Boxoffice Pro - August 2020

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INTERMISSION 

The impact of Covid-19 

on the cinema industry 

The Official Magazine of the National Association of Theatre Owners

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April 2020 

03

Photo Credit: Dean Rogers. Courtesy Searchlight Pictures 

82 

What the Dickens! 

The Personal History 

of David Copperfield 

hits the big screen 

August 2020 

CONTENTS 

16 

Covid-19 & Cinemas 

A timeline of the first six 

months of the crisis 

48 

The Next Big Thing 

The origins of cinema 

entertainment centers in 

the United States 

62 

Drive-In Summer 

Drive-ins experience a 

renaissance as audiences 

return to theaters outdoors 

76 

The Sounds Of Silence 

Interview with the sound 

editors behind Paramount's 

A Quiet Place Part II 

April 2020 

05

CONTENTS 

INDUSTRY THEATER ON SCREEN 

12 

16 

30 

38 

NATO 

Bringing back the moviegoing 

experience 

Covid-19 & Cinemas 

A timeline of the first six months 

of the crisis 

Charity Spotlight 

A recap of industry-wide charity 

initiatives 

Guest Column 

Can cinemas win back audiences 

after Covid-19 shutdowns? 

48 

62 

70 

The Next Big Thing 

The origins of cinema entertainment 

centers in the United States 

Drive-In Summer 

Drive-ins experience a renaissance 

as audiences return to theaters 

outdoors—while keeping their 

distance 

Remembering Our 

Hometown Theaters 

Boxoffice Pro staff look back at 

their hometown movie theaters 

76 

82 

88 

96 

The Sounds Of Silence 

Interview with the sound editors 

behind Paramount's A Quiet Place 

Part II 

What the Dickens! 

The Personal History of David 

Copperfield hits the big screen 

Coming Attractions 

Upcoming wide releases 

Event Cinema 

Event cinema responds to the 

Covid-19 programming gaps 

40 

A Century in Exhibition 

The 1960s: The collapse of the 

studio system 

100 

Long-Range Forecast 

Tentatively Tenet: Forecasting 

future box office when no 

existing models apply 

105 

Booking Guide 

“Our coordinated efforts 

to get the public back into 

movie theaters will make the 

difference in our industry, 

which I am certain will return 

stronger than ever.” 

p.12 

06 August 2020

20 

AUG 

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THE TECH

BOXOFFICE MEDIA 

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Julien Marcel 

SVP Content Strategy 

Daniel Loría 

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Chris Vickers & Craig Scott 

at She Was Only 

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Susan Uhrlass 

BOXOFFICE PRO 

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Daniel Loría 

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Rebecca Pahle 

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Kevin Lally 

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ANALYSTS 

Chris Eggertsen 

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DATABASE 

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CONTRIBUTORS 

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Boxoffice Pro (ISSN 0006-8527), Volume 156, Number 5, August 2020. Boxoffice Pro 

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EXECUTIVE LETTER 

THE RETURN 

OF CINEMA 

After a brief hiatus from publication, 

we’re happy to return in time to 

welcome cinemas back to business. As 

movie theaters around the world first 

began to close their doors in a global effort 

to curb the spread of Covid-19, we made 

the decision to suspend publication of 

BOXOFFICE PRO until most screens in 

the United States were back online. The 

wait was longer than any of us wanted or 

expected, but we kept busy throughout our 

respective stay-at-home orders by working 

on our digital platforms. From providing 

breaking news on our website and social 

media channels to launching new initiatives 

like The Boxoffice Podcast and our 

Boxoffice LIVE Sessions webinar series, 

our team adapted to the circumstances 

and has provided daily and up-to-the-minute 

coverage of every development in this 

crisis. Some of that work is highlighted in 

the following pages, in particular with our 

timeline of how cinemas have coped with 

the impact of Covid-19 so far. Finally, after 

months of stops and starts, we are happy 

to make our way back to your homes and 

offices with our magazine—just as cinemas 

around the world get ready to host 

new Hollywood releases on their screens. 

If we’ve learned anything from the past 

five months, it’s the value of expecting 

the unexpected and the importance 

of flexibility. This quality is especially 

relevant when it comes to our upcoming 

publication schedule: While we will 

continue to work around the clock on our 

digital platforms, we will not immediately 

return to monthly issues of the magazine. 

You can expect our next issue, for example, 

in December, when we’ll celebrate the 

100-year anniversary of this magazine. 

We will continue adjusting our frequency 

of publication according to the latest 

developments in the industry and in 

close collaboration with our advertising 

partners. To our subscribers, rest assured 

that we are working with our circulation 

department to ensure that all remaining 

issues in your subscription—including 

those we skipped due to the pandemic— 

are honored through the coming months. 

As much as we hoped that this return 

issue would mark the end of the Covid-19 

crisis, it’s clear to us now that we’ll have to 

learn how to deal with this situation—and 

its ripple effects across our industry—for 

the foreseeable future. It’s too early to 

forecast a resolution, let alone a time 

frame, but we are firmly committed to documenting 

this historic period and helping 

cinemas stay unified and informed. Like 

everyone else in theatrical exhibition, we 

are fully cognizant of the scope of this 

crisis—but also of the power that we have 

as an industry to work together toward a 

recovery from the biggest threat cinemas 

have faced in their existence. We’re all in 

this together, and we thank you again for 

your continued support and resilience. 

Julien Marcel 

Chief Executive Officer, The Boxoffice Company 

Publisher, Boxoffice Pro 


09

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NATO 12 | Covid-19 16 | Charity Spotlight 30 | A Century In Exhibition 40 

INDUSTRY 

Vogue Theatre. Manistee, Michigan. 

From closures in China in January to release date shifts 

in June, a look back at the first six months of the crisis. 

Covid-19 & Cinemas, p. 16 


11

Industry NATO 

BRINGING 

BACK THE 

MOVIEGOING 

EXPERIENCE 

It is great to be back in the 

pages of Boxoffice Pro after 

a brief hiatus. We thought 

it would be best to use this 

space to summarize the work 

we’ve been doing to help our 

industry rebound from the 

worst crisis it has ever faced. 

BY NATO STAFF 

Government Relations 

Since the start of the global pandemic, 

NATO has been working tirelessly to 

assist theater owners in staying solvent. 

As Congress began to contemplate relief 

legislation in mid-March, we immediately 

moved to retain robust representation 

on Capitol Hill and worked assiduously 

to ensure that theaters would be eligible 

for assistance programs. Congress passed 

the CARES Act at the end of March, 

which included mandates for several 

loan programs: the Paycheck Protection 

Program (PPP) and Emergency Injury 

Disaster Loans (EIDL) and grants through 

the Small Business Administration 

(SBA), and $454 billion for the Treasury 

Department to set up loans and loan 

guarantee programs. The legislation 

also included a significant expansion 

of unemployment insurance eligibility 

criteria and a $600 weekly supplement for 

individuals on unemployment. 

The PPP loan program is a forgivable 

loan that, as enacted, would allow 

borrowers to borrow up to 2.5 months 

of their average 2019 payroll amount 

to spend on a number of eligible 

expenses, with up to 100 percent 

forgiveness depending on salary and 

head-count maintenance requirements. 

However, in subsequent regulation, the 

SBA and Treasury made significant 

modifications to the program, including 

a requirement that 75 percent of any 

forgivable amount be spent on payroll, 

regardless of whether a borrower met 

the “safe harbor” provisions of the PPP 

as described in the CARES Act. NATO 

worked to communicate these changes 

to members, while also pushing Congress 

to revise the terms to reflect the original 

intent and flexibility. Due to aggressive 

lobbying by NATO, the PPP was modified 

by subsequent legislation to allow for 

greater flexibility in spending the loan 

(reducing the payroll spend to 60 percent); 

allowing for a significant increase in the 

forgiveness period (from 8 weeks to 24 

weeks); and extending the maturity period 

to five years for new loans, among other 

fixes. NATO will continue to lobby for PPP 

modifications including higher loan caps 

and/or the ability for borrowers to take on 

multiple loans. 

The CARES Act also allocated 

$454 billion for large and midsize 

companies via loans and loan guarantees 

administered by the Treasury Department 

and the Federal Reserve. However, 

currently the only program that has been 

implemented is the Main Street Lending 

Facility (MSLF), which uses a small 

portion of the allocated funds toward 

loans for small and midsize businesses. 

As of early July, the MSLF was still not 

fully operational, and many lenders have 

expressed concerns about the program. 

Exhibitors specifically have also shared 

concerns about EBITDA caps that are 

prohibitively low. We will continue to 

share information as it becomes available 

and to lobby for more flexible uses of the 

Treasury funds, particularly for shuttered 

industries such as movie theaters. 

Given the duration of the pandemic, 

Congress recognized that more assistance is 

needed. In June, the House passed further 

Covid relief legislation called the HEROES 

Act, and the Senate is expected to respond 

with a different bill at the end of July or 

beginning of August. Potential proposals 

in the forthcoming legislation include: 

additional loan options for businesses 

that have not received adequate relief; a 

limited liability shield for businesses that 

reopen; tax credits for personal protective 

equipment; either an extension of the 

pandemic unemployment assistance or 

a rehiring bonus; and direct assistance 

for families and individuals. NATO will 

continue to lobby aggressively for the needs 

of all exhibitors to help our members stay 

solvent and survive this period. 


Cinema Reopening Operations 

Earlier this year, even before movie 

theaters were shut down by government 

mandate, NATO members were taking 

steps to mitigate the risk of exposure 

to the coronavirus. As awareness of the 

pandemic spread, theater owners were 

making sure that recommended health 

and hygiene practices (frequent hand 

washing, staying home if ill, etc.) were 

being followed by staff; that cleaning 

and sanitization practices were stepped 

up; that physical distancing was 

implemented; and that showtimes were 

adjusted to accommodate enhanced 

cleaning between screenings. 

When theater closures were mandated, 

theater owners and their teams explored 

additional health and safety measures 

and made plans to reopen their cinemas 

with robust precautions in place to protect 

employees and guests from exposure 

to Covid-19. To help members with this 

effort, NATO invited operations leaders, 

representing 11 NATO-member companies, 

to come together as NATO’s Cinema 

Reopening Operations Task Force. 

Recognizing that health and safety 

issues are always company-by-company, 

location-by-location decisions, the 

working group did not attempt to make 

industry-wide recommendations or 

suggest one specific model. Rather, 

the group guided the development of 

resources that identify issues for individual 

companies to contemplate as they make 

their reopening plans. With the input 

and support of the working group, NATO 

held two webinars that focused on the 

operational considerations of reopening 

cinemas and published a Covid-19 cinema 

reopening considerations document and 

an accompanying preopening planningstage 

checklist, which were shared with 

all NATO members. These resources 

address cleaning and sanitizing, employee 

health and personal hygiene, and physical 

distancing, as well as food and beverage 

operations, and were well received by 

NATO members. 

NATO members have used these 

resources, in combination with guidance 

from the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention, Johns Hopkins University, 

and other sources, to develop operational 

plans and protocols that have, in many 

cases, helped local governments have 

confidence to authorize reopenings in 

their jurisdictions. Additionally, NATO 

member companies have been nimble 

and responsive to new information and 

evolving guidance from federal, state, 

and local authorities. Some plans have 

been revised as more is learned about 

the efficacy of specific protocols and as 

moviegoers’ expectations and comfort 

with various protocols evolve. 

Communications and Marketing 

NATO’s communications team began 

preparing for the pandemic in January. As 

reports of a growing coronavirus epidemic 

in China began to circulate, we began 

research into updating NATO’s “Preparing 

for a Flu Pandemic,” first developed in 

2009 in response to the N1H1 outbreak. 

The document, along with NATO’s “Crisis 

Management Handbook” was distributed 

to members at the end of January. As the 

pandemic intensified and spread, NATO 

was heavily engaged with the press on 

managing perceptions of the imminent 

threat to the industry, particularly leading 

up to CinemaCon. 

With the WHO declaring a global 

pandemic in mid-March, NATO canceled 

CinemaCon, and most movie theater 

companies began closing their doors. 

NATO released a statement noting the 

responsible actions of theater owners 

and expressing optimism for the future 

of the industry. NATO’s communication 

strategy shifted to support of lobbying for 

federal aid to movie theaters and other 

industries and employees affected by the 

nationwide shutdown. We commissioned 

and placed a powerful opinion piece by 

Christopher Nolan in The Washington Post 

on the importance of movie theaters to our 

economy and culture. 

Throughout the shutdown, we have 

continued to press the importance of aid 

for the industry, its underlying strength 

when things return to normal, and its 

responsible and rational approach to 

reopening safely in thousands of media 

outlets around the world. To support 

this messaging, we have encouraged and 

facilitated the participation of theater 

owners of all sizes to tell their stories 

directly. These efforts are ongoing. 

NATO has also established a Media 

Relations/Research Task Force to 

share and aid in communications by 

members to their local press and patrons. 

In coordination with the Reopening 

Operations Task Force, it has encouraged 

the development of direct and clear 

communication of safety and sanitation 

protocols that consumer research has 

shown will be most effective in reassuring 

the public that theaters are reopening 

responsibly and safely. 

NATO has also been engaged in a crossindustry 

effort with the major studios 

and other partners to create a reopening 

marketing campaign that celebrates 

the magic of moviegoing. That effort is 

ongoing and contingent on the broad 

opening of the industry nationwide— 

indeed worldwide—and the return of 

wide-release films. 

Membership Services 

Since the cancellation of CinemaCon 2020 

and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, 

NATO’s membership services have 

shifted toward several key topics. The first 

NATO Membership 

Companies Screens Sites 

Domestic 735 35,189 3,656 

U.S. Territories 3 43 42 

Canadian 30 2,435 273 

International 78 30,963 4,069 

Total 846 68,930 8,040 

NATO member 

companies represent 

almost 69,000 screens 

in 100 countries on six 

continents. The table 

to the left indicates the 

membership composition 

as of July 1, 2020. 


13

Industry NATO 

involved tracking studio activity and their 

possible programming timetables. Another 

important issue is U.S. legislation and 

policy movement regarding how businesses 

and their employees stay solvent until they 

can open back up. This included funding 

and advocating programs within the 

industry to assist cinema employees. Next, 

NATO observed support for moviegoing 

and analyzed how to get people back into 

cinemas when the time comes through a 

strategic public relations campaign. Finally, 

NATO needed to examine reopening 

operation procedures, as cinemas would 

prepare to welcome patrons again. 

NATO’s weekly State of the Industry 

webinar broadcasts every Thursday 

afternoon (Washington, D.C. time) 

to more than 400 member-company 

personnel around the world. As 

circumstances change rapidly in this 

current environment, the need to relay 

information on a timely basis remains 

a high priority. In addition to the SOTI 

webinars, NATO offers webinars on many 

of the topics mentioned above, including 

specific federal loan programs, P.R. 

advice, and shared reopening experiences 

from an operations standpoint. The 

webinar and tele-video platform has 

become a staple for businesses during the 

pandemic, and NATO intends to continue 

to provide much valuable information to 

its members throughout this ordeal. 

NATO staff have been working 

diligently on behalf of all cinemas to 

ensure that they have an industry to 

return to once cinemas fully reopen. We 

understand that cinema owners have 

anxiety, frustration, and concern about 

the future of the exhibition industry. The 

past few months have been full of stressful 

situations and difficult decisions. Our 

members have found value in NATO’s 

website posts, daily article updates, 

weekly webinars, and regular reports on 

developments within the industry. Thank 

you for your constant support, and we look 

forward to working with you this year. 

Dues Hiatus 

The month of July marks the beginning 

of NATO’s fiscal year. For the 2020–21 

fiscal year, the NATO Executive Board 

authorized a one-time dues-free year 

of membership through June 30, 2021. 

Any cinema that has yet to join 

NATO, please contact David Binet 

(db@natodc.com) to take advantage of 

the current offer. During this period of 

uncertainty and great challenge, NATO 

proudly represents our members and all 

cinemas in the fight for the return of the 

exhibition industry. 

Employee Relief Programs 

Several hundred thousand movie theater 

employees all across the world were 

furloughed when theaters were forced to 

close. In the U.S., the Will Rogers Motion 

Picture Pioneers Foundation (WRMPPF) 

stepped up immediately to provide 

financial aid to those most in need. With 

$1.2 million in funding from Will Rogers’ 

reserves, and a $1 million contribution 

from NATO, phase 1 of the Will Rogers 

Covid-19 Emergency Grant Program 

provided an immediate $300 grant to 

7,300 furloughed employees in the U.S. 

A comparable grant program was 

launched by the Canadian Picture 

Pioneers (CPP) to provide financial relief 

to furloughed employees in Canada, 

and NATO supported that effort with a 

contribution of $100,000 CAD. 

Our hats are off to our friends at 

WRMPPF and CPP for undertaking and 

managing these important programs 

that gave a much-needed financial lift to 

industry employees negatively affected by 

the closures. 

WRMPPF has now moved to phase 2 of 

its Covid-19 relief program, which offers 

assistance on a more individualized basis, 

similar to its ongoing assistance program. 

The fundraising for phase 2 was given a 

nice boost by Lionsgate, as the company 

donated the proceeds of its Lionsgate Live! 

movie screenings to Will Rogers. 

NATO Events 

The cancellation of CinemaCon 2020 was 

another disappointment earlier this year. 

As we look ahead to better times, we are 

looking forward to gathering, virtually 

or in person, at the Beverly Hilton this 

October, for NATO’s Fall Meetings. Stay 

tuned for more details. At the same 

time, we are already working hard on 

new plans to celebrate to 10th edition of 

CinemaCon, scheduled for April 26–29, 

2021, at Caesars Palace. 

Global Cinema Federation 

In April, the Global Cinema Federation 

released a statement on its commitment to 

ensuring the survival of cinemas through 

the Covid-19 crisis. Over these last few 

months, the GCF executive committee 

has held several virtual meetings to 

continue to share updates on industry 

developments, including reopenings and 

back-to-the-cinema campaign ideas. The 

GCF has communicated with studios 

about the commitment to reopening safely 

in time for wide releases of upcoming 

films. The GCF has also worked on 

collecting information from theater 

owners operating in territories around 

the world about the impact of Covid-19 

on our industry. Chairman Alejandro 

Ramírez Magaña addressed the virtual 

CineEurope crowd on June 17 with an 

industry message from the Global Cinema 

Federation. In his address he said, “We 

must demonstrate our resilience, which is 

what has always made us a solid, united, 

and successful industry. Our coordinated 

efforts to get the public back into movie 

theaters will make the difference in our 

industry, which I am certain will return 

stronger than ever.” 

We must demonstrate our 

resilience, which is what 

has always made us a solid, 

united, and successful 

industry. Our coordinated 

efforts to get the public 

back into movie theaters 

will make the difference 

in our industry, which I am 

certain will return stronger 

than ever. 



15

INDUSTRY COVID-19 & CINEMAS 

COVID-19 

& CINEMAS 

BY DANIEL LORIA 

JAN 23 

Cinemas in China are 

ordered to close on the eve 

of the country’s Lunar New 

Year holiday, one of the 

busiest moviegoing periods 

of the year. 

THE FIRST 

SIX MONTHS 

OF THE CRISIS 

FEB 


FEB 23 

Cinemas in northern 

Italy, which account for 

approximately 48 percent of 

the country’s screens, begin 

to close as the region becomes 

the first site outside Asia 

to experience an outbreak 

of Covid-19 cases. The 

government orders the rest of 

the country’s cinemas to cease 

operations on March 8. 

FEB 12 

Mobile World Conference, 

the world’s largest mobile 

phone convention, cancels 

its 2020 event, intended to be 

held in Barcelona. It becomes 

the first major convention 

and trade show in 2020 to 

abandon its plans. 

MAR 

MAR 04 

No Time to Die, the latest entry in the James Bond 

franchise, becomes the first major studio release to be 

delayed due to Covid-19. The film, originally scheduled 

to premiere in London on March 31 before opening 

in the U.S. on April 10, is pushed back to November. 

Every other studio title on the schedule will follow suit 

in subsequent weeks, with some titles like Universal’s 

F9 (the ninth entry in The Fast & The Furious 

franchise) postponed by over a year to spring 2021. 

Photo Credit: Nicola Dove. © 2020 DANJAQ LLC AND MGM 


17


MAR 06 

The city of Austin, Texas, 

cancels South by Southwest, 

making it the first major film 

festival to be canceled due to 

the escalating health crisis. 

MAR 12 

Cinemas in the Czech 

Republic, Estonia, Greece, 

Kosovo, Poland, and Romania 

suspend operations under 

government orders. Denmark’s 

cinemas close by mutual 

agreement on this date, ahead 

of government orders. 

“While local 

outbreaks vary 

widely in severity, 

the global 

circumstances 

make it impossible 

for us to mount 

the show that our 

attendees have 

come to expect.” 

—NATO 

MAR 11 

CinemaCon, the annual 

convention of the National 

Association of Theatre Owners, 

cancels its 2020 edition. 

Earlier that day, news broke 

that Tom Hanks and his wife, 

Rita Wilson, had contracted 

Covid-19 in Australia during 

the production of a film. Hours 

before NATO’s announcement, 

the NBA suspended the 

basketball season after one of 

its players tested positive. 

MAR 13 

AMC and Malco Theatres become the 

first major circuits in North America to 

announce restricted capacity measures, 

limiting admissions in each auditorium 

to 50 percent. By the end of the day, 

similar capacity measures are instituted 

in other circuits and independent cinemas 

throughout the country. In New York City, 

where a cluster of cases begins to spread, 

art houses and repertory theaters like 

Anthology Film Archives, Film at Lincoln 

Center, and Nitehawk Cinema announce a 

suspension of their programming. 

Image courtesy Cinemark 


MAR 14 

Cinemas in Belgium, France, Latvia, Norway, and 

Spain suspend operations under government orders. 

Cinemas in Germany begin closing by region, going 

completely dark by March 18. 

Alamo Drafthouse closes its New York City and Yonkers 

locations following news of an uptick in cases in the 

New York City region. Eighteen of the North American 

market’s top 25 circuits are confirmed to be operating 

under restricted capacity measures. 

CMX Cinemas announces its intent to acquire dine-in 

circuit Star Cinema Grill, which operates 10 locations 

in Texas, with an additional site in development. 

MAR 17 

The top five circuits in North America 

go dark as Cinemark and Marcus Theatres 

announce the temporary closure of 

their locations. 

The top cinema circuits in Brazil begin to 

suspend operations. Over 90 percent of 

the country’s screens go dark by March 20. 

Image courtesy Cinemark 

Image courtesy Star Cinema Grill 

MAR 15 

Covid-19 hits the domestic box office. 

Friday figures signal trouble as an initial 

sample of 22 holdover titles report a sharp 

65 percent Friday-to-Friday drop. The 

weekend ends with a cumulative market 

total of $53.6 million, the lowest tally since 

September 2000. 

MAR 16 

The mayors of New York City and Los 

Angeles, the highest-earning U.S. box 

office markets, order cinemas in their 

respective cities to close. By the end of the 

day, top circuits in North America such as 

AMC, Regal, Cineplex, Harkins, Showcase, 

Landmark Cinemas of Canada, Alamo 

Drafthouse, Bow Tie, and Caribbean 

Cinemas announce they will begin closing 

all their locations until further notice. 

Cinemas in Argentina suspend operations 

under government orders. 

The Cannes Film Festival decides to 

abandon its original festival dates for 

2020 in mid-May, one of only a handful 

of times the festival has been forced to 

adjust its dates. 

Image courtesy Disney/Pixar 


19


“We tried to come up 

with a solution that 

could both rescue 

our particular release 

during this time and 

also create a revenue 

stream for the lost 

income for our partner 

theaters.” 

—Richard Lorber, 

CEO, Kino Lorber 

MAR 19 

Kino Lorber launches Kino Marquee, a 

“Virtual Theatrical” streaming service with 

a business model that shares revenue from 

premium video on demand (PVOD) rentals 

with participating exhibitors. Within a 

week, more than 150 theaters across the 

country embrace the concept as a means 

to continue programming and establish a 

new revenue stream during closures. The 

first title to launch under Kino Marquee is 

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s 

Bacurau, whose domestic theatrical run 

was interrupted by Covid-19. 

Photo Credit: Victor Jucá, courtesy Kino Lorber 

MAR 25 

Mexico’s two principal 

cinema chains—Cinépolis 

and Cinemex—suspend 

operations at all their 

locations in the country. 

MAR 18 

With movie theaters across the 

country closed, NATO urges 

Congress to move quickly on 

aid to help the approximately 

150,000 employees affected 

by the crisis. The trade 

association announces a 

$1 million donation from its 

reserve to aid cinema staff out 

of work due to the closures. 

MAR 23 

CineEurope 2020, the 

convention of UNIC, the trade 

association for European 

cinemas, reschedules its annual 

convention in Barcelona from 

June to August. 

MAR 20 

Cinemas in the United 

Kingdom suspend operations 

under government orders, 

though most major circuits 

began suspending operations 

as early as March 17. 

MAR 26 

A bipartisan deal passes in 

Congress to provide partial 

economic relief for cinemas 

affected by the crisis. 

Cinemas in Russia 

suspend operations under 

government order. 


MAR 30 

NATO and the Will Rogers Pioneers 

Assistance Fund (PAF) partner to create 

an emergency fund for cinema workers 

affected by furloughs and layoffs during 

the pandemic. An initial $2.4 million is 

poured into the fund intended to provide 

financial assistance to movie theater 

employees facing economic hardship. 

The Criterion Collection and Janus 

Films launch the Art-House America 

Campaign, a relief fund to help art house 

and independent theaters affected by 

the health crisis. When the campaign 

ends several months later, it has raised a 

total of $842,088. 

APR 13 

Lionsgate partners with 

Fandango and NATO to launch 

Lionsgate Live!, a weekly 

series on YouTube that live 

streams top titles from the 

studio’s catalogue as part of a 

fundraising effort benefiting 

the Will Rogers Motion Picture 

Pioneers Foundation. Held 

on Friday evenings over four 

weeks, the campaign raises 

more than $200,000 during 

its run. 

MAR 31 

Cinemas begin to offer takeout 

concessions to help mitigate the 

financial fallout from closures. From 

popcorn curbside pickup orders to 

dine-in theaters offering takeout and 

delivery services, cinemas engage 

patrons on social media channels to 

promote concessions orders. 

MAR 28 

CJ CGV, the leading circuit in South 

Korea, temporarily closes approximately 

one-third of its locations in the country. 

Toho, the largest exhibition circuit in 

Japan, begins to close locations in Tokyo 

and surrounding areas. 

APR 


21


APR 21 

IFC Films announces the 

creation of the Indie Theater 

Revival Project, making 200 

of its catalogue titles available 

theatrically for participating 

cinemas upon their return 

to business. 

APR 25 

CMX Cinemas, the eighth-largest circuit in North 

American, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and 

abandons its planned acquisition of Texas-based 

dine-in circuit Star Cinema Grill. 

Image courtesy CMX Cinemas 

APR 28 

The governor of Texas allows 

the state’s stay-at-home order 

to expire, allowing cinemas to 

reopen as early as May 1. 

APR 20 

CJ CGV, South Korea’s leading exhibition circuit, 

launches a trial of “contact-free” locations designed 

to minimize face-to-face interactions. The program 

features ticketing kiosks, encourages mobile purchases, 

and incorporates concessions pickup lockers. 

Only a month after closure announcements, the state 

of Georgia announces it will allow movie theaters to 

reopen beginning on April 27. 

APR 26 

CJ CGV resumes operations in 

the locations it had closed in 

South Korea in late March. 

