Boxoffice Pro - March 2020

Indies, Unite
INDEPENDENT CINEMA DAY MARKS
A SUCCESSFUL DEBUT
BY JESSE RIFKIN
›› With North America’s
three largest cinema circuits—
AMC, Regal, and Cinemark—
comprising more than half of all
box office revenue, independent
cinemas face a challenge: how
to attract customers with
conglomerates dominating
so much of the market. To
help them in their goal,
independent cinema owners
looked to Small Business
Saturday, created in 2010 as
an alternative to the more
corporate Black Friday. Could
Small Business Saturday
be replicated for the movie
exhibition business?
This germ of an idea
inspired Independent
Cinema Day, which took
place for the first time on
January 18, 2019. Thirty
exhibitors across North America
participated, representing more
than 400 screens. The day was
organized by the Independent
Cinema Alliance (ICA), a
national nonprofit founded
in 2018 to advocate for the
independent segment of the
exhibition industry.
LOVE LOCAL CINEMA
The Villages Movie Theaters in Florida
leveraged indies’ ability to cater movie
selections to local audiences.
BOX OFFICE UP 20 PERCENT
Cinergy, a five-theater company in Texas
and Oklahoma, employed innovative
marketing strategies, including social media,
to spur interest in Independent Cinema Day.
Getting the Word Out
Judging by the numbers, Independent
Cinema Day was a success. Participating
cinemas used unique marketing tactics to
draw customers in, with a resultant jump
in box office compared to the equivalent
day from previous years. (Some good
timing also helped: Independent Cinema
Day coincided with the Saturday of Martin
Luther King weekend, which saw the
$73 million debut of Bad Boys for Life.)
“I was like, ‘Hey, why don’t we give out
popcorn for everybody?’” recalls Deborah
Mills, director of operations at The
Villages Movie Theaters, which has
three locations in Florida. “Then I
went to the party store and got boas,
hats, and beads for cute photos.
People were taking photos in front of
a sign that said ‘Love. Local. Cinema,’
and posting it on social media.”
The company notched 1,533
attendees at its Old Mill Playhouse
and 2,032 at its Barnstorm Theater
on Independent Cinema Day.
“Our total box office was up a
little over 20 percent compared to the
equivalent Saturday last year,” says
Traci Hoey, V.P. of marketing at Cinergy,
a five-theater company in Texas
and Oklahoma. “Overall, all of our
centers were up compared to last year.”
“It went wonderful!” concurs
Maureen Paquet, co-owner of the Gem
Theatre in British Columbia. “We had
a great time. Although, it was the first
[Independent Cinema Day], so people
are not quite as aware of it as they will be
in future years.”
Standing Out from the Pack
Independent Cinema Day is an
example of independent cinemas using
innovative marketing strategies to differentiate
themselves from the competition.
It’s a necessity that participants in the
campaign were already well aware of.
“Our locations range from 14 to 18
bowling lanes,” says Hoey of Cinergy.
“Half of our locations have escape rooms.
We’re adding ax throwing in Kansas City,
when we’re opening there later this sum-
38 / MARCH 2020