Boxoffice Pro - December 2019

an NT Live show reaches a high level of
consumer demand—whether through
an aligning of the stars as with Fleabag
or the presence of an already-big name,
like Helen Mirren in The Audience or
Benedict Cumberbatch in the Danny
Boyle–directed Frankenstein—in steps
Fathom Events with its extensive theatrical
network. BY Experience’s distribution
of Fleabag is ongoing, whereas with
Fathom, it’s a one-night event that took
place on November 18.
“When we have a big commercial hit
that we think is going to travel, that’s
when Fathom comes on board, because
they can reach many more markets across
the country in a very national campaign,”
explains Borchard-Young. “The truth is
when we got notice that Fleabag was going
to happen for cinema, it was very short
notice. We scrambled, put together a great
platform to begin [with], and then Fathom
saw what had happened with the initial
launch and said, ‘Even though we couldn’t
participate because of the timing, now
we’d like to.’ It’s great that they’ve come
on board. It’ll give customers across the
country who otherwise wouldn’t have the
chance to see this an opportunity to do so.”
“We program primarily for broad-appeal
content. [Borchard-Young will]
bring us content, and we’ll make a
decision based on what that audience
is,” says Fathom vice president of programming,
business affairs, and strategy
Daren Miller. “We’d had conversations
with Julie early on. Our challenge really
has been that, at this time of year, we
are super-challenged [from] a scheduling
perspective. It’s a very, very busy time
of year between tentpoles and working
around studio releases and our own
releases. It was really all about finding
the right date that we could optimize for
the content.”
Fathom and BY Experience’s releases
of Fleabag—as with previous NT Live
productions, like The Audience, Frankenstein,
and Benedict Cumberbatch in
Hamlet—are done independently from
one another; BY Experience licenses content
to Fathom, and they each distribute
to their own networks. Both companies,
it goes without saying, benefited from
the show’s Emmy wins. Marketing can be
tricky with event cinema, given you’re not
working with studios that have millions
of dollars to drop on P&A. Here, Fleabag
got a substantial bump in name recognition
without Fathom or BY Experience
having to lift a finger.
“It’s definitely key in event cinema
that we tap into preexisting franchises
and the audience and fan base,” explains
Miller. Fleabag “clearly has all the right
ingredients that we look for in any product
that we distribute. It has a lot of good
things working for it.”
As such, pre-sales “came out of the
gate strong,” says Fathom vice president
of operations Lynne Schmidt. “I’m a little
surprised, especially because [at the time
pre-sales started] a lot of our marketing
hadn’t even hit yet.” As of press time,
Fathom has placed Fleabag in 409 theaters.
“We are encouraged by the strong pre-sales
for Fleabag and expect a great turnout on
event night,” says Schmidt. “This reinforces
the demand we have been seeing for
top-quality theater content in cinemas, so
audiences can certainly expect more.”
Pre-sales are massively important
in the world of event cinema. It’s there
in the name—it’s an event, something
exclusive, so if you want to get in you’d
better buy your ticket in advance. “When
I go see a film, I mostly wait for the day
of, because I know if I’m going to get
sold out for the five o’clock screening, big
deal, I can go at 6:30,” says Borchard-
Young. “Whereas with event cinema,
people plan like they’re going to the arts.
They buy tickets well in advance. So we’re
seeing great pre-sales [for Fleabag], and
that doesn’t surprise me.”
At the IFC Center, Fleabag smashed
its own pre-sale records, with over 3,000
people buying tickets in advance. The
IFC Center, however, did something
unusual: giving Fleabag not just one
or two screenings, as is typical with
event cinema, but an entire week’s run,
nights and weekends included, on two
screens. “It did $100,000 for the first
week, which put it at that point second
only to Boyhood for the biggest opening
week of a film that we’d had,” says
Vanco. (Pre-sale and first week records
were swiftly thereafter broken by Bong
Joon Ho’s Parasite. November was a busy
month for the IFC.) A second week on
one screen was added, and “we started
patchworking shows after that.” As of
press time, Fleabag has grossed $177,646
at the IFC Center with additional show
times planned after Fathom’s November
18 screening.
Part of the success of Fleabag at the
IFC Center, Vanco explains, is that “we
leaned into the presentation.” The tickets
are at a premium price point, but the
experience is premium, too: “We didn’t
show any trailers. There are very few
times that we don’t show the IFC Center
logo trailer. This was one of them. We
didn’t put up any ads for popcorn or
anything. And people felt like, OK, well,
this is different. I’ve gone to the IFC
Center as a regular movie theater lots of
times, and this is something that I don’t
normally get.”
The production quality, as well,
contributes to NT Live as an exceptional
experience, argues Vanco: “They set up all
their technology within some West End
theater in London, they cut from camera
to camera, and they create this movie that
[makes it seem] like you’re there, in the
best seat in the house. You get close-ups.
There’s all this pre-show [content] that
makes you feel like you’re in the room.
You have ambient noise from the [live audience],
and there’s an introduction from
a host. It’s really quite a thing.”
Many programmers, Vanco says,
“kind of use different parts of their
brains” for event cinema versus more
traditional content. “You don’t think of
them as crossing over. You think, OK,
I’ve got my alternative content, and it
fits in whatever week I’m playing it.
They fit in around the periphery and
have no impact on my regular, first-run
stuff. It’s out of sight, out of mind. But,
I’m sorry—when it’s Fleabag, you have
to change the rules!”
DECEMBER 2019
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