Boxoffice Pro Fall 2020

$6.95 / Fall 2020 

The Official Magazine of the National Association of Theatre Owners

Fall 2020 

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ON-LINE CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOW 

READY. SET. CINEASIA. 

04-05 NOV 2020 

Join Us for the CineAsia On-Line Conference & Trade Show 

Some of Our Upcoming 

Programming for our 

4-5 November 2020 show: 

Welcome Address: 

Khun Vicha Poolvaraluck, 

Major Cineplex, Bangkok 

Executive Roundtable: 

Andrew Cripps, Warner Bros; 

Stephen O’Dell, Sony Pictures; 

Mei Lee Koh, Golden Screen 

Keynote: Gerald Dibbayawan, 

Cinepolis, Indonesia 

Perfect Storm=Perfect Opportunity: 

Arturo Guillen, Comscore 

Overview of the Hong Kong 

and Chinese Market: 

Dr. Man Nang Chong, 

GDC Technology 

Global Cinema Federation: 

Alejandro Ramirez, 

Cinepolis, Mexico 

Motion Picture Association: 

Belinda Lui, President 

and Managing Director 

MPA Asia Pacific 

Protocols & Guidelines 

with presentations from 

Mark Shaw, Shaw Theatres; 

Suvannee Chinchiewchan, 

SF Cinema City; 

Irving Chee, Golden Screen; 

Oscar Zhang, Lumière Pavilions; 

and Dinh Huong, Galaxy Studios 

Exciting New Products: 

Patrick Von Sychowski, Celluloid Junkie 

Enhanced On-Line Trade Show 

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PLUS: Studio Messages from Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, 

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CINEASIA.COM 

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6 29/09/2020 9/14/20 1:11 12:30 

PM

© 2020 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved. 


CONTENTS 

56 

Soul 

Pixar returns to the big 

screen with Soul. 

18 

The New Normal 

Cinemas in North America 

Join Forces to Launch 

CinemaSafe 

46 

Next Act Cinema 

How an Independent Cinema 

Weathered the Shutdown 

50 

Pivoting in the Pandemic 

How New Jersey’s Cranford 

Theater Is Surviving (and 

Thriving) in the Pandemic 

52 

Mighty Maysles 

Harlem’s Documentary 

Theater Stays Connected to Its 

Community 


07 

07-08_Contents.indd 7 30/09/2020 17:14

CONTENTS 

INDUSTRY THEATER ON SCREEN 

14 

16 

18 

22 

NATO 

The Who, What, and How of the 

NATO Executive Board 

NATO: A Safer Cinema 

Exhibitors Embrace ‘CinemaSafe’ 

Health and Safety Protocols 

The New Normal 

Cinemas in North America Join 

Forces to Launch CinemaSafe 

Guest Columns 

Welcome Back! 

46 

50 

52 

A Next Act for Next Act Cinema 



Pivoting in the Pandemic 

How New Jersey’s Cranford Theater 

Is Surviving (and Thriving) in the 

Pandemic 

Mighty Maysles 

Harlem’s Documentary Theater 

Stays Connected to Its Community 

56 

64 

71 

Feeling the Soul 

Pete Docter and Kemp Powers 

Tread New Ground with Pixar’s 

Metaphysical Latest 

Coming Attractions 

Upcoming wide releases 

Booking Guide 

28 

Charity Spotlight 

A recap of industry-wide charity 

initiatives 

32 

A Century in Exhibition 

The 1970s: A New Hope 

42 

Industry Insiders 

Shelly Olesen on Nearly 

30 Years at C. Cretors & Company 

“We have issues that our 

community is facing, but then 

you have an entertainment 

establishment that’s supposed 

to be uplifting. That’s what 

we’re trying to remember. 

That’s our mission.” 

p. 48 

Next Act Cinema 


07-08_Contents.indd 8 30/09/2020 08:20

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BOXOFFICE MEDIA 

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Kathy Conroy 

Boxoffice Pro (ISSN 0006-8527), Volume 156, Number 6, Fall 2020. Boxoffice Pro is published by 

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Box Office Pro is a registered trademark of Box Office Media LLC. 


10-11_Colophon-Executive-Letter.indd 10 30/09/2020 08:24

EXECUTIVE LETTER 

THE RECOVERY 

EFFORT 

It is a daunting state of 

affairs, one that will require 

every bit of passion and 

resiliency from an industry 

that has always met 

hardships head-on. 

It’s difficult to find a way to start 

this letter, not because I don’t have 

things to say but because I don’t know 

where we’ll be as an industry by the 

time you read it. Nothing this year has 

happened as we expected. Like you, we 

are still learning how to cope with the 

uncertainty as we go along. 

Covid-19 first appeared in our digital 

coverage in January, when we reported 

on Chinese theaters closing ahead of that 

nation’s Lunar New Year celebration—one 

of the busiest periods at the Chinese box 

office. It was clear even back then, weeks 

removed from a record $42.5 billion year at 

the global box office, that this virus would 

have a tangible impact on our industry 

and our lives. 

As the virus spread in February, so did 

our coverage: closures in South Korea, followed 

by northern Italy, followed by all of 

Italy. By March, the epidemic had become 

a full-blown global pandemic, as cases 

skyrocketed worldwide. My last day at the 

office was March 11; an hour after arriving 

home, I turned on my computer to report 

on the cancellation of CinemaCon 2020. 

Within a week of that evening, nearly every 

cinema in North America had suspended 

operations indefinitely. Soon the scope 

of the situation came into focus: a global 

health crisis that would completely upend 

our society and could pose an existential 

threat to theatrical exhibition. Cinemas 

around the world went dark simultaneously, 

unified by a commitment to curb 

the spread of the virus—without knowing 

when or how they would reopen. 

Our most recent issue covered that 

challenge, the early part of the crisis we 

referred to on our cover as an “Intermission.” 

With this issue, we begin the second 

act of this story: the Recovery Effort. 

While the onset of the Covid-19 crisis 

was sudden, the recovery is showing no 

signs of such brisk efficiency. Exhibition 

had hoped the long-awaited release of 

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in September 

would serve as a catalyst in that effort. Instead—available 

to only about 70 percent 

of the market in its first month of release, 

and despite strong figures overseas—its 

disappointing domestic box office performance 

led to an additional slew of release 

delays and cancellations. It set the stage 

for what will be an extremely challenging 

two months—from late September to late 

November—with cinemas operating at 

under half capacity and without a single 

major studio release on the schedule. It is 

a daunting state of affairs, one that will 

require every bit of passion and resiliency 

from an industry that has always met 

hardships head-on. 

In light of that, this issue includes a 

number of stories and profiles of those 

who have fought the odds to move ahead 

during this period. The coverage is by no 

means exhaustive. We look forward to 

continuing to document their stories in 

our upcoming issues, as we join others in 

our industry in recovering from the crisis. 

Daniel Loria 

SVP Content Strategy & Editorial Director 

Boxoffice Pro 


11 

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NATO 14 | Guest Columns 22 | Charity Spotlight 28 | A Century In Exhibition 32 

INDUSTRY 

Cineplex 

“We’ve always looked at alternative content and attracting 

different audiences into our theaters.” 

Sports at the Cinema, p. 30 


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Industry NATO 

RESULTS 

ARE IN! 

The Who, What, and How of 

the NATO Executive Board 

BY ERIN VON HOETZENDORFF 

The National Association of Theatre 

Owners Executive Board election 

results are in! After plenty of campaigning 

by all 14 of the brilliant candidates, Bo 

Chambliss (Georgia Theatre Company), 

J.D. Loeks (Studio C), and Joe Masher 

(Bow Tie Cinemas) were each reelected 

to represent mid-sized companies on the 

board. In the independent category, John 

Vincent (Wellfleet Cinemas) was reelected, 

and Donald Fox (Fox Theatres) was elected 

for his first term. 

The news of newly elected board 

members is exciting, but we also realize 

that the Executive Board of NATO might 

be a mystery to some, so we wanted to 

take a moment to explain to (or remind) 

Boxoffice Pro readers what exactly the 

NATO Executive Board is and how these 

elections work. 

According to NATO’s bylaws, “The 

Executive Board is the legally constituted 

governing body of the Association and 

may bind the Association.” In other words, 

NATO’s Executive Board is a 17-member 

governing board that makes important 

decisions about NATO’s priorities, press 

strategy, major projects, and annual budget. 

