOUT TIME 

Fri, 10/28/19 LTD. 

C Stephen Macht, 

Shawn Weatherly 

D Tony Randel 

R · Hor 

AMITYVILLE: 

THE EVIL ESCAPES 

Fri, 10/28/19 LTD. 

C Patty Duke, Jane Wyatt 

D Sandor Stern 

NR · Hor 

NEON 

hal@neonrated.com 

PARASITE 

Fri, 10/11/19 LTD. 

C Song Kang-ho, Chang Hyae-jin 

D Bong Joon Ho 

R · Com/Dra/Thr 

PORTRAIT OF A LADY 

ON FIRE 

Fri, 12/6/19 LTD. 

C Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel 

D Céline Sciamma 

NR · Dra/Rom 

CLEMENCY 

Fri, 12/27/19 LTD. 

C Alfre Woodard, Aldis Hodge 

D Chinoye Chukwu 

NR · Dra 

THE LODGE 

Fri, 2/7/20 LTD. 

C Riley Keough, Richard Armitage 

D Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz 

R · Hor 

1091 

Richard Matson 

323-540-5476 

rmatson@theorchard.com 

MIDNIGHT FAMILY 

Fri, 11/15/19 LTD. 

D Luke Lorentzen 

NR · Doc 

PARAMOUNT 

323-956-5000 

GEMINI MAN 

Fri, 10/11/19 WIDE 

C Will Smith, 

Mary Elizabeth Winstead 

D Ang Lee 

PG-13 · Act/Thr 

IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 


Fri, 11/1/19 WIDE 

C Arnold Schwarzenegger, 

Linda Hamilton 

D Tim Miller 

NR · Act/SF · Dolby Vis/Atmos 

PLAYING WITH FIRE 

Fri, 11/8/19 WIDE 

C John Cena, 

Keegan-Michael Key 

D Andy Fickman 

NR · Com 

LIKE A BOSS 

Fri, 1/10/20 WIDE 

C Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne 

D Miguel Arteta 

NR · Com 

THE RHYTHM SECTION 

Fri, 1/31/20 WIDE 

C Blake Lively, Jude Law 

D Reed Morano 

NR · Thr 

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 

Fri, 2/14/20 WIDE 

C Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey 

D Jeff Fowler 

NR · Ani/Adv/Com 

MONSTER PROBLEMS 


NR · Adv 


123

BOOKING GUIDE 

SONY 

212-833-8500 


Fri, 10/18/19 WIDE 

C Emma Stone, 

Woody Harrelson 

D Ruben Fleischer 

R · Act/Hor/Com 



Fri, 10/25/19 WIDE 

C Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson 

D Deon Taylor 

NR · Act/Cri 

CHARLIE’S ANGELS 

Fri, 11/15/19 WIDE 

C Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott 

D Elizabeth Banks 

PG-13 · Act/Com 


SONY 


OCT. 18, 2019 

WOODY HARRELSON AND ROSARIO DAWSON 

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN 

THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

Fri, 11/22/19 WIDE 

C Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys 

D Marielle Heller 

NR · Dra 

A QUIET PLACE PART II 

Fri, 3/20/20 WIDE 

NR · Hor/Thr 

THE LOVEBIRDS 


NR · Rom/Com 

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE 

Fri, 5/22/20 WIDE 

NR · Ani 

TOP GUN: MAVERICK 

Fri, 6/26/20 WIDE 

C Tom Cruise, Miles Teller 

D Joseph Kosinski 

NR · Act/Adv 

RUMBLE 

Fri, 7/31/20 WIDE 

NR · Ani 

INFINITE 


NR · SF 

SPELL 

Fri, 8/28/20 WIDE 

NR · Hor/Thr 

TOM CLANCY’S 