Image courtesy CJ CGV 


APR 30 

Alamo Drafthouse founder 

Tim League steps down as the 

CEO of the Texas-based dinein 

circuit. He is succeeded by 

Shelli Taylor, who becomes the 

first woman to head a top-15 

circuit in North America since 

February 2018. 

Image courtesy Alamo Drafthouse 

MAY 02 

Texas-based circuits EVO 

Entertainment and Santikos 

Entertainment become the 

first cinemas in the United 

States to lead the reopening 

effort. The circuits open their 

doors with revamped social 

distancing and sanitation 

guidelines, as well as a 

restricted admissions capacity 

per auditorium. 

Image courtesy EVO Entertainment 

APR 29 

After abandoning plans for the theatrical release 

of Trolls World Tour in favor of a PVOD rollout, 

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell boasts to The Wall Street 

Journal about the title’s success in home entertainment 

platforms. In the interview, the executive suggests 

future Universal titles will observe a similar 

simultaneous release model, therefore abandoning a 

theatrical exclusivity window. In a heated response, 

AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron rebukes the studio’s 

statements and vows to drop Universal titles from its 

circuit—the largest in North America—once it reopens. 

Photo Credit: DreamWorks Animation LLC 

MAY 


23


“Having guests in 

our theaters also 

allows our teams 

to implement our 

enhanced cleaning 

and disinfecting 

protocols. You may 

even see our CEO 

helping out if you 

book an event!” 

—Annelise Holyoak, 

Cinépolis Luxury 

Cinemas 

MAY 08 

Texas-based cinema 

entertainment centers from 

Cinergy and dine-in chain Star 

Cinema Grill become the latest 

circuits to resume operations 

in the state. 

Image courtesy Cinergy 

MAY 05 

With circuits in Texas 

beginning to reopen, Cinépolis 

Luxury Cinemas subsidiary 

Moviehouse & Eatery adopts an 

alternative strategy: opening 

its doors by appointment only 

through heavily discounted 

private auditorium rentals. 

Other circuits adopt a similar 

practice, using private rentals 

as a “soft reopen” strategy. The 

concept finds success around 

the world—from independents 

like Atlanta’s Plaza Theater to 

circuits like Utah’s Megaplex 

Theatres, Sweden’s Svenska 

Bio, and Novo Cinemas in the 

United Arab Emirates. 

MAY 07 

Alamo Drafthouse launches 

an in-house VOD platform, 

becoming the second major 

circuit in North America to 

establish a streaming presence. 

AMC Theatres had previously 

launched its own VOD channel 

in October 2019. 

MAY 12 

CineEurope 2020 is canceled 

outright after originally being 

rescheduled for August. UNIC’s 

annual convention becomes 

the first major exhibition 

conference to go digital with a 

live digital event celebrated on 

June 17 and 18. 

Cinemas in Norway are 

permitted to reopen. 

Image courtesy Alamo Drafthouse 


MAY 15 

Drive-in cinemas see a resurgence as a viable alternative 

to closed cinemas throughout the country. Major circuits 

such as Marcus Theatres, B&B Theatres, Malco Theatres, 

and Showcase Cinemas begin reopening their first 

locations in the United States by welcoming cars into the 

lots of their outdoor screens. 

Cinemas in Germany are permitted to reopen, depending 

on regional statutes and restrictions, in a tiered 

reopening effort expected to be completed by June 30. 

MAY 25 

Cinemas in Spain are allowed 

to resume operations in a 

tiered reopening effort by 

region, with those located 

inside shopping malls 

scheduled to start on June 8. 

Most cinemas in the country 

will reopen by late June. 

Toho, Japan’s largest exhibition circuit, resumes 

operations at select locations throughout the country. 

Image courtesy IFC Films 

MAY 18 

ShowBiz Cinemas begins its reopening 

effort, with select locations in Texas and 

Oklahoma resuming operations. 

The National Association of 

Concessionaires cancels the 2020 

edition of its expo and trade show, 

originally scheduled for July 28–31 in 

Orlando, Florida. 

MAY 21 

Anticipation mounts upon news of 

reopening dates for major circuits, fueled 

by rampant speculation from the trade 

press and Wall Street analysts. The industry 

sets its sights on July 17 as the closest thing 

to a national reopening date, pinning 

its hopes on the Warner Bros. release of 

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet as the first new 

major studio release following the closures. 

After weeks of doubts about its summer 

release, a new trailer for Tenet premieres on 

the online video game platform Fortnite. 

A crucial detail doesn’t go unnoticed: the 

new trailer doesn’t mention a release date. 

Cinemas in Denmark are permitted 

to reopen. 

Image courtesy ShowBiz Cinemas 


25


MAY 29 

France sets June 22 as the 

national reopening date for 

the country’s cinemas. 

Netflix partners with 

American Cinematheque, a 

nonprofit arts organization, 

to acquire Los Angeles’s 

iconic Egyptian Theatre, a 

movie palace dating to 1922. 

The remaining NATO regional 

conventions on the schedule— 

Rocky Mountain, ShowSouth, 

CinéShow, and Geneva— 

cancel their 2020 events. 

JUN 01 

Belgium-based multinational circuit 

Kinepolis reopens all 18 of its cinemas 

in the Netherlands under restricted 

admissions capacity. Subsequent 

territories are scheduled to return in 

stages, beginning with Spain on June 5 

and followed by Switzerland (June 6), 

Luxembourg (June 17), France (June 22), 

Spain (June 26), and Belgium (July 1). 

Image courtesy Kinepolis 

JUN 09 

California lays out guidelines 

for a return to cinemas as 

early as June 12. 

MAY 28 

Reading International 

begins its reopening effort 

in New Zealand, fully 

resuming operations in 

the country by June 4. The 

circuit sets reopening dates 

for its Australian locations 

beginning on June 11. 

JUN 12 

In a Friday evening news dump, Warner Bros. reveals 

it will be moving Tenet from its original release date of 

July 17 to July 31. The move ignites a wave of schedule 

changes from major studios across the industry. 

Disney’s live-action Mulan becomes the next major 

studio release on the schedule, dated for July 24. 

JUN 

U.K.-based multinational circuit Cineworld abandons 

its planned acquisition of Cineplex, the largest cinema 

chain in Canada. The deal, originally announced 

in December 2019, would have made Cineworld the 

world’s largest cinema circuit with over 11,200 screens 

in markets that include the United States, Canada, 

the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Czech Republic, 

Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Israel. 


“This announcement 

prompted an intense and 

immediate outcry from our 

customers, and it is clear 

from this response that we 

did not go far enough on 

the usage of masks.” 

—Adam Aron, 

CEO, AMC Theatres 

JUN 15 

Cinemas in Italy are permitted 

to reopen. 

Malco Theatres begins a tiered 

reopening effort with plans to 

have its full circuit operational 

by mid-July. 

JUN 18 

AMC Theatres announces a phased reopening of its 

U.S. cinemas, with most locations open by July 15. 

The circuit encounters strong public backlash to its 

decision to “strongly encourage” face masks in theaters 

in areas that don’t require them. Though the same 

policy is shared by most major circuits around the 

world, AMC’s stance becomes a national talking point 

for cinema reopening policies. The circuit revises the 

controversial policy a day later, requiring face masks 

for all patrons in the United States. 

Utah’s Megaplex Theatres begins to resume 

operations with the first tier of openings in the state. 

Image courtesy Megaplex Theatres 

JUN 19 

Cinemark, Marcus Theatres, 

and Studio Movie Grill begin a 

tiered reopening effort at their 

respective locations. Original 

plans have Cinemark entering 

the final phase of reopenings 

on the weekend of July 10. 

JUN 16 

Cineworld and its U.S. subsidiary, Regal 

Cinemas, announce a phased reopening 

effort scheduled to begin on July 10. Regal 

plans to have its fleet of theaters in the 

United States open by July 24. 

Image courtesy Cineworld 


27


JUN 25 

The United States records the highest single-day 

increase of new Covid-19 cases to date, pausing the 

reopening efforts in several states. In response to the 

uptick in cases, the governor of New York removes 

cinemas from the list of approved businesses in the 

state’s phase 4 reopening plans despite its progress in 

overcoming its initial surge of cases. 

JUN 22 

Cinemas in France are permitted 

to reopen. 

Showcase Cinemas, a subsidiary 

of National Amusements and 

part of the Viacom media 

empire, becomes the third major 

circuit to launch a VOD platform, 

ShowcaseNOW. 

Another late-evening press release from Warner Bros. 

signals further delays for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. 

Originally intended as the title to begin welcoming 

audiences back to cinemas on July 17, the film is 

pushed back to an August 12 release. 

Omniplex Cinemas, the largest theater chain in 

Ireland, announces it will begin to resume operations 

on July 3 under a phased reopening effort. 

JUN 23 

Fandango, the leading digital ticketing 

aggregator in the United States, launches 

a comprehensive theater reopening 

program on its platform. Its initial 

offerings include the detailed health and 

cleaning policies of more than 100 movie 

chains, seating maps broken down by 

social distancing requirements, and filterbased 

searches to help moviegoers locate 

which theaters near them are currently 

open, among other features. Digital 

ticketing and mobile concessions ordering 

are expected to become major features of 

the global reopening effort. 

Image courtesy Fandango 

JUN 26 

Following Warner Bros.’ lead, 

Disney further delays the 

theatrical release of Mulan 

from July 24 to August 21. 

Cinemas return in Canada 

with leading circuits Cineplex 

and Landmark opening 

select locations in Alberta. 

Both circuits plan to ramp up 

reopenings across the country 

through July 3. 

Photo Credit: Film Frame. © 2019 Disney 

Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved 


ART HOUSE MOVIE THEATERS 

TACKLE COVID-19 

JUN 29 

AMC Theatres pushes back its reopening 

in the United States. The circuit announces 

revised plans to open approximately 

450 domestic locations on July 30 and 

approximately 150 remaining locations 

the following week. The circuit plans a 

full global reopening of its theaters in 14 

countries by early August. 

Cinemas in Greece are permitted to reopen. 

Image courtesy AMC Theatres 

With theatrical exhibition worldwide ground to a near 

halt, independent and art house cinemas got creative, 

coming up with innovative tactics for programming and 

keeping in touch with their communities. 

FilmScene 

Iowa City, Iowa 

FilmScene took to social media during the shutdown 

to keep its relationship with homebound patrons going 

strong. Online initiatives included craft how-tos, catchups 

with staff, and a #FilmSceneStealer challenge— 

inviting patrons to re-create their favorite film scenes from 

the comfort of their homes. 

Grand Avenue Theater 

Belton, Texas 

Connections with distributors let Texas’s Grand Avenue 

Theater sell “Grocery Essentials” via its website for 

curbside pickup. Products include staples like eggs, rice, 

toilet paper … and, of course, popcorn. 

Next Act Cinema 

Pikesville, Maryland 

Rain—or, for that matter, a closed theater—didn’t stop 

Maryland’s Next Act Cinema from celebrating Juneteenth 

with a virtual party, complete with comedians, music, and 

activism. (And face masks.) 

JUN 30 

Cineworld and its U.S. subsidiary, Regal 

Cinemas, along with Cinemark, delay their 

respective reopening dates. Cineworld 

and Regal, originally scheduled to open 

in the U.K. and U.S. on July 10, now plan 

to resume operations three weeks later, 

on July 31. Cinemark, which began its 

domestic reopening effort with select 

locations around Dallas on June 19, had 

planned to have all U.S. theaters open by 

July 10. Under the new plan, additional 

Cinemark locations will instead open on 

July 24, with the remaining sites resuming 

operations in subsequent weeks. 

Row House Cinema 

Pittsburgh 

Pittsburgh’s Row House Cinema took the virtual 

theatrical model one step further by spearheading the 

creation of its own film: the Quarantine Cat Film Festival. 

Independent cinemas nationwide put out the call to 

entry, inviting anyone sitting bored on their couch to get 

up and take a cute video of their cat. Row House pored 

(purred?) through all the entries, edited the chosen few 

together, and released the finished film to virtual cinemas 

across the U.S. 

Roxie Theater 

San Francisco 

The Roxie in San Francisco hosted its very own Mixtapein-Place 

film festival, inviting aspiring filmmakers from 

the Bay Area and beyond to submit short (three minutes 

or less) films made while sheltering in place. Genres: any. 

Exterior shots: not allowed. 

Spectacle Theater 

Brooklyn, New York 

When Brooklyn’s Spectacle Theater closed, the volunteerrun 

cinema swiftly pivoted to Twitch, streaming movies 

(heavy emphasis on horror and obscure rarities) for free 

to audiences via the popular live-streaming platform. 

The programming was varied, and so was the audience: 

“I’ve seen a lot of people tuning in from overseas who 

absolutely could not have ever made it to a Spectacle 

screening,” programmer Zachary Fleming told Boxoffice 

Pro. “A few people from London and Hong Kong and 

Australia tuning in for things [and] being like, ‘Oh, I’m 

gonna head out to work now. Thanks for the movie.’” 


29

INDUSTRY CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 

CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 

Golden Link 

In June, in-cinema merchandise manufacturer 

Golden Link announced that it 

would donate 10 percent of proceeds from 

a new line of safety products designed 

exclusively for cinemas—including the 

children’s Justice League masks—to 

Variety – the Children’s Charity. “At Golden 

Link, we have been looking for an opportunity 

to increase our participation with 

charities through our work with cinemas,” 

said Golden Link president Jeff Waaland 

in a statement. “With the current situation, 

this seemed like the perfect time to take 

action. Not only are these masks providing 

protection, but each one sold will help less 

fortunate children.” 

Showcase Cinemas Pay Tribute 

As moviegoers across the United States 

sheltered in place inside their homes, 

millions of essential workers kept us going. 

Showcase Cinemas paid tribute to those 

everyday heroes with its “Superheroes 

Photo courtesy Golden Link 

Aren’t Just in Movies” social media campaign, 

launched in April. 

The campaign invited customers to 

share a photo or video of themselves 

dressed as their favorite superhero. “In 

these challenging times, we have seen that 

superheroes aren’t just in movies. That’s 

why we are asking our Showcase fans to 

show their support for the everyday heroes 

in their lives by sharing a pic dressed as 

your favorite movie hero,” said Mark Malinowski, 

vice president of global marketing 

at Showcase Cinemas. “We‘ll be using the 

submissions to create a special pre-show 

trailer that will run in Showcase Cinemas 

locations nationwide once we open.” 

Santikos Entertainment 

On March 25, Santikos Entertainment 

launched an “employee food bank,” distributing 

over 700 free meals to employees 

and local first responders. They also 

partnered with a local food distributor to 

create a curbside “grocery store,” where 

employees could purchase food at 

cost. Both initiatives remained active 

until Santikos theaters reopened. The 

John L. Santikos Charitable Foundation 

also donated $1 million to the Covid-19 

Response Fund. 

Paradise Theatre 

When Toronto’s Paradise Theatre launched 

its “virtual cinema,” they decided to pay 

it forward. With every ticket bought for 

one of its streaming releases, the Paradise 

donated a pair of tickets to frontline workers, 

good for when the theater reopens. 

The Paradise was inspired by the Jam Jar 

Cinema Local Heroes Campaign, which 

raised money to distribute free tickets to 

frontline workers in the U.K. 

“When the necessity of social distancing 

comes to a close, Paradise will have what 

we’ve been missing: the opportunity to 

enjoy the company of others, delighting in 

a shared experience, outside of work. And 

who deserves that more than the people 

Photo Courtesy Paradise Theatre 


on the front lines of today’s crisis? We’re 

excited to give back to those working so 

hard to protect Torontonians by treating 

them to a great night out,” said Sonya 

William, Paradise Theatres’ director of 

communications. 

so hard on the front lines of this pandemic,” 

said Luis Olloqui, CEO, Cinépolis 

Luxury Cinemas. “At the same time, this 

program will help support our employees 

while we eagerly await the reopening of 

our theaters.” 

Cinépolis 

Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas, the U.S. arm 

of Mexico’s multinational exhibition giant 

Cinépolis, launched a campaign in April to 

donate tickets to nurses and help its employees 

affected by the Covid-19 shutdown. 

In honor of Nurses Week, the circuit 

donated two tickets to nurses at hospitals 

near its locations (like the happy recipient 

above) with the purchase of every $50 

e-gift card sold through its website. The 

campaign ran from April 20 to May 5; 

funds raised went to support furloughed 

Cinépolis staff. 

“We’re extremely grateful for our health 

care workers, and we’d like to give back to 

the nurses at our local hospitals working 

Photo Courtesy Cinépolis 

Megaplex Theatres 

This past spring, Megaplex Theatres took 

part in a week-long food drive organized 

by its parent company, the Larry H. Miller 

Group of Companies (LHM Group). The 

campaign, called “Driven to Assist,” 

offered a free large tub of fresh popcorn in 

exchange for a donation of nonperishable 

food at any Megaplex location. 

“One of our guiding principles at the 

Larry H. Miller Group of Companies is 

to ‘go about doing good until there is too 

much good in the world,’” said Gail Miller, 

owner and chair of LHM Group. “I am 

impressed with Utahns’ willingness to 

collaborate and to serve others. Together, 

we can help fulfill a critical need for the 

Utah Food Bank and its partners.” 

Studio Movie Grill 

As they approached reopening, Texasbased 

drive-in chain Studio Movie 

Grill launched its One Story Fund, 

directing 10 percent of ticket, food, 

and beverage proceeds from opening 

weekend (June 19–21) to team members 

in need. Under its Food to Go program, 

10 percent of proceeds from curbside 

concessions pickup were similarly 

donated to furloughed SMG employees. 

In late summer/early autumn, SMG 

will be supporting local library reading 

programs as well as offering free tickets 

to participants in an American Red Cross 

blood drive. 

Atlas Atlantic Cinema 

Atlas Atlantic Cinema in Atlantic, Iowa, 

raised $2,000 in April for its local food 

bank with a “popcorn pop-up” sale. The 

sale, which was promoted with a single 

Facebook post, ended up drawing so many 

people that some waited for over an hour 

to receive their bucket. But according to 

co-owners Jacob and Rylea Anderson, 

no one raised a fuss. Instead, the spirit 

of generosity was in full flower. “There 

[were] a lot of people that were paying it 

forward,” said Jacob Anderson. “That was 

really fun to see. You know, they’d buy 

a bucket for the next car, and [that car 

would] do it in return.” 

Photo Courtesy Atlas Atlantic Cinema 


31


CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 

VARIETY 

A shutdown of theaters didn’t mean a 

shutdown of good works for Variety – the 

Children’s Charity and its various chapters. 

Below are just some of Variety’s efforts to 

help at-need children and their families 

over the past four months. 

1. Detroit and Southern California 

With schools closed, Variety of Detroit 

donated food to children and families 

in need through its Variety Feeds Kids 

program. The Variety Boys & Girls Club of 

Boyle Heights, a beneficiary of Variety of 

Southern California, also distributed daily 

meals to 300 local club members. 

2. St. Louis 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Variety 

of St. Louis changed its annual summer 

camp format to a free Virtual Adventure 

Camp. St. Louis–area kids and teens with 

disabilities (ages 4–20) created crafts, 

played games, took virtual field trips, 

made friends, and much more, all from 

the safety of their homes. 

3. Wisconsin 

Variety of Wisconsin shipped free art 

supplies to local families and took to 

YouTube to share a for-all-abilities painting 

tutorial led by world-renowned artist 

Walfrido Garcia. 

4. Variety of the Desert 

Variety of the Desert partnered with FIND 

Food Bank to distribute 5,000 meals at a 

mobile distribution site serving children 

and families in the Coachella Valley of 

California. In addition to meals, children 

could pick up a literacy bag filled with 

books, bookmarks, pencils, and other 

reading incentives, courtesy of Young 

Variety of the Desert. 

5. Illinois 

Variety of Illinois brought its Variety 

Sunshine Coach van to help safely 

celebrate local children on their birthdays. 

The outside of the van is decorated 

specifically for each child, and the 

birthday boy/girl receives a little surprise. 

Variety of Illinois gives a big thank you to 

their friends at Kernel Season’s for helping 

celebrate their Variety kids! 

6. Manitoba 

Since closures began due to Covid-19, 

Variety of Manitoba has funded more than 

417 hours of virtual therapy sessions for 51 

children living with special needs. Services 

include speech therapy, occupational 

therapy, ABA therapy, and music therapy. 

7. Iowa 

Variety of Iowa and the Principal Charity 

Classic have proudly come together to 

provide a $35,000 grant to the Food Bank of 

Iowa. Support for Iowa’s children is more important 

now than ever before, and this grant 

will provide approximately 140,000 meals 

to hungry children and families. The Young 

Variety of Iowa board also volunteered at the 

Food Bank of Iowa to help pack and organize 

food. In total, they packed 288 boxes of 

product equaling 5,285 pounds of food. If 

you are a young professional between the 

ages of 21 and 35 who would like to help 

children in need in your local community, 

please find your local Young Variety chapter 

at usvariety.org/young-variety. 

Greater Kansas City 

Each year, Variety of Greater Kansas City 

pays tribute to Variety’s entertainment 

industry heritage with The Variety Show. 

This year, Variety KC held the Virtual 

Variety Show hosted by KCTV 5. Watch 

the show and enjoy some inspiration at 

https://varietykc.org/show/. 

Founded in 1927 by a group of 

theater owners and showmen 

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 

for nearly 100 years Variety 

– the Children’s Charity has 

provided invaluable assistance 

to children who are sick, 

disadvantaged, or live with 

disabilities and other special 

needs. 

Variety – the Children’s Charity 

currently has a network of 42 

offices in 13 countries. 

To submit events for future coverage, 

email numbers@boxoffice.com 


1. Detroit and Southern California 

2. St. Louis 

3. Wisconsin 4. Variety of the Desert 

5. Illinois 

Images courtesy Variety – the Children’s Charity 

6. Manitoba 

7. Iowa 


33


Though the amount of 

each individual donation 

has gone down during the 

Covid-19 crisis, the number 

of donations has gone up— 

indicating people’s desire to 

contribute to a cause even as 

their means to do so becomes 

more precarious. 

STEPPING 

UP 

Will Rogers Motion Picture 

Pioneers Foundation helps the 

exhibition community make it 

through Covid-19 

BY REBECCA PAHLE 

For more than 80 years, the Will 

Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation—founded 

in 1939 in memory of its 

movie star namesake, who died in a plane 

crash four years earlier—has been providing 

assistance to those in need within the 

film exhibition community through their 

Pioneers Assistance Fund. With Covid-19 

putting that community more in need than 

ever before, Will Rogers stepped up. 

On March 30 Will Rogers announced 

the creation of a Covid-19 Emergency 

Grant, designed to provide financial 

assistance to theater workers laid off or 

furloughed as a result of the pandemic. 

“When the theater closures took place, 

it was instinct for us to jump in and 

help,” explains executive director Todd 

Vradenburg. NATO kicked in a cool 

million, matched by $1.4 million from Will 

Rogers’s reserves—“and just like that, we 

had $2.4 million available to create our 

Phase 1 Emergency Fund to help theater 

employees who were furloughed without 

pay.” By late June, Will Rogers had sent 

a combined $2.4 million to 7,728 people, 

with applications still being accepted and 

grants still being sent out as of press time. 

The mission of Will Rogers’s Covid-19 

Emergency Grant is simple, says Vradenburg: 

“It was important to us to show 

theater workers we care about them.” 

Roughly 75 percent of those applications 

came in within the first week of the 

grant going live—leading to a busy spring 

and summer (putting it mildly) for Will 

Rogers’s six-person “small and mighty” 

staff, says director of development Christina 

Blumer. Will Rogers’s mission, and 

the sheer scope of the need that sprang up 

in the weeks after the shutdown, required 

collaboration and communication across 

various facets of the entertainment industry. 

To do its work, Will Rogers drew upon 

the assistance of NATO, which in addition 

to its initial donation helped get the word 

out among its members, as well as theater 

HR departments that verified employment 

so grants could be sent out. 

Vradenburg is quick to note that Will 

Rogers is far from the only group that 

stepped up to help the exhibition community. 

Other initiatives include Art-House 

America and fundraisers specific to theater 


workers in New York and Chicago; NATO 

of California/Nevada set up its own $1.25 

million relief fund; and individual exhibitors 

contributed via “their own assistance 

programs. AMC has AMC Cares, Regal 

has the Regal Foundation, Cinemark has 

Cinemark Cares, Marcus has an assistance 

program for their employees. That’s been 

a big help. We’re not doing this all alone. 

We may have a big chunk of it, but many 

exhibitors are also kicking in [and] helping 

their employees.” 

Among the most visible supporters of 

Will Rogers is Lionsgate, which hosted a 

four-week streaming series launched by 

Jamie Lee Curtis. Called Lionsgate Live!, 

the series paired films (The Hunger Games, 

Dirty Dancing, La La Land, and John Wick) 

with special guest stars as well as a call to 

action to donate to Will Rogers. “We think 

it’s a brilliant promotion,” says Vradenburg. 

“From the first phone call we received 

describing it to what actually ended up 

being put together—how they packaged 

it and got celebrities to do on-camera 

messages—it’s really, really smart.” 

Lionsgate Live!’s first screening, of The 

Hunger Games, netted over 10,000 viewers 

and donations from over 350 people. 

Most of those were “donors we never had 

before,” says Vradenburg. “They now know 

about this charity, and they support it. So 

hopefully we bring them into the family a 

little bit.” By the end of week four, Lionsgate 

Live! had netted a grand total of over 

$200,000 for the Will Rogers coffers. Other 

companies in the film industry rallied to 

support Will Rogers as well. Popcornopolis 

donated a portion of proceeds tied to 

Lionsgate Live! screenings, and Kernel 

Season’s, Influx Worldwide, Malco Theatres, 

and Film Row hosted third-party 

fundraisers. Sony Corporation and Sony 

Pictures Entertainment dipped into their 

Sony Global Relief Fund for Covid-19 and 

donated $1 million. 

“As a national charity goes, we’re a 

smaller organization,” says Blumer—so 

something like Lionsgate Live!, which 

gets the word out about Will Rogers to 

thousands of people, is a huge benefit to 

the organization in both the short and 

long terms. “To see the type of traffic that 

we received on social media—and the 

comments and the interactions and the 

tags—it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen 

even during a large event, like [Will Rogers’s 

annual] Pioneer Dinner or something 

that would generally have a lot of media 

around it. The social media interaction 

that we had was unprecedented, I would 

say. As well as the number of donors.” In 

general, explains Vradenburg, though the 

amount of each individual donation has 

gone down during the Covid-19 crisis, the 

number of donations has gone up—indicating 

people’s desire to contribute 

to a cause even as their means to do so 

becomes more precarious. 

Weeks into the crisis, as applications 

began to die down, Will Rogers shifted to 

Phase 2 of the Pioneers Assistance Fund’s 

Covid-19 Emergency Grant. Due to the 

sheer number of people in need, Vradenburg 

explains, it was all but impossible for 

Phase 1 to take any specific circumstances 

into account when issuing grants. Phase 

2, however, is based on factors like health 

care expenses or unemployment status. As 

of press time, Will Rogers was still in Phase 

2 of its Covid-19 Emergency Grant. That 

phase “will continue until circumstances 

change,” says Blumer. “There are no plans 

to end the Emergency Grant program. 

Helping people pay for COBRA and health 

care continues to be the top need.” 

Phase 2 of Will Rogers’s Covid-19 response, 

Vradenburg notes, looks an awful 

lot like their regular assistance program. 