The Executive Board meets often virtually 

and at least twice a year in-person at 

CinemaCon and the NATO fall governance 

meetings to discuss important issues 

affecting the exhibition industry. The 

Executive Board also considers and votes 

on all Advisory Board resolutions. 

Most NATO initiatives pass through 

an approval process with the Executive 

Board. NATO’s Executive Board is 

responsible for driving the strategic 

direction of the association, setting 

policies and priorities, and managing risk 

and accountability for NATO, CinemaCon, 

and NATO-PAC. 

The eight largest cinema companies in 

the domestic market (U.S. and Canada), 

ranked by screen count, hold automatic 

seats on the Executive Board. These eight 

seats are reevaluated each year based on 

screen counts at the end of NATO’s fiscal 

year, in late June. Four elected seats are 

held by exhibitors in each of the regional/ 

mid-sized categories (companies with 

75 screens and over who are not part of 

the top 8) and the independent category 

(companies with 1–74 screens). NATO’s 

certified regional associations are 

represented with one elected seat as well. 

Only members of NATO’s Advisory 

Board are eligible to run for elected 

seats. The terms are two years, and 

elections are staggered in the regional/ 

mid-sized circuits and independents 

categories, so that an election is held 

each summer, usually for two of the 

four seats representing those categories. 

Board members can be elected for four 

consecutive terms. After that, they must 

sit out at least one two-year term before 

they can run again. 

Only Advisory Board members in the 

specific category of the elected seats are 

eligible to vote. In other words, only midsized 

Advisory Board members can vote in 

the mid-sized election, only independent 

Advisory Board members are eligible to 

vote in the independent election, etc. 

All of this is to say that the NATO 

Executive Board is meant to be a 

representative voice for all NATO members. 

If you are a NATO member, we highly 

encourage you to reach out to your elected 

representatives to discuss any thoughts, 

ideas, and opinions you have that might 

help NATO members. Of course, you are 

also always welcome to contact NATO 

staff, but we want to ensure that the NATO 

Executive Board members accurately 

represent you. NATO is a member-driven 

organization, so your active engagement is 

important to us. 

Erin Von Hoetzendorff is the Industry and 

Global Affairs Coordinator at NATO 

NATO’S 2020–2021 

EXECUTIVE BOARD 

Eight Automatic Seats 

(listed by company’s domestic screen count): 

1. Adam Aron, AMC Entertainment Inc. 

2. Moshe Greidinger, Regal Entertainment 

Group 

3. Mark Zoradi, Cinemark USA Inc. 

4. Ellis Jacob, Cineplex Entertainment LP 

5. Rolando Rodriguez, Marcus Theatres Corp. 

6. Dan Harkins, Harkins Theatres 

7. Eddy Duquenne, Kinepolis/Landmark/MJR 

8. Robert Bagby, B&B Theatres 

Four Regional/Mid-Sized Circuit Seats 

(listed alphabetically by last name): 

1. Bo Chambliss, Georgia Theatre Company 

2. Ron Krueger, Southern Theatres LLC 

3. J.D. Loeks, Studio C 

4. Joe Masher, Bow Tie Cinemas 

Four Independent Seats 

(listed alphabetically by last name): 

1. Donald Fox, Fox Theatres 

2. Joe Paletta, Spotlight Theatres Inc. 

3. John Vincent, Wellfleet Cinemas 

4. Dave Wright, Linway Plaza Cinemas 

(MCIC Inc.) 

One Regional Associations Representative 

1. Chris Johnson, NATO of Illinois 


14_NATO-Board.indd 14 30/09/2020 08:29


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Industry NATO 

A SAFER 

CINEMA 

Exhibitors Embrace 

‘CinemaSafe’ Health and 

Safety Protocols 

BY KATHY CONROY 

“In this new pandemic world, 

moviegoers need to know that 

there is a consistent, scienceand 

experience-based set of 

health and safety protocols in 

place no matter what theater 

they visit.” 

The National Association of 

Theatre Owners (NATO) launched 

CinemaSafe, a set of voluntary health 

and safety protocols for exhibitors in the 

Covid-19 pandemic era. More than 380 

exhibition companies in the U.S., comprising 

more than 3,000 locations and 33,000 

screens, have voluntarily agreed to meet or 

exceed the set of baseline Covid-19 health 

and safety practices. Participating movie 

theaters are now displaying the CinemaSafe 

logo and protocols on their websites, as 

well as at their theater locations, to assure 

moviegoers that important steps have been 

taken to protect their health and safety. 

Developed in consultation with leading 

epidemiologists and industry experts, 

and consistent with Centers for Disease 

Control (CDC), World Health Organization 

(WHO), and Occupational Safety and 

Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines, 

the protocols call for mandatory mask 

wearing by employees and patrons (even 

in states that do not require it), physical 

distancing, limited capacity in auditoriums, 

enhanced ventilation, extensive 

cleaning, contactless transactions, 

employee training, and more. NATO’s 

Cinema Reopening-Operations Task 

Force studied the recommendations of 

experts and developed the guidelines 

over the early months of the cinema closures. 

NATO’s Executive Board reviewed 

and approved the protocols, and the 

CinemaSafe program was launched 

on August 21, 2020, in a virtual press 

conference. 

John Fithian, president and CEO of 

NATO, said, “In this new pandemic world, 

moviegoers need to know that there is a 

consistent, science- and experience-based 

set of health and safety protocols in place 

no matter what theater they visit. This 

unprecedented industry-wide effort is a 

promise designed to meet that need.” 

David F. Goldsmith, PhD, an occupational 

and environmental epidemiologist 

at George Washington University’s 

Milken Institute School of Public Health, 

reviewed the CinemaSafe protocols and 

observed, “It is important to note that, in 

my review of the medical literature, not a 

single case of Covid-19 has been traced to 

a movie theater around the world, either 

before the shutdown, or since theaters 

have reopened in many countries and 

some U.S. states. These protocols, and the 

way they were developed, demonstrate a 

serious, comprehensive effort by movie 

theater owners to examine every aspect of 

their operations, identify potential risks, 

and reduce them. Their emphasis on the 

health and safety of their employees is an 

indication of their preventative commitment 

to moviegoer safety.” 

Joyce Sanchez, M.D., an infectious 

disease specialist and director of Travel 

Health Clinic at Froedtert & the Medical 

College of Wisconsin, as well as an assistant 

professor of medicine at the Medical 

College of Wisconsin, also examined the 

protocols. “First,” she said, “these protocols 

outline that it is of the utmost importance 

to be flexible, to respect local and 

state public health department guidance, 

and to respond to changes. Secondly, they 

address two of the three general concepts 

that factor into activity risk: distance, dose, 

and duration. The CinemaSafe protocols 

include physical distancing, limited 

capacity in auditoriums, mandatory mask 

wearing, frequent disinfection of surfaces, 

specific safety training for employees, 

and optimization of HVAC systems. They 

also offer a touchless experience. As far as 

duration, the length of a feature cannot be 

controlled. However, the length of a movie 

is similar to the amount of time spent on 

a domestic flight or dining at a restaurant. 

While every activity outside the home 

carries risks, these additional measures 

can help to mitigate them.” 

NATO and its member companies are 

engaged in a wide-ranging campaign 

to educate the public on what to expect 

as they return to movie theaters and to 

encourage responsible behavior toward 

their fellow moviegoers. 

Kathy Conroy is Vice President and Chief 

Operating Officer at NATO 


16-17_NATO.indd 16 30/09/2020 08:34

THE CINEMASAFE 

HEALTH AND SAFETY 

PROTOCOLS INCLUDE: 

MASKS REQUIRED 

All employees must wear a face covering or 

mask. With limited exceptions, patrons must 

wear a face covering at all times while in the 

auditorium and common areas of the theater. 

Exceptions to this policy include those unable 

to wear face coverings such as children under 

2 years of age and individuals with certain 

medical/physical conditions that inhibit 

their ability to safely wear face coverings. In 

addition, face coverings may be removed for 

the limited purpose and limited time period 

necessary to consume food and beverages, if 

approved by state or local health authorities. 

Those who are unwilling to wear a face covering 

will be denied entry. 