WITHOUT REMORSE 

Fri, 9/18/20 WIDE 

NR · Thr 

GI JOE 

Fri, 10/16/20 WIDE 

NR · Act/Adv 

ROADSIDE 

ATTRACTIONS 

323-882-8490 

CYRANO, MY LOVE 

Fri, 10/18/19 LTD 

C Thomas Solivérès, Olivier 

Gourmet 

D Alexis Michalik 

R · Com 

THE LAST FULL MEASURE 

Fri, 10/25/19 WIDE 

C Samuel L. Jackson, 

Bradley Whitford 

D Todd Robinson 

NR · Dra/War · Dolby Stereo 

THE WARRIOR QUEEN 

OF JHANSI 

Fri, 11/15/19 LTD 

C Devika Bhise, Rupert Everett 

D Swati Bhise 

NR · Dra 

SAMUEL GOLDWYN 

FILMS 

DILILI IN PARIS 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C Prunelle Charles-Ambron, 

Enzo Ratsito 

D Michel Ocelot 

PG · Dra 

THE PARTS YOU LOSE 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C Aaron Paul, 


D Christopher Cantwell 

NR · Act/Thr 

PARADISE HILLS 

Fri, 11/1/19 LTD 

C Emma Roberts, 

Danielle Macdonald 

D Alice Waddington 

NR · Dan/SF/Thr 

DANIEL ISN’T REAL 

Fri, 12/6/19 LTD 

C Patrick Schwarzenegger, 

Miles Robbins 

D Adam Egypt Mortimer 

NR · Thr 

JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL 

Fri, 12/13/19 WIDE 

C Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black 

D Jake Kasdan 

NR · Com/Act/Adv 

IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

LITTLE WOMEN 

Fri, 12/25/19 WIDE 

C Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson 

D Greta Gerwig 

PG · Dra 

GRUDGE 


D Nicolas Pesce 

NR · Hor 

MILLER/LORD PRODUCED 

SPA MOVIE 

Fri, 1/10/20 WIDE 

NR · Ani 

BAD BOYS FOR LIFE 

Fri, 1/17/20 WIDE 

C Will Smith, Martin Lawrence 

D Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah 

NR · Act/Com 

BLUMHOUSE FANTASY 

ISLAND HORROR 

Fri, 2/14/20 WIDE 

D Jeff Wadlow 

NR · Hor 


BLOODSHOT 

Fri, 2/21/20 WIDE 

NR · Act · Dolby Atmos 

PETER RABBIT 2 


NR · Ani 

FATHERHOOD 


C Kevin Hart, Melody Hurd 

D Pail Weitz 

NR · Dra 

UNTITLED AFFIRM FILMS 

COACH PROJECT 

Fri, 4/10/20 WIDE 

NR 

GREYHOUND 


C Tom Hanks 

D Aaron Schneider 

NR · Dra/War 

GHOSTBUSTERS 2020 

Fri, 7/10/20 WIDE 

C Paul Rudd 

NR · Hor/Com/SF 

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 

PAIN AND GLORY 

OCT. 4, 2019 

PENÉLOPE CRUZ 

UNTITLED SONY ANIMATION 

Fri, 7/24/20 WIDE 

NR · Ani 

SONY/MARVEL MORBIUS 

Fri, 7/31/20 WIDE 

NR · Act/Thr/SF 

ESCAPE ROOM 2 

Fri, 8/14/20 WIDE 

NR · Hor/Thr 

MONSTER HUNTER 


C Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa 

D Paul W.S. Anderson 

NR · Act/Fan 

UNTITLED MILLER/LORD 

Fri, 9/18/20 WIDE 

NR · Ani 

UNTITLED SONY/MARVEL 

Fri, 10/2/20 WIDE 

NR · Act/SF 

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 

Tom Prassis 

212-833-4981 

PAIN AND GLORY 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C Antonio Banderas, 

