Boxoffice Pro - October 2019

SHOWEAST 2019
EMPOWERED
ELIZABETH
AMCs’ Elizabeth Frank Receives ShowEast’s
First-Ever Empowerment Award
by Rebecca Pahle
>> 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
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