Will Rogers’s normal operations—both 

the Pioneers Assistance Fund and Brave 

Beginnings, which sends money to hospitals 

so they can buy equipment to help 

premature babies—are still going strong, 

since “that money was raised in 2019 and 

was already in the budget,” Vradenburg 

says. “We will likely see a decrease in our 

activity/spending in 2021,” since reserves 

will be depleted and many of the fundraising 

efforts they normally rely on—like golf 

tournaments and the Pioneer of the Year 

dinner—are currently impossible, with 

exhibitors not in a position to donate. All 

the same, assures Vradenburg, “we’ll do 

something to keep those programs going 

in 2021, because we’re not ready to let 

them go dormant.” 

The Will Rogers Motion Picture 

Pioneers Foundation, like the exhibition 

industry itself, will continue moving 

on—and continue being absolutely 

essential—even after the current crisis 

calms down. Therein lies the silver lining, 

say Vradenburg and Blumer. Many people 

knew the work of the Will Rogers Foundation 

but few had a direct, immediate 

need for assistance. Blumer likens it to 

the unemployment system: “So many 

more people now are fully aware of what 

they do and how it works and what the 

application process looks like, because 

they need it.” The same is true with Will 

Rogers. As Phase 2 applications come in, 

social workers have flagged those from 

people dealing with “accident, illness, or 

injury—in addition to Covid-19 employment 

issues,” explains Blumer. As a result, 

several dozen people who are eligible for 

assistance from the Pioneers Assistance 

Fund but only applied because of the 

Covid-19 Emergency Grant have begun to 

receive help. 

“The bottom line is, they get it now,” 

says Vradenburg. Awareness of Will 

Rogers and its mission has increased, and 

they plan to keep that momentum going. 

“Once the dust settles on this Covid-19 

crisis, we’ll come out with [additional] 

messages about who we are and how you 

can support us and why it’s important 

that the Pioneers Assistance Fund is 

always here for people”—ready to tackle 

the unprecedented financial challenges 

the industry will still be recovering from. 

“A good number of people found us who 

probably needed us before this pandemic 

hit. And thank goodness that they found 

us, because we should be able to give them 

some help and get them through a rough 

patch. That’s what we’re all about.” 


35


LOLLIPOP THEATER 

NETWORK WON’T LET 

COVID-19 SLOW IT DOWN 


Photo courtesy Lollipop Theater Network 

Since 2002, it’s been the mission 

of the Lollipop Theater Network to 

brighten the lives of hospitalized children. 

Aided by a board of directors packed 

with film industry executives—including 

Carolyn Blackwood, COO at Warner Bros.; 

Chris Aronson, president of theatrical 

distribution at Paramount; and Jack 

Kline, former president and CEO of Christie—for 

nearly two decades Lollipop has 

brought film screenings and film stars to 

L.A.-area hospitals, enabling children with 

life-threatening illnesses to experience the 

magic of the movies. 

In March, everything changed. 

Hospitals closed to outside visitors. 

Lollipop closed its offices and postponed 

its annual Superhero Walk, the keystone 

event among Lollipop’s yearly fundraising 

activities. And Lollipop—with its three 

full-time staff members—looked at the 

typical number of events it hosts—and 

tripled it. 

The ramping-up wasn’t planned, says 

co-founder and executive director Evelyn 

Iocolano. Rather, it was a natural response 

to an increased need paired with a shift 

in how Lollipop operates—away from 

in-person events toward digital ones, 

where actors, artists, and other industry 

professionals interact with hospitalized or 

outpatient children via Zoom. 

When coronavirus hit the country in 

March, recalls Iocolano, social media 

was filled with frantic requests for things 

to do. Movies to watch, bread to bake, 

hobbies to learn—anything to cope with 

the quarantine—not just to fill time but 

also to help stave off anxieties about 

the future. “In a really scary time, they 

were looking for things to distract them. 

… It made me think: This is what we’ve 

been doing for 20 years. These kids that 

are in hospitals, [even] when there’s 

no pandemic, they’re fighting for their 

lives because of cancer, leukemia, heart 

disease, kidney transplants. They are 

dealing with that fear, that confinement 

and isolation and uncertainty.” 

All this was made worse by the coronavirus, 

which cut off much of the kids’ 

connection with the outside world and 

cut down on opportunities to keep them 

engaged. And so, days before Los Angeles 

issued its stay-at-home order, Lollipop 

put together its first digital one-on-one 

session, connecting a patient at USC 

Medical Center with an animation artist 

from DreamWorks. “When we finished 


The internet is filled with 

video content for children, 

but it’s knowing the person 

at the other end of the Zoom 

call “actually sees you” ... 

that is at the heart of what 

Lollipop provides. 

Photo courtesy Lollipop Theater Network 

that call, we were like, ‘there’s something 

there,” recalls Iocolano. “I always thought 

in-person was the only way to do it, because 

it was real. It was more effective. But 

these [digital] visits are just as effective, if 

not more so.” 

Logistically, digital visits are less 

challenging: Celebrity visitors don’t need 

to find time in their schedules for the long 

drive to the hospital, and if they’re not up 

on their immunizations it doesn’t much 

matter. Lollipop’s geographical reach 

has been widened; since the pandemic 

hit, Lollipop has expanded its visits to 

28 hospitals. (Screenings, notes Iocolano, 

have been provided nationwide since 

Lollipop’s inception.) 

Between March 20 and June 22, Lollipop 

hosted over 50 Zoom sessions—typically 

between four and seven a week—ranging 

from one-on-one chats to story times to 

drawing lessons with professional illustrators. 

(Emmy-winner Debbie Allen even 

helped Lollipop launch a weekly dance 

session for health care workers.) In the first 

weeks of the pandemic, most of Lollipop’s 

sessions were one-on-one; by late June 

they had shifted to mostly group sessions, 

which can reach over 200 children apiece. 

One of those group sessions was a mid-May 

screening of Scoob!, followed by a virtual 

visit with cast members and complete 

with swag provided by Warner Bros. Since 

that event, says Iocolano, multiple cast 

members have reached out to ask how they 

can do more visits. 

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” she says. 

“I think the guests really feel that they’re 

able to give back in a time where they’re 

confined to their houses, and they’re 

trying to figure out, ‘How can I help this 

situation?’ This is a way for them to do it 

from home. They can really see the impact, 

and the kids are really enjoying meeting 

these people that they never would meet 

and being able to actually talk to them, 

engage with them.” It’s that interactive 

part that’s “magic” for the kids. The 

internet is filled with video content for 

children, but it’s knowing the person at 

the other end of the Zoom call “actually 

sees you,” she says, that is at the heart of 

what Lollipop provides. 

“These kids are stuck in hospitals. They 

don’t have that daily interaction. They just 

have their family—who loves them, but it’s 

nice to see other people, and it’s nice to be 

acknowledged. That’s what these sessions 

have been enabling us to do around the 

country.” Important, too, is that the 

children attending these group events 

can see “other kids in their same situation. 

That’s another part of it: that they’re not 

alone. There are other people struggling. 

But when we do these sessions, all of that 

disappears, and they just become kids. 

They giggle and they laugh and they say 

silly things.” (“What’s your favorite food?” 

and “What’s your favorite animal?” are 

probably not common interview questions 

for the actors Lollipop works with.) 

“The ramping-up process was not an 

intention,” says Iocolano. “You focus, you 

move forward, and it happens. It’s hard to 

say no when you see the effect it has.” And 

the effect that it will continue to have— 

even as theaters come back, children’s 

wards at hospitals won’t be open to outside 

visitors due to the immunocompromised 

status of their patients. Thus, Lollipop’s 

virtual efforts will move on, even once 

their in-person events come back. Lollipop 

also plans to expand its fundraising 

efforts, looking outside the film industry 

for donors. “This community will always 

support us however they can, but there 

are a lot of people who want to be involved 

with this industry [and] who want to help.” 

Over the next few years, as companies 

and industries attempt to bounce back 

from the economic impact of Covid-19, 

Lollipop will rely on individual donors—“whether 

it’s the smaller amounts 

that add up, or the higher net worth 

individuals who want to give back and see 

a difference”—to keep it going strong. “I’m 

really hopeful that it’s going to be OK. I 

believe in what we do so much, and I think 

what’s happened over the past few months 

has made me believe in it even stronger. I 

can’t imagine other people wouldn’t want 

to support it.” 


37

Industry GUEST COLUMN 

CAN CINEMAS 

WIN BACK 

AUDIENCES 

AFTER COVID-19 

SHUTDOWNS? 

Homebound moviegoers flock 

to streaming solutions—but 

don't count movie theaters out 

BY DEBBIE STANFORD-KRISTIANSEN, 

CEO, NOVO CINEMAS 

The worldwide closure of cinemas 

in the wake of the global battle 

against the spread of coronavirus and 

the confinement of millions around 

the world to their homes has led to 

an unprecedented increase in the use 

of streaming services. The enormous 

appetite for streaming content among 

homebound audiences has led some 

to question whether cinemagoing will 

be a thing of the past once Covid-19 

is consigned to history. At Elan 

Entertainment, owner of Novo Cinemas, 

we believe the answer to that question 

is an empathetic no, and we point to 

lessons from the past, when the survival of 

moviegoing was also subject to debate. 

The fact is that cinemas and 

moviegoing have proven over the years to 

be nothing short of super-resilient. When 

TV first arrived in peoples’ homes, many 

predicted that the days of the big screen 

were over. They were proved wrong. Later 

came videos and DVDs—and again the 

doom-mongers were at work, predicting 

the demise of the movie theater. Yet again, 

however, news of cinema’s supposed 

death proved greatly exaggerated. 

Not that the cinema industry ignored 

these threats! The industry was aware, 

and concerned, about them. What did 

change was that the cinema sector upped 

its game, luring audiences out of their 

homes with vastly improved services 

and investments in delivering a more 

compelling experience. In came bigger 

and more luxurious seating; foyers, which 

turned into social meeting points for 

friends to share a drink or meal selected 

from wider and more exciting menus; the 

immersive Imax experience and a much 

faster supply chain bringing blockbusters 

to market worldwide immediately upon a 

film’s release. 

Now comes the supposed threat of 

streaming services. Again, we are not 

ignoring the impact of streaming— 

figures show that, worldwide, over just 

one weekend of the Covid-19 shutdown, 

streaming-service subscriptions jumped 

13 percent. Streaming is popular, and the 

cinema industry must continue to invest 

and innovate to maintain and build on its 

own popularity. 

Streaming popularity, however, doesn’t 

mean people will be less inclined to go 

to cinema once the crisis is over. In fact, 

a recent study from EY’s Quantitative 

Economics and Statistics Group (QUEST) 

found that people who go to movies also 

more frequently watch streaming content 

than those who go to cinemas less often. 

The study found, for instance, that 

those who visited a cinema nine times or 

more over the past year consumed more 

streaming content than those who visited 

only once or twice over the same period. 

Those who saw nine or more movies at 

the cinema averaged 11 hours of weekly 

streaming compared to the seven hours 

of streaming reported on average by 

those who went to the movies just once or 

twice. This leads us to think that the two 

entertainment forms are complementary, 

rather than competitive. 

Cinema will survive, indeed thrive, 

in the post Covid-19 era as people look 

to make the most of the freedom and 

opportunity to get out and socialize. 

Cinemas are great places for families 

and groups of friends to enjoy immersive 

big-screen experiences together. The EY 

Quest survey confirmed cinemagoing as 

a favorite among teenagers. Those who 

responded to the survey and were between 

the ages of 13 and 17 reported going to 

an average of 7.3 movies a year while 

consuming 9.2 hours of streaming content 

each week—the highest of any age group. 

Post-crisis, those much-anticipated 

movie releases that were put on hold will 

flood into cinemas, creating a worldwide 

rebound film fest. Crowd pullers that 

had their release dates postponed will 

be back. These include the latest Bond 

movie, No Time to Die, which has had its 

release pushed back to November; the 

animated comedy Peter Rabbit 2: The 

Runaway, initially planned for a spring 

release and will now hit our screens at the 

end of August; and the ninth installment 

of the The Fast & the Furious franchise, 

which will now be released in April 2021. 

But it’s not just superb movies that 

audiences can look forward to and that 

will keep bookings buoyant—it’s the 

continuously evolving cinemagoing 

experience that will soon take another 

leap forward, leveraging the latest 

technological developments such as 

artificial intelligence, virtual reality, 

and the arrival of 4-D theaters. Ultracomfortable 

bespoke cinema experiences 

will be the norm, making a visit to the 

movies an even greater time out and an 

engaging social experience that streaming 

just can’t replicate. The experience will 

also likely benefit from the introduction of 


Photos courtesy Novo Cinemas 

complementary attractions like e-sports 

and gaming, with their appeal to younger 

audiences. 

At Elan Entertainment, we are 

confident of a post-Covid-19 cinema 

resurgence. Novo Cinemas has been 

delivering a great time out to Persian 

Gulf audiences since 2014, and we have 

experience to call on. We have pushed 

boundaries, pioneered change, and 

consistently striven for the new and next 

big thing—and this modus operandi 

will continue. We have introduced 

evolutionary technologies throughout 

the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 

region. Our guests choose from 2-D, 3-D, 

4-D, and Imax with laser; benefit from 

online booking, e-kiosks, and the first 

cinema-dedicated mobile app; and enjoy 

luxury seating and the latest food and 

beverage trends. 

After Covid-19, theaters will be 

destinations not just for the latest 

international blockbusters but also 

“Streaming is popular, and 

the cinema industry must 

continue to invest and 

innovate to maintain and 

build on its own popularity.” 

for regional premieres and preview 

screenings, as well as alternative content 

such as live boxing, cricket and football 

matches, performing arts masterpieces, 

and a wide range of stunning Imax 

documentary films. Evolution and 

innovation were hallmarks of the 

cinemagoing experience before we had 

ever heard of the coronavirus. They are 

values that will characterize the post- 

Covid era as well. Streaming is here to 

stay—but the credits are far from rolling 

on the cinema experience. 


39

INDUSTRY A CENTURY IN EXHIBITION 

‘ 

60 

s 

A CENTURY 

IN EXHIBITION 

1960s: The collapse of the 

studio system 

BY VASSILIKI MALOUCHOU 

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of 

the founding of Boxoffice Pro. Though 

the publication you hold in your hands 

has had different owners, headquarters, 

and even names—it was founded in 

Kansas City by 18-year-old Ben Shlyen 

as The Reel Journal, then called Boxoffice 

in 1933, and more recently Boxoffice 

Pro—it has always remained committed 

to theatrical exhibition. 

From the 1920s to the 2020s, Boxoffice 

Pro has always had one goal: to provide 

knowledge and insight to those who bring 

movies to the public. Radio, TV, home 

video, and streaming have all been perceived 

as threats to the theatrical exhibition 

industry over the years, but movie 

theaters are still here—and so are we. 

We at Boxoffice Pro are devotees 

of the exhibition industry, so we couldn’t 

resist the excuse of a centennial to 

explore our archives. What we found was 

not just the story of a magazine, but the 

story of an industry—the debates, the 

innovations, the concerns, and above 

all the beloved movies. We’ll share 

our findings in our year-long series, 

A Century in Exhibition. 


The studio system that thrived 

during Hollywood’s Golden Age died 

in the 1960s. Challenges in the form of pay 

TV, antitrust legislation, low admissions, 

and censorship had worn down the studios 

in the previous decade. But the 1960s 

brought a new challenge that proved too 

difficult to overcome: a society in turmoil. 

Classic westerns, patriotic war movies, 

family musicals, and biblical epics were 

receiving an increasingly tepid reception 

at the box office. Unable to comprehend 

the tastes of their young audience 

during the time of the Vietnam War, the 

civil rights movement, and the growing 

counterculture, studios were ever more 

disconnected from their patrons. There 

was one question that veteran studio 

executives were no longer able to answer: 

What was an American film supposed 

to be? As studio films floundered and 

aging studio executives lost control of 

the industry, foreign and art house films 

filled the gap, influencing a generation of 

American filmmakers who ushered in the 

era of New Hollywood. 

Until the 1960s, the industry had 

never truly confronted its own racism. In 

Boxoffice Pro, so-called Negro theaters 

were rarely mentioned. From the 1920s 

to the 1950s, the magazine published just 

one advertisement for a Black-led movie. 

One of the ways in which the exhibition 

community was forced to come to terms 

with the question of race in the 1960s was 

the desegregation of movie theaters. 

Until the middle of the decade, most 

Southern cities practiced segregation in 

their movie theaters, either by segregating 

individual cinemas—with designated 

balconies for Black audiences—or by 

having separate cinemas for Black and 

white audiences. Black-only theaters, 

which were run by African American 

managers but often owned by whites, 

were less numerous than their white-only 

counterparts and mostly ran second- or 

third-run films. Some cities, like Charlotte 

and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, had no 

theaters for Black audiences at all. 

As the civil rights movement progressed, 

picketing campaigns, mostly led 

by students in urban areas of the South, 

paved the way for the desegregation of 

movie theaters. Major circuits operated by 

Loew’s (later Loews), RKO, and Warner— 

although desegregated in the North—were 

targeted by protestors for policies in 

their Southern locations. Boxoffice Pro 

documented one of the largest student-led 

desegregation campaigns, which saw 

approximately 1,500 students march in 

Atlanta in February 1961. According to the 

magazine, most of Atlanta’s downtown 

movie houses began desegregating in 

May 1962 by permitting a small number of 

African Americans to attend each showing 

for a trial period of a handful of weeks, a 

strategy used by many Southern theaters 

before integrating completely. 

In May 1963, Attorney General Robert 

Kennedy praised exhibitors for moving 

forward with voluntary integration when 

he invited influential exhibitors to the 

White House, seeking to persuade them to 

support President Johnson’s civil rights 

legislation. The idea was that voluntary 

desegregation of movie theaters, highly 

visible hubs in both Black and white 

communities, could spill over to other 

businesses. Boxoffice Pro founder and 

editor Ben Shlyen commented on the 

meeting: “From a humanistic, economic 

and political viewpoint, it is seen that 

the change called for must be made.” He 

added, however, that it could not “be done 

on a wholesale basis” due to the potential 

for violent outbreaks. “The threat of 

legislation to force integration is not the 

way to bring about the change called for 

by the times and conditions,” he argued. 

Overall, the matter of desegregation was 

not frequently discussed by the magazine’s 

writers. But the publication chose 

to publish a letter by a Southern movie 

manager in 1963, who wrote: “[The manager] 

hears it plenty when he might play a 

movie appealing mainly to children, such 

as a Walt Disney film. He gets calls from 

mothers wanting to know if his theater is 

integrated, and if it is, the mother will not 

send her child.” 

Contrary to what Shlyen thought, 

legislation proved the only way to force 

compliance. The end of legal segregation 

came in July of 1964 with the Civil Rights 

Act, and the Congress of Racial Equity 

found that all theaters were abiding by the 

law that same month. 

The civil rights movement also 

brought the (still ongoing) question of 

minority representation to the attention 

of Hollywood. The success of Sidney 

Poitier personified the controversy over 

the inclusion of African Americans both 

on and behind the camera. In 1964, Poitier 

became the first Black actor to win an 

Academy Award for Best Actor for his role 


41


in Lilies of the Field. Writes journalist and 

author Mark Harris in his book Pictures at 

a Revolution, Poitier was worried that his 

win would only lead to complacency, as the 

industry would busy itself with self-congratulation 

instead of working toward 

additional progress. Poitier’s fears proved 

correct: he did not get another offer for a 

year after winning the Academy Award. 

But the actor was also internally 

conflicted over the kind of parts he was 

playing. Was portraying one-dimensional 

Black characters a necessary sacrifice to 

open the way for more actors of color in 

Hollywood? Some civil rights activists 

were indeed condemning the portrayal 

of African Americans on the silver screen. 

The NAACP led discussions with major 

studios to ensure progress on the issues of 

job access and on-screen representation. 

Other groups, including women and 

Latinx communities, began protesting as 

well. A 1962 Boxoffice Pro article reported 

that leaders of indigenous peoples 

in New Mexico had been “long frustrated 

over [their] treatment” in American film 

and were planning to open their own 

production companies. After the 1968 

assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King 

Jr., a coalition of industry stars including 

Poitier, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, and 

Candice Bergen created a nonprofit group 

to produce films on racial and social issues. 

The proceeds were to go to the Southern 

Christian Leadership Conference. 

Poitier became the top box office draw 

of 1967 with the interracial romantic 

comedy Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 

(which became Columbia’s biggest success 

to date), To Sir, With Love, and the Oscar-winning 

In the Heat of the Night. The 

success of these films proved two things: 

Black moviegoers could be a lucrative audience, 

and films about and starring Black 

people could play in the South. Exhibitors 

did not accept these truths without resistance. 

Some theaters edited moments, like 

Poitier and Katharine Houghton’s kiss in 

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, out of their 

prints. More alarmingly, the KKK picketed, 

and even considered planning attacks on, 

theaters that played these films. 

The new social context created by the 

civil rights movement and the counterculture 

revolution produced an appetite 

among younger audiences for films that 

spoke to the reality of the decade. The 

catastrophic flops of expensive films 

like Cleopatra (1963) and Doctor Dolittle 

(1967) proved the desire for something 

new. In 1952, the Supreme Court had ruled 

that Roberto Rossellini’s The Miracle, a 

controversial film that drew criticism from 

the Catholic Church, was an artistic work 

protected under the First Amendment. 

With that decision, the threat of government 

censorship was eliminated, opening 

the gates for a wave of foreign films that 

Black-only theaters, which 

were run by African American 

managers but often owned 

by whites, were less numerous 

than their white-only 

counterparts and mostly ran 

second- or third-run films. 

Some cities, like Charlotte and 

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 

had no theaters for Black 

audiences at all. 


gave young moviegoers what they were 

looking for. These films defied taboos and 

censorship and embraced an experimental 

approach to filmmaking. Among them 

were movies hailing from swinging London, 

which exported the Bond franchise 

and Beatles films—and stars like Sean 

Connery, Michael Caine, and Vanessa 

Redgrave—to North American audiences. 

The French New Wave introduced young 

urban intellectual audiences to Truffaut, 

Godard, Brigitte Bardot, and Alain Delon. 

Italian films propelled Antonioni, Fellini, 

Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, and 

Gina Lollobrigida to fame. 

The foreign craze was evident in the 

pages of Boxoffice Pro. Coverage of 

foreign film festivals boomed, as did 

editorial by foreign correspondents 

and columns like “Tokyo Report” and 

“London Report.” In fact, one anonymous 

writer reported in 1961 that 70 out of 176 

pictures released by 10 companies in the 

U.S. between November 1960 and August 

1961 were foreign. By February 1964, 

Twentieth-Century-Fox, MGM, Columbia, 

and United Artists were leading importers 

of foreign films. Smaller players like 

Embassy and Janus Films, which imported 

the work of Ingmar Bergman, steadily 

became more prominent. 

It was the first time in Hollywood’s 

history that stars and films competed with 

their international counterparts. And 

Hollywood was scared. A writer summed 

up the situation in August 1961: “The 

foreign invasion appears to be creeping 

up on the American production industry 

and, in time, may equal it or surpass it. 

And from all indications, U.S. companies 

will increase their imports in the coming 

years. While the top pictures still come out 

of Hollywood, the quantity is diminishing.” 

The artistic merit of foreign films was often 

recognized in the magazine with positive 

reviews and the honor of Boxoffice Pro’s 

Blue Ribbon Award, but Shlyen always 

encouraged Hollywood to regain its 

dominant position. 

Art house and specialty theaters thrived 

thanks to the influx of foreign films. Leonard 

Lightstone, executive vice president at 

Embassy, said in 1963 that specialty theaters 

were “mushrooming” and becoming 

more profitable as foreign films cut costs 

and became more flexible in their release 

strategies than first-run product. In 1960, 

Irving M. Levin, divisional director at San 

Francisco Theatres, attributed the proliferation 

of foreign films to their universal 

appeal and to “the inevitable maturing 

of film audiences as the country’s level of 

education and appreciation broadens.” 

Independent cinemas, like the Bleecker 

Street Cinema in Greenwich Village, began 

showcasing international films. In April 

1967, Shlyen urged exhibitors to “drop the 

notion that they must have ‘big box office 

The new social context 

created by the civil 

rights movement and the 

counterculture revolution 

produced an appetite 

among younger audiences 

for films that spoke to the 

reality of the decade. 


43


In 1960, New York became 

the first state to establish the 

classification “Adult Only” 

for moviegoers above 18, 

sparking similar bills in other 

local legislatures. 

product or nothing’” and give smaller 

films a chance. Shlyen’s plea came at a 

time of declining attendance and frequent 

closures of downtown movie houses as 

white audiences fled to the suburbs. Some 

also found in foreign and art house films 

the only way to fight TV. Independent 

filmmaker Leonard Hirschfield was reported 

saying in 1967, “Today the personal 

films are ‘most important’ because people 

can see the factory stuff on television.” 

Foreign and art house films were 

catalysts for the end of censorship and 

the revision of the Production Code. 

Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, which 

featured full-frontal female nudity, did 

not receive the Production Code seal and 

was condemned by the National Legion 

of Decency. MGM distributed Blow-Up 

anyway through its shell company, 

Premier Productions. Grossing about 

$20 million, the film dealt a huge blow to 

puritanical attitudes. Foreign films had 

effectively created a double standard. As 

more theaters showed films without the 

Production Code seal, nudity became 

even more prevalent on-screen, raising 

questions about whether children and 

families were being driven away. But as 

the negative effects of censorship on 

creativity—not to mention the box office— 

became increasingly apparent, calls for 

an age-based classification system, which 

would give parents control over what their 

children could see, started to gain traction. 

In 1960, New York became the first state 

to establish the classification “Adult Only” 

for moviegoers above 18, sparking similar 

bills in other local legislatures. 

Six years later, Jack Valenti became 

the third president of the MPAA. Valenti 

was preoccupied with censorship and the 

rising insurrection of Code-challenging 

filmmakers from the beginning of his 

tenure. In his first few weeks in office, 

he revised the Code to include the label 

“Suggested for Mature Audiences” on 

advertising posters. Shlyen welcomed the 

revision and praised Valenti’s “Herculean 

feat” for “giving the industry and the 

public a Code of Self-Regulation from 

which any benefits can be derived, not the 

least of which is the better image that so 

much is spoken of and which can be the 

means for increasing attendance as well 

as to revive the custom of multitudes of 

lost patrons.” 

But foreign films were no longer the 

only problem. A year before Valenti’s 

hiring, Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker 

was approved by the Code despite its 

nudity on the grounds of the “high 

quality” of the film. The decision created 

a loophole: Nudity was tolerable for “good” 

films, but not for ordinary ones. Mike 

Nichols’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 

which broke barriers with its strong language, 

finished what The Pawnbroker had 


started. The National Legion of Decency, 

supposedly influenced by Jacqueline 

Kennedy, gave the film an endorsement of 

“acceptable for adults with reservations.” 

Jack Warner released it in 1966 with a 

warning that the film was for adults only 

and provided individual contracts for 

theaters to sign, pledging that they would 

not admit any minors. Valenti was forced 

to approve the film with a “Suggested for 

mature audiences” label. 

This became the first step toward 

the establishment of the new MPAA 

voluntary classification system, enacted 

in 1968. Movies were rated G (Suggested 

for general audiences), M (Suggested for 

mature audiences), R (Persons under 16 

not admitted unless accompanied by an 

adult), or X (Persons under 16 not admitted). 

Valenti declared in Boxoffice Pro 

that “the creative filmmaker ought to be 

free to make movies for a variety of tastes 

and audiences, with a sensitive concern 

for children. That’s what this voluntary 

film rating plan does—assures freedom of 

the screen and at the same time gives full 

information to parents so that children 

are restricted from certain movies whose 

theme, content and treatment might be 

beyond their understanding.” 