Penélope Cruz 

D Pedro Almodóvar 

R · Dra 

FRANKIE 

Fri, 10/25/19 LTD 

C Marisa Tomei, Brendan Gleeson 

D Ira Sachs 

PG-13 · Dra 

THE SONG OF NAMES 

Fri, 12/25/19 LTD 

THE TRAITOR 

Fri, 1/31/20 LTD 

THE CLIMB 

Fri, 3/20/20 LTD 

STX ENTERTAINMENT 

310-742-2300 

COUNTDOWN 

Fri, 10/25/19 WIDE 

C Elizabeth Lail, Anne Winters 

D Justin Dec 

NR · Hor 

21 BRIDGES 

Fri, 11/22/19 WIDE 

C Chadwick Boseman 

D Brian Kirk 

NR · Cri/Thr/Act 

PLAYMOBILE: THE MOVIE 

Fri, 12/6/19 WIDE 

C Daniel Radcliffe, Jim Gaffigan 

D Lino DiSalvo 

NR · Ani 

BRAHMS: THE BOY II 

Fri, 12/6/19 WIDE 

C Katie Holmes 

D William Brent Bell 

PG-13 · Hor/Thr 

MY SPY 

Fri, 1/10/19 WIDE 

C Dave Bautista, Kristen Schaal 

D Peter Segal 

PG-13 · Com 

THE GENTLEMEN 

Fri, 1/24/19 WIDE 

NR 

UNITED ARTISTS 

RELEASING 

310-724-5678 


THE ADDAMS FAMILY 

Fri, 10/11/19 WIDE 

C Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron 

D Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan 

PG · Ani · Dolby Vis/Atmos 

BAD TRIP 

Fri, 10/25/19 WIDE 

C Eric André, Lil Rel Howery 

D Kitao Sakurai 

NR · Com 

GRETEL & HANSEL 

Fri, 1/31/20 WIDE 

C Sophia Lillis, Sammy Leakey 

D Osgood Perkins 

NR · Hor 

NO TIME TO DIE 


C Daniel Craig, Rami Malek 

D Cary Joji Fukunaga 

NR · Act/Thr · IMAX 

LEGALLY BLONDE 3 


C Reese Witherspoon 

NR · Com 

BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC 

Fri, 8/21/20 WIDE 

C Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter 

D Dean Parisot 

NR · Com/Adv 

UNIVERSAL 

818-777-1000 

LAST CHRISTMAS 

Fri, 11/8/19 WIDE 

C Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding 

D Paul Feig 

PG-13 · Rom/Com 


125

BOOKING GUIDE 

NOBODY 

Fri, 8/14/20 WIDE 

C Bob Odenkirk 

D Ilya Naishuller 

NR · Act/Thr 

PRAISE THIS 

Fri, 9/25/20 WIDE 

NR · Com 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL 

EVENT FILM 2020 2 

Fri, 11/13/20 WIDE 

NR 

NEWS OF THE WORLD 

Fri. 12/25/20 WIDE 

C Tom Hanks 

D Paul Greengrass 

NR - Wes 

VERTICAL 

ENTERTAINMENT 

UNIVERSAL 

CATS 

DEC. 20, 2019 

JUDI DENCH 

MY SOUL TO KEEP 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C Parker Smerek, 

