Boxoffice Pro - January 2020

EXECUTIVE SUITE
BY JOHN FITHIAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, NATO, AND
JACKIE BRENNEMAN, GENERAL COUNSEL & DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRY RELATIONS, NATO
ACROSS THE WORLD IN 14 DAYS
NATO VISITS KEY EXHIBITION PLAYERS IN CHINA AND KOREA
NATO’s John Fithian
and Jackie Brenneman
recently met with leading
players in China’s
and Korea’s exhibition
industries. From left:
local consultant Jin Nan;
Jackie Brenneman; John
Fithian; Frank, Ruoqing
Fu and Zhou BaoLin of
the China Film Co.; and
Shuping Li and Demond
Bian of Huaxia Film Co.
>> Moviegoing is largely the same across the world: People of all ages come to a theater to watch a
story in a dark room with friends and strangers. With popcorn and soda, of course. In most territories
audiences are even watching the same titles, as global blockbusters continue to dominate much
of the industry. In fact, audiences in very diverse territories are increasingly attending the same
chain of theater as brands like AMC, Cinemark, Cineworld and Cinépolis, Lotte, and CJ CGV have expanded
their reach to multiple continents. As exhibitors cross into new territories, they have realized
that as much as each territory has a distinct identity, many of the issues facing exhibitors are universal,
though with some local nuance.
This trend toward globalization in the industry
led NATO to join forces with UNIC and 11 of
the biggest global exhibitors to form the Global
Cinema Federation, a volunteer federation serving
the common goals of cinema operators across the
globe. The GCF advocates on issues of shared concern
and also provides critical educational support
by gathering information from around the world
that exhibitors can use to support their own decision
making. For example, movie theft certainly
harms the industry consistently on a global scale.
Yet the laws and strategies to combat piracy are
wildly divergent from locale to locale. As exhibition
enters emerging territories, the laws addressing
movie theft are often nascent or nonexistent, with
regulators and stakeholders trying to invent a strategy
from scratch. With the GCF, exhibitors around
the world can now share their success stories and
work together to help exhibitors lobby their local
bodies for effective and enforceable legislation.
Currently, for example, the GCF is working on
a white paper that exhibitors in Peru can use to
help pass effective anticamcord legislation in the
country. Further, the paper will help exhibitors to
implement practices that will help their staff better
spot piracy in action, along with ways to ensure
local law enforcement responds to calls to cinemas.
In this way, exhibitors in one territory can benefit
from the experiences of exhibitors around the
world in a significant and tangible way.
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