FREQUENT HAND WASHING 

Employees should be trained on handhygiene 

practices and are required to wash 

hands frequently at easily accessible handwashing 

facilities. 

HAND SANITIZER 

Hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol (EPA 

approved ethanol or isopropyl) will be liberally 

placed in easily accessible public areas, 

and patrons will be encouraged by staff and 

appropriately placed signage to practice 

hand hygiene. 

PHYSICAL DISTANCING 

Appropriate physical distancing must be 

maintained at all times between patrons, 

except members of the same household or 

those who attend together. 

REDUCED CAPACITY 

Theaters will explore novel options to minimize 

the number of patrons in an auditorium. 

Appropriate physical distancing must be 

maintained at all times between patrons, except 

members of the same household or those that 

attend together. 

MODIFIED CONCESSIONS 

Minimize cash transactions and encourage 

credit cards or contactless payments whenever 

possible. Theaters will eliminate communal food 

and condiments that require shared serving 

utensils or equipment. 

ENHANCED CLEANING 

Auditoriums should be carefully disinfected 

between movie screenings. High-touch 

surfaces should be wiped down periodically 

with EPA-registered disinfectant. 

EMPLOYEE HEALTH TRAINING 

All employees should be trained on the signs 

and symptoms of Covid-19 as well as local 

theater policies and procedures. 

AIR FILTRATION 

All HVAC systems should be in working order 

with increased ventilation whenever possible. 

The complete set of CinemaSafe protocols 

are available at: www.CinemaSafe.org. 

MOBILE TICKETING 

Tickets sales should be available online or via 

phone whenever feasible to reduce the need 

to stand in line for tickets. Alternatives to paper 

tickets should be used whenever possible. 


17 

16-17_NATO.indd 17 29/09/2020 12:32

Industry TRENDS 

THE NEW 

NORMAL 

Cinemas in North America 

Join Forces to Launch 

CinemaSafe, Instituting 

Industry-Wide Health & Safety 

Standards in Reopening 

BY DANIEL LORIA 

Back in August, as the September 

release date of Christopher Nolan’s 

Tenet approached, cinemas in North 

America began opening their doors to 

welcome patrons back to the movies. 

The reopening efforts, however, did not 

occur simultaneously. 

Although nearly every cinema in 

the United States closed over a span of 

four days in mid-March, the domestic 

reopening process proved to be fractured 

across state lines. Certain states, such 

as Georgia and Texas, allowed cinemas 

to reopen as early as April, while others, 

such as Michigan and New York, had not 

even released a provisional time frame for 

reopening by the time Tenet opened. 

The campaign to reopen cinemas in 

the United States has been stymied by the 

challenge of inconsistent state policies. In 

an effort to address those gaps, members 

of the National Association of Theatre 

Owners (NATO) came together to create 

CinemaSafe, a protocol of uniform health 

and safety guidelines put in place across 

380 cinema operators. 

“With so many different guidelines in 

different states, we believe it is critical 

that movie theaters commit to following 

basic guidelines no matter where they 

are, so moviegoers can return to their 

favorite pastime with confidence in our 

commitment to their health and safety,” 

said NATO president and CEO John 

Fithian, at a press conference unveiling 

the CinemaSafe campaign. 

The guidelines, developed in 

consultation with epidemiologists and 

industry experts, include policies such as a 

mask requirement for all staff and patrons, 

reduced capacity in each auditorium, 

increased air-filtration measures, 

enhanced cleaning, and a decreased 

reliance on touch points through mobile 

ticketing and modified concessions sales. 

“On reviewing the protocols in place 

here, I think they address two of the three 

major factors that determine activity 

risk. When we think about activity risk, 

including going to the movies, there’s 

really no activity outside of the home 

that has no risk. The three determinants 

are distance, dose of potential virus, and 

duration,” said Joyce Sanchez, M.D., an 

infectious disease expert at the Froedtert 

Hospital and the Medical College of 

Wisconsin Network. 

Sanchez cites social distancing 

between seats in auditoriums under 

reduced capacity, along with adherence 

to mask requirements, as factors that 

mitigate the risk of attending a movie 

theater during the pandemic. As for the 

third concern—duration, the amount of 

time people congregate in an enclosed 

space—Sanchez concedes it cannot 

be controlled when it comes to the 

moviegoing experience. “When I think 


18-20_CinemaSafe.indd 18 29/09/2020 12:32

about that variable in terms of risk, it’s 

pretty similar to the amount of time on 

a short-distance domestic flight, which 

a lot of America is doing at this point, or 

spending time at a restaurant,” she said. 

“There have been no published medical 

or epidemiology findings that show a 

link between going to see a movie and 

contracting Covid-19. Having said that, 

there is no ironclad guarantee that there 

is zero risk,” added David F. Goldsmith, 

PhD, an occupational and environmental 

epidemiologist at George Washington 

University’s Milken Institute School of 

Public Health. “With these protocols, 

we are taking advantage of the skills 

of the staff, infectious disease experts, 

industrial hygienists, and people who 

were involved in the HVAC system to 

increase the air circulation. Their clearcut 

goal is to reduce, as much as possible, 

some possibility of there being a risk of 

contracting this virus.” 

The press conference, organized by the 

National Association of Theatre Owners, 

featured the participation of the heads of 

the top four circuits in the United States. 

Speaking on behalf of AMC Theatres, CEO 

Adam Aron noted that collaborating on a 

national reopening protocol was crucial to 

begin recovering consumer confidence in 

the midst of a global pandemic. 

“From the day we shut down back in 

March, we knew at AMC—as the largest 

“They need to know that 

moviegoing is safe, wherever 

you go see a movie, and 

whatever theater that 

you visit. That’s what 

CinemaSafe is all about.” 

exhibitor in the world—that opening up 

our theaters was the single biggest, most 

important issue to restore consumer 

confidence, so that our industry could 

recover from what has now been more 

than five months of a shutdown here in the 

United States,” he said. “We also realized it 

wasn’t enough to just have an AMC safety 

initiative. We needed to participate in an 

industry-wide initiative. Consumers can’t 

always distinguish between one circuit 

or another, one theater over another; 

they need to know that moviegoing is 

safe, wherever you go see a movie, and 

whatever theater that you visit. That’s 

what CinemaSafe is all about.” 

In June, AMC Theatres found itself at 

the center of a national debate over face 

mask policy when it announced it would 

strongly encourage, but not require, masks 

in its cinemas. “That announcement 

was made at six o’clock on a Thursday 

evening. By seven o’clock, our customers 

told us loudly that it was not enough,” 

said AMC’s Aron. “We had something like 

50,000 social media contacts in the first 

few hours, and we instantly knew that just 

strongly encouraging masks is not enough. 

By the next morning, we announced that 

we were going to step up our game, that 

we’re going to listen to our customers 

and require masks. I’m very pleased that 

Regal and Cinemark did the same thing 

so it’s easy to enforce this policy, because 


19 


Industry TRENDS 

this is what moviegoers want—we know 

that because they told us—and we will be 

enforcing it very carefully. We will not let 

people into our theaters if they don’t wear 

masks. We will not let them stay in our 

theaters if they don’t keep their masks on, 

except for those few minutes when they’re 

sipping on their [soda] or eating their 

buttered and salted popcorn.” 

Mask enforcement has been a 

recurring concern for moviegoers and 

industry observers waiting to go back 

to the movies. Mark Zoradi, CEO of 

Cinemark Theatres, which was among 

the first major circuits to open select 

locations across the country, noted that 

mask enforcement has been a “small or 

nonexistent issue” at his circuit thus far. 

“The vast majority of people are showing 

up with their masks,” he said. “We have 

very good signage on our website, our 

app’s ticketing function, and at the door 

that they’re required. All our employees 

are wearing them,” he said. “For the very 

few [patrons] that show up that don’t 

have them, we’re offering a mask for free 

and explaining the situation. There has 

been very little pushback on it. In the 

isolated case or two that we’ve had, we’ve 

just explained the situation and offered 

a refund. It’s notable there have been no 

incidents at 60 of our theaters in multiple 

states. I think the word is out that this is 

the policy with other national retailers, 

from Target to Costco. I think the consumer 

understands the situation at this point: 

If they’re going to go into a public retail 

environment, masks are required.” 