Remington Gielniak 

D Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad 

NR · Hor 

QUEEN & SLIM 

Fri, 11/27/19 WIDE 

C Daniel Kaluuya, 

Jodie Turner-Smith 

D Melina Matsoukas 

NR · Dra/Rom 

BLACK CHRISTMAS 

Fri, 12/13/19 WIDE 

C Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon 

D Sophia Takal 

NR · Hor 

CATS 

Fri, 12/20/19 WIDE 

C James Corden, Judi Dench 

D Tom Hooper 

NR · Mus 

1917 

Fri, 12/25/19 WIDE 

C George McKay, 

Dean-Charles Chapman 

D Sam Mendes 

NR · Dra/War 

UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE 

PRODUCTIONS 


NR · Hor 

THE VOYAGE OF 

DOCTOR DOLITTLE 

Fri, 1/17/20 WIDE 

C Robert Downey Jr., 

Ralph Fiennes 

D Stephen Gaghan 

NR · Com · Dolby Vis/Atmos 

THE TURNING 

Fri, 1/24/20 WIDE 

C Mackenzie Davis, 

Finn Wolfhard 

D Floria Sigismondi 

PG-13 · Thr 

THE PHOTOGRAPH 

Fri, 2/14/20 WIDE 

C Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield 

D Stella Meghie 

NR · Rom 

UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE 

PRODUCTIONS PROJECT 

Fri, 2/14/20 WIDE 

NR 

THE INVISIBLE MAN 

Fri, 2/28/20 WIDE 

C Elisabeth Moss, Storm Reid 

D Leigh Whannell 

NR · Hor 

TROLLS WORLD TOUR 

Fri, 4/17/20 WIDE 

C Anna Kendrick, 

Justin Timberlake 

D Walt Dohrn 

NR · Ani 

FAST & FURIOUS 9 

Fri, 5/22/20 WIDE 

C Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron 

D Justin Lin 

NR · Act/Adv 

CANDYMAN 

Fri, 6/12/20 WIDE 

D Nia DaCosta 

NR · Hor 

UNTITLED JUDD APATOW/ 

PETE DAVIDSON COMEDY 

Fri, 6/19/20 WIDE 

D Judd Apatow 

NR · Com 

MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU 


NR · Ani 

UNTITLED NEXT 

PURGE CHAPTER 

Fri, 7/10/20 WIDE 

NR · Hor 

A UNICORN ADVENTURE 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C John Snyder, Kira Buckland 

D Kamal Bansal 

NR · Ani 

FRONTERAS 

Fri, 10/11/19 LTD 

C Steve Oropeza, 

Steven Sean Garland 

D Andrew Dean 

NR · Act/Dra 

POLAROID 

Fri, 10/11/19 LTD 

C Kathryn Prescott, 

Grace Zabriske 

D Lars Klevberg 

NR · Hor 

MISS VIRGINIA 

Fri, 10/18/19 LTD 

C Uzo Aduba, Matthew Modine 

D R. J. Daniel Hanna 

NR · Dra 

FULL COUNT 

Fri, 10/25/19 LTD 

C John Paul Kakos, 

Natalia Livingston 

D Robert Eagar 

NR · Dra 


WARNER BROS. 