The MPAA and the International Film 

Importers and Distributors of America 

(IFIDA) were to monitor the ratings 

system with the newly formed National 

Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). 

After calling for a united exhibitor front 

for decades, Ben Shlyen’s wishes became 

reality with the birth of NATO on January 

1, 1966. Boxoffice Pro followed its inception 

closely. In April 1964, the Allied States 

Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors 

and the Theatre Owners of America agreed 

on a merger, talks for which had begun 

over a decade before. The challenges 

and changes of the 1960s brought an end 

to the ideological differences that had 

divided the two major exhibitor groups. In 

addition to enforcing ratings, in its early 

days NATO organized defenses against the 

industry’s greatest threats. It campaigned 

against the FCC for the regulation of 

pay TV, instituted a “movie month” with 

discounted prices, and pushed for more 

research on patron behavior. 

The final nail in the coffin of the studio 

system came in 1967. That year, the 

Academy Award nominees were four films 

representing the new standard of antiestablishment, 

more inclusive filmmaking—Bonnie 

& Clyde, The Graduate, Guess 

Who’s Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat 

of the Night—as well as Fox flop Doctor 

Dolittle, a film that epitomized the studios’ 

disconnect from the current culture. The 

success of these new types of films was 

indisputable. Influenced by European 

New Wave cinema, young directors who 

had trained in theater and TV like Sidney 

Lumet, Arthur Penn, Mike Nichols, Sam 

Peckinpah, and John Frankenheimer were 

not afraid to take on taboo subjects and 

resist the status quo. 

While indies like Easy Rider and The 

Wild Angels were thriving, the Big Five 

were collapsing. Walt Disney had died 

suddenly at 55 in 1965, Paramount was 

sold to Gulf and Western Industries in 

1966, and Warner Bros. sold a third of 

its shares to Seven Arts in 1967. MGM 

was sold to a Nevada casino millionaire, 

Kirk Kerkorian, in 1969. Even United 

Artists and Columbia, which had been 

taking more risks with independent films, 

were shaken. United Artists became a 

subsidiary of an insurance company, 

Transamerica Corporation, and there were 

rumors about a French bank taking over 

Columbia. The only Old Hollywood mogul 

left was Darryl Zanuck, who remained at 

the head of Twentieth-Century-Fox. By 

the close of the decade, the golden age of 

studios had ended and New Hollywood 

was ascendant. 


45

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Trends 48 | Drive-In Summer 62 | Hometown Theaters 70 

THEATER 

“It is obvious that the high degree of pent-up demand for 

the theatrical experience and need to get out of the house 

has exploded, resulting in huge drive-in attendance.” 

Drive-In Summer, p. 62 


47

THEATER TRENDS 

THE NEXT 

BIG 

The reopening effort in the United States 

started in Texas, as cinema entertainment 

centers—known for having larger sites 

that can more easily accommodate social 

distancing measures—were among the first 

circuits to resume operations. boxoffice 

pro takes a look at the origins of the cinema 

entertainment center (CEC) trend, one 

of the hottest innovations in U.S. exhibition 

before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. 

BY DANIEL LORIA, KEVIN LALLY, AND 

REBECCA PAHLE 

48 

August 2020

THING 

August 2020 49


The late 1990s and early 2000s were 

a formative time for the dine-in 

theater concept in the United States. 

Theaters that offered expanded 

concessions, a full kitchen, and waiter 

service existed—but not at the scale to 

be considered a significant part of the 

exhibition market. That started to change 

at the turn of the 21st century; Alamo 

Drafthouse was founded in 1997, and Studio 

Movie Grill launched in 2000. It was around 

that time that Jeff Benson, then an auditor 

manager at Deloitte, decided to open his 

first dine-in movie theater with his wife, 

Jamie. Together, the couple developed the 

concept that would become Movie Tavern, 

launching the brand’s first location in Fort 

Worth, Texas, in 2001. 

The Bensons sold their interest in 

Movie Tavern in 2008. By that time, Movie 

Tavern had grown to nearly 100 screens in 

five states. The couple was confident that 

the dine-in space, by then well established 

in Texas, would continue to proliferate 

across the country, but they had their 

sights trained on something else. 

“It was right after we sold Movie Tavern 

in 2008 that I started thinking there had 

to be something else other than dine-in 

theaters. Back then everybody was starting 

to get into the dine-in trend. I wanted 

to find a new niche,” says Jeff Benson. 

Within a year of the Movie Tavern sale, the 

Bensons launched Cinergy Entertainment 

Group, pioneering their own approach 

to what we know today as the cinema 

entertainment center (CEC). 

A cinema entertainment center is a 

general classification that describes any 

cinema that incorporates additional experiential 

elements—arcades, bowling, laser 

tag, virtual reality—into the same complex. 

While many cinemas already incorporate 

some of these elements, CECs stand out as 

large-scale complexes designed to become 

out-of-home entertainment hubs. 

Cinergy’s first CEC opened in 2009 at a 

preexisting building built on spec by the 

city of Copperas Cove, in central Texas. “It 

had never been occupied in six and a half 

years. It was just sitting there, an empty 

shell, bigger than what I wanted for my 

first eight screens,” says Benson. “That 

was really the impetus: I bought a building 

that was too big and had to figure out 

something to do with the space.” 

That same year, Cineplex, Canada’s 

leading exhibition circuit, opened its first 

Xscape Entertainment Centre. The concept 

enhances a cinema’s arcade area to 

emphasize the latest video and interactive 

games, an ideal attraction for groups and 

private parties. Cineplex currently counts 

38 Xscape locations in its circuit. These 

early concepts from Cinergy and Cineplex 

bring to mind family entertainment 

centers, like the kid-focused Chuck 

E. Cheese or the adult-skewing Dave 

& Buster’s. Benson cites the latter as a 

particular influence in launching Cinergy. 

“We had hired several former Dave & 

Buster’s executives at Movie Tavern, and I 

would often ask them about that business,” 

he says. 

Benson also cites Neil Hupfauer, 

founder of Main Event Entertainment, 

another Dallas company, as an inspiration 

in developing Cinergy’s first location. 

“Before Main Event you had these cruddy 

old arcades and smoky bowling alleys. Neil 

was the first guy to revitalize that entire 

concept. We started talking over lunch, 

and that’s how we came to have our first 

cinema entertainment center.” (Hupfauer 

served as Cinergy’s interim president and 

COO from 2015 to 2017.) 

A similar movement was simultaneously 

taking place at the other end of the 

world. South Korea’s CJ CGV opened its 

first multiplex in 1998, helping drive a new 

era of moviegoing in its home market. By 

2010, the emergence of new technologies 

and increased prominence of home-entertainment 

platforms pushed the circuit’s 

executives to reconsider their growth 

strategy for the future. They began to see 

the strength of their circuit not in the films 

it programmed but in the out-of-home 

entertainment experience it offered. 

In a keynote address delivered at 

CinemaCon 2018, CJ CGV’s CEO, Jung Seo, 

explained why the circuit started to shift 

its focus away from principally marketing 

studio titles and more into branding CJ CGV 

as an entertainment venue. “If that’s how 

we define ourselves,” as a place for people to 

go watch a movie, “then we will constantly 

be under the threat of being replaced by 

other channels for watching movies or other 

forms of entertainment,” he said. “Rather, 

the value of CGV is to provide our customers 

the most attractive place in which to have a 

communal social experience.” 

The result was the creation of a new 

concept for its cinemas. “Several years ago 

we decided to redefine ourselves from being 

a multiplex to being a ‘cultureplex,’” said 

Previous spread: 

Guests at Cinergy 

Entertainment Group (top, 

bowling) and Cineplex 

(bottom left and right, 

arcade) CEC locations can 

enjoy a wide variety of 

attractions along with their 

movies. Images courtesy 

Cinergy Entertainment 

Group and Cineplex 

Left: The lobby of CGV’s 

cultureplex, whose motto is 

“Evolving Beyond Movies,” 

courtesy CJ CGV 

Right, above: The bar and 

bowling areas at ShowBiz 

Cinemas, courtesy the 

exhibitor 


Coming to America 

“We envision that the CGV 

cultureplex concept has great 

potential when entering the U.S. 

Although CGV currently operates 

only two theaters with 11 screens 

in Los Angeles and Buena Park, 

California, CGV was able to 

introduce innovative cinematic 

technologies—4DX and ScreenX— 

for the first time in the market.” 

—Sunghae Hong, Marketing 

Manager, CGV America 

Seo. “For us, being a ‘cultureplex’ means 

to be a cultural playground, where people 

can gather to experience all different types 

of culture, from film, music, performances, 

games, food, drinks, and so on.” 

CJ CGV opened its first cultureplex 

location in South Korea, CGV Chungdam, in 

2011. The concept has grown alongside the 

circuit’s global expansion; today there are 

more than 580 cultureplex locations in eight 

countries around the world. The company’s 

cinema technology arm, CJ 4DPlex, offers 

experiential innovations that can be 

integrated into cinemas, such as immersive 

seating (4DX), panoramic screens (ScreenX), 

and virtual reality (4DX VR), to other major 

circuits around the world. 

Back in the United States, third-generation 

exhibition veteran Kevin Mitchell 

was similarly looking at ways to expand 

the scope of what cinemas could offer 

their patrons. “We first started toying 

with the idea of adding an entertainment 

component that would help us get away 

from being a completely product-driven 

business when I started [ShowBiz Cinemas] 

in 2007,” says Mitchell, who serves 

as the circuit’s CEO. Mitchell was interested 

in adding another profit center to his 

new circuit but was wary of “just slapping 

a bowling alley onto a movie theater.” 

“We spent a lot of time at the drawing 

board pioneering a manageable and 

consistently profitable entertainment 

destination that incorporated bowling, 

arcade gaming, movie auditoriums, a full 

bar, and our food and beverage concept 

into a unique and cohesive experience for 

our customers,” he says. The process was 

delayed as the real estate market slowly 

recovered from the 2008 recession; it took 

time to convince banks and development 

partners to invest in innovation in what 

was already a mature industry. ShowBiz’s 

first Bowling, Movies and More! was 

unveiled in Baytown, Texas, in 2015. The 

circuit expects to have at least six cinema 

entertainment centers in its fleet by the 

end of 2020, with plans to open multiple 

additional locations in the coming years. 

As with cinema dining in the previous 

decade, Texas became a hotbed of 

innovation when it came to cinema 

entertainment centers throughout the 

2010s. Santikos Entertainment, which 

operates nine theaters in the San Antonio 

area, leveraged its own in-house real estate 

team to find and develop the ideal location 

for its first CEC. That site, Santikos Casa 

Blanca, opened in June 2016 and incorporates 

16 lanes of bowling, an arcade, sports 

bar, and café. Santikos recently announced 

plans to open another CEC in what will be 

its 11th San Antonio location. 

Evo Entertainment, the brainchild of 

Mitchell Roberts, another Texas executive 

with deep multigenerational roots in 

the industry, opened its first CEC in 

November 2014. Located in Kyle, Texas, 

the 70,000-square-foot complex houses 11 

screens, 14 bowling lanes, a 3,500-squarefoot 

game arcade, a bar and grill, and 

spaces for parties and corporate events. 

Today, Evo has six Texas locations, with 

a seventh, in southwest San Antonio (its 

largest at 80,000 square feet), scheduled to 

open in January 2021. 

Its CEC in Schertz, Texas, which opened 


51


in March 2019, boasts an outdoor patio 

with fire pits and oversized TV screens. 

“The goal has always been to turn our 

facilities into social destinations where, 

whether it’s going to a movie or going to 

the family-entertainment-center side, 

people are just escaping their daily lives 

to hang out and be social. And what better 

place to do that in central Texas than 

outside on a patio?” Roberts says. 

“The beautiful thing about Texas 

is that it is such an innovative state 

when it comes to our industry,” he says. 

“Texas [can be seen] as the birthplace of 

dine-in cinema, one of the birthplaces 

of the hybrid model. We have a lot of 

great operators—and a lot of saturation 

in markets with innovative concepts. I 

don’t want to say it would be easier to 

operate outside of Texas, because I don’t 

think that’s the case, but it would be very 

beneficial to get outside and see what 

the hybrid model can do in markets that 

haven’t seen it yet.” 

Despite justifiable Texas pride, the CEC 

concept has been introduced in new parts 

of the United States in recent years. B&B 

Theatres had its first internal discussions 

about adding a CEC to its circuit as early 

as 2013. “There would be conversations 

where our CFO said, ‘Look, theaters are 

our core competency. Why would we want 

to go into a business that we do not have 

a core competency in?’ I didn’t have the 

data. At that point my argument was, we 

just should!” says Dennis McIntire, B&B’s 

executive director of development and 

construction. “I will tell you right now, 

I was right and he was wrong—and I’d 

really like for that to get into the article. 

If you only quote me once in this story, 

‘I was right; he was wrong.’ It took a lot 

of conversations to bring everybody on 

board.” [Editor’s Note: As someone who 

is frequently on the losing end of similar 

conversations with a CFO, I have obliged 

Mr. McIntire’s request.] 

B&B was right to be cautious. Opening 

a cinema entertainment center requires 

additional investments in time, space, 

money, training, and maintenance—on 

top of the already straining demands of 

operating a cinema. “You need training 

programs, manuals, books, procedures, 

and processes for everything in the 

building,” says Cinergy’s Benson. “There 

are different little sub-businesses within 

the business. That means having individual 

standard operating procedures for 

running the ropes course, the ax throwing, 

the game room and redemption store, for 

running a bar—and, of course, for having 

a restaurant. We had to learn all these 

different little sub-industries, besides the 

food and beverage component. It took 

time and a whole lot of money.” 

B&B’s McIntire sat down with the different 

vendors that would be involved in 

running a CEC to get a better understanding 

of the numbers behind the business. 

Ultimately, with the right numbers and 

the support of the executive team and 

developer, the circuit decided to commit 

to opening its first CEC in its new Ankeny, 

Iowa location in 2018. The success of that 


site was proof of concept for B&B Theatres; 

the circuit has already announced plans to 

add CEC locations to new builds in Kansas 

City, Missouri, and Red Oak, Texas, in the 

coming months. 

Committing to the CEC concept 

requires a great deal of space and a certain 

amount of flexibility. While a regular cinema 

can be housed in a building of around 

40,000 square feet, CECs often require 

twice as much space to be viable entertainment 

destinations. Finding a building big 

enough to accommodate entertainment 

attractions isn’t enough; its location is also 

crucial to the concept’s success. “You can’t 

just build this in the middle of a field. You 

want the development to come in around 

you,” says McIntire. “If you’re working 

with a developer who’s just looking to fill 

80,000 square feet in a second-tier strip 

center, that probably won’t work. This is a 

very expensive building, and if you don’t 

have the people in the market to support 

it, then it doesn’t matter if you build a 

cathedral. If there are no parishioners, 

there’s nobody coming to church.” 

“We’re looking for high-income, but 

not too high-income,” says B&B Theatres 

executive vice president Brock Bagby 

about his circuit’s ideal demographic for 

CECs. “We’re targeting young families in 

fast-growing markets with continuous 

growth. We’re excited about those markets 

that are on the edge of a major city and are 

exploding. You see that a lot all over the 

nation, towns that are an hour from downtown, 

but they’re exploding and building 

thousands and thousands of new homes. 

That’s all driven by young families with 

disposable income—not necessarily the ‘1 

percent,’ who don’t go out to the movies as 

much. Kind of upper middle class; that’s 

your target demographic. 

“It’s similar to Topgolf’s approach. 

There’s only so many in any given market,” 

Bagby adds, referring to the trendy entertainment 

venues that combine a modified 

golf driving range with an adult-orientated 

lounge. “We’re looking at a second site in 

Des Moines, but we don’t feel like there’s 

room for a third or fourth site. Topgolf did 

the same thing in Miami. They only have 

two locations there. You can definitely 

overdo it. You need to know each market. 

Because you’re not just building another 

movie theater; you’re building something 

that you want people to drive to from an 

hour away.” 

Once a location is secured, its layout 

You Are Here 

“When we’re relatively busy, 

there’ll be a concierge who is just 

off the front door. So if anybody 

looks lost, if anybody needs help, 

we can take care of it right there. 

I’ve been into some of these 

where you wander in the building 

and you don’t know what you’re 

supposed to do; there’s no clear 

place to buy a ticket; there’s 

nobody there to help you. That’s 

really off-putting to customers.” 

—Dennis McIntire, Executive 

Director of Development and 

Construction, B&B Theatres 

Left: A patio with fire 

pits beckons visitors 

to Evo Entertainment’s 

Schertz, Texas location. 

Image courtesy 

Evo Entertainment and 

5G Studios 

Below: The game 

room at B&B’s Ankeny, 

Iowa complex. Image 

courtesy B&B Theatres 

plays an outsize role in its eventual earnings, 

says Cinergy’s Benson. “People-flow 

within the building is critical. In a movie 

theater, you come in, you hit the concession 

stand or stop by the bathroom on the 

way to the auditorium, you leave. With 

cinema entertainment centers, you need 

to set them up where people can get to the 

game room, find the bowling, and stop by 

the bar on their way in or out of the auditorium. 

I’ve got some that are laid out wrong 

and others that are laid out right, and the 

percentages of revenue between the two 

are radically different from each other.” 

“We learned a lot from our Casa Blanca 

location. There are things we would have 

done differently there,” says Andrew 

Brooks, executive director of marketing 

and sales at Santikos. The circuit applied 

the lessons from its first location in planning 

for its second CEC, Santikos Cibolo, 

which opened in May 2019. “We moved 

some things around, switched some games 

to different spots, and it’s been fantastic. 

We have a virtual reality area that we can 

expand as it grows—or move out if we 

need to. We have a 4,000-square-foot, 

two-level laser tag that’s been amazingly 

successful as we gain traction in team 

building and corporate events. We designed 

those spaces, keeping in mind that 

if they weren’t succeeding or working out, 

we could change them into an auditorium 

or something else.” 

Once a building is laid out, operators 

customize their own CEC by selecting 

attractions to supplement the movie 

theater portion of the building. It takes 

diligence to ensure each part of the building 


53


COMING 

ATTRACTIONS 

Highlights from Cinema 

Entertainment Centers 

Arcade 

Paper tickets are no longer 

required at 21st-century 

arcades, where patrons 

can win prizes by 

redeeming their (digital, 

card-based) spoils. 

Ax Throwing 

It might seem like an 

insurance headache, but 

this trendy attraction is 

low-tech, low-cost, and 

popular with patrons. 

Bowling 

Aside from the movies 

themselves, bowling is the 

bread and butter of the 

CEC concept. 

Bumper Cars 

You’ll never be part of 

Dom Toretto’s family, but 

CEC patrons who want a 

little bit of that fast and 

furious action can try their 

hand at bumper cars. 

Glow Golf 

How do you make golf 

more glam? Turn off the 

lights and turn up the 

neon. All four of FatCats’ 

CEC locations offer glow 

golf—pirate-themed or 

space-themed, depending 

on the city. 

Escape Rooms 

This on-trend attraction 

prizes teamwork and 

puzzle-solving as 

groups work together 

to solve the mystery of 

the escape room. 

Laser Tag 

Santikos’s second CEC 

location, in Cibolo, Texas, 

offers Lasertron laser tag 

for children and adults 

who want a little friendly 

competition. 

Mini Golf 

The classics are classics 

for a reason, and mini golf 

is still a hit among CEC 

patrons. 

Karaoke 

South Korea loves its 

karaoke rooms, a fact that 

is well proven at CJ CGV’s 

cultureplex model. 

Pickleball 

With one CEC location 

under its belt, B&B 

Theatres is planning 

to move outdoors—at 

least partially—for its 

future locations. One of 

the attractions will be 

pickleball, a racquet sport 

that combines elements 

of tennis, badminton, and 

ping-pong. 

Rock Climbing 

Work off the calories you 

consumed with all that 

movie theater popcorn 

(no judgment) with Strike 

+ Reel’s rock climbing 

wall, 24 feet high and lit 

by LED lights. 

Ropes Course 

Strap on a harness and 

get your Spider-Man on 

(minus web-shooters) 

at Strike + Reel’s ropes 

course, suspended 20 feet 

above the arcade floor. 

Virtual Reality 

Virtual reality experiences 

from companies like The 

Void—which has provided 

Cineplex’s The Rec Room 

with some of its most 

popular attractions—can 

put guests inside the 

world of a number of 

blockbuster movies. 

is performing to expectations. Cinergy has 

kept a close eye on what to incorporate in 

its CECs in its 11 years in the sector, always 

careful to be flexible and innovative so 

nothing inside the building goes stale. 

“Back when we started it was all about 

bowling, which is still popular, and laser tag, 

which we’re moving on from,” says Benson. 

“Today you have ax throwing, giant arcade 

games, and escape rooms—attractions that 

weren’t around even five years ago.” 

Benson brings up escape rooms as 

an example of a fad that can suddenly 

emerge, only to become saturated and 

go out of fashion just as quickly as it 

came. “Five or six years ago escape 

rooms barely existed in this country. At 

this point, I wonder if escape rooms 

haven’t already run their course—we are 

thinking about not including them going 

forward,” he says. “At some point it gets 

saturated. Movie theaters are hard to 

replicate—they’re big and expensive—but 

an escape room or ax-throwing business, 

they come and go. They can open up in 

a retail shop with three or four thousand 

square feet on a three-year lease, make 

their money while it’s popular, and leave 

when it starts to wane. That’s why we need 

to continually reprogram our locations 

with the latest and greatest concepts; 

you never know when three escape-room 

places could open around the corner from 

you. Before you know it, everybody’s 

escape-roomed out [and] your revenue 

goes down. That’s a lot of square footage 

dedicated to something that doesn’t make 

much money anymore. We need to keep 

up with all the amusement options out 

there to figure out which ones are the best 

and how long they might last.” 

Kevin Mitchell from ShowBiz Cinemas 

recognized that challenge in developing 

his circuit’s CEC concept, which is why 

he decided to focus on getting the basics 

of the building right. “While there are 

countless trendy attractions that can 

be incorporated into an entertainment 

center, we’ve drilled down our focus to 

boutique bowling, movies, arcade games, 

prize redemption, and food and beverage 

concepts,” he says. “We’ve found this 

allows us to be really good in those areas 

without being solely dependent on a 

studio release schedule, and it also allows 

us to be a dominating destination zone 

for entertainment while maintaining a 

manageable footprint that is a good fit for 

a variety of markets.” 

Right: The Yard 

gaming area (top) and 

the Three10 restaurant 

at Cineplex’s Rec 

Room. Image courtesy 

Cineplex 


Although arcades have been a regular 

feature of cinema lobbies for decades, 

operating a full-scale game zone with a 

redemption center presents a host of new 

challenges to operators coming from a 

traditional theater background. “In an 

arcade, you can have 40 games, and 22 of 

them will have some type of mechanism 

or play-action where the customer is 

throwing, rolling, kicking—doing 

something to the machine. It’s going to 

break down,” says B&B’s McIntire. “The 

balls are going to end up in the wrong spot. 

The same applies to bowling: you’ve got a 

15-pound ball rolling 25 miles an hour at 

10 projectiles. Something’s going to break. 

That was our biggest mindset that we had 

to get over, that this was going to require a 

lot more attention per square foot than any 

Ready Player One 

“People speak with their dollars. 

We know which games are our best 

and worst earners, a lot like tracking 

the box office. We know what’s 

performing and what we need to 

replace. Every six months, [when] we 

do our game purchases, we’re going 

to move out the lowest 10 games 

and bring in 10 new games.” 

—Jeff Benson, CEO, Cinergy 

Entertainment 

of our theaters,” he says. 

Sarah Van Lange, Cineplex’s executive 

director of communications, says one 

of the biggest challenges of operating an 

arcade at a CEC is “finding the right combination 

of games that will continue to 

excite our guests every time they visit our 

theaters. Fortunately, we have a team of 

experts who not only keep up on trends in 

amusement gaming but understand which 

games will appeal to which demographics, 

creating that perfect mix of the latest 

high-tech and classic, nostalgia-filled 

games,” she says. 

Based on the success of its Xscape 

concept, Cineplex has incorporated new, 

branded locations into its circuit. These 

include Playdium, targeted to younger 

crowds, where approximately two-thirds 

of the complex is dedicated to the latest 

amusement games, bowling, and virtual 

reality, with the other third offering a range 

of on-the-go bites and handcrafted dishes. 

Cineplex plans to open 10 to 15 Playdium 

locations in midsize communities 

throughout Canada this year. The company 

also has eight locations of The Rec Room, 

family entertainment centers (FEC) without 

cinemas that offer food, live entertainment, 

amusement gaming, and feature attractions 

under one roof. 

This past November, Cineplex 

announced yet another concept, its 

most wide-ranging yet: Junxion. Anne 

Fitzgerald, the circuit’s chief legal officer, 

describes the concept as “a cross between 

the Rec Room experience and the 

theater experience, having both in the 

same building.” 

“Junxion guests will have their pick of 

exciting programming and events, including 

live music, trivia nights, game nights, 

outdoor screenings of movies and live TV 

events, and more,” adds Van Lange. The 

complex will also feature an arcade with 

new and classic video and redemption 

games, virtual reality experiences, and a 

food hall including an indoor food truck 

and a bar selling wine and craft beer. 

Cinemas will remain an integral part of 

the Junxion concept, including Cineplex’s 

UltraAVX premium screens and food and 

drink service as viewers relax in their 

recliner seats.” 

Cineplex plans to roll out the Junxion 

concept in Canada in the coming years. 

“We will leverage retrofits of our existing 

theater network as well as new locations, 

including at Kildonan Place in Winnipeg, 


55


Virtual Reality 

Cineplex is part owner of the 

virtual reality provider VRstudios, 

and Van Lange says these “hugely 

popular” experiences “allow guests 

to completely immerse themselves 

into new worlds—whether they are 

playing as individuals in ATOM 

pods, or playing with their friends 

as a group in the VRcade area. 

One of the most popular offerings 

at The Rec Room is the hyperreality 

experience, The Void, which 

immerses guests in an environment 

that includes sight, sound, touch, 

smell, and motion.” 

Manitoba, and the first Junxion location 

at Erin Mills Town Centre in Mississauga, 

Ontario,” says Van Lange. 

By adding a cinema component to 

its already popular Rec Room concept, 

Cineplex’s Junxion idea acknowledges the 

drawing power movie theaters retain in 

attracting patrons to a CEC. Evo’s Roberts 

confirms that the biggest draw at his circuit 

continues to be new releases. “People 

are still coming in to see movies,” he says, 

“but as we’ve continued to improve and 

learn the FEC side, we see a significant 

amount of traffic that comes from that, too. 

They really feed each other.” 

The success of film programming has 

inspired some traditional FEC operators to 

add cinemas to their buildings, approaching 

the CEC concept from the other end 

of the spectrum. FatCats Entertainment 

opened its first FEC in Salt Lake City in 

August 2001, offering bowling, miniature 

glow golf, an arcade, and a bar and grill. 

Similar locations followed in Provo, Utah 

(2002); Ogden, Utah (2007); and Westminster, 

Colorado (2010). 

Business predictably boomed or slowed 

depending on the weather. “We had a 

pretty profitable business six or seven 

months of the year, but during the summer 

months, we were giving back most of the 

profits that we made during the periods of 

time when the weather wasn’t great,” says 

co-founder David Rutter. 