According to Dr. Sanchez, distancing 

between seats, required mask wearing 

(while minimizing the time spent 

consuming concessions), and fewer 

interactions with staff, other patrons, and 

high-touch surfaces can help decrease the 

risk of moviegoing during the pandemic. 

She also believes that assessing one’s own 

local environment is crucial when making 

the decision to return to the movies: Is the 

pandemic in the area under control? Or is 

there a rise in cases? 

“Some of the factors we think about 

are the environment, the person and the 

behavior they’re engaged in, and the 

virus,” she said. “The virus is the same; 

that variable is fixed. One community may 

have higher levels of virus transmission 

than others, but for the most part the 

way the virus behaves is the same. Then 

we look at the behavior that people are 

engaging in, and when we think about 

bars, we think about people coming 

together, drinking alcohol or nonalcoholic 

beverages, but coming together and 

speaking without wearing masks for the 

majority of the time that they’re there. 

In restaurants, the situation is similar 

when people are coming together in an 

enclosed environment mostly without 

masks, because the primary purpose 

of a restaurant is to consume food and 

beverages. Now, when we think about 

a movie theater, that same contained 

environment [is the same] as a place of 

worship or as a restaurant, that doesn’t 

change, but the behavior is different. 

People, for the most part, are going to be 

wearing masks. People are not speaking, 

they are not singing, doing the types of 

activities that propel respiratory droplets.” 

Cineworld and Regal CEO Mooky 

Greidinger backed the doctor’s observations, 

noting that cinemas are unique among 

indoor communal activities. “We all need 

to remember that in the cinema you sit 

in one place, everybody is looking in the 

same direction, there is almost no talking. 

There is almost no movement through the 

running time of the movie.” 

The press conference served, in part, as 

a response to the ongoing lack of a time 

frame or guidelines for cinemas to reopen 

in the state of New York, home to the 

most lucrative market in the country. In a 

press briefing, New York governor Andrew 

Cuomo deemed cinemas to be “less 

essential” than gyms or bowling alleys, 

defending his stance by questioning the 

circulation of air in cinemas. 

“I noticed that Governor Cuomo in New 

York recently said that movie theaters have 

just one air-conditioning system,” said 

Fithian. “Obviously, we are hoping to correct 

him on the facts, because there are multiple 

systems. Often a six-plex will have eight 

different air-conditioning systems. The idea 

that Covid would flow from one auditorium 

to the next is just not based on fact.” 

“I’ve seen a lot of publications that seem 

to think our systems are taking air from 

one screen and putting it in another, or 

the circulation is going from one screen to 

another. Most of the cinemas in the world, 

their systems are independent between 

each screen. This is also very important to 

understand,” reiterated Greidinger. 

Despite these challenges, the 

executives participating in the press 

conference expressed faith that they 

could recapture consumer confidence 

in the United States with help from 

the CinemaSafe guidelines. In other 

countries, where cinemas have been 

open since as early as June, admissions 

figures fluctuated largely due to the lack 

of new Hollywood releases. In some cases, 

titles outperformed even pre-pandemic 

expectations, but a real measure of the 

audience’s appetite for moviegoing will 

likely occur over time, as more audiences 

feel comfortable returning to theaters. 

Cineworld’s Greidinger nevertheless 

has faith in the industry’s resiliency to see 

it through this crisis, regardless of how 

long it takes. “We need to remember our 

industry is more than 120 years old,” he 

said. “This industry has passed through 

wars, revolutions, recessions … this is not 

the first pandemic in our history.” 

“People, for the most part, are 

going to be wearing masks. 

People are not speaking, they 

are not singing, doing the 

types of activities that propel 

respiratory droplets.” 



LOEWS MIAMI BEACH HOTEL, MIAMI BEACH 

CONVENTION & EXPO 

7-10 

DEC 

2020 

SHOWEAST.COM 

LET’S MEET IN MIAMI BEACH 

It’s time for the industry to connect once again and celebrate the reopening of movie theatres 

in North and South America. ShowEast is making that possible and affordable: 

REGISTRATION 

PRICES CUT! 

It’s been a tough year for everyone, 

so we’ve reduced our rates in all categories 

for 2020 in the hopes that you can join us. 

HOTEL FEES 

SLASHED! 

We’ve negotiated a new hotel policy 

for 2020 where you can cancel for 

a full-refund up until November 2. 


21 

SE_AD.indd 21_AD-ShowEast.indd 1 

21 29/09/2020 9/14/20 1:11 12:33 

PM

Industry GUEST COLUMNS 

WELCOME BACK! 

FILM EXPO GROUP 

Andrew Sunshine, President 

To all of our friends and industry 

associates, welcome back. While 

these past six months have been nothing 

short of a nightmare, the light at the end 

of the tunnel is starting to come into view. 

Sometimes we sit around and think that 

the movie exhibition business has been 

knocked down and given a standing eight 

count. We were not knocked out, just hurt, 

and now it is time to come back bigger and 

better than ever to win the fight. 

As of this writing, theaters around the 

world have already opened, and those here 

in North America are starting to open their 

doors to the public as well and get back 

on their feet. Getting together with the 

community to sit in that dark space and 

experience the magic of a movie is something 

we are craving. We have all watched 

enough online product to last a lifetime 

these past few months, but it just doesn’t 

compare. We need our theaters back up 

and running and for our studio partners to 

start releasing product for all to enjoy on 

the big screen. 

As much as the public is longing to 

get back to the cinema, the same goes 

for our professionals who make up our 

great business. It has been almost a year 

(ShowEast 2019) since we were all together 

networking, socializing, and doing business. 

We need conventions back just as 

badly as we need theaters back. Industry 

events are an important part of what we 

do, and the Film Expo Group is doing its 

part to make that happen. 

This past June, when we were forced 

to cancel CineEurope in Barcelona, we 

launched our first online event with great 

success. Now with the cancellation of 

CineAsia, we will be doing another online 

program on November 4 and 5 for the APAC 

(Asia Pacific) community. And, of course, 

we will keep our fingers crossed that the 

postponement of ShowEast to December 

7–10 will allow enough time for travel 

restrictions to lift and for our colleagues to 

gather in Miami to celebrate together. 

This will then lead us into 2021 and what 

will be a return to our regular schedule 

with CineEurope, June 21–24, in Barcelona; 

Showeast, October 18–21, in Miami; and 

CineAsia, December 6–9, in Bangkok. 

It is our time to shine as an industry, 

and we will all come out of this nightmare 

better than ever. We may have been 

knocked to the canvas, but it doesn’t 

matter how hard you get hit, it is how you 

respond after getting back up. 

We wish you all health and great box 

office success in the meantime. 

GLOBAL CINEMA 

FEDERATION 

Welcome back! To our exhibitor and 

trade-organization members and 

colleagues around the world, to those 

who never closed, those who reopened 

months ago, and those who are just getting 

their popcorn machines started again, 

we at the Global Cinema Federation are 

delighted that you are once again able to 

offer audiences around the world a chance 

to escape into a new adventure within 

your darkened cinemas. This escape may 

look and feel a bit different, with social 

distancing, masks, and copious amounts 

of hand sanitizer, but it is an escape all 

the same. Our living room couches are 

relieved to see us go. 

Over the past few roller-coaster months 

of reopenings, reclosings, and reopenings 

again, two things have been made clear: 

The global exhibition community is strong 

and it is supportive. We are strong in our 

resilience against “existential” threats, 

strong in our determination to reopen 

safely for our guests, and strong in our 

conviction that the theatrical experience 

is irreplaceable. During this time, we have 

seen the global exhibition community 

come together to support one another 

through this unbelievably difficult time. 

Competitors became friends, sharing 

ideas and solutions that would help the 

industry safely emerge from this crisis. 

Everyone has been rooting for each other. 

We all felt the deep pang of anguish when 

it was announced that cinemas in China 

were ordered to close again after a brief 

reopening in March. We collectively held 

our breath as films were rescheduled, and 

cheered together when it was clear that 

Unhinged and Tenet were actually going 

to be released, thanks to the commitment 

and leadership of people such as Mark Gill, 

Christopher Nolan, and Emma Thomas. 

We all jumped for joy when South Korean 

exhibitors experienced huge box office 

success with the releases of films such as 

Peninsula and #Alive. And again, when 

Padre no hay más que uno 2 was a smash 

in Spain. And again, when The Eight 

Hundred triumphed in China. We have a 

feeling all of this joyful jumping will get us 

back into prequarantine shape soon. 