818-977-1850 

JOKER 

Fri, 10/4/19 WIDE 

C Joaquin Phoenix, 

Robert De Niro 

D Todd Phillips 

R · Act · IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

WESTERN STARS 

Fri, 10/25/19 WIDE 

C Bruce Springsteen, 

D Bruce Springsteen, 

Thom Zimny 

PG · Doc/Western 

MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN 

Fri, 11/1/19 WIDE 

C Edward Norton, Bruce Willis 

D Edward Norton 

R · Dra 

DOCTOR SLEEP 

Fri, 11/8/19 WIDE 

C Ewan McGregor, 

Rebecca Ferguson 

D Mike Flanagan 

R · Hor 

THE GOOD LIAR 

Fri, 11/15/19 WIDE 

C Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren 

D Bill Condon 

NR · Dra 

SUPERINTELLIGENCE 

Fri, 12/20/19 WIDE 

C Melissa McCarthy, Bobby 

Cannavale 

D Ben Falcone 

PG · Act/Com 

JUST MERCY 

Fri, 12/25/19 LTD 

C Brie Larson, Michael B. Jordan 

D Destin Daniel Cretton 

PG-13 · Dra 

BIRDS OF PREY 


C Margot Robbie, 


D Cathy Yan 

NR · Act/Adv 

THE WAY BACK 


NR 

GODZILLA VS KONG 

Fri, 3/13/20 WIDE 

NR · SF/Act 

UNTITLED DC FILM 



SCOOBY-DOO 

ANIMATED FEATURE 

Fri, 5/15/20 WIDE 

NR · Com 

WONDER WOMAN 1984 


C Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig 

D Patty Jenkins 

NR · Act/Adv/Fan · IMAX/3D 

IN THE HEIGHTS 

Fri, 6/26/20 WIDE 

NR · Mus/Rom/Dra 

TENET 

Fri, 7/17/20 WIDE 

D Christopher Nolan 

NR · Act/Thr 

UNTITLED WB EVENT FILM 

Fri, 8/17/20 WIDE 

NR 

CONJURING 3 

Fri, 9/11/20 WIDE 

NR · Hor 

THE MANY SAINTS 

OF NEWARK 

Fri, 9/25/20 WIDE 

NR · Dra/Cri 

THE WITCHES 

Fri, 10/16/20 WIDE 

NR · Adv/Com 

WELL GO USA 

ENTERTAINMENT 

FIRST LOVE 

Fri, 9/27/19 LTD 

C Masataka Kubota, Nao Omori 

D Takashi Miike 

NR · Act/Dra/Cri 

BATTLE OF JANGSARI 

Fri, 10/4/19 LTD 

C Megan Fox, Kim Myung-Min 

D Kyung-taek Kwak 

NR · War 

OUR SPONSORS 

American Cinema Equipment 113 

Arts Alliance Media 3 

Barco / Cinionic 

Inside Front Cover 

Before the Movie Cover Flap, 1 

The Boxoffice Company 8–9, 33, 83, 99 

Cardinal Sound 128 

The Coca-Cola Company 19 

C. Cretors and Company 49 

Dolphin Seating 79 

Encore Performance Seating 

Back Cover 

Enpar 117 

Fathom Events 27 

Fandango 43 

Film Expo Group 75 

GDC Technology 6–7 

Gold Medal Products 21 

Golden Link 71 

Harkness Screens 11 

Irwin Seating 13 

LightSpeedDepth Q 128 

LTI Lighting 45 

Magna-Tech Electronics Co. 121 

Moving Image Technology 15 

Mobiliario Seating 41 

MOC Insurance 5 

National CineMedia 25 

Omniterm 53 

Packaging Concepts Inc. 59 

Paradigm Design 115 

Paramount Pictures 51 

Promotion in Motion 55, 101 

QSC 17 

Ready Theatre Systems 89 

Retriever Software 93 

Screenvision Media 61, 103 

Sensible Cinema 128 

Sonic Equipment 23 

Spotlight Cinema Networks 31 

Stadium Savers 87 

Telescopic Seating Systems 

Inside Back Cover 

Tivoli 35, 37 

Ushio 29 

Variety - The Children’s Charity 105 

The Walt Disney Company 

Cover 

XPERI Corporation 39 


127

MARKETPLACE 

Passive Polarization 

for 3D Digital Cinema 

Fast, Bright, Reliable... 

Quality you can Trust. 

Over 2,500 

locations worldwide. 

Patented in the US, EU, CAN & CHINA 

WANTING TO BUY 

BUYING FILM & MOVIE PAPER. CASH PAID. 

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FOR SALE 

USED DIGITAL PROJECTORS AND SOUND 

EQUIPMENT. 3 Solaria One Plus projectors 

with NAS and projector base. 14 JBL stage 

speakers, 12 JBL surround speakers. Processors 

and monitors. Contact: boothmw@chakerestheatres.com 

or call Mark at (937) 323-6447. 

USED DIGITAL PROJECTORS, Five complete 

booths including sound equipment. Three 

years old. Contact seller at moviescope1000@ 

gmail.com. 

TWO BRAND NEW 3000 watts Christie Xenon 

lamps for 35mm projectors. Contact: Atul Desai 

949-291-5700. 

PREFERRED SEATING COMPANY, your source 

for new, used and refurbished theater and stadium 

seating. Buying and selling used seating 

is our specialty. Call toll-free 866-922-0226 or 

visit our website www.‐preferred-seating.com. 