That’s when FatCats decided to try its 

hand at exhibition. In 2010, the company 

opened its first cinema in its complex in 

Rexburg, Idaho, a renovation of an existing 

site. “There was definitely a learning curve 

when it came to the intricacies of booking 

films, determining the right size and how 

many auditoriums, how many seats to 

make it work in the most efficient way,” 

says Rutter. 

That seasonal trend was reversed at the 

company’s Gilbert, Arizona location—its 

second location to incorporate a cinema— 

where the summer heat drives people to 

air-conditioned indoor spaces. “We had a 

lot of people coming who had no idea about 

[the theater],” says Rutter. “It took time to 

build that business up. Thank heavens for 

Star Wars that winter, in December of 2015. 

Most of the other theaters were full and 

people realized, ‘I can’t get into my normal 

theater, but I guess there’s a theater over 

here, so we’ll go check this place out.’ That’s 

when the business began to grow.” 


Right: The bowling 

alley (top) and games 

arcade at FatCats. 

Image courtesy FatCats 

Entertainment 

Left, below: Virtual 

reality shooters at a 

Cinergy CEC. Image 

courtesy Cinergy 

Entertainment 

Since then, FatCats has added cinemas 

to its new locations in Saratoga Springs, 

Utah, and Mesa, Arizona—and has plans 

to make its upcoming location in Queen 

Creek, Arizona, a CEC as well. 

“The movies really drive [business]. 

That’s the beauty of it; Hollywood spends 

millions of dollars promoting films, and 

we’re a place where people can come to 

experience that,” says Rutter. He has 

observed that once they’re in the building, 

patrons are more willing to spend additional 

money on the other entertainment 

attractions on hand. Evo’s Mitchell 

Roberts has the data to back up that assertion: 

“We see an average of about three 

and a half hours per visit compared to the 

traditional cinemas, where we’re seeing 

anywhere between an hour and a half to 

two hours. People stick around longer.” 

A lot more space translates into the 

need for a lot more employees. Yet just 

because CEC locations are (at least) twice 

as big as regular movie theaters, it doesn’t 

mean that simply doubling the staff will 

suffice. Mark Moore, CEO of Entertainment 

Properties Group, which runs both traditional 

FEC brands and a new CEC project 

under the Strike + Reel banner in Texas, is 

unequivocal about the hardest part of the 

business. “The biggest challenge is staffing 

a 90,000-square-foot venue,” he says. “A 

facility this large has to have an extensive 

management team in place.” 

B&B’s Brock Bagby cites staffing as 

the most unexpected element in his own 

circuit’s incursion into the sector. “We’ve 

been very surprised at how challenging 

it is,” he says. “The amount of payroll ... 

you have to staff bowling, the arcade, the 

restaurant. [At a regular theater] it’s just 

tickets and concessions. Now we’ve got 

two full kitchens: one for the theaters, one 

for the restaurant. The staffing is more 

than double a traditional theater. And the 

operations to run these things are just huge. 

You’re running three or four businesses 

in one. It’s a lot more work than we ever 

anticipated, but it’s exciting. … We have 10 

managers in our Ankeny location. Ten!” 

B&B Theaters went as far as creating a 

dedicated team whose sole job is opening 

its CEC locations. The circuit has plans to 

add five more CECs (which it calls “Luxury 

Entertainment Centers”) to its fleet of 

cinemas in the coming years. “We’re 

taking it a step further with a ropes course, 

karaoke rooms, escape rooms, and then 

we have an outdoor component that we’re 

working on,” says Brock Bagby. 

Cinergy, a circuit that exclusively 

hosts CECs, counts on a corporate office 

of 35 executives to oversee operations for 

its five existing locations. “That’s a big 

corporate overhead for just five theaters, 

but we’re set up to go out and add 

probably 10 more over the next few years 

without having to add too many more 

people,” says Jeff Benson. 

Since the trend is still in its relatively 

early stages, the potential for nationwide 

expansion is vast. Like the dine-in, 

recliner, PLF, and VIP auditorium trends 

that have come before, the CEC may be 

seen as a gimmick today but could quickly 

proliferate across the market if the business 

model remains strong. Rutter, from FatCats 


57


Entertainment, emphasizes the profitability 

of attractions that don’t carry sustained 

costs. “Our profit margin isn’t as high on 

food as it is on, say, bowling or miniature 

golf—those kinds of things where you don’t 

have an inherent cost of goods that you’ve 

got to pay,” he says. 

Other factors, such as the rise of the 

experience economy—where out-of-home 

experiences are considered more valuable 

than home-entertainment platforms—or 

the increased availability of retail space 

as consumers shift their buying habits 

online, could become catalysts in the rise 

of cinema entertainment centers in the 

domestic market. 

For an exhibitor like Cinergy, the CEC 

concept represents an ideal growth strategy 

in today’s era of industry consolidation 

among studios and exhibitors—but only 

if you use the right tactics. “You want to 

maximize gross margin,” says Benson. 

“Let’s face it, we don’t make a lot of money 

on the movies—we need to split that with 

the studios. If someone is going to spend 

$10 at my place, where do I want them to 

spend it? We focus on the areas we know 

can make the most money, and that to me 

is where a lot of mistakes are being made 

when people say they’re seeing marginal 

results from this business. It’s not that the 

entertainment concepts are wrong. It’s 

likely that the building’s layout has a lot to 

do with its performance.” 

For Cinergy, CECs have been successful 

because the concept is consistently 

updated and refined; passing fads are 

avoided. That sort of big-picture approach 

stands in stark contrast to the day-to-day 

operations of a traditional movie theater, 

where a cyclical release calendar requires 

less hands-on attention by management. 

“That’s the thing about movies: They 

reprogram themselves every week. It’s 

always fresh,” says Benson. “You reinvest 

in regular theaters with new technologies 

like digital projectors and recliners, but 

the content changes every week. That’s not 

the case in an entertainment center. You 

need to continually reinvest and update 

the other half of your building, the half 

without a movie theater, to make sure your 

revenue isn’t declining each year.” 

If tackled correctly, cinema entertainment 

centers can help distinguish a 

circuit’s identity and help define its brand 

as a unique out-of-home-entertainment 

destination. For a circuit like ShowBiz 

Cinema Entertainment Centers 

and the Experience Economy 

“[On social media] we highlight 

what we call the Evo experience, 

or the evolution of entertainment. 

It’s really just people having fun in 

the numerous ways that they can, 

because what we’re all about is 

making memories. That’s pretty easy 

to show, people having fun and 

creating memories. That’s primarily 

how we promote. Beyond that, we 

rely on word of mouth: ‘Come and 

have a great time and share with 

your friends—Hey, you should really 

check this place out!’” 

—Mitchell Roberts, CEO, Evo 

Entertainment 


Cinemas, which operates both traditional 

theaters and CECs, it represents a great 

opportunity in the coming decade. “We’ve 

had great success with our Bowling, Movies 

and More! concept since opening our 

first location. We are finding new ways to 

improve it with each new facility we build,” 

says Mitchell. “These buildings are expensive 

to build and very labor intensive, and 

we continue to look for ways to improve in 

those areas without sacrificing quality.” 

Around 56 percent of the ShowBiz 

circuit incorporates entertainment 

components that its traditional theaters 

don’t offer. ShowBiz is introducing its CEC 

concept to the renovation of its Waxahachie, 

Texas location—and will bring 

Bowling, Movies and More! to a new site 

in Idaho Falls, Idaho, scheduled to open in 

December. By the end of 2020, it expects 

cinema entertainment centers to comprise 

70 percent of its total footprint. 

“As we continue to grow, our Bowling, 

Movies and More! entertainment-center 

concept is driving the entire ShowBiz 

brand,” he adds. “We’ve been very pleased 

with the success of this concept, and all 

of our new builds going forward will be 

with our signature entertainment-center 

concept. We’re in rapid growth mode right 

now and will be opening multiple [CEC] 

locations across the country annually.” 

For a circuit like Cinergy, refining 

and perfecting the CEC concept is a 

long-term commitment—not only to its 

customers, but to staying a step ahead of 

its competitors. In December, the circuit 

announced its Amarillo, Texas location 

(opened in 2018) had been honored as the 

world’s top family entertainment center at 

the annual convention of the International 

Association of Amusement Parks and 

Attractions (IAAPA). More than 120 judges 

participated in selecting the winner from 

among IAAPA’s 5,300 members, representing 

over 100 countries. 

As the trend continues to grow beyond 

Texas, Benson is more determined than 

ever to continue thriving in the business. 

“It’s still early. You’re seeing larger circuits 

like B&B Theatres building some of these 

centers, but most big circuits haven’t 

delved into it deeply yet,” he says. “What 

you see now is similar to what was going 

on in the early days of dine-in, where you 

have the smaller independents that are 

more flexible with their business models 

taking the risk and adopting these concepts. 

I think you’re going to see a whole 

lot more of them. I wish I could say we’re 

the only ones doing this. We know we 

aren’t, and that’s OK. We want to pick our 

locations strategically and build as many 

as we can, as fast as we can.” 

THE EXHIBITORS 

HAVE THEIR SAY 

So You Want to Open Your Own 

Cinema Entertainment Center? 

“Don’t start a new company without having 

some form of existing cash flow, for starters. 

We made a lot of mistakes starting off and 

will more than likely make a few more along 

the way, but the key is to minimize those 

mistakes and learn from all of them. If you 

are not making mistakes, then you are 

probably not taking risks. My dad taught me 

long ago that sometimes you have to climb 

out on that limb, because that is where the 

fruit is.” 

—Kevin Mitchell, President & CEO, ShowBiz 

Cinemas 

“Listen to the experts. One of the first 

things we did when we decided we were 

going to do this was engage a consultant 

in the FEC industry. We know theaters, and 

it drives us crazy when people get into the 

theater businesses saying, ‘Well, how hard 

can it be?’ When you slow down and you 

bring in somebody with the expertise, listen 

to them. We come with 95 years of theater 

experience, and I can tell you that there 

were times when it was unspoken, but 

we thought, ‘Oh, we know how to do that 

better than they do.’ And those were the 

things that ended up biting us.” 

—Dennis McIntire, Executive Director of 

Development and Construction, B&B 

Theatres 

“A lot of it is Basic Management 101. 

You’ve got to have the right people in the 

right places—and we didn’t, not at first. 

We ended up having to spend a lot to get 

the right management team, which we 

now have.” 

—Jeff Benson, CEO, Cinergy Entertainment 

“As with any new entertainment 

venture, there will be growing pains. 

Communication and positivity with your 

team are key to keep the focus on the big 

picture while knocking out the punch list 

one item at a time. Don’t forget that the 

goal is to provide fun for your guests and 

have fun while doing it.” 

—Mark Moore, CEO, Entertainment Properties 

Group 

Left: Young basketball 

hotshots at B&B’s Ankeny, 

Iowa location. Image 

courtesy B&B Theatres 


59

THEATER INTERMISSION 

INTERMISSION 

Independent movie theater 

marquees during the pause 

The Loft Cinema, Photo by Tim Fuller 

North Park Theatre 

The World Theatre (at Night), Photo by Bryce Jensen 


Music Box, Photo by Ari Neiditz 

Coolidge Corner Theatre 

Hollywood Theatre Portland, Photo by Dan Halsted 

Plaza Theatre, Photo by CJ Swank 

Colonial Theatre, Photo by LuAnn Roth 

The Frida Cinema, Image courtesy of The Frida Cinema 


61

Theater DRIVE-IN SUMMER 

DRIVE-IN 

SUMMER 

With movie theaters forced to close their 

doors, the drive-in once again became the 

main attraction for summer movie audiences 

BY CHRIS EGGERTSEN 


Photo courtesy IFC Films 

As people around the world became 

better acquainted with their living 

rooms, those who ventured outside did 

so by adhering to the two most important 

words of the pandemic: social distancing. 

Drive-in cinemas emerged as one of the 

few outdoor entertainment options where 

people could confidently congregate 

while maintaining a safe distance. With 

approximately 330 drive-in locations in 

the United States, those with existing 

lots opened their doors as soon as they 

could, while others took creative routes to 

welcome back audiences. In this anthology 

of our digital coverage, we look at how the 

moviegoing summer of 2020 brought about 

the resurgence of drive-in culture. 


63


PARKING LOT CINEMA 

Originally published on May 7, 2020 

With most U.S. theaters shuttered due to 

the novel coronavirus pandemic, some 

exhibitors have devised innovative 

solutions to keep their businesses afloat 

during the shutdown. For some, like the 

Florida-based chain Epic Theatres, those 

solutions have included temporary—and 

often highly improvised—conversions to 

the once-voguish drive-in format. 

“We pulled an old screen out of storage 

and built a frame from PVC pipe, [then] 

hung the screen over the side of our 

largest auditorium wall,” says Epic 

Theatres co-owner and I.T. director 

Weegee DeMarsh, who, along with his 

brother and co-owner, Joe DeMarsh, 

opened a pop-up drive-in at Epic’s Deltona 

location on March 20. Though they were 

later forced to remove the screen due to 

forecasted summer rains, the DeMarshes 

didn’t let that stop them. In a decidedly 

makeshift but highly effective solution, 

they proceeded to paint the auditorium 

wall white. “That has worked out nicely,” 

says Weegee. So nicely, in fact, that Epic 

has since duplicated the formula at its 

Clermont and St. Augustine locations. 

Though drive-in conversions remain 

exceedingly rare—indeed, many U.S. 

states won’t allow them during the 

pandemic—their implementation 

has become increasingly common 

as struggling theaters scramble for 

ways to generate revenue amid the 

unprecedented shutdown. 

That said, pop-up drive-ins (as they 

have come to be known) aren’t a feasible 

solution for every theater. In addition 

to the often-insurmountable financial 

costs involved, there are logistical 

considerations to account for. As 

Entertainment Supply & Technologies’ 

vice president of technology sales Scott 

McCallum tells Boxoffice Pro, the close 

proximity of many theaters to shopping 

centers and other businesses that use 

bright, automatic security lights after dark 

can make operating these ad hoc drive-ins 

an all but impossible challenge. 

“Light and outdoor movies are not fans 

of one another,” says McCallum, who is 

currently assisting a number of theaters 

with drive-in conversions. “And that 

becomes a challenge if you’re a theater in 

a shopping mall. You know, you’ve got all 

the ambient light around. Or if you’re next 

to a car dealership or whatnot. Traditional 

drive-ins have been in remote areas on the 

outskirts of town.” 

For theaters looking to hire out 

companies like Entertainment Supply 

& Technologies for their drive-in 

conversions, the cost can be prohibitive. 

The FM broadcast equipment required 

to play sound through hundreds of car 

speakers can run between $5,000 and 

$10,000, says McCallum. Add a projector 

into the mix, and you’re out another 

$6,000 to $7,000. For those who request 

the full package—including proper 

screens, metal frames, servers, sanitary 

products, and more—the cost could run 

anywhere between $50,000 and $100,00 

at the high end, according to informal 

estimates provided by McCallum and 

Alex Younger, CEO of cinema solutions 

company CES+. 

In the event a theater decides to move 

forward with a conversion, time can also 

become an issue, says Younger, who as of 

last week had sent out 11 pop-up drive-in 

proposals to theaters in both the U.S. and 

Latin America. 

“Some of these factories, they’re closed 

too, so it [becomes] a supply chain game 

where, what can we count on from the 

vendors?” says Younger. “It’s difficult to 

move and operate. We’ve run into those 

hiccups where [suppliers say], ‘Oh, I don’t 

have product.’” 

With theaters looking at a potential 

delay of weeks, if not months, due 

to supply chain issues, cinemas— 

particularly those operating in colder 


climates—may already be running out of 

time, says Younger. “In some cases,” he 

adds, “we [may have] to develop our own 

equipment to sell to them.” 

Even once a conversion is completed 

successfully, there are other issues to 

contend with. During a pandemic, safety 

is paramount, and each drive-in is forced 

to follow guidelines set down by state and 

local officials. Eric Hansen, a consultant 

who has assisted with makeshift, low-cost 

drive-in conversions at Aspen Cinemas in 

Evanston, Wyoming, and Water Gardens 

Cinema in Pleasant Grove, Utah (both of 

which cost in the $2,000–$3,000 range), 

says regulations can often be strict. 

“When we first announced this thing, we 

wanted to make sure that we had all of those 

things kind of ironed out,” says Hansen, 

who notes that each of the two theaters he 

works with typically dedicates “one or two” 

employees to parking lot supervision. “If 

you go to the Evanston [theater’s] website, 

they have a drive-in information page that’s 

dedicated to all of the rules. We are pretty 

strict with all that. You know, you have to 

stay in your car. You can’t get in the bed of 

your truck, you can’t open the hatches of 

your vehicle, things like that.” 

These restrictions can make allimportant 

concession sales into 

something of an ordeal. Hansen notes 

that while both the Evanston and Pleasant 

Grove drive-ins have set up concession 

systems via an online store—through 

which customers can place orders for 

snacks before texting a dedicated phone 

number to indicate where they’re parked— 

food deliveries (handed out driver-side by 

employees outfitted in masks and gloves) 

can take a long time to get to customers. 

That can lead to some frustration on the 

part of both customers and employees. 

“On our busy days, it takes a little bit 

longer because of the logistics behind 

it all,” says Hansen, who pauses before 

continuing dryly: “We’ll be grateful when 

we don’t have to do that anymore, let’s put 

it that way. It’s kind of a pain.” 

Another significant issue to consider 

is how best to provide bathrooms for 

customers in a time of physical-distancing 

mandates. While both Hansen and the 

DeMarshes tell Boxoffice Pro they’re 

offering access to their theaters’ indoor 

bathrooms during screenings, only one 

group or individual is allowed in at a time, 

and six feet of space is mandated between 

each person or group waiting in line. That 

can result in longer wait times for facilities. 

Parking lot sizes are also an important 

factor to consider for theaters mulling 

a conversion. Some, like all three Epic 

Theatres locations, can accommodate 

only small crowds (the Deltona and 

St. Augustine locations fit only 113 and 

75 cars, respectively). Others, like EVO 

Entertainment Group’s locations in 

both Schertz and Kyle, Texas (both of 

which reopened indoor operations with a 

limited capacity on Monday, May 4, while 

continuing to operate their pop-up driveins), 

get more bang for their buck; the 

Schertz location alone has managed to 

accommodate nearly 1,600 vehicles for a 

single showing. 

Despite the logistical hurdles, once 

installed, the concept has been taking 

hold in many communities—not only 

providing out-of-home entertainment 

for the quarantined populous, but 

allowing theaters to keep employees on 

staff. (Hansen tells us the Evanston and 

Pleasant Grove theaters have actually 

hired extra staff to deal with the extra, 

pandemic-compounded burdens that 

stem from the drive-in format.) Several 

of EVO’s drive-in screenings have been 

complete sellouts, leading the company 

to ponder keeping them in operation even 

once the pandemic has subsided. 

“We see the EVO drive-in concept 

as becoming a regular component of 

our alternative programming, even 

after the environment shifts back to 

normalcy,” says EVO Entertainment 

Group CEO Mitchell Roberts, who says 

the only outside equipment the company 

purchased for their conversions were FM 

transmitters (everything else was either 

custom made or came from in-house). 

“However, our primary focus will be 

reopening our in-venue experiences and 

implementing our new operating plans 

with enhanced safety measures.” 

As Roberts indicates, these conversions 

may not be the future of moviegoing 

in the U.S., but drive-ins (both pop-up 

and traditional) are in higher demand 

than they have been in decades—and 

they could stick around beyond the 

scope of the pandemic, particularly if 

fears of contagion continue to linger. 

As McCallum notes, drive-ins showing 

retro content licensed from the studios— 

popular titles include such films as 

Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Harry 

Potter, Jaws, and Grease—can also offer a 

nostalgic pull for some, adding an extra 

layer to the experience. 

“I think people will remember when 

they were kids going to the drive-ins,” he 

says. Still, in his estimation, the format’s 

appeal will remain limited if studios’ 

theatrical release slates remain empty 

throughout the summer season—and 

perhaps even beyond that. 

“If there’s no blockbuster content 

available to draw the crowds in this summer, 

if it’s pushed off till the fall or to the 

holidays, that doesn’t help,” says McCallum. 

“Retro [movies are] nostalgic and fun, but 

they need the Star Wars or the Wonder 

Womans. That draws people into drive-ins 

just like it does into the regular theaters.” 

Left, top and bottom: 

Texas-based Evo 

Entertainment hosts a 

drive-in evening in the 

parking lot of one of its 

locations. Photo courtesy 

Evo Entertainment. 

Despite the logistical 

hurdles, once installed, the 

concept has been taking 

hold in many communities— 

not only providing out-ofhome 

entertainment for the 

quarantined populous, but 

allowing theaters to keep 

employees on staff. 


65


Left: The B&B Twin Drive- 

In in Independence, 

Missouri. Photo courtesy 

B&B Theatres 

Right: The Showcase 

Drive-In at Patriot 

Place in Foxborough, 

Massachusetts (top), 

photo courtesy Showcase 

Cinemas. The Malco 

Summer Drive-In in 

Memphis, Tennessee, 

photo courtesy Malco 

Theatres 

MAJOR CIRCUITS 

EMBRACE THE DRIVE-IN 

AS THEY TRANSITION 

INTO REOPENING 

Originally published on June 24, 2020 

On May 30, Showcase Cinemas opened 

a “pop-up” drive-in theater at its 

Patriot Place location in Foxborough, 

Massachusetts, with a screening of Steven 

Spielberg’s 1981 classic Raiders of the Lost 

Ark. The sold-out event—which doubled 

as a fundraiser for the local Foxboro Food 

Pantry—amounted to a full-circle moment 

for the exhibitor, which was one of the first 

chains to embrace the drive-in concept 

beginning in the late 1930s. 

“It’s interesting that Showcase is 

starting out with a drive-in as part of our 

reopening, because it’s part of our DNA 

and our history,” says Mark Malinowski, 

Showcase’s vice president of global 

marketing. In addition to establishing one 

of the country’s first drive-ins—the nowdefunct 

Sunrise Drive-In on Long Island, 

which opened in 1938 with a screening 

of the Jimmy Durante musical Start 

Cheering—several of its current hardtop 

locations, including Legacy Place in 

Dedham, Massachusetts, and the Cinema 

de Lux in Revere, Massachusetts, were 

originally launched as drive-in venues. 

The current resurgence of the drive-in 

format is a phenomenon that would have 

been inconceivable just a few months 

ago. But with the coronavirus continuing 

to circulate widely in the U.S. more than 

three months into the pandemic, and 

with the majority of hard-top theaters 

remaining shuttered, drive-ins remain the 

only moviegoing option in many areas 

of the country. That reality is about to 

change, however—and for major chains 

now prepping for a reopening of their 

indoor locations for the first time since 

mid-March, “pop-up” drive-ins are being 

viewed as a transitional step, allowing 

them to test out safety protocols before 

top-tier studio releases including Mulan, 

Tenet, and Bill & Ted Face the Music are 

unleashed in theaters. 

Marcus Theatres has been dabbling 

in the “parking lot cinema” concept 

even more extensively than Showcase. 

The country’s fourth-largest exhibitor 

currently operates pop-up drive-ins at 

five locations: Elgin in Illinois, Majestic of 

Brookfield and South Shore in Wisconsin, 

Pickerington in Ohio, and Twin Creek in 

Nebraska. Marcus CEO and president (and 

current NATO vice chairman) Rolando 

Rodriguez says that one of the first of 

these to open, Twin Creek in the town of 

Bellevue, saw sellouts in its first 10 days of 

operation—a turnout he believes speaks 

to a “pent-up” demand from moviegoers 

who have been barred from entering 

their local multiplexes for months. “I 

think people are ready to go back to some 

level of normalcy,” he says. “And I feel 

confident that we’re going to be providing 

that as an industry.” 

When asked to list some of the 

challenges of operating these pop-up 

locations—each of which took roughly a 

week to set up—Rodriguez employed the 

more optimistic phrase “key learnings” to 

discuss the inevitable logistical hurdles 

that came with the process. Among them: 

dealing with the “ingress and egress” of 

vehicles into and out of the parking lot; 

ensuring all cars are parked 15 minutes 

before showtime to avoid disturbances 

from latecomers; and effectively educating 

guests on how to preorder tickets and 

concessions online. 

More importantly for Rodriguez, the 

pop-ups have given Marcus Theatres 

the opportunity to test out many of the 

health and safety protocols the company 

has been developing over the last several 

months. “[We want] to make sure that 

when we reopen our regular theaters, a lot 

of these plans that we’ve been working on 

will be not only good plans, but executable 

plans,” he says. Though there are certain 

components of the new guidelines that 

can only be tested indoors, a number of 

procedures—including the use of masks, 

social distancing markers, placement of 

sanitation stations and the concessions 


preordering system—have been put into 

practice at the drive-ins, allowing the 

company to conduct a trial run before it 

executes a full-scale reopening. 

Showcase, too, used its single popup 

drive-in as a run-through for the 

company’s “Be Showcase Safe” initiative, 

which includes a new ticketing and 

concessions preorder function on its 

website and app to facilitate no-contact 

payments. “This was our first time 

testing it out, kicking the tires on it,” says 

Malinowski, “and it worked really well.” 

Large chains are also testing health 

and safety protocols at traditional 

drive-ins. B&B Theatres, which operates 

drive-in theaters in the towns of Moberly 

and Independence, Missouri, has put 

social distancing measures in place at 

its two outdoor locations, eliminated 

cash transactions, and reduced contact 

between guests and employees at 

the box office and concession areas. 

Malco Theatres has employed similar 

measures at its Summer Drive-In theater 

in Memphis, including limiting guest 

capacity to 50 percent. 

Representatives for Marcus, Malco, 

B&B, and Showcase all claim that 

attendance has been strong at both their 

pop-up and traditional drive-ins, though 

just how eager moviegoers are to return 

to hard-top locations—even once brandnew 

blockbuster titles begin populating 

multiplexes—remains an open question. 

Some people we spoke to pushed back on 

the idea that audiences will require much 

of an incentive to return at all. 

“I don’t think it is a matter of easing 

movie fans back into coming to the 

movies,” Malco Theatres’ senior vice 

president of film and marketing Jeff 

Kaufman told Boxoffice Pro via email. 

“It is obvious that the high degree of pentup 

demand for the theatrical experience 

and need to get out of the house has 

exploded, resulting in huge drive-in 

attendance. People still love movies, and 

we are grateful they are putting their 

money where their fandom is.” 

Those sentiments were echoed by 

B&B Theatres director of publicity Paul 

Farnsworth, who added, “While our drivein 

operations did provide us the means 

of presenting the public with some of our 

revised cleaning and social distancing 

protocols, I’m not sure that our guests 

will need an ‘easing back in’ outside of 

the parameters established by local and 

“It is obvious that the high 

degree of pent-up demand 

for the theatrical experience 

and need to get out of 

the house has exploded, 

resulting in huge drive-in 

attendance.“ 

regional health authorities. In other words, 

we feel and hope that our guests will 

come back to cinemas once cinemas are 

reopened and won’t require much in the 

way of re-acclimation.” 

Rodriguez was more measured when 

asked whether drive-ins are a way of 

mitigating anxieties for guests who may 

be nervous about returning to indoor 

locations—not to mention a reminder of 

the value of moviegoing for those who 

have been relegated to watching films at 

home for the past several months. 

“Think about this—our industry has 

been pretty much shut down now for 

almost three months,” he says. “So for 

us, it was an important aspect to keep 

connected with our guests and the 

importance and the fun of moviegoing 

and entertainment value associated with 

it.” To accommodate guests who aren’t 

yet comfortable watching movies in an 

indoor theater, he adds, the company is 

considering keeping its pop-up driveins 

operational even once its hard-top 

locations open for business. 