During this time, the GCF has shifted 

our attention completely to this crisis. 

We have worked hard to lobby studios to 

hold release dates. Our members from 

around the world have sent in valuable 

survey responses about the effects of 

Covid-19 on the cinema industry in their 

region(s). We will continue to focus on 

issues surrounding Covid-19 until it is 

deemed unnecessary, but we also hope 

we can soon return to our priority issues 

including accessibility, international trade 

and investment, movie theft, music rights, 

and theatrical exclusivity. 

The Global Cinema Federation has 

missed meeting in person. It has been 

over a year since we last gathered faceto-face 

at CineEurope 2019. Organizing 

a webinar for members located in every 

corner of the world is no easy feat. When 

we held a virtual advisory board meeting 

in July, it meant 7:00 a.m. for some and 

11:00 p.m. for others. Still, being able to 

gather was a collective bright spot for us. 

As always, if you would like to become 


22-27_Guest-Columns.indd 22 29/09/2020 12:33

a GCF member so that you can tune in 

to future correspondence and meetings, 

please visit https://globalcinemafederation 

.org/members/ and fill out the membership 

form. We are anxiously awaiting the 

next time we can gather in-person. Until 

then, we will see you on Zoom for upcoming 

GCF advisory board meetings! 

IFC FILMS 

John Vanco, Senior Vice President and 

Jasper Basch, Director, Sales & Distribution 

To all our partners in exhibition: 

Welcome back! It feels odd to 

welcome you all back, because throughout 

this period, we’ve remained connected 

with you all. We know you were never truly 

gone, and in our conversations over the 

last six months, we’ve come to know each 

other better than we ever have. 

We’ve all heard this time described 

as “unprecedented,” and it certainly has 

been for IFC Films. We’ve released over a 

dozen titles since cinemas closed in March, 

including one new film weekly in July and 

August. It was uncharted territory, yet we 

forged onward and made sure there were 

films on the schedule for cinemas to play. 

For the first time in our company’s 20-year 

history we had the No. 1 movie in America, 

with Dave Franco’s directorial debut, The 

Rental. IFC Films has had three films 

gross over $1 million in box office since 

theaters closed, and has grossed over $4.5 

million across all our titles. None of our 

success would have been possible without 

our friends in exhibition, who define 

what it means to be great partners. What 

gives us hope is this collaborative spirit; 

by working together, we will rebuild the 

theatrical business. 

We have no illusions about the massive 

changes under way in all aspects of our 

lives. “Normal” after the pandemic will 

not look like the “normal” we knew, and 

we are not out of the woods yet. In these 

Obviously, it’s a better way 

to experience a film than at 

home. The screen is bigger; 

the lights are darker; the 

sound is better—it’s how all 

movies were meant to be 

experienced! 

uncertain times, we want to sincerely 

thank exhibitors for your partnership and 

welcome you back. 

The role of the movie theater within 

the community will remain unchanged, if 

not bolstered. Obviously, it’s a better way 

to experience a film than at home. The 

screen is bigger; the lights are darker; 

the sound is better—it’s how all movies 

were meant to be experienced! Beyond 

presentation, though, the cinema is an arts 

and entertainment center that serves the 

community. The quality and community 

of the theatrical experience cannot be 

replicated at home by any streaming 

service or transactional platform. 

This pandemic brought with it a hard 

stop to operations, but now comes an 

opportunity to point ourselves in a new 

direction. We are thinking about who 

exists within 30 minutes of a movie theater 

and hasn’t come in the last few years—and 

why haven’t they come? This phase is 

an opportunity to market the cinematic 

experience, and everything that means. 

This is more than just a big, dark theater. 

Modern cinemas have existed for over a 

hundred years, and while their role in the 

community hasn’t diminished, how they 

engage with and reach their community 

has. It’s not inconceivable that in the new 

landscape, the number of people who 

identify as “moviegoers” will be lower than 

it used to be, and it’s certainly possible that 

this number was already declining. It’s 

a scary thought, and so we must ask the 

hard questions: Why is this, and how do 

we cultivate new audiences and win back 

the old ones? The films themselves will 

only do so much, as will studio advertising 

and publicity. The truth is that the best 

answer is going to vary; it will be specific 

to each theater and to each community 

served. Theaters know their communities 

better than anyone else could. Therefore, 

theaters can know better than anyone 

how to reach them, with studios being 

a valuable resource available to help 

theaters fulfill their individual goals. Since 


23 



there is no road map and autopilot isn’t 

functional, this is an opportunity to swing 

for the fences and to try something new. 

To us, that’s exciting! 

In the past few months, IFC Films has 

helped theaters reach out to groups for 

new partnerships, in hopes of bringing in 

new audiences who can become regular 

moviegoers. We’ve worked with theaters 

to poll patrons to decide which of our 

films to program in areas that “don’t play 

indie.” We provided copies of movies for 

floor staff to watch; if a theater wants 

staff to engage with audiences in the 

lobby about the movie, or if they want the 

nerdiest usher to talk about movies on 

TikTok where their enthusiasm can reach 

prospective audiences, we are happy to 

assist! As you are being welcomed back, 

you can come back as whoever you want 

to be within your community. “Exhibitor 

relations” extends beyond just fulfilling 

one-sheet orders and asking for trailer 

placements; it’s making sure that when 

a theater books a movie, the theater has 

the tools needed to fully actualize its role 

within the community. 

IFC Films’ commitment to theatrical is 

unwavering. We have three films on the 

release schedule for November: Kindred 

(11/6), Embattled (11/20), and Stardust 

(11/25). We also have three films on the 

release schedule for December: Dear 

Santa (12/4), Farewell Amor (12/11), and 

Hunter Hunter (12/18). We are delighted to 

have new product available for exhibitors. 

These films will be resources available to 

you as you reestablish the importance of 

cinemas within your communities. 

We love movie theaters. We are excited 

for movie theaters to be back and to work 

with you on ensuring that movie theaters 

remain a vital part of American culture 

and of the film industry. The partnership 

between studio and theater is essential in 

restoring theaters to their vital roles within 

their communities, and we are excited to 

traverse this new world with you. 

KINO LORBER 

Richard Lorber, President & CEO 

Hello movie lovers! 

When the pandemic took hold 

in spring and independent theaters 

nationwide began to close, we knew we 

had to figure out a way to support them. 

We launched our Kino Marquee virtual 

cinema platform in mid-March with about 

a dozen theater partners, but it quickly 

swelled to over 400 participating venues 

that were showing our films and making 

precious revenue while their doors were 

closed. The message was clear: Film lovers 

care deeply about the art of cinema and 

the survival of their beloved theaters. 

As theaters slowly begin to open 

again, Kino Lorber is proud to welcome 

audiences back to see our films on the big 

screen. Cinemas are cultural communes 

where we gather to explore and share 

what it means to be human. We’ll see you 

at the movies! 

LIONSGATE 

As more and more theaters reopen 

and welcome back guests, Lionsgate 

celebrates the unique and critical role 

movie theaters occupy in the largest 

cities and the smallest towns. For over 

100 years, the movie theater has been a 

beloved destination, where relationships 

are forged, friends reconnect, the latest 

and greatest cultural entertainment is 

consumed, and people escape from 

everyday life. During these unprecedented 

times, Lionsgate was proud to support our 

partners in exhibition through Lionsgate 

Live! A Night at the Movies, which helped 

remind moviegoers what makes the 

communal experience of movie theaters 

so special. The program also raised over 

$200,000 to support the Will Rogers 

Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation, 

which grants aid for out-of-work theater 

employees. Lionsgate continues to be 

committed as a company to the theatrical 

experience—we know the business of 

theatrical motion picture exhibition will 

continue to rebound and in time will come 

back as strong as ever. 

We are enthusiastic about the future 

of moviegoing with some of the projects 

we have in the pipeline. We are navigating 

Covid-19-era production logistics and 

are excited to be resuming filming once 

again. We recently wrapped principal 

photography for the upcoming horror film 

The Devil’s Light, in which a young nun 

pursues her calling to become an exorcist. 