18 SETS OF USED 35MM AUTOMATED PRO- 

JECTION SYSTEM (comes with Projector, Console, 

Automation Unit and Platter) comprising 

of 10 sets of Christie and 8 sets of Strong 

35mm system available on ‘as is where is’ basis 

in Singapore. Contact seller at engthye_lim@ 

cathay.com.sg 

APPROXIMATELY 2,000 SEATS FOR SALE. 

MOBILIARIO high-back rockers with cup holders. 

Located in Connecticut. Contact (203)758- 

2148. 

6 PLEX EQUIPMENT PACKAGE. Six complete 

booths digital projectors/sound, 72 speakers, 

seats, screens/frames, concession equipment, 

computers, led signs/marquees, safe/ 

misc equipment. Serious inquiries only. For 

equipment list email contact@digitalequipmenttechnologies.com 

or call 801-548-0108 or 

fax 801-281-0482. 

CLASSIC GEM FOR SALE. Tiny, hand-made 

storefront arts cinema, 99 seats, in historic 

seaside community north of Boston. Ongoing 

37 years. Profitable. Remarkable community 

support. Original owners getting old. Contact 

portmovies@aol.com 

www.depthq3d.com 

BE READY FOR YOUR NEXT DRIVE-IN OR 

OPEN AIR CINEMA EVENT! Used inflatable 

screens from 5m (16ft) to 27m (88ft) width for 

sale. Contact Mr. Alexander Thye, info@moviescreens-technologies.com. 

HELP WANTED 

TRI STATE THEATRE SUPPLY in Memphis, TN 

has openings for experienced Digital Cinema 

Techs nationwide. Please send your resume to 

include qualifications, certifications and salary 

requirements to fred@tristatetheatre.com 

THEATRE MANAGEMENT POSITIONS AVAIL- 

ABLE Pacific Northwest Theatre Company. 

Previous management experience required. 

Work weekends, evenings and holidays. Send 

resume and salary history to movietheatrejobs@gmail.com 

POSITIONS AVAILABLE 

The three-screen Stavros Niarchos Foundation 

Parkway Film Center in Baltimore is seeking an 

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR to oversee all aspects 

of running the theater and concessions. 

The Film Center, a partnership among the 

Maryland Film Festival, Johns Hopkins University 

and MICA will open in spring of 2017 and 

offer a broad range of the world’s best arthouse, 

independent, documentary, and classic 

cinema. The full job description and application 

instructions are found at mdfilmfest.com/ 

about-the-festival/jobs.php. 

ADVERTISE IN NOVEMBER’S ISSUE OF 

RESERVE BY 

OCTOBER 21, 2019 

MATERIALS BY 

OCTOBER 23, 2019 

CALL 

OR EMAIL 

TO BOOK 

SPACE TODAY! 

SUSAN UHRLASS 

SUSAN@BOXOFFICE.COM 

310-876-9090 


CLASSIC AD FROM JANUARY 24, 1925

CLASSIC COVER FROM OCTOBER 30, 1978

Went to 11pm show, the lines to the 

snack bar were quick. The prices were 

not bad. 15.00 for large popcorn and 

soda. They serve alcohol. The seats 

recline with foot rests and they have a 

little table you can put your food on. I 

really like this theater. 

— Cheryl R. 

Galaxy Tucson Customer 

COMFORT. 

INNOVATION. 

DURABILITY. 

SERVICE. 

Visit us on Social Media! 

@EncorePerformanceSeating 

encore.palliser.com 

Contact us today to discover the benefits 

of partnering with Encore! 

infoencore@palliser.ca 

International: +1-204-396-1136 

Canada & USA Toll Free: +1-866-314-2820 

Europe: +33 (0) 603 362 173 

70 Lexington Park • Winnipeg, MB • R2G 4H2 • Canada

Boxoffice Pro - October 2019

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