Of course, reopening plans for 

exhibitors across the country are highly 

dependent upon major studios providing 

new content—and with only a few highprofile 

films slated for release over the 

next several months, all eyes are on 

Disney (Mulan), Warner Bros. (Tenet), 

and others to follow through on those 

plans. All exhibitor representatives 

interviewed for this story expressed 

confidence that the studios will keep 

their remaining summer releases on 

the calendar, but if coronavirus cases 

begin to spike in a substantial way—a 

phenomenon already being observed in 

states like Arizona, Texas, and Florida— 

reopening plans could be further delayed 

in some areas. 

“Let’s hope to God that that does 

not happen—not just for the sake 

of our industry but the sake of our 

country,” says Rodriguez, who didn’t 

rule out the possibility of opening more 

pop-up drive-in locations if indoor 

reopening plans get pushed back in 

some communities. And if they do? 

“Obviously, there are different ways to 

provide that entertainment experience 

during difficult times,” Rodriguez adds. 

“What you’ve seen is we can be creative 

and certainly adapt to whatever those 

situations might become.” 


67


PROGRAMMING: HOW 

IFC FILMS’ THE WRETCHED 

BECAME A SLEEPER HIT 

ON THE DRIVE-IN CIRCUIT 

Originally published on June 18, 2020 

In an unprecedented spring season that 

saw the shuttering of hard-top theaters, a 

release slate emptied of major studio films, 

and the improbable resurgence of driveins, 

an unlikely hit emerged: IFC Films’ 

The Wretched, a low-budget horror film 

about a young boy who is terrorized by a 

thousand-year-old witch. Through the 

end of its seventh weekend, the creature 

feature had brought in a cool $1.37 million, 

mainly from outdoor theaters, making 

it arguably the first drive-in hit of the 

modern era. 

“Horror films in general have such 

a long history of being at the drivein,” 

Jasper Basch, director of sales and 

distribution at IFC Films, tells Boxoffice 

Pro. “This is just a continuation of a triedand-true 

tradition.” 

A lack of competition didn’t hurt. When 

the major studios cleared their theatrical 

slates during the spring months due to 

“Cinemas are there for 

every type of film, every 

type of genre, but I think 

drive-ins specifically 

imply the popcorn movie 

that everybody can go 

see together and have a 

good time.” 

Covid-19, it created a fertile landscape for 

an indie title like The Wretched to break 

through. The film’s largely positive critical 

reception (74% on Rotten Tomatoes) and 

strong word of mouth also played a role in 

its popularity. “I think a lot of [the success] 

has to do with the film itself,” Basch adds. 

“A good movie is always going to find its 

audience—I’m a true believer about that.” 

Needless to say, The Wretched directors 

Drew and Brett Pierce couldn’t have 

predicted that their film would be released 

in the middle of a pandemic—nor that it 

would lend itself so well to a format they 

never expected to screen it in. 

“We didn’t realize that we were making 

the perfect drive-in movie,” says Drew, 

who co-directed one previous feature with 

Brett—the 2011 zombie film Deadheads. 

By the brothers’ own admission, The 

Wretched isn’t “art house” horror. Rather, 

it’s a fun, old-fashioned creature feature 

that falls squarely within the tradition of 

drive-in hits of yore. 

“I think drive-ins are associated with 

escapism and a good time,” says Brett. 

“Cinemas are there for every type of film, 

every type of genre, but I think drive-ins 

specifically imply the popcorn movie that 


everybody can go see together and have a 

good time.” 

The Pierces do admit to one drawback 

of the drive-in format: The audio, mixed 

in 7.1 by sound designer Eliot Connors, 

gets lost when it’s played over a standard 

car stereo. But that’s just one downside 

among many advantages, including 

the ability of the directors—who have 

watched the film multiple times at Los 

Angeles–area drive-ins—to hear the 

audience’s feedback in real time, just by 

rolling down their windows. 

“We love hearing random people react 

to the movie,” says Drew, who adds that in 

pre-Covid times, “usually we [would] go 

hide out in the bathroom, because that’s 

where people say what they really think of 

[the movie].” 

For IFC, The Wretched has allowed 

the independent distributor to forge 

relationships with drive-in owners that 

Basch hopes will pay further dividends 

down the line. “All the [drive-ins] we’re in 

are new customers to IFC, and we had to 

build those relationships,” he says, noting 

that drive-ins typically don’t program new, 

independent releases. 

If nothing else, The Wretched’s sleeper 

success proves that even in the bleakest of 

times, audiences remain hungry for the 

theatrical experience. “When the virus 

started becoming more of an actuality, I 

think there were a lot of questions as to 

what the future would look like,” Basch 

says. “The thought of grossing a million 

dollars theatrically, that’s nothing I would 

have ever been able to predict.” 

Far left: The Wretched, 

an IFC Films release. 

Photo courtesy IFC Films 

Left: The Galaxy Drive- 

In Theater in Ennis, Texas 

(top). Additional stills 

from The Wretched, an 

IFC Films release. Photos 

courtesy IFC Films 


69

Theater HOMETOWN THEATERS 

REMEMBERING OUR 

HOMETOWN THEATERS 

Movie theaters aren’t just places to watch movies— 

they’re also places to form relationships, spend time with 

family, or just escape from the world for a few hours. 

They’re as much a part of our lives as they are a meeting 

place in our communities. As theaters around the world 

begin to reopen, the staff of Boxoffice Pro share 

memories of their own hometown movie theaters. 

Daniel Loría, Editorial Director 

Cinemark 12 Plaza Boulevares 

[Today: Cinemex Boulevares Querétaro] 

Querétaro, Mexico 

The first multiplex opened in my 

hometown in 1996. There must have been 

fewer than a handful of twin cinemas 

operating in Querétaro before Cinemark 

opened that multiplex: a brand-new 

12-screen facility, one of their first outside 

the United States. 

That movie theater changed something 

in the city. Back then, our soccer team 

was either out of business or in the second 

division, and there wasn’t much else to 

do. And everything about that theater 

was unique and innovative at the time, 

from the lobby to the concessions stand 

and auditoriums—it was the only cinema 

in town that didn’t have intermissions. 

I’d go with my friends midweek (2-for-1 

admission) and with my family on the 

weekend. Sometimes I’d end up seeing the 

same movie twice in the same week. 

The first movie I saw there was 

Dracula: Dead and Loving It, starring 

Leslie Nielsen. I also remember watching 

That Thing You Do! with a friend who later 

started his own band in middle school; 

Jack, and thinking it was so bad that the 

rest of the director’s movies probably 

sucked, too; buying a commemorative 

soda cup for Independence Day on 

opening night; Mars Attacks, Mission: 

Impossible, The Rock … I must have seen 

“Every time I return the city 

looks less familiar; I can’t 

help but remember it the 

way it was during our last 

year living there.” 

every studio title exported to Mexico 

between the summers of ’96 and ’97 in that 

theater. I’d ride my bike to the newsstand 

near my house and buy the latest issues of 

Cine Premiere and Cinemanía to find out 

about the coming releases. My romance 

with moviegoing began in that theater. 

The multiplex opened around the 

same time that Carrefour unveiled the 

city’s first large-scale supermarket; I was 

11 years old, and all of a sudden there were 

foreign companies investing in Querétaro, 

and introducing modern retail concepts. 

The great novella Las batallas en el 

desierto by José Emilio Pacheco touches 

on the theme of a rapidly changing 

Mexico and how modernization brings 

a simultaneous sense of excitement 

and nostalgic anxiety. We moved out of 

Querétaro in the fall of 1997. Every time 

I return the city looks less familiar; I 

can’t help but remember it the way it was 

during our last year living there. 

Despite all the changes to the city, that 

movie theater is still there. Cinemark sold 

its Mexico locations to Cinemex back in 

2012, and while the branding is different, a 

lot of the structural details remain. When 

my parents moved back to Querétaro, they 

moved to a house six blocks from the 

cinema. I still visit it, not to see a movie 

but mostly to reassure myself it’s still there. 

On a recent trip, a security guard spotted 

me taking some pictures of the lobby and 

sternly asked what I was doing. I couldn’t 

come up with a succinct explanation. 



71

Theater HOMETOWN THEATERS 

Rebecca Pahle, Deputy Editor 

Palace Stadium 12 

and Movies at the Lake 

Cornelius, North Carolina 

The Movies @ Birkdale 

[Today: Regal Birkdale & RPX] 

Huntersville, North Carolina 

For the last 12 years of my life, I’ve lived 

in New York. It’s a city with no shortage 

of movie theaters, even though they all 

happen to be closed for the moment. When 

the Covid crisis is over, I know that I—along 

with many, many other people—will count 

going to the movies among my very first 

activities. I may not know what movies will 

be playing whenever the marquees light 

up again, but I’m already dreaming of the 

concessions I’m going to get. The thought 

of popcorn at the IFC Center, tater tots 

and cheese at the Nitehawk, and a boozy 

milkshake at Alamo Drafthouse’s Brooklyn 

location is getting me through some tough 

times. (Look, I never claimed “healthy” to 

be among the attributes I look for in movie 

theater concessions.) 

Before I lived in New York, I grew up 

in Charlotte, North Carolina—first the 

city itself and then, from middle school 

through college, in the town of Cornelius, 

about 20 minutes north. My fondest 

moviegoing memories from childhood are 

tied to details of the theatrical experience. 

At 7, feeling scandalized when my aunt 

snuck Burger King Whoppers into the 

theater when she took us to see Hook. At 

8, getting to Aladdin so close to showtime 

that my family and I had to sit in the front 

row, but being so transfixed by the movie 

that I didn’t even notice the crick in my 

neck. Lining up for midnight screenings 

of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings; the 

excitement I felt in my stomach was very 

real but not quite enough to keep me from 

gobbling down handfuls of popcorn. 

The theaters I went to were typical 

suburban multiplexes of the closing years 

of the 20th century. They didn’t have 

premium large-format screens, recliners, 

or dine-in menus. Looking back, they 

weren’t particularly “special.” One of 

them had a party room that I hardly saw 

anyone use; another may have had a claw 

machine. But they felt special to me. They 

gave me a treat, a solace, a way to bond 

with my family. They introduced me to my 

love of movies and set me on the career 

path I still travel today. 

“When we lose theaters, 

we don’t just lose bricks and 

metal. We don’t just lose 

movies. We lose memory, 

spirit, and family. We lose 

a second home.” 

They are also, for the most part, closed. 

The first theater that felt like it was truly 

mine was called Movies at the Lake. It 

opened its doors, and a shopping center 

built up around it. Now that area is bustling 

and built-up, but Movies at the Lake isn’t 

there. It closed in 2004 and became a 

Nascar store (hey, North Carolina). 

Then there was Palace Stadium 12, 

which, for a reason I was never quite able 

to figure out, was decorated to look like an 

Egyptian temple. It closed suddenly after 

three years and stood abandoned for over 

a decade until a church moved in. (They 

did not keep the decorations.) Movies @ 

Birkdale—now Regal Birkdale & RPX— 

opened when I was a junior in high school, 

just in time for me to see Moulin Rouge 

there four times. (Musical geeks circa the 

early 2000s know what’s up.) 

Traveling back home from New York 

to see my family, I would make a point 

of going back to Birkdale if I could. 

Christmas afternoon, in particular, was 

a designated movie time for the Pahle 

household. But driving past Movies at 

the Lake and the Palace always made me 

sad. Their familiar façades said “movie 

theater,” but they lacked the magic that 

had made them so much more than mere 

buildings. When we lose theaters, we don’t 

just lose bricks and metal. We don’t just 

lose movies. We lose memory, spirit, and 

family. We lose a second home. 

Shawn Robbins, Chief Analyst 

Carmike Highland 

[Today: AMC Classic Highland 12] 

Cookeville, Tennessee 

AMC Dine-In Thoroughbred 20 

Franklin, Tennessee 

My earliest days of moviegoing took place 

at Carmike’s Highland in Cookeville, 

Tennessee, which grew from four to 10 

to 12 screens as I grew up. It’s the theater 

my father took me to as a kid, and the 

one my friends and I congregated at 

regularly throughout high school and 

college, creating the foundation for my 

obsession with cinema. Having lived closer 

to Nashville for over a decade now, I tend 

to consider the AMC Thoroughbred in 

Franklin my home base. My wife and I will 

venture out to other Nashville-area venues, 

like Regal’s Opry Mills location, to check 

out its largest-in-the-area Imax screen or 

meet family and friends, but I’ve seen more 

films at the Thoroughbred than anywhere 


else. Their Dolby Cinema auditorium 

provides one of the flat-out best theatrical 

experiences in this part of the country. 

Kevin Lally, Executive Editor 

Clairidge Theatre 

[Today: Bow Tie Clairidge Cinemas] 

and the Wellmont Theatre 

Montclair, New Jersey 

Fox Theatre and Oritani Theatre 

Hackensack, New Jersey 

Growing up in Bergen County, New 

Jersey, one of the most densely populated 

counties in the nation, I never realized 

how good I had it as a young moviegoer. 

It was a short bus ride to New York City’s 

Radio City Music Hall, the fabled art deco 

entertainment showplace, where your ticket 

often got you both a movie and a stage 

show. (My first movie there: That Darn Cat! 

starring Hayley Mills and Dean Jones.) 

But Bergen County also had its own 

wonderful movie palaces. In those days 

of exclusive road show engagements that 

could last for months, even a year, the 

movie mecca was Montclair, New Jersey, 

with its two huge movie palaces, the 

Clairidge and the Wellmont, both opened 

in 1922. It was in Montclair—a half-hour 

drive from my hometown of Dumont— 

that I saw the Oscar-winning musicals My 

Fair Lady and The Sound of Music before 

they finally branched out to more towns. 

Today, the Wellmont is a live-performance 

venue, and the Clairidge is a six-plex 

operated by Bow Tie Cinemas. 

The next tier down in my area of Bergen 

County was Hackensack. That town with 

the odd name boasted not one but two 

bona fide movie palaces, the Fox and the 

Oritani, right across from each other on 

Main Street. Named for a local Indian 

chief, the Oritani opened on May 6, 1926, 

with a double bill of Lady Windermere’s 

Fan and Nobody’s Business, according to 

the invaluable website Cinema Treasures. 

Five years later, the art deco Fox debuted 

with Jackie Coogan in Huckleberry Finn. 

The Fox held more than 2,200 seats, the 

Oritani 1,800, and both were beautiful, 

ornate temples from a bygone age. I saw 

many movies there—the most indelible is 

watching Stanley Kramer’s all-star comedy 

extravaganza It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad 

World on the Oritani’s huge screen at age 11 

and laughing so hysterically at the brutal 

fire escape climax my parents almost took 

me out of the theater. 

“I never realized how good I 

had it as a young moviegoer. 

It was a short bus ride to New 

York City’s Radio City Music 

Hall, the fabled art deco 

entertainment showplace, 

where your ticket often got 

you both a movie and a 

stage show.” 

Sadly, these two New Jersey gems are no 

more. According to Cinema Treasures, the 

Fox’s last first-run film was Jaws 2 in 1980, 

and it was torn down in 1998. The Oritani’s 

auditorium was demolished in 1985. 

My hometown, Dumont, did not 

have its own movie theater. The closest 

was in neighboring Bergenfield: the 

Palace, which seemed an inapt name 

after enjoying the wonders of the Fox and 

the Oritani. There I saw many a Disney 

cartoon and live-action comedy. In 

retrospect, the onetime Spanish Baroque 

vaudeville house probably was a palace 

by current standards; today it’s a fivescreen 

theater, formerly owned by Bow Tie 

Cinemas and now independently operated. 

Jesse Rifkin, Analyst 

AMC Georgetown 14 

Washington, D.C. 

I perform every Friday and Saturday night 

at a piano bar in the Georgetown area 

of Washington, D.C. Only a few hundred 

feet away is the AMC Georgetown, where 

I attend a movie almost every Friday or 

Saturday night, two or three hours before 

my gig. Since it’s located in one of the 

nicer areas of the nation’s capital, there’s 

always the possibility of running into a 

major political figure. There was always 

a small but possible chance I might run 

into Dick Cheney when I saw Vice there, or 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg when I saw On the 

Basis of Sex. I mean, I didn’t. But there was 

still the chance. 

Chris Eggertsen, Analyst 

Century 8 

[Today: Cinemark Century Cinema 16] 

Mountain View, California 

I grew up in Ventura, California, about 

an hour north of L.A. Many of my most 

formative moviegoing experiences were 

at the Century 8 (it would eventually 

expand and be known as Century Cinema 

16 under Cinemark), a pink palace of a 

multiplex that has since shut down and 

been taken over by a church (!). I worked 

there over the summer between my junior 

and senior years of high school and spent 

many long nights scooping popcorn 

into bags, pulling questionable items 

out of cup holders, and being accosted 

by customers who were livid over the 

concession prices. Oh, what I wouldn’t do 

to have those days back! 


73

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Filmmaker Interview 76 | Coming Attractions 88 | Long-Range Forecast 100 | Booking Guide 105 

ON SCREEN 

Photo credit: Dean Rogers. Courtesy Searchlight Pictures 

“I’ve always been a huge Dickens fan. I reread the book 

about 10 years ago, and I was struck by how absolutely 

contemporary it felt. It felt so modern.” 

The Personal History of David Copperfield, p. 82 


75

On Screen FILMMAKER INTERVIEW 

THE SOUNDS 

OF SILENCE 

A Quiet Place Part II sound 

editors speak up 

BY JESSE RIFKIN 


At the end of the day, it’s about the 

relationships you have.” Fandango’s vice 

president of domestic ticketing, Melissa 

Heller, says relationships are key to 

every facet of what she does—her own 

relationships with mentors and other 

industry professionals in addition to the 

relationships Fandango itself cultivates 

with exhibitors, studios, and of course the 

all-important moviegoer. 

Heller grew up in a “tiny, tiny town in 

Northern California,” where the closest 

theater—Coast Cinemas in Fort Bragg, still 

in operation—was an hour away. From 

the beginning, going to the movies was “a 

big deal. … When we got the opportunity 

to do it, it was one of those life-changing 

miracle moments.” (An early moviegoing 

experience that’s stuck with Heller: going 

to the Coast with her best friend to see 

Babe.) “Sharing those movie moments 

with my best friend, enjoying candy, and 

feeling like we were there on that farm 

with a talking pig … does life get any better 

than that?” No, it does not. 

While Heller has always known the 

magic of moviegoing, she “stumbled 

into” the job of providing that magic for 

other people. In college, Heller studied 

business and economics, which took her 

to a job at Quantum Loyalty Solutions. A 

“rewards and incentives firm,” Quantum 

Loyalty Solutions partnered with studios, 

exhibitors, and outside companies to 

offer “Hollywood Movie Money” to 

consumers. Fandango, looking to beef up 

its own promotions operations, acquired 

Quantum in 2015, rebranding the service 

as Fandango Rewards. “At the time, there 

was an ask to relocate to Los Angeles 

and join the core exhibitor relations and 

ticketing commerce team,” recalls Heller. 

“I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It was 

a personal and professional challenge— 

an opportunity to grow and learn from 

incredible people. So, despite my fears of 

L.A. traffic, I decided to move. And [now] 

I’m here to stay.” 

One of those “incredible people” 

Heller learned from was Fandango’s 

chief commercial officer and executive 

vice president Kevin Shepela. “Since the 

day I started at Fandango, Kevin always 

challenged me to think more broadly, 

to look at strategy and align decisions 

accordingly, to ask questions, to think 

bigger. He supported me doubling down 

and getting my MBA along the way, no 

matter what it took. All in support of me as 

a person first, and an employee second.” 

While Heller has benefited from 

structured mentorship programs, she cites 

informal mentorship as the thing that’s 

helped her professional growth the most. 

“It’s just seeing how people work with each 

other: ‘Oh, wow, that’s how she responded 

to a really hard question. That’s what I 

want to do the next time I’m in a position 

like that.’ Or: ‘That was a really unique way 

to tackle that problem.’ Just really being 

able to learn, and not sit at your desk with 

your headphones on, answering emails. It’s 

really about absorbing the people around 

you. Inside [Fandango], outside, all over the 

industry. It’s actively listening and figuring 

out what your style is, not mimicking 

someone else.” 

One of these informal mentors was 

Heller’s mother, who, as a co-owner of 

a construction company, “excelled in a 

heavily male-dominated industry, keeping 

her focus on creating houses that became 

homes and meeting every challenge along 

the way. She is an advocate for women in 

her industry, and it is empowering to see 

her help showcase others. She showed me 

how a rising tide lifts all boats.” Fandango 

embodies that spirit, Heller explains, 

through their chapter of TechWomen, an 

initiative geared toward supporting the 

next generation of women working in 

STEM (science, technology, engineering, 

and mathematics) fields. Fandango’s 

TechWomen chapter, founded by director 

of project management Shanit DeLuca 

and director of software engineering Rema 

Morgan-Aluko, provides professional 

development for the women of Fandango. 

“It is exhilarating to see progress on this 

level. I’m hopeful for the future.” 

As for what the future holds for digital 

ticketing in general, it’s hard to say, if not 

impossible, and “that’s the fun challenge” 

for Heller. The growth of digital ticketing 

has been both massive and relatively 

rapid; Heller recalls that the year she 

joined Quantum Loyalty Solutions, 2007, 

was the year the first iPhone came out. 


77


Behind Simon and Garfunkel, the 

second most famous duo associated 

with “the sounds of silence” may be Erik 

Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn. The sound 

editors sculpted the auditory environment 

of 2018’s breakout horror-drama A Quiet 

Place, about a family of four attempting to 

silently survive a world overrun by blind 

predatory creatures with acute hearing. 

The pair earned an Academy Award 

nomination for Best Sound Editing for 

their work. 

The duo returns for director John 

Krasinski’s sequel, A Quiet Place Part II. 

A Quiet Place, more than perhaps any 

other film in recent memory, elicited 

nearly total silence in the theater. 

Moviegoers wouldn’t so much as 

open their soda bottles. Did you keep 

that in mind when doing the sound 

design? 

Ethan Van der Ryn: It was a question in 

our minds the whole time, when we were 

mixing and designing the sound during 

the original: Would people be able to stay 

quiet enough for the film to actually work? 

If people are making too much sound, 

they’re going to obliterate the story and 

the experience, which requires people to 

be completely silent. It was an experiment, 

in a way, whether or not that could work. 

Fortunately, it did. 

Erik Aadahl: Our goal was really to make 

the audience an active participant in the 

movie, putting the audience in the shoes 

of the character. When Emily Blunt’s 

character, Evelyn, is holding her breath, 

trying not to make a noise, ideally we’d 

have the audience do the exact same thing. 

We didn’t really know if the whole thing 

would work until we premiered it at South 

by Southwest. A packed auditorium and 

the audience just went with it. They were 

holding their breath until the very end. 

It was such a vindication for this crazy 

experiment. 

What was similar or different about 

working on the sequel versus the 

original? 

Van der Ryn: In the first one, we were 

setting up this whole universe where 

creatures have taken control of the earth. 


Left: Evelyn (Emily 

Blunt) and Marcus 

(Noah Jupe) in A Quiet 

Place Part II 

All images: 

Jonny Cournoyer, 

© Paramount Pictures, 

All Rights Reserved 

Humanity has had to adapt to be able to 

survive, by staying silent. We worked on 

creating and setting up all the rules of this 

whole universe. Obviously, with this one, 

because it’s a direct continuation of the 

story, we have this established set of rules 

in which to start playing. We don’t have 

to start from the ground up to create the 

universe. It’s been created, so we can just 

take off from there. 

Aadahl: The last film was so successful, 

we feel like we caught lightning in a bottle. 

So the challenge is how do we top it? How 

do we take it even further? Not just repeat 

ourselves, but create a new experience 

that’s going to be even more effective. That 

was the challenge for everybody involved 

with the film, not just for us in sound 

design, but [director] John [Krasinski] and 

the incredible cast. 

So how did you try to top it? 

Aadahl: If the first film was more 

intimate, this film definitely expands 

beyond the borders of the farm and the 

homestead. We’re exploring the world a 

little bit more. [The trailer opens with the 

family speeding down a street as dozens 

around flee on foot, already showing 

more people in one scene than the first 

film did in total.] The first film opens a 

certain time after the invasion, but in this 

[film] we get a glimpse of day one. That 

was pretty fun to work on. Our challenge 

as a sound designer is, how do we expand 

upon the vocabulary and behavior of these 

creatures, go deeper with it? There were 

a lot more moments where we could play 

with that tension. 

What was the hardest individual 

sound to create? 

Van der Ryn: With the first film, we 

had to invent the creature sounds from 

scratch—something nobody had ever 

heard before, reverse engineering their 

biology. Knowing that they use sound to 

navigate the world, that they’re blind, we 

developed their palette of sound based on 

other living creatures that have a similar 

use of sound to navigate the world. For 

example, animals with echolocation or 

sonar. It was quite an experiment, going 

through and trying things, playing with 

sounds of dolphins and whales and 

bats. All of them use a similar clicking 

to reflect objects in their environment, 

so through sound they can paint a 

three-dimensional map. Eventually, we 

stumbled upon a stun gun, which had 

this really creepy alien feel. It was an 

electric Taser, essentially, that became 

the spine of our echolocation sound. 

“When Emily Blunt’s 

character, Evelyn, is holding 

her breath, trying not to 

make a noise, ideally we’d 

have the audience do the 

exact same thing.” 


79


Above: Regan 

(Millicent Simmonds), 

Marcus (Noah Jupe), 

and Evelyn (Emily 

Blunt) brave the 

unknown in A Quiet 

Place Part II 

Right: Director John 

Krasinski, Noah Jupe, 

and Emily Blunt on 

the set of Paramount 

Pictures’ A Quiet Place 

Part II 

“One of the unique things 

we experienced with the 

first A Quiet Place was that 

it really brought back the 

idea of cinemagoing as a 

communal experience.” 

Van der Ryn: We were playing around 

with this stun gun, trying to use it on 

different props that we had lying around 

our studio. There were some grapes sitting 

on a table in the kitchen. We tried it 

against the grapes and got the best sound. 

Grapes have a thin skin and fleshy interior, 

similar to humans. So that ended up being 

what we used. We just stumbled into that 

by accident. That’s why this is a great job! 

Play is required. 

What’s the strangest thing you’ve 

ever done to create a sound in a 

movie? 

Aadahl: I was working with Ethan on 

the first Transformers. We’d had a late 

night and I pulled into my driveway at 

home. I stepped out of the car and a 

garden hose was lying out. I stepped on it 

in such a way that the liquid in the hose 

made a gurgly sound. It almost sounded 

like a creature. I grabbed the garden 

hose, pulled it inside into the bathtub, 

started recording it, and those became 

the splatty vocals for Bumblebee in all 

the Transformers movies. If your ears are 

open, magic can happen. 

How did the sound team work 

with Marco Beltrami on the score? 

[Beltrami, who also scored the first 

film, is a two-time Academy Award 

nominee for The Hurt Locker and the 

3:10 to Yuma remake.] 

Van der Ryn: We love working with 

Marco. He just has such a big-picture, 

holistic sense of the film. He’s very 

gracious with not just where to play music, 

but where not to play music, so we can 

get really, really quiet, make the audience 

lean in and hold their breath. He’s doing 

a gorgeous job expanding on the musical 

themes of the first film. 

There’s a beautiful scene in the first 

film where Lee and Evelyn slow dance 

to the song Harvest Moon by Neil 

Young, listening through earbuds 

so they won’t attract the creatures. 