Additionally, we have the meta actioncomedy 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive 

Talent going into production next month, 

where Nicolas Cage prepares to take on 

the role of a lifetime—himself. Also in 

the works is Spiral, the latest thrilling 

entry in the Saw universe, starring Chris 

Rock and Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson will 

also reteam with Ryan Reynolds as the 

most violent odd couple of all time, with 

costar Salma Hayek joining the fun and 

mayhem in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. 

Kingdom Story Company and directors 

Jon and Andy Erwin prepare to bring the 

incredible true story of Kurt Warner’s rise 

from bagging groceries to the pinnacle 

of NFL achievement to the big screen in 

American Underdog: The Kurt Warner 

Story. And, also in the works, from writer/ 

director Kelly Fremon Craig and Oscarwinning 

producer James L. Brooks comes 

a feature adaptation of the timeless Judy 

Blume coming-of-age classic Are You 

There God? It’s Me, Margaret. While we are 

thrilled to be bringing these titles to you 

soon, we are also eager to share even more 

exciting films in the future, as our slate 

includes such highly anticipated releases 

as John Wick: Chapters 4 and 5, Knives 

Out 2, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of 

Songbirds and Snakes, and many more. 

The future of moviegoing is brighter than 

ever, and we can’t wait to see you back at 

the theater. Save us the aisle seat. 



Since their inception, movies 

have been our favorite way 

to escape the news of the 

moment and enjoy a pure 

entertainment experience. 

No matter how big your 

television is or how complete 

your surround sound, only a 

movie theater can provide 

that escape as we take in a 

story together. 

SONY 

Adrian Smith, President, Sony Pictures 

Releasing and Steven O’Dell, President, 

Sony Pictures Releasing International 

To all our friends and our most 

valued partners, welcome back! 

We are thrilled to be back working with 

you. Releasing films theatrically is integral 

to our core business and, as always, we 

remain committed to the theatrical 

experience. 

The year began on a high note 

with a franchise high for Bad Boys for 

Life breaking January box office records, 

and with cinemas slowly reopening 

around the world, we are optimistic that 

audiences will continue their return 

to theaters. After the studio’s recent 

successful openings of Padre no hay 

más que uno 2 (Father There Is Only One 

2) and Little Women, along with other 

studio releases, we are encouraged that 

consumers still have a strong appetite 

for theatrical content. On September 11, 

we released Natalie Krinsky’s romantic 

comedy, The Broken Hearts Gallery, from 

executive producer Selena Gomez. The 

audience’s terrific response and strong 

reviews leave us feeling optimistic that 

the film will play well as it slowly rolls out 

across key territories. 

Next year will be a big year, with three 

of Sony Pictures’ Marvel characters hitting 

the screen: Morbius, one of Marvel’s 

most compelling characters; the highly 

anticipated sequel to Venom, Venom: Let 

There Be Carnage; and the much-awaited 

sequel to Spider-Man: Far from Home. We 

are also very excited to work with you 

all on Cinderella, a vibrant, musically 

driven reimagination of the traditional 

Cinderella story, starring a diverse, starstudded 

ensemble cast including Camila 

Cabello; the next chapter in the original 

Ghostbusters universe, Ghostbusters: 

Afterlife, from director Jason Reitman and 

producer Ivan Reitman; and Uncharted, 

based on the critically acclaimed and 

top-selling PlayStation video game series, 

starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. 

We are proud to be part of an industry 

that comes together in tough times, and 

we are excited to once again celebrate 

successes with you across our richly 

diverse slate of films. 

STX FILMS 

We had a feeling that when movie 

theaters reopened for business, we’d 

see a robust response from moviegoers, 

but we could not have imagined how 

pent up the demand for theatrical 

motion picture entertainment would 

be. Fans are driving for hours for the 

chance to once again experience the 

magic of going to the movies. And it’s a 

worldwide phenomenon. As we have seen 

with the No. 1 release of Greenland in 13 

international markets, audiences keenly 

want to return to their neighborhood 

theaters. Since their inception, movies 

have been our favorite way to escape the 

news of the moment and enjoy a pure 

entertainment experience. No matter how 

big your television is or how complete 

your surround sound, only a movie theater 

can provide that escape as we take in a 

story together. 

At STX, we have been working on a 

number of exciting titles that will serve 

as the next wave of our slate. Films like 

Gunpowder Milkshake, starring Karen 

Gillan; the pandemic thriller Songbird, 

produced by Michael Bay and shot 

during lockdown in L.A.; the upcoming 

Kevin Macdonald project formerly titled 

Prisoner 760, starring Jodie Foster, Tahar 

Rahim, Shailene Woodley, and Benedict 

Cumberbatch; and Elisabeth Moss’s ghost 

story Run Rabbit Run are all perfectly 

suited to the company’s release strategy in 

North America and abroad. 

And the next wave of films to 

follow promises even greater heights 


25 



of entertainment to draw audiences to 

your theaters. In recent weeks, we have 

acquired the rights to reteam with Guy 

Ritchie and Miramax on the action thriller 

Five Eyes, starring Jason Statham. We 

also recently announced we are joining 

with Sony Pictures to handle the overseas 

distribution of Devotion, director J.D. 

Dillard’s historical war epic. This true 

story stars Jonathan Majors and Glen 

Powell as elite U.S. Navy fighter pilots. 

STX Films is also lacing up for American 

Sole, a high-stakes, high-top dramatic 

comedy starring Pete Davidson and 

O’Shea Jackson Jr. and set in the world of 

after-market sneakers, one of the fastestgrowing 

areas of in-demand streetwear. 

The film will be written and directed by 

Ian Edelman and produced by Kevin 

Hart, along with NBA All-Star Chris Paul. 

And we could not be more excited to 

reunite with Bad Moms star Kristen Bell 

for Queenpins, a female-driven comedy 

inspired by the true story of the largest 

coupon counterfeit scam in U.S. history. 

Bell will reteam with her “The Good 

Place” and “Veronica Mars” co-star Kirby 

Howell-Baptiste, as well as Vince Vaughn 

and Paul Walter Hauser. 

Recent days have only confirmed 

that theatrical motion picture exhibition 

is the lifeblood of our industry. We are 

committed to filling your theaters with 

great movies and popcorn-crunching 

customers, and we could not be more 

thrilled that you are taking tickets once 

again. We have a lot we are working on and 

look forward to sharing with you some of 

the great movies that will have audiences 

lining up at your door. 

UNIC – UNION 

INTERNATIONALE DES 

CINÉMAS 

Laura Houlgatte-Abbott, CEO 

Welcome back! 

A warm welcome back to our 

members, colleagues, and partners! 

After months of lockdown followed by a 

gradual reopening, audiences can now 

once again enjoy watching films together 

on the big screen in the majority of 

cinemas across Europe. 

As of the end of August, an estimated 

70–75 percent of European cinemas had 

reopened, which—given recent and 

ongoing challenges—is nothing short of 

remarkable. These figures are a testament 

to the industry’s hard work and resilience 

and provide a much-needed lifeline for the 

thousands of dedicated staff that remain at 

the heart of the big-screen experience and 

whose passion for cinema has remained a 

constant in these turbulent times. 

2020 will clearly be remembered as 

the most challenging period that cinema 

exhibitors across the world have ever 

faced. Now, everyone’s focus is on how 

best to adapt to the “new normal” and 

take the first steps toward sustaining a 

strong recovery. 

Cinemas have been busy preparing 

to reopen from day one, working with 

their local authorities and partners. 

Many have actively engaged with their 

audiences during closure and have put 

together brilliant, large-scale “back to 

the cinema” campaigns. They have also 

strived to implement new health and 

safety measures to welcome back their 

cinemagoers and their teams in the best 

possible conditions. 

Through all of this, the response of film 

fans has been amazing—it’s clear that 

they’ve missed going to the cinema above 

almost any other experience. Recent 

box office figures from Tenet, Padre no 

hay más que uno 2, Tout simplement 

2020 will clearly be 

remembered as the most 

challenging period that 

cinema exhibitors across the 

world have ever faced. Now, 

everyone’s focus is on how 

best to adapt to the “new 

normal” and take the first 

steps toward sustaining a 

strong recovery. 



noir, and Little Women are a sure sign 

of the eagerness of audiences to again 

experience a collective, shared experience 

like no other. These releases, as well as 

providing much-needed incentives for 

audiences to return, have proved that an 

exclusive, cinema-first strategy remains at 

the heart of our industry. 