Whose decision was that—yours, the 

music supervisor’s, Krasinski’s? 

Van der Ryn: That’s John Krasinski, all 

the way. He wrote that into the script, 

specifically to be that song. He talked 

about it a little bit with us. The song was 


expensive, but it was important to him 

that it be that song specifically. It was 

worth securing the rights to use it and 

paying the money. For a lower-budget film 

to spend that kind of money on one song 

was obviously a pretty big deal. 

Aadahl: That song has special 

significance for him and his wife, Emily. 

That’s a scene that’s based on their reallife 

relationship. 

Between the two of you, you’ve 

won or been nominated for multiple 

awards, including the Oscars. [The 

pair has been nominated jointly for 

Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Argo, 

and the first A Quiet Place]. What’s 

your best awards show story? 

Van der Ryn: My favorite awards 

experience was at the BAFTA Awards 

[in Britain]. I took my mom. As we were 

walking to the ball afterwards, all the 

photographers there started calling out, 

“Dame Judi! Dame Judi!” They thought 

my mom was Dame Judi Dench. So she 

started posing! 

Aadahl: Before the Oscars, there’s 

the nominees’ luncheon. As my date, I 

brought my godmother. She lives in 

Washington state; she has nothing to do 

with Hollywood. We were standing next 

to Glenn Close, who’s her favorite actress 

of all time. She was just freaking out on 

me. “Can I take a picture?” It was fun to 

experience it through her eyes. 

Why is it important to see A Quiet 

Place Part II in a cinema? 

Van der Ryn: One of the unique things 

we experienced with the first A Quiet Place 

was that it really brought back the idea of 

cinemagoing as a communal experience. 

It became such an interactive experience, 

where audiences were required to be 

completely silent in order for the movie to 

work. Hundreds of people were gathered 

together in this temple of cinema, being 

hushed, not talking. That’s such a special 

experience to have in this age of streaming. 

Aadahl: We got a lot of feedback after 

the first film, people mentioning that 

after they saw it in a theater, after the 

end credits, they heard the world in a 

completely new way. The sounds of traffic, 

the city. They were almost overwhelmed 

with the reality of sound in the world after 

having gone through this experience of 

A Quiet Place. I think it would be a very 

different experience to watch it on Bluray 

in your home, when there might be a 

washing machine going. 

AT THE MOVIES 

With Erik Aadahl and 

Ethan Van der Ryn 

What is your all-time favorite moviegoing 

memory or experience? 

Aadahl: I grew up in the Bay Area. My 

parents took me to my very first movie when 

I was about 5 or 6 years old. It was E.T. on 

a big, beautiful 70-millimeter screen. That 

was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. I 

still remember that feeling of “Whoa!” This 

big theater, that giant screen. The movie 

moved me so much. I was crying when E.T. 

was dying. My parents were concerned that 

maybe they should take me out of there, 

but I refused. “No, I have to stay and see this 

film!” It really had a profound and powerful 

effect on me. It’s probably one of the reasons 

I fell in love with cinema and went into it. 

Van der Ryn: It was the [1971] Nicolas Roeg 

movie Walkabout, which I saw when I was 

probably about 7 years old. It just really 

engaged me in a way that I had never 

experienced before, in any other form. It 

took me on this incredible journey that 

involved these two kids, an older sister and 

her younger brother, who was probably 

about 7, so I could relate completely to him. 

They’re on this journey across the Australian 

outback. For most of the movie, there’s 

no talking. It’s a completely cinematic 

experience that you can’t have in any other 

way, where you’re taken on this journey of 

sight and sound. 

What’s your favorite snack at the movie 

theater concession stand? 

Aadahl: I’m a popcorn guy. Lightly buttered 

and lightly salted. 

Van der Ryn: Of course, in a movie like A 

Quiet Place Part II, you have to be careful 

with the crunching, or the audience might 

turn on you. 

Aadahl: Junior Mints might work better. 

Van der Ryn: Or gummy bears. 

Something soft. 


81

ON SCREEN FILMMAKER INTERVIEW 

WHAT 

THE 

DICKENS! 

The Personal History of David 

Copperfield heads to the cinemas 


Director Armando Iannucci returns to the big 

screen, following 2017’s The Death of Stalin 

and 2009’s Oscar-nominated In the Loop, with The 

Personal History of David Copperfield. The Charles 

Dickens adaptation—which tells the tale of a young 

man (Dev Patel) suffering through numerous changes 

in fortune in 19th-century England—had its debut at 

the Toronto International Film Festival in September 

2019. A U.K. release came in January 2020, and a 

North American bow was scheduled for May. And 

then … we don’t need to tell you what happened. 

Luckily for fans of witty, colorful costume dramas, 

The Personal History of David Copperfield is still 

heading to theaters—this time on August 14, courtesy 

of Searchlight Pictures. In advance of the film’s foray 

into newly opened cinemas, Iannucci took the time to 

speak to Boxoffice Pro. 

The following conversation was conducted on 

June 26. It has been edited for length and clarity. 

Right: Dev Patel stars 

in The Personal History 

of David Copperfield. 

Image courtesy 

Searchlight Pictures 



83


Before we start, I have to thank 

you. The Personal History of David 

Copperfield was the last film I saw 

on the big screen before everything 

stopped. 

Before the end times. 

Yes! It was a really good note to end 

on. Since then, some films have been 

going straight to VOD instead of 

theaters—was that ever a possibility 

for David Copperfield? 

Well, we talked about it. The fundamental 

issue was that no one knew what was 

going to happen. Obviously, everyone’s 

concerned. Uppermost, really, was safety. 

The May release, perfectly understandably, 

was deferred. And we just kept talking 

about dates. I think everyone knew that 

I, particularly, didn’t want to go into 

theaters when it still felt too raw and 

too fresh. The August date stands at the 

moment, but if things change—film isn’t 

as important as stopping this pandemic 

and making sure everyone is safe. I’m 

pleased that we’ve got a date. But I know 

that everyone’s going to keep reviewing it 

and making sure that it’s all safe. 

Avenue 5, your sci-fi comedy 

television series [in which a group of 

tourists are stranded on a spaceship], 

finished its first season on HBO in 

March. What else have you been up 

to during quarantine? 

Fortunately, we’ve been writing season 

two of Avenue 5. I miss the fun of having 

everyone in the room and bouncing 

ideas off each other. We’ve had to do that 

remotely, and it sort of works, but it just 

feels a bit odd. Avenue 5 is about lots of 

people trapped in a situation they can’t 

get out of, with no real leaders. So it’s a bit 

painfully close to home. But I’m glad I’ve 

had something to fill my days with, because 

I sympathize with anyone who’s just been 

stuck at home, unable to work. That sense 

of lack of structure can be quite interesting 

and useful for a week or so. But by the time 

you get to week 11, 12, 13, 14, you really 

want to get out and run about on a windy 

hill with a kite [a favored activity of The 

Personal History of David Copperfield’s Mr. 

Dick, played by Avenue 5 star Hugh Laurie]. 


“I’ve always been a 

huge Dickens fan. 

I reread the book 

about 10 years ago, 

and I was struck 

by how absolutely 

contemporary it felt. 

It felt so modern.” 

Left: Paul Whitehouse, 

Daisy May Cooper, 

Tilda Swinton, and 

Hugh Laurie (and— 

per the sign behind 

them—absolutely 

no donkeys). Image 

courtesy Searchlight 

Pictures 

Right: Tilda Swinton 

(top), Dev Patel, 

Rosalind Eleazar, and 

Hugh Laurie step into 

the past. Photo Credit: 

Dean Rogers. Courtesy 

Searchlight Pictures 

Speaking of the timeliness of Avenue 

5, I saw David Copperfield twice: 

once before everything shut down 

and once well after. In the second 

viewing, the issues of class conflict 

that crop up throughout the story 

had a bigger impact on me. 

That’s why I wanted to make the film! I’ve 

always been a huge Dickens fan. I reread 

the book about 10 years ago, and I was 

struck by how absolutely contemporary 

it felt. It felt so modern. It also had, in Mr. 

Dick, a really honest and open discussion 

of mental illness and the burdens it brings. 

And, yes, wealth and poverty existing side 

by side in the street. And this kind of—I 

suppose the modern expression would be 

status anxiety, imposter syndrome, that 

whole thing of, do I fit in? Do I belong? 

Have I made the right friends? What do 

they think of me? Have I made the right 

life decisions? The whole book is about a 

search for identity. 

David goes from fortune to fortune 

and household to household, being given 

different names by people. He’s trying to 

work out who he is. And it’s only when he 

realizes he’s a writer, that he has to write 

his memory and his experience down, that 

[he realizes] who he is. So it’s a deeply 

modern, contemporary book. That was 

my gut feeling, turning it into a movie. I 

didn’t want to do a modern version of it. I 

wanted to set it very much in its time. But 

I wanted people in the theater to feel that 

at any point they could just stand up and 

walk into it and feel a part of it, feel that 

they connected with the people in the film. 


85


Right: Director 

Armando Iannucci, 

Peter Capaldi as the 

wily Mr. Micawber 

(center), and Dev Patel 

in the title role. Image 


Pictures 

Below: Hugh Laurie as 

Mr. Dick, pondering 

kites and/or the 

lopped-off head of 

King Charles. Image 


Pictures 

Uriah Heep [a servant who takes 

advantage of people on his way up 

the social ladder] is an interesting 

character. He does awful things, but 

when he says he doesn’t want to bow 

and scrape to people just because 

he happens to have been born into a 

different class—he’s not wrong. 

Yes! And I think it’s right that you feel 

a little sorry for him. At times, I think 

David is a little bit unreasonably cruel 

to him, in order to remain friends with 

Steerforth [his upper-class friend, played 

by Aneurin Barnard] and so on. And 

that’s what I took from reading the 

book. Dev and I and Ben [Whishaw, who 

plays Uriah], we discussed that actually 

[Uriah] is about the same age as David, 

and they started off with roughly similar 

circumstances. So it’s almost like he is 

a mirror image of David. Or he’s what 

David might have become if he had taken 

a slightly different path or decided to 

advance himself a different way. He’s 

there as a kind of warning to David. 

I’ve always been fascinated by heroes 

and villains who are not a hundred 

percent heroic or a hundred percent 

villainous. That ambiguity, that sense of, 

that could be me. The vulnerability in it. 

I think that’s far more interesting than a 

two-dimensional, “this is good and this 

is bad.” That was very much a conscious 

decision that we wanted to keep. I think it 

becomes all the more unnerving because 

of it. [Uriah’s behavior isn’t] a grotesque 

caricature based on very base, animalistic 

instinct. There’s a survival instinct that’s 

gone a little bit the wrong way. 

Watching the other characters be 

cruel to him is really uncomfortable. 

That’s what Dickens does in quite a few 

of his books. The opening lines of this 

film and the book are, “Whether I turn 

out to be the hero of this story ...” There’s 

a question mark. And Dickens is very 

interested in making the hero vulnerable. 

In Great Expectations, the hero becomes 

the snob. He looks down on people 

who have less money than him. Great 

Expectations was a later novel, but you can 

see that in David Copperfield. 

The childhood scenes in Copperfield 

are based very much on Dickens’s own 

childhood. But he kept that quiet. He 

didn’t tell people it was based on him, 

because he was ashamed. That sense 

of trying to hide from other people’s 

opinions is all there. And therefore, we 

wanted David to make jokes at the expense 

of the people who’ve been looking after 

him. To do impressions of Mr. Wickfield 

[played by Benedict Wong] for the other 

people in the school. None of us are 

perfect, and all of us try and play to the 

crowd in order to get approval. 

Like you said, he has impostor 

syndrome and he’s trying to fit in. 

Dev and I spoke about it when I asked him 

to be David. He talked about the fact that 

he came from an immigrant Indian family, 

but born in Britain. Similarly, I’m from 

an Italian immigrant family, but born in 

Britain. In the 19th century, whether you 

are in or whether you are out is based on 

wealth and money and class, whereas 


today, identity’s determined by a host 

of other things as well. What job you do. 

Ethnicity. All these questions. 

Having a racially diverse cast helps 

with modernizing the story without 

straight-up making a modern version. 

It wasn’t part of a deliberate—the only 

person I could think of to play David 

was Dev. As an actor, as a performer, 

as a presence, he embodied David 

Copperfield and all that I want to portray 

about David: his optimism, his energy, 

his sense of humor, the pathos. He’s in 

every scene. He’s the heart of the film. 

You have to do impressions. You have 

to do slapstick. You have to do romance. 

You have to do tragedy. You have to do 

poverty. Everything. I could only think 

of Dev. When Dev said yes, I was relieved, 

because I didn’t have a plan B. But I also 

thought, that’s how I must cast everyone. 

Find the actor who best contains the 

spirit of that character, irrespective of 

what their background is or what acting 

tradition they’re in. Because in fact, 

when you analyze it, the whole film is 

about community and friendship. It’s 

about loving those who are your friends 

and being friends with those that you 

love. People of all sorts of different 

backgrounds, caring for each other 

because they’re part of a community. 

You’ve done both film and TV. 

How do you decide which medium 

fits a particular project? Because, 

obviously, there have been a ton of 

limited-series adaptations of Dickens. 

[David Copperfield is] actually such a 

poetic, lyrical book—it’s a book about 

language and imagination and memory 

and how memory plays tricks on you and 

[how] things that you remember, when 

you revisit them, are actually different. 

I felt this had to be a film, because I 

had to have a sense of structure, and 

you had to experience it as a life being 

lived. And I think you can only do that in 

one continuous viewing rather than in 

episodic viewing. 

And also, I want it to be in the cinemas. 

It’s a big canvas, a big stage. It has so many 

speaking parts and so many characters in 

such a big, colorful world. To me, it always 

felt like a film. It is also an 800-page book. 

So the challenge was in coming up with 

an adaptation that fulfills that criteria of 

having a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

And that kind of drive-through narrative, 

a thematic development that really keeps 

propelling you forward. So that was the 

difficult part in terms of the script. And 

that was about being true to the spirit 

of the book, but not feeling absolutely 

over-reverential about the plot. We’ve 

changed the story lines of various people. 

We’ve got rid of certain characters. We’ve 

compressed certain characters into one. 

This is a film that I want people to come 

to feeling they don’t have to read the book. 

They don’t need to know anything about 

Dickens or the period or anything. I want 

people to feel fully immersed in this film 

from start to finish. 

You’ve been passionate about the 

need to help cultural institutions that 

are in very real trouble right now. 

I’m wondering how you feel about 

the exhibition community in the U.K., 

specifically independent and art 

house theaters. 

One of the reasons I’m pleased that 

we now have a date in the U.S. is— 

Searchlight was telling me that a lot of 

the independent theaters were very keen 

to have the film as one of their first films 

on reopening, because they need to get 

people back in. The larger cinema chains, 

I think, can cope temporarily with slightly 

reduced numbers, but the art house 

theaters need continuous custom. 

In the U.K., it’s live theater, live music, 

live-performance venues that I’m really 

worried about, because they are going 

to be the very, very last ones to open up. 

For sound, scientific reasons. But for that 

reason, they are the ones that are going to 

need the support. Because if there’s one 

thing people have really come to value 

during this lockdown, it’s the arts. It’s you 

streaming Netflix, it’s you downloading 

a movie, it’s you reading a book. It’s that 

sense of the creative output that we have 

so long taken for granted. But it’s helped 

get us through this, and it’s helped sustain 

us mentally and emotionally. It would 

be a terrible tragic end to the situation, 

if when we all open up, the creative 

industries have died around us. Because 

they’re what helped get us through our 

moments of isolation. 

“It would be a terrible tragic 

end to the situation, if when 

we all open up, the creative 

industries have died around 

us. Because they’re what 

helped get us through our 

moments of isolation.” 


87

ON SCREEN COMING ATTRACTIONS 

COMING 

ATTRACTIONS 

Following the pause caused by Covid-19, 

studios and distributors have realigned 

upcoming release dates through 2021 

Release dates are accurate as of July 6. For the latest 

schedule, visit www.boxofficepro.com/release-calendar. 

TENET 

August 12 / Warner Bros. 

An action-epic evolving from the world of 

international espionage. 

Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, 

Elizabeth Debicki 

Director: Christopher Nolan 

Rating: PG-13 Running Time: TBD 

Premium Formats: Imax 

Melinda Sue Gordon. © 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved 


Linda Kallerus. © 2020 CTMG Inc. All Rights Reserved 

THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY 

August 07 / Sony 

This film follows the always-unique Lucy, a 

20-something art gallery assistant living in New 

York City, who also happens to be an emotional 

hoarder. After she gets dumped by her latest 

boyfriend, Lucy is inspired to create the Broken 

Hearts Gallery, a pop-up space for the items love 

has left behind. Word of the gallery spreads, 

encouraging a movement and a fresh start for all the 

romantics out there, including Lucy herself. 

Cast: Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery, 

Utkarsh Ambudkar 

Director: Natalie Krinsky 

Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 108 Min. 

THE BURNT ORANGE 

HERESY 

August 07 / Sony Pictures Classics 

Jose Haro. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics 

Art critic James Figueras has fallen from 

grace, spending his days in Milan lecturing 

witless tourists about art history. An 

opportunity strikes when a wealthy art 

dealer asks him to steal a painting from a 

legendary reclusive artist. Soon, James’s 

greed and ambition get the better of him, 

and he finds himself caught in a web of his 

own making. 

Cast: Elizabeth Debicki, Donald Sutherland, 

Claes Bang 

Director: Giuseppe Capotondi 

Rating: R Running Time: 98 Min. 


89


THE PERSONAL HISTORY 

OF DAVID COPPERFIELD 

August 14 / Searchlight Pictures 

From birth to infancy, from adolescence to adulthood, 

the good-hearted David Copperfield is surrounded 

by kindness, wickedness, poverty, and wealth, as he 

meets an array of remarkable characters in Victorian 

England. As David sets out to be a writer, in his quest 

for family, friendship, romance, and status, the story 

of his life is the most seductive tale of all. 

Cast: Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw 

Director: Armando Iannucci 

Rating: PG Running Time: 116 Min. 

Image courtesy Searchlight Pictures 

GREENLAND 

August 14 / STX Entertainment 

A family fights for survival as a planet-killing comet 

races to Earth. John Garrity, his estranged wife Allison, 

and young son Nathan make a perilous journey to their 

only hope for sanctuary. Amid the terrifying events, 

the Garritys experience the best and worst in humanity 

while they battle the increasing panic and lawlessness 

surrounding them. 

Cast: Morena Baccarin, Gerard Butler, David Denman 

Director: Ric Roman Waugh 


Image courtesy STX Films 

FATIMA 

August 14 / Picturehouse 

A drama about the power of faith, Fatima tells the 

story of a 10-year-old shepherd and her two young 

cousins in Fátima, Portugal, who report seeing visions 

of the Virgin Mary. Their revelations inspire believers 

but anger officials of both the Church and the secular 

government, who try to force them to recant their 

story. As word of their prophecy spreads, tens of 

thousands of religious pilgrims flock to the site in 

hopes of witnessing a miracle. 

Cast: Joaquim de Almeida, Goran Višnjić, Stephanie Gil, Lúcia 

Moniz, Sônia Braga, Harvey Keitel 

Director: Marco Pontecorvo 

Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 113 Min. 

Claudio Iannone. © 2020 Picturehouse 


ANTEBELLUM 

August 21 / Lionsgate 

Successful author Veronica Henley finds herself 

trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the 

mind-bending mystery before it’s too late. 

Cast: Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone 

Directors: Gerard Bush, Christopher Renz 

Rating: TBD Running Time: 105 Min. 

MULAN 

August 21 / Disney 

A fearless young woman risks everything for 

her family and her country to become one of 

the greatest warriors China has ever known. 

When the emperor of China issues a decree 

that one man per family must serve in the 

imperial army to defend the country from 

northern invaders, Hua Mulan, the eldest 

daughter of an honored warrior, steps in to 

take the place of her ailing father. Masquerading 

as a man, Hua Jun, she is tested every 

step of the way and must harness her inner 

strength and embrace her true potential. 

Cast: Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee 

Director: Niki Caro 

Rating: PG-13 

Running Time: 115 Min. 

Image courtesy Walt Disney Studios 

Matt Kennedy. Courtesy Lionsgate 


91


BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC 

August 28 / United Artists Releasing 

Yet to fulfill their rock-and-roll destiny, the now 

middle-aged best friends set out on a new adventure 

when a visitor from the future warns them that only 

their song can save life as we know it. Along the way, 

they will be helped by their daughters, a new batch of 

historical figures, and a few music legends to seek the 

song that will set their world right and bring harmony 

in the universe. 

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Samara Weaving 

Director: Dean Parisot 

Rating: TBD Running Time: TBD 

Patti Perret. Courtesy Orion Pictures 

THE NEW MUTANTS 

August 28 / 20th Century Studios 

An original horror-thriller set in an isolated hospital 

where a group of young mutants is being held for 

psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences 

begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities 

and their friendships will be tested as they battle to 

try and make it out alive. 

Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton 

Director: Josh Boone 


Image courtesy 20th Century Studios 

A QUIET PLACE PART II 

September 4 / Paramount Pictures 

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott 

family must now face the terrors of the outside world 

as they continue their fight for survival in silence. 

Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly 

realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not 

the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path. 

Cast: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds 

Director: John Krasinski 

Rating: PG-13 

Running Time: 97 Min. 


Jonny Cournoyer. © Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. 


THE KING’S MAN 

September 18 / 20th Century Studios 

As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and 

criminal masterminds gathers to plot a war to 

wipe out millions, one man must race against 

time to stop them. Discover the origins of the 

very first independent intelligence agency. 

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans 

Director: Matthew Vaughn 



Peter Mountain. Courtesy 20th Century Studios 

August 2020 93


WONDER WOMAN 1984 

October 2 / Warner Bros. 

Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next 

big-screen adventure finds her facing an all-new foe: 

The Cheetah. 

Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig 

Director: Patty Jenkins 


Premium Formats: Imax/3D 

Clay Enos. © 2018 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 

THE FRENCH DISPATCH 

October 16 / Searchlight Pictures 

The French Dispatch brings to life a collection of 

stories from the final issue of an American magazine 

published in a fictional 20th-century French city. 

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Cecile de France 

Director: Wes Anderson 

Rating: R Running Time: 108 Min. 

Image courtesy Searchlight Pictures 

MONSTER HUNTER 

April 23, 2021 / Sony Pictures / Screen Gems 

Behind our world, there is another: a world of dangerous 

and powerful monsters that rule their domain 

with deadly ferocity. When Lt. Artemis and her loyal 

soldiers are transported from our world to the new 

world, the unflappable lieutenant receives the shock 

of her life. In her desperate battle for survival against 

enemies with incredible powers and unstoppable, 

terrifying attacks, Artemis will team up with a mysterious 

man who has found a way to fight back. 

Cast: Mila Jovovich, Meagan Good, Diego Boneta 

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson 


Coco Van Oppens Photography. © CONSTANTIN FILM Produktion Services GmbH 


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95

On Screen EVENT CINEMA 

THE MAIN 

EVENT 

Event cinema responds to the 

Covid-19 programming gaps 


With cinemas beginning to open 

up worldwide, content is on 

everyone’s mind. Whether they’re 

screening repertory titles or independent 

films on the drive-in circuit, theaters 

have had to think differently about their 

approach to programming—and that’s 

unlikely to change over the coming 

weeks, even as new releases from major 

studios plan to boost cinemas with new 

blockbuster hopefuls. 

Event cinema has long given exhibitors 

the ability to diversify their content 

offerings, to program screenings of 

opera, theater, concerts, special-interest 

documentaries, and more in between 

typical first-run content. Even as 

big-budget Hollywood films return to 

theaters—albeit with still-shifting release 

dates—event cinema could prove to be 

a valuable tool for exhibitors looking to 

draw sofa-bound moviegoers back into the 

theater with the promise of something new. 

Still, the world of event cinema has 

experienced its own setbacks caused 

by the Covid-19 pandemic. With much 

uncertainty still in the air about how 

the exhibition landscape will look in the 

coming months, Boxoffice Pro spoke 

with a number of event cinema experts 

about the possibilities and limitations 

they currently face. 

Event cinema providers, like other 

distributors, were left with a slate full 

of programming and nowhere to put it 

once it became clear that the exhibition 

landscape was likely to undergo a neartotal 

shutdown. As a result, many of these 

providers have shuffled programming 


intended for the first half of 2020 down 

the calendar, where they could end up 

being a lucrative draw for moviegoers 

unable to attend spectator sports or live 

performance. 

Large live concerts, for example, are a 

no-go for now. Says Bernadette McCabe, 

executive vice president of CineLife 

Entertainment, which has its Artists Den 

concert series still in the works: “With 

something like a concert, there won’t be 

bands touring this summer. So that will be 

an interesting opportunity for a consumer 

to see that in a movie theater versus in an 

arena.” McCabe cites CineLife’s screenings 

of Comédie-Française as a substitute for 

live theater, which “isn’t really available 

right now. So if somebody would like to 

see beautiful, high-quality productions 

from the French stage, they could go to a 

local movie theater and see something.” 

A mix of CineLife’s already-released 

content and programming, which would 

have hit theaters in the first half of 2020— 

including Rigoletto on the Lake, Celebrating 

the Sopranos, and a selection of four LGBT 

repertory titles originally scheduled for 

Pride Month—will now come out later 

in the year. All upcoming content, says 

McCabe, will be available for exhibitors to 

book over a larger-than-normal window of 

time—as much as 10 weeks, depending on 

the title—in recognition of exhibitors’ need 

for flexibility as they gradually resume 

typical operations. 

Fathom Events is bringing some 

of its older content back to theaters in 

North America, where the distributor’s 

“welcome back” programming has been 

designed to fill a 30-day window. Says 

head of marketing Letha Steffey, “We have 

some faith-based-type films for Mondays; 

Tuesday, anime; Wednesday, classic films; 

Thursday, girls’ night out. We’ve built this 

welcome back program to support the 

exhibitors when they do open up, whether 

they have five theaters—as we heard from 

Cinemark for that week starting June 

19—or 500 theaters. This welcome back 

program is really built for flexibility, such 

that they can choose the titles that they 

want to play and the times of day.” 

That flexibility is especially vital 

given what’s sure to be an inconsistent, 

country-by-country global reopening and 

the unpredictability of a potential second 

wave of shutdowns. In South Korea, for 

example, the cinema industry has not 

had the total, prolonged shutdown faced 

by much of the rest of the world. At the 

same time, box office plummeted during 

the spring months due in part to a lack 

of content. In April and May, Trafalgar 

Releasing brought three 2019 releases— 

The King and I: From the London 

Palladium, Josh Groban’s Bridges from 

Madison Square Garden, and Metallica: 

S&M²—to theaters in Korea, where 

they had never before been released. 

While the films perhaps didn’t do as 

well as they would have under “normal 

circumstances,” says Trafalgar CEO Marc 

Allenby, all three films “attracted an 

audience. They weren’t eye-watering. But 

I think in the case of Metallica, it was the 

largest event film in Korea that month, 

and both Josh Groban and the King and I 

still performed well.” 

Left: Metallica: S&M 2 , 

image courtesy 

Trafalgar Releasing 

Right: Celebrating 

the Sopranos, photo 

courtesy CineLife 

Entertainment 


97

On Screen EVENT CINEMA 

In effect, the challenge 

event cinema faces 

here is the same 

challenge faced by the 

wider film industry—a 

lack of new content 

ready to go into 

socially distanced 

production. 