All that said, it’s clear that the road 

to recovery will take some time. Cinema 

operators must comply with—and 

adapt to—ever-evolving restrictions and 

health and safety measures as national 

governments work to curb the pandemic, 

which have brought about unforeseen 

challenges. Mask wearing, capacity limits, 

and even audience tracking are now part 

of the cinemagoing experience for many. 

While governmental support for culture 

remains crucial in getting the industry 

back on its feet—something we at UNIC 

will continue to emphasize in the coming 

months—the focus of the entire film and 

cinema industry must be on ensuring that 

recovery can be sustained. 

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it 

again—we are all in this together and 

everyone has their part to play. In order 

to recover from this crisis, all those who 

depend on the success of the film industry 

must band together and work to preserve 

the fundamental principles that lie behind 

the success of European film and cinema. 

An essential part of this is, of course, 

making new films available for audiences. 

At UNIC, in addition to our regular 

advocacy work, we’ve been keeping 

everyone up to date about the range 

of support cinemas may be eligible for 

at national and European levels. We’re 

also providing information about the 

reopening process and related health and 

safety guidelines, practical and technical 

recommendations for operators, and best 

practice in the field of audience initiatives. 

We have been in constant dialogue with 

national and European lawmakers to 

stress the key role of cinemas from an 

economic, cultural, and social standpoint. 

We’ve also conveyed this message in 

the media and in collaboration with 

colleagues from the audio-visual sector. 

And, while we couldn’t gather in the 

beautiful city of Barcelona in June, we 

ran a successful online CineEurope and 

also launched the fourth edition of our 

mentoring scheme. More information about 

all our work and actions can be found on 

our website: www.unic-cinemas.org. 

As much as we’ve missed seeing you 

all in person, the ongoing crisis continues 

to restrict our ability to schedule large 

gatherings. Therefore, we’ve decided to 

organize UNIC Cinema Days, which has 

taken place every year in Brussels and was 

scheduled to take place on October 12–13, 

as a virtual event in 2020. Please save the 

date, and we hope you can join us from 

wherever you are! 

And, in any case, we very much 

look forward to seeing you soon—be it 

virtually or in person, perhaps even in a 

screening room! 

UNIVERSAL 

Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President, 

International Distribution, Universal 

Pictures and Jim Orr, President, Domestic 

Distribution, Universal Pictures 

A resounding “Hello” and “Welcome 

Back” to all our industry friends and 

colleagues in exhibition from Universal 

Filmed Entertainment Group! 

As theaters across the globe reopen 

their doors to eager audiences, we are 

proud to join all of you as partners 

in this new frontier and constantly 

shifting landscape. Covid-19 has brought 

our industry to the brink, with levels 

of uncertainty, anxiety, and repeated 

disappointment as relaunches have 

been delayed and regulations reworked 

based on new data and information. The 

challenges presented in the first half of 

2020, however, have demonstrated the 

resilience of our industry and proven that 

quality films and masterful storytelling are 

more impactful than ever before. 

The theatrical experience offers all 

of us what we have been craving these 

past few months—communal human 

interaction. Each theater represents a 

microcosm of global communities coming 

together to enjoy unique narratives and 

breathtaking visuals projected onto the 

big screen. We tip our hats and honor you 

and your teams for the commitment to 

both promoting cinematic excellence 

and public safety, as we all move through 

this “new normal” of masks, social 

distancing, and ever-changing protocols. 

Universal is dedicated to supporting all of 

our exhibition partners throughout this 

process to ensure their success. 

Although challenges continue to 

emerge as our new understanding 

of consumer behavior requires even 

more flexibility and optionality, we are 

dedicated to the revitalization of the 

theatrical experience as we soar beyond 

this crisis to new heights. This fall, horror 

fans will embrace the twisted new take 

on the body-swap movie in Blumhouse’s 

Freaky. People will be jumping out of their 

seats to cheer Daniel Craig’s James Bond 

as he jumps off the screen in No Time to 

Die. And families around the world will 

enjoy a movie night, once again gathering 

to see their favorite prehistoric family face 

its biggest challenge of all in The Croods: A 

New Age later this year. 

Universal is focused on rebuilding the 

short- and long-term health of our industry, 

and we are confident that audiences are 

yearning to escape the world with popcorn 

in hand. It is a privilege to work with all of 

our exhibition partners, even in “normal” 

times, but even more so during these times 

of crisis. Thank you for all that you do to 

keep the screens lit and the stories shared. 

We wish you safety, good health, and huge 

success throughout the rest of this year 

and beyond! 


27 


Industry CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 

CHARITY 

SPOTLIGHT 

Image courtesy Variety - the Children’s Charity 

Omniplex Cinemas 

Image courtesy Omniplex Cinemas 

Variety, National Capital Region 

Studio Movie Grill 

Image courtesy HungerBusters 

Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers 

Foundation 

The Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers 

Foundation continues to provide vital assistance 

to furloughed, laid off, or reduced-pay 

employees in the exhibition, theatrical 

distribution, or vendor spaces through 

its Covid-19 Emergency Grant. Currently 

in phase 2, since launching in late March 

the grant has given a total of $2.8 million 

to more than 8,000 people. Will Rogers 

is still accepting both grant applications 

and donations; for more information, visit 

wrpioneers.org/covid19grant/. 

Variety – the Children’s Charity 

Variety – the Children’s Charity invites 

you to participate in their safe, socially 

distanced Variety Holiday 5K Virtual 

Run! Run or walk, indoors or outdoors, 

on your own schedule from November 29 

to December 5. Your $20 registration fee 

will help empower children in the United 

States who live with special needs or are 

disadvantaged by providing them with 

the equipment, services, and experiences 

they need to thrive. Register at 

usvariety.org. 

Variety – the Children’s Charity of the 

National Capital Region provided 27 Covid- 

19 emergency grants to parents of children 

with disabilities. The Monocacy Foundation 

in Frederick, Maryland, matched 

Variety’s grants in their region and toured 

Frederick’s Warehouse Cinemas (pictured) 

to plan future events together. 

Studio Movie Grill 

In August, aware that many of their 

friends, families, and neighbors have 

been hit hard in the devastating wake of 

Hurricane Laura—and wanting to offer 

some respite in already tough times made 

even tougher—the team at Studio Movie 

Grill launched their Help a Fellow Texan 

Out campaign, offering free tickets to 

those directly impacted by the hurricane, 

including first responders and volunteers. 

During the month of August, Studio 

Movie Grill also supported the American 

Red Cross by offering free tickets to blood 

donors as well as parking lot space for several 

mobile blood drive locations in Dallas. 

The parking lot of their Chatham location, 

on the South Side of Chicago, temporarily 

served as a much-needed Covid-19 testing 

center. Additionally, the Texas-based 

chain supported August’s Hunger Busters 

Operation Healthy Summer Box food drive 

(pictured), aimed at getting healthy food 

to families in need. 

Ireland’s Omniplex Cinemas Makes 

Christmas Come Early 

Omniplex Cinemas, an Irish chain with 

33 cinemas across the country, hosted a 

charity event that brought the trappings of 

Christmas—trees, music, and movies—to 

its theaters in the month of August. 


28-29_Charity-Spotlight.indd 28 30/09/2020 17:16

Home Alone, Die Hard, Elf, Love 

Actually, and Frozen 2 were all shown on 

Saturday, August 22. Every Christmas 

ticket sold included a €1/£1 donation to 

Barnardos Children’s Charity, which works 

to protect vulnerable children in Ireland 

and Northern Ireland. Over 4,000 customers 

were in attendance. 

“It’s been a tough year so far for everyone, 

and we just want to have one magical 

day that you can tell a funny story about 

in years to come—let 2020 be the year your 

local cinemas did Christmas four months 

early,” said Mark Anderson, director of 

Omniplex Cinemas. “We’re also very proud 

to be supporting Barnardos Northern 

Ireland (NI) and Barnardos Ireland 

Children’s Charity with this event. [They] 

need fundraising help more than ever to 

support families in our local communities.” 

Every year, Barnardos NI and 

Barnardos Ireland work with over 30,000 

children and families across the island 

of Ireland. “Christmas is a special time 

for children, but for many vulnerable 

children it can be a difficult time,” said 

Suzanna Connolly, CEO of Barnardos Ireland. 