At the same time, the shifting landscape 

of global exhibition will likely lead to 

some changes down the line for event 

cinema distribution, says Allenby. Event 

cinema is largely based on the concept of 

appointment viewing—selling a film as a 

one-time-only event, released at the same 

time globally (where possible, taking things 

like local holidays and regulations into 

account), with no guarantee that it will 

ever hit theaters again. Moving forward, 

there will have to be “greater elasticity” 

if countries go into a second lockdown, 

Allenby says. “From my perspective, we 

spent the last 10 years building up the 

global event model where [on] one night, 

same time, local time zone adjusted, an 

event happens and everybody’s unified. 

I think whilst that approach still stands, 

we’re going to have to accept there’s going 

to be variance. At short notice, countries 

may well be having to opt out of releases or 

postpone releases. And so we will need to 

have more flex in the model.” 

Fathom Events is embracing change 

in its own way, by using the period of 

the shutdown to reevaluate its preshow 

strategy as a whole, developing 

content designed to contribute to 

patrons’ theatrical experience “from the 

moment that they sit in the theater chair.” 

Fathom’s Steffey continues, “Across 

the board, we’ve been really diving 

into things that perhaps prior to this 

pandemic [we] really hadn’t had the time 

[to focus on]. … This is a chance for us 

to take a step back and then determine, 

how can we really look at optimizing our 

core business and our go-to-market?” In 

addition to its pre-show, Fathom has also 

begun conducting its own research into 

consumer preferences and launched a 

redesigned mobile site. 

CineLife, Trafalgar, and Fathom all 

plan to make announcements in the 

coming weeks as to what will be on their 

slates for the back half of 2020. But in 

the longer term, a challenge looms: the 

struggle to create new content, as many 

of the live cultural events that make up 

so much of the event cinema landscape 

are on hold. The Metropolitan Opera, for 

example, has canceled its fall season, and 

it’s hard to imagine the gigantic concerts 

from K-pop band BTS, which have proven 

so profitable for event cinema, taking 

place any time soon. 

In effect, the challenge event cinema 

faces here is the same challenge faced by 

the wider film industry—a lack of new 

content ready to go into socially distanced 

production. “Certainly,” notes McCabe, 

“acquiring content over the next 12 months 

is going to be a different landscape than it 

was six months ago.” 

Here, Allenby believes that event 

cinema distributors are better positioned 

than typical studios because “the risk 

is slightly more contained.” Event 

cinema’s demand-through-scarcity 

model—reaching out to fans of a niche 

subject, rather than one with more general 

appeal—means that fewer ticket sales are 

needed in order to be deemed successful. 

And, with its smaller marketing budgets 

and quick turnaround time, event cinema 

is more nimble than its traditional 

counterparts; new product, whatever 

it is and whenever it takes place, can 

conceivably find itself in theaters in a 

matter of weeks after completion. 

As for what that content will be—it 

doesn’t appear that anyone, at this point, 

is trying to reinvent the wheel. The types 

of event cinema releases will be much the 

same as they were before, but distributors 

will be looking at unique ways to work 

with exhibitors to get them to the public— 

whether that’s increased flexibility in 

scheduling or a new pre-show. 

To help fill a gap in content, Trafalgar is 

looking into staging theatrical productions 

in the U.K. in mostly empty theaters, 

“without an audience or with a socially 

distanced audience, essentially primarily 

for cinema and potential downstream postcinema. 

… If you haven’t got a full paying 

audience in there, there probably is enough 

flexibility with the right planning to put 

shows on and capture them,” says Allenby. 

The worlds of event cinema and musical 

theater alike, he notes, are “looking at 

creative solutions to how we can continue 

some level of business during this period,” 

keeping the two industries “bubbling away, 

at least, whilst things normalize. I’m not 

trying to be overly or blindly optimistic, but 

I do think there are still great opportunities 

out there.” 

Above: Ghost, part of 

Fathom Events’ TCM Big 

Screen Classics series 

for 2020. Image courtesy 

Fathom Events 


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99

On Screen LONG-RANGE FORECAST 

TENTATIVELY 

TENET 

Forecasting future box office when 

no existing models apply 

BY SHAWN ROBBINS 


Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon. 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Image courtesy Walt Disney Studios 

Left: John David 

Washington (left) and 

Robert Pattinson in 

Warner Bros. Pictures’ 

action epic Tenet 

Right: Liu Yifei as 

the title character 

in Disney's liveaction 

Mulan 

After shifting from its original July 17 

release in North America to a planned 

July 31 opening, Christopher Nolan’s 

Tenet—the film unofficially recognized as 

the first major studio title in the return to 

cinemas—is now scheduled for an August 

12 rollout. The move resulted in a cascade 

of other changes, notably Disney’s Mulan 

being pushed to an August 21 release. 

Due to the nature of the world we live in 

right now, and the needs of our magazine’s 

publishing schedule, there’s no guarantee 

of that specific news remaining relevant or 

accurate by the time you read this. This is 

the current, however temporary, reality of 

the global movie market. Forecasting, of 

course, includes expecting the unexpected. 

Even under normal circumstances in 

ordinary times, studios shuffle release 

dates and announce new titles. We’re 

simply accustomed to those changes 

occurring months and years in advance— 

not weeks. 

As of the end of June, the earliest 

theater owners can expect new, high-profile 

Hollywood product to arrive is the middle 

of August. As of the end of June, also, new 

Covid-19 outbreaks in different parts of the 

United States are resulting in fresh concern 

that the virus will continue to wreak havoc 

on everyone’s plans for months to come. 

Even after nearly a full half year’s worth 

of consistent disruption, we’re still in the 

middle of the fight and the ambiguity. 

The good news is that reports from 

several reliable outlets indicate that 

multiple Covid-19 vaccine trials are 

making progress and offering the world 

some light at the end of this long tunnel. 

They may not arrive until at least next 

year, but that doesn’t mean theaters 

can’t reopen safely before then, as other 

industries have, by following the proper 

health guidelines, nor does it mean there 

aren’t a significant number of moviegoers 

already eager to return and see new 

films on the big screen, provided the 

environments are safe in which to do so. 

All of this is crucial context to keep 

in mind when planning for the current 

release schedule. The best case scenario 

is that we’ll all be preparing to see Tenet 

and Mulan in theaters this August. Or, by 

the time you’re reading this, more delays 

might have occurred. If the mid- to latesummer 

fight against the virus doesn’t 

improve significantly, and quickly, we 

should prepare for these and other films 

to be pushed further down the calendar all 

over again. Possibly multiple times. 

There is even an unfortunate, but realistic, 

possibility that new releases and theatrical 

reopenings may not occur on a large scale 

until the fourth quarter of 2020 or later. 

To reiterate, this is the current reality 

of the global market. Nothing is assured 

until it happens, and all scenarios must be 

planned for. Even when reopenings do take 

effect, we must continue to expect abnormal 

consumer behaviors. Films will not be 

performing in typical box office patterns; 

instead they will likely trend toward longer 

runs and post-release holds than we’ve seen 

in many years—if not decades. 

Granted, films like Tenet, Mulan, 

Wonder Woman 1984, and A Quiet Place 

Part II will still have their target young to 

young adult audiences and fan bases to 


101

On Screen LONG-RANGE FORECAST 

draw from on opening weekends. Those 

demographics, built-in audiences, and 

similar releases will be crucial in the 

recovery process as we expect less frequent 

moviegoers to wait out the early weeks 

of theatrical reopenings and await word 

of mouth, not just on the movies but on 

the experience itself and how theaters are 

enforcing social distancing and engaging 

in other visible health-focused protocols. 

As of the end of the second quarter, 

2020’s domestic box office has registered 

around $1.8 billion from current releases, 

down approximately 68 percent from the 

same point one year ago. That year-toyear 

percentage decrease will likely reach 

75 percent by the end of July’s reporting 

period. For context, 2019 delivered 

$11.35 billion overall, the second highest 

domestic performance of all time—though 

that is hardly a fair comparison given the 

status quo in 2020. 

Current models—those based on the 

assumption that Tenet, Mulan, A Quiet 

Place Part II, Wonder Woman 1984, and 

the bulk of 2020’s remaining releases will 

meet their tentative target dates—suggest 

a wide range of outcomes for how the 

year might end up. Four billion dollars 

had been a reasonable target in early 

summer, which would represent a 65 

percent decline, but July will no longer 

benefit from major new releases as once 

expected. Still, a steady stream of major 

titles in the final quarter of the year could 

help alleviate the fact that summer movie 

season is now a wash for this year. 

November, in particular, has solid 

potential. In a near best case scenario, AMC 

and other chains are expecting to be able to 

Photo Credit: Clay Enos. Courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment 

Frequent and infrequent 

moviegoers alike will have 

been stuck at home for 

many months, emptying 

their streaming queues and 

itching to enjoy communal 

experiences again. 

Below: Gal Gadot as 

Wonder Woman in 

Warner Bros. Pictures’ 

action-adventure 

Wonder Woman 1984 

achieve 80 percent capacity by the time 

films like Black Widow, No Time to Die, and 

Soul are released. This, of course, assumes 

the fight against Covid-19 doesn’t take any 

more negative turns in the coming months. 

In December, last year’s combination of 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen II, 

and Jumanji: The Next Level will be hard to 

duplicate, but Top Gun: Maverick and Dune 

(though the latter is certainly a candidate 

to be delayed) should provide a strong 

foundation alongside other releases. 

If all this comes to pass, a target 

domestic box office between $3 billion and 

$4 billion for 2020 is achievable, but far 

from guaranteed. Studios and exhibitors, 

even upon reopening, will have to remain 

flexible until such time as outbreaks are 

under control and/or a vaccine is ready 

for wide distribution. If the fight in the 

coming months trends upward in a major 

way, that benefit could be felt before 

year’s end. If not, the recovery process will 

almost certainly extend into 2021— a year 

with a slate offering promise in some areas, 

but weak spots in others, as many of the 

titles that presented question marks for 

2020 now reside on 2021’s calendar. 

In short, the speculative challenge of 

box office forecasting has never been as 

complex as it is right now. 

The good news, again, is that we 

can expect the idea of moviegoing to 

be reinvigorated with a fresh sense of 

enthusiasm on the other side of this 

pandemic. Frequent and infrequent 

moviegoers alike will have been stuck at 

home for many months, emptying their 

streaming queues and itching to enjoy 

communal experiences again. Absence 

makes the heart grow fonder, after all. 

The theatrical experience is naturally 

one that can meet that desire, and the 

unprecedented events of this year may 

arguably result in inflated demand for 

films of many varieties as the basic human 

urge for escapism only intensifies. 

When exactly that moment arrives 

is beyond the calculation of any single 

model at this time. Moviegoing habits 

depend heavily on the sentiment of 

patrons, something that is in flux every 

day and variable by community, due to 

the staggered and inconsistent response 

to this virus. We’re all living, reacting, and 

adapting to this temporary “new normal,” 

and the operative word for our industry— 

and passionate movie fans—right now is 

just that: temporary. 


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GUIDE 

Release calendar for theatrical 

distribution in North America 

Release dates are accurate as of 7/6. For the latest 

schedule, visit www.boxofficepro.com/release-calendar 

101 STUDIOS 

THE WAR WITH GRANDPA 

Fri, 9/18/20 WIDE 

Stars: Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman 

Director: Tim Hill 

Rating: PG 

Genre: Com/Fam 

20TH CENTURY STUDIOS 

310-369-1000 

212-556-2400 

EMPTY MAN 

Fri, 8/7/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Cri/Dra/Hor 

THE NEW MUTANTS 

Fri, 8/28/20 WIDE 

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie 

Williams 

Director: Josh Boone 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Act/Hor/SF 

Dolby Vis/Atmos 

THE KING’S MAN 

Fri, 9/18/20 WIDE 

Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Gemma 

Arterton 

Director: Matthew Vaughn 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv 

Specs: IMAX 

DEATH ON THE NILE 

Fri, 10/9/20 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Bateman, Annette 

Bening 

Director: Kenneth Branagh 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Cri/Dra/Mys 

DEEP WATER 

Fri, 11/13/20 WIDE 

Stars: Ana de Armas, Ben Affleck 

Director: Adrian Lyne 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

The King’s Man 

Fri, 9/18/20 WIDE 

FREE GUY 

Fri, 12/11/20 WIDE 

Stars: Ryan Reynolds 

Director: Shawn Levy 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com/Act 

WEST SIDE STORY 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

Stars: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler 

Director: Steven Spielberg 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Mus 

THE LAST DUEL 

Fri, 12/25/20 LTD 

Stars: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck 

Director: Ridley Scott 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT 

JAMIE 

Fri, 1/22/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Mus 

BOB’S BURGERS 

Fri, 4/9/21 LTD 

Stars: H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen 

Schaal 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

RON’S GONE WRONG 

Fri, 4/23/21 LTD 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED 20TH CENTURY 2021 

Fri, 8/13/21 LTD 

Rating: NR 

AMAZON STUDIOS 

SOUND OF METAL 

Fri, 8/14/20 LTD 

Stars: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke 

Director: Darius Marder 

Rating: R 

Genre: Dra 

BLUE FOX ENTERTAINMENT 

William Gruenberg 

william@bluefoxentertainment.com 

SAMSAM 

Fri, 8/7/20 LTD 

Stars: Isaac Lobé-Lebel, Lior 

Chabbat 

Director: Tanguy de Kermel 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Photo Credit: Peter Mountain 


105


LAST NIGHT IN SOHO 

Fri, 4/23/21 LTD 

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin 

Harcourt McKenzie 

Director: Edgar Wright 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor/Thr 

Specs: Dolby Vis/Atmos 

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2 HEARTS 

Fri, 9/11/20 WIDE 

Stars: Jacob Elordi, Adan Canto 

Director: Lance Hool 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Rom/Dra 

Black Widow 

Fri, 11/6/20 WIDE 

BLEECKER STREET 

THE SECRETS WE KEEP 

Wed, 9/16/20 LTD 

Stars: Noomi Rapace, Joel 

Kinnaman 

Director: Yuval Adler 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

DISNEY 

818-560-1000 


BLACK WIDOW 

Fri, 11/6/20 WIDE 

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, David 

Harbour 

Director: Cate Shortland 

Rating: NR 


Specs: 3D 

SOUL 

Fri, 11/20/20 WIDE 

Stars: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey 

Director: Pete Docter 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Specs: 3D/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

THE ETERNALS 

Fri, 2/12/21 WIDE 

Stars: Richard Madden, Angelina 

Jolie 

Director: Chloé Zhao 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/SF 

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON 

Fri, 3/12/21 WIDE 

Stars: Awkwafina, Cassie Steele 

Director: Paul Briggs, Dean Wellins 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Specs: 3D 

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF 

THE TEN RINGS 


Stars: Simu Liu, Awkwafina 

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/Fan 

CRUELLA 

Fri, 5/28/21 WIDE 

Stars: Emma Stone 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

UNTITLED PIXAR ANIMATION 2021 

Fri, 6/18/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

JUNGLE CRUISE 

Fri, 7/30/21 WIDE 

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt 

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra 

Rating: NR 



THE BEATLES: GET BACK 

Fri, 8/27/21 WIDE 

Director: Peter Jackson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE 

MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS 

Fri, 3/25/22 WIDE 

Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch 

Director: Sam Raimi 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF/Fan/Adv 

FOCUS FEATURES 

LET HIM GO 

Fri, 8/21/20 WIDE 

Stars: Kevin Costner, Diane Lane 

Director: Thomas Bezucha 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

KAJILLIONAIRE 

Fri, 9/18/20 WIDE 

Stars: Evan Rachel Wood, Gina 

Rodriguez 

Director: Miranda July 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

COME PLAY 

Fri, 10/30/20 WIDE 

Stars: Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher 

Jr. 

Director: Jacob Chase 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Hor 

Photo Credit: Matt Kennedy 

UNTITLED TOM MCCARTHY 

PROJECT 

Fri, 11/6/20 LTD 

Stars: Matt Damon, Abigail Breslin 

Director: Tom McCarthy 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT 

CREEM: AMERICA’S ONLY 

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL MAGAZINE 

Fri, 8/7/20 LTD 

Director: Scott Crawford 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

DESERT ONE 

Fri, 8/21/20 LTD 

Director: Barbara Kopple 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

IFC FILMS 

bookings@ifcfilms.com 

MADE IN ITALY 

Fri, 8/7/20 LTD 

Stars: Liam Neeson, Lindsay Duncan 

Director: James D’Arcy 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

SPUTNIK 

Fri, 8/14/20 LTD 

Stars: Oksana Akinshina, Fyodor 

Bondarchuk 

Director: Egor Abramenko 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

TESLA 

Fri, 8/21/20 LTD 

Stars: Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson 

Director: Michael Almereyda 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

CENTIGRADE 

Fri, 8/28/20 LTD 

Stars: Vincent Piazza, Genesis 

Rodriguez 

Director: Brendan Walsh 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 


THE NEST 

Fri, 9/18/20 LTD 

Stars: Jude Law, Carrie Coon 

Director: Sean Durkin 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

VOYAGERS 

Fri, 11/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp 

Director: Neil Burger 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF/Thr 

LIONSGATE 

310-309-8400 

ANTEBELLUM 

Fri, 8/21/20 WIDE 

Stars: Janelle Monáe 

Director: Gerard Bush, Christopher 

Renz 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

THE COURIER 

Fri, 8/28/20 WIDE 

Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch 

Director: Dominic Cooke 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Dra 

FATALE 

Fri, 10/30/20 WIDE 

Stars: Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy 

Director: Deon Taylor 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Sus 

THE DEVIL’S LIGHT 


Director: Daniel Stamm 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

CHAOS WALKING 

Fri, 1/22/21 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley 

Director: Doug Liman 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Adv/SF 

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF 

MASSIVE TALENT 

Fri, 3/19/21 WIDE 

Stars: Nicolas Cage 

Director: Tom Gormican 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Com 

THE ASSET 

Fri, 4/23/21 WIDE 

Stars: Maggie Q, Samuel L. Jackson 

Director: Martin Campbell 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Thr 

Antebellum 

Fri, 8/21/20 WIDE 

SPIRAL 

Fri, 5/21/21 WIDE 

Stars: Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson 

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

BARB AND STAR GO TO 

VISTA DEL MAR 

Fri, 7/16/21 WIDE 

Stars: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo 

Director: Josh Greenbaum 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

Photo Credit: Matt Kennedy 

THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD 

Fri, 8/20/21 WIDE 

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. 

Jackson 

Director: Patrick Hughes 

Rating: NR 


AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT 

WARNER STORY 

Fri, 12/10/21 WIDE 

Director: Jon Erwin, Andrew Erwin 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 


107


JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 

Fri, 5/27/22 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

MAGNOLIA PICTURES 

212-379-9704 

Neal Block 

nblock@magpictures.com 

OUT STEALING HORSES 

Fri, 8/7/20 LTD 

Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Bjørn 

Floberg 

Director: Hans Petter Moland 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

ABOUT ENDLESSNESS 

Fri, 9/18/20 LTD 

Stars: Jane-Ege Ferling , Martin 

Serner 

Director: Roy Andersson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

ALONE 

Fri, 9/18/20 LTD 

Stars: Jules Willcox, Marc Menchaca 

Director: John Hyams 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

PARAMOUNT 

323-956-5000 

A QUIET PLACE PART II 


Stars: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy 

Director: John Krasinski 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Hor 

SNAKE EYES 

Fri, 10/23/20 WIDE 

Stars: Henry Golding, Andrew Koj 

Director: Robert Schwentke 

Rating: NR 


CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG 

Fri, 11/13/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fam 

COMING 2 AMERICA 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

TOP GUN: MAVERICK 

Wed, 12/23/20 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller 

Director: Joseph Kosinski 

Rating: NR 


Specs: IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

RUMBLE 

Fri, 1/29/21 WIDE 

Stars: Will Arnett, Terry Crews 

Director: Hamish Grieve 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

MONSTER PROBLEMS 

Fri, 2/12/21 WIDE 

Stars: Dylan O’Brien 

Director: Michael Matthews 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Adv 

TOM CLANCY’S WITHOUT REMORSE 

Fri, 2/16/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

UNTITLED PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 

MOVIE 

Fri, 3/19/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

INFINITE 

Fri, 5/28/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

MICRONAUTS 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

JACKASS 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

THE TOMORROW WAR 

Fri, 7/23/21 WIDE 

Stars: Yvonne Strahovski, Chris Pratt 

Director: Chris McKay 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/SF 

PAW PATROL 

Fri, 8/20/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS 

323-882-8490 

WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS 

Fri, 7/31/20 LTD 

Stars: Charlie Plummer, Andy Garcia 

Director: Thor Freudenthal 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Dra 

THE GLORIAS 

Fri, 9/25/20 LTD 

Stars: Alicia Vikander, Julianne 

Moore 

Director: Julie Taymor 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dr 

SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES 

212-556-2400 

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF 

DAVID COPPERFIELD 

Fri, 8/14/20 LTD 

Stars: Dev Patel, Peter Capaldi 

Director: Armando Innucci 

Rating: PG 

Genre: Com 

THE FRENCH DISPATCH 

Fri, 10/16/20 LTD 

Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse 

Ronan 

Director: Wes Anderson 

Rating: R 

Genre: Com 

SONY 

212-833-8500 

THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY 


Stars: Geraldine Viswanathan, 

Dacre Montgomery 

Director: Natalie Krinsky 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Rom/Com 

The Personal History 

of David Copperfield 

Fri, 8/14/20 LTD 

Photo Courtesy Searchlight Pictures 

CONNECTED 

Fri, 10/23/20 WIDE 

Stars: Abbi Jacobson, Danny 

McBride 

Director: Mike Rianda 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

HAPPIEST SEASON 

Fri, 11/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie 

Davis 

Director: Clea DuVall 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom/Com/Hol 


Top Gun: Maverick 

Wed, 12/23/20 WIDE 

Scott Garfield. © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved. 


109


Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures 

RESPECT 

Fri, 12/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Jennifer Hudson, Forest 

Whitaker 

Director: Liesl Tommy 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Mus 

UNTITLED GUY RITCHIE 

Fri, 1/15/21 WIDE 

Director: Guy Ritchie 

Rating: NR 

DOG 

Fri, 2/12/21 WIDE 

Stars: Channing Tatum 

Reid Carolin 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

The Burnt Orange Heresy 

Fri, 8/7/20 LTD 

ESCAPE ROOM 2 

Wed, 12/30/20 WIDE 

Director: Adam Robitel 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor/Thr 

PETER RABBIT 2: THE RUNAWAY 

Fri, 1/15/21 WIDE 

Stars: James Corden, Rose Byrne 

Director: Will Gluck 

Rating: PG 

Genre: Ani 

CINDERELLA 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Fan 

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE 


Stars: Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard 

Director: Jason Reitman 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor/Com/SF 

MORBIUS 

Fri, 3/19/21 WIDE 

Stars: Jared Leto, Matt Smith 

Director: Daniel Espinosa 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Thr/SF 

FATHERHOOD 


Stars: Kevin Hart, Melody Hurd 

Director: Paul Weitz 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

MONSTER HUNTER 

Fri, 4/23/21 WIDE 

Stars: Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa 

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Fan 

VIVO 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE 

Fri, 6/25/21 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson 

Director: Andy Serkis 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/SF 

UNCHARTED 

Fri, 7/16/21 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg 

Rating: NR 


HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 4 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani/Com 

MAN FROM TORONTO 

Fri, 9/17/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 

Tom Prassis 

212-833-4981 

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY 

Fri, 8/7/20 LTD 

THE FATHER 

Fri, 11/20/20 LTD 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

STX ENTERTAINMENT 

310-742-2300 

GREENLAND 

Fri, 8/14/20 WIDE 

Stars: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin 

Director: Ric Roman Waugh 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Thr 

UNITED ARTISTS RELEASING 

310-724-5678 


BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC 

Fri, 8/28/20 WIDE 

Stars: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter 

Director: Dean Parisot 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com/Adv 

NO TIME TO DIE 

Wed, 11/20/20 WIDE 

Stars: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek 

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga 

Rating: NR 


Specs: IMAX 

SAMARITAN 


Stars: Sylvester Stallone 

Director: Julius Avery 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED RUSSO BROTHERS 

FAMILY FILM 

Fri, 8/13/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fam 

UNIVERSAL 

818-777-1000 

CANDYMAN 

Fri, 10/16/20 WIDE 

Stars: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, 

Teyonah Parris 

Director: Nia DaCosta 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL EVENT 

COMEDY 

Fri, 10/23/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL EVENT FILM 

2020 

Fri, 11/13/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

UNTITLED AMBLIN PROJECT 

Fri, 11/20/20 WIDE 

Director: Joel Crawford 

Rating: NR 

THE CROODS 2 

Fri, 12/23/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

NEWS OF THE WORLD 

Fri, 12/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Hanks 

Director: Paul Greengrass 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 


UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE 

PRODUCTIONS 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

355 

Fri, 1/15/21 WIDE 

Stars: Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o 

Director: Simon Kinberg 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL ROMANTIC 

COMEDY 

Fri, 2/12/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom/Com 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL EVENT FILM 1 


Rating: NR 

THE BOSS BABY 2 

Fri, 3/26/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

F9 


Stars: Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron 

Director: Justin Lin 

Rating: NR 


Specs: IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

NOBODY 

Fri, 2/19/21 WIDE 

Stars: Bob Odenkirk 

Director: Ilya Naishuller 

Rating: NR 


BIOS 

Fri, 4/16/21 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Hanks 

Director: Miguel Sapochnik 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

UNTITLED SPIRIT RIDING FREE FILM 

Fri, 5/14/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION 

Fri, 6/11/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU 


Stars: Steve Carell, Taraji P. Henson 

Director: Kyle Balda 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN 

THRILLER 

Fri, 7/23/21 WIDE 

Director: M. Night Shyamalan 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE 

PRODUCTIONS 

Fri, 8/13/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

HALLOWEEN KILLS 

Fri, 10/15/21 WIDE 

Director: David Gordon Green 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

WARNER BROS. 

818-977-1850 

TENET 

Fri, 8/12/20 WIDE 

Stars: John David Washington, 

Robert Pattinson 

Director: Christopher Nolan 

Rating: NR 


THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE 

ME DO IT 

Fri, 9/11/20 WIDE 

Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga 

Director: Michael Chaves 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 


WONDER WOMAN 1984 

Fri, 10/2/20 WIDE 

Stars: Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig 

Director: Patty Jenkins 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/Fan 

Specs: IMAX/3D/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

DUNE 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca 

Ferguson 

Director: Denis Villeneuve 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

MORTAL KOMBAT 

Fri, 1/15/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

THE LITTLE THINGS 

Fri, 1/29/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

TOM & JERRY 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK 

Fri, 3/12/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Cri 

TOMB RAIDER 2 

Fri, 3/19/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


REMINISCENCE 

Fri, 4/16/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

GODZILLA VS KONG 

Fri, 5/21/21 WIDE 

Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Eiza 

González 

Director: Adam Wingard 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: SF/Act 

Specs: IMAX/3D/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

UNTITLED NEW LINE HORROR FILM 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

IN THE HEIGHTS 

Fri, 6/18/21 WIDE 

Stars: Anthony Ramos, Corey 

Hawkins 

Director: Jon M. Chu 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Mus/Rom/Dra 

SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY 

Fri, 7/16/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani/Com 

THE SUICIDE SQUAD 


Stars: Margot Robbie, Taika Waititi 

Director: James Gunn 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

KING RICHARD 

Fri, 11/19/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Bio 

Tenet 

Fri, 8/12/20 WIDE 


111

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