“By supporting Christmas in August, 

not only are people creating wonderful 

childhood memories, and recalling their 

own, but they are also supporting Barnardos 

to help create lasting and happy 

childhood memories.” 

Michele Janes, head of Barnardos NI, 

gave thanks to everyone who is supporting 

Omniplex’s event, adding, “By doing so, you 

are helping us make sure that vulnerable 

children are safe, supported, and cared 

for—at Christmas and all year round.” 

Since reopening in July 2020, Omniplex 

has implemented a strategy to ensure 

guests can enjoy a safe cinema trip, 

including dynamic in-cinema seat separation, 

hand-sanitizing stations, increased 

cleaning regimens, and Perspex placed 

throughout the theaters. 


29 

28-29_Charity-Spotlight.indd 29 29/09/2020 12:33

Industry CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 

SPORTS AT 

THE CINEMA 

Cineplex Channels a Love of 

the Game into Money for a 

Good Cause 

BY REBECCA PAHLE 

With a content slowdown in the 

summer and autumn of 2020, 

Canada’s Cineplex looked at a nonfilm 

solution for getting butts in seats—and 

giving money to charity. 

Starting August 1, Cineplex partnered 

with Sportsnet, owned by Canadian 

telecom giant Rogers Media, and Canadian 

sports channel TSN to screen select 

NHL and NBA playoff games in cinema 

locations—with the number of screens 

kept flexible to adjust to the schedule of 

particularly well-loved teams, like the 

NBA’s Toronto Raptors and the NHL’s 

Calgary Flames. Tickets were free with a $5 

donation to Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, 

and over $10,000 was eventually earned. 

Cineplex, explains Executive Director, 

Communications, Sarah Van Lange, has 

“had sports on the big screen in a number 

of ways over the years,” from screening 

Olympic hockey games to inviting people 

out to the cinema to see the Toronto 

Raptors’ winning streak last year. “The 

Raptors are Canada’s team, so we were 

able to have a truly national celebration 

in our theaters across Canada,” she says. 

For last year’s Raptors championship run, 

Cineplex partnered with Maple Leaf Sports 

Entertainment (MLSE), with charitable 

proceeds going to the MLSE foundation. 

An ongoing partnership with the NFL, 

meanwhile, allows Cineplex to screen 

Sunday Night Football in its VIP Cinemas 

locations. “We’ve always looked at 

alternative content and attracting different 

audiences into our theaters,” says Van 

Lange, noting that it’s part of Cineplex’s 

DNA to “[think] about our theaters as 

community hubs and places where people 

can gather.” 

Part of Cineplex’s community 

involvement is repeated collaborations 

with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, 

which served as the beneficiary of the 

chain’s 2019 Community Day. Held 

in December, the event paired free 

screenings of classic Christmas movies 

with heavily discounted concessions; 

proceeds from select concessions sales 

as well as donations went to the Boys and 

Girls Clubs. “It’s really an organization that 

we’ve had a long-standing relationship and 

partnership with,” explains Van Lange— 

one that continued with this year’s sports 

screenings, as connection and a sense of 

community were more important than 

ever. “They’re all about facilitating play 

and leadership skills with young people, 

and as one of Canada’s largest employers 

of young people, that’s something that 

we’re really passionate about.” 

“The Raptors are Canada’s 

team, so we were able 

to have a truly national 

celebration in our theaters 

across Canada.” 

Cineplex 


30-31_Charity-sports.indd 30 30/09/2020 08:53


31 

30-31_Charity-sports.indd 31 29/09/2020 12:33

INDUSTRY A CENTURY IN EXHIBITION 

‘ 

0 s 

72020 marks the 100th anniversary of 

A CENTURY 

IN EXHIBITION 

The 1970s: A New Hope 

BY VASSILIKI MALOUCHOU 

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. 

32 


32-40_CiE-70s.indd 32 29/09/2020 12:34

When moviegoers sank into their 

seats in the dark auditorium of the 

Loew’s State Theatre in New York City on 

March 14, 1972, to watch a drama about 

the Italian American Mafia, little did they 

know they were making movie history. 

The Godfather became the best-selling 

title of the year and the first American 

film to gross $100 million domestically 

in its initial release. The Godfather was 

also making history in a different way: It 

encapsulated the contradictions of the 

decade. On the one hand, director Francis 

Ford Coppola represented the generation 

of “movie brats,” young male directors 

fresh out of film school, like Martin 

Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and George 

Lucas, who represented New Hollywood 

at its peak. On the other hand, The Godfather 

was a precursor to the blockbuster 

phenomenon that buried New Hollywood 

in the second half of the decade. Like 

the countercultural revolution that had 

been embraced by so many young people 

in the 1960s, The Godfather spoke to the 

disillusionment of the Vietnam War and 

Watergate era. But in other ways it was a 

nostalgic film about the waning of white 

male patriarchal power amid the ascendance 

of the women’s rights, gay rights, and 

Black Power movements. 

The 1970s were, in fact, a period of 

rapid and contradictory transformations 

for exhibition. At the beginning of the 

decade, weekly admissions continued 

their decline. Admissions in 1970 were 18 

million, down from 30 million in 1960, in 

part because of rising ticket costs, cable 

TV, theaters playing the same film for an 

extended period (a practice Boxoffice 

Pro founder and editor Ben Shlyen 

criticized), and a lack of both film variety 

and advertising. Dwindling admissions 

and the collapse of the studio system 

made room for New Hollywood but also 

for cheap, shocking exploitation films. The 

civil rights movement and the realization 

that African American audiences had box 

office potential launched blaxploitation, 

while the failures of the MPAA’s rating system 

opened the door for raunchy sexploitation. 

Though not without some success, 

these films were not enough to prevent the 

downtown houses and movie palaces that 

showed them from going quiet as (white) 

audiences and exhibitors rushed to theaters 

in suburban malls. Movies became another 

expression of consumerism, epitomized by 

the rise of blockbusters—with their wider 

releases and expensive marketing strategies— 

ushering in an era of new vitality for 

the industry. 


33 



Power to New Audiences 

The early 1970s saw an industry in crisis. 

And as many as many such industries do, 

the film business sought to make money 

cheaply and quickly. With exploitation 

films, dabbling in on-trend subjects like 

martial arts and eroticism, studios were 

able to attract moviegoers without investing 

in the sort of big-budget spectacle that 

had flopped in the 1960s. One of the most 

important exploitation sub-genres was 

blaxploitation. The civil rights movement 

had obliged exhibitors to open their doors 

to Black audiences and brought new ways 

of thinking about race relations. 

For the first time since the birth of cinema, 

the integration of theaters gave African 

Americans a wider platform and showed 

the importance of catering to a diverse 

audience. 

Melvin Van Peebles’s 1971 film Sweet 

Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is believed to 

be the first blaxploitation film. The movie 

features a male prostitute, Sweetback, 

who evades the police and protests against 

white authority. It established one of the 

genre’s core themes: A Black person fights 

the system, and for the first time wins. 

Despite its X rating (the movie tagline was 

“X-rated by an all-white jury”), the film 

grossed $15 million and pushed Hollywood 

toward a new audience. That same year, 

MGM’s Shaft became an instant hit. 

Boxoffice Pro reported that it played 24 

hours a day for the first week of its opening 

in some theaters, like the DeMille Theatre 

in New York City’s Times Square. Unlike 

many Hollywood films, the genre also 

made room for women stars, such as icon 

Pam Grier, “the “Queen of Blaxploitation.” 

Film historians still try to understand 

the significance and impact of the 

genre. Was it an expression of Black 

empowerment, a manifestation of their 

anger toward the system, or just a new 

marketing angle for Hollywood? Blaxploitation 

was indeed criticized by some 

African Americans and by the NAACP for 

perpetuating stereotypical images of Black 

people as criminals. Others criticized the 

lack of originality of the genre, which by 

the middle of the decade had resorted to 

horror, western, and kung fu film remakes. 

In the pages of Boxoffice Pro, 

blaxploitation films were received with 

mixed reviews. Steven Jacobson, head of 

the independent production company 

Xanadu Productions, acknowledged in 

November 1975 that “Black films make 

money.” But, criticizing their hyper-focus 

on Black audiences, he continued that 

“it’s in the best interest of the industry 

to be sensitive to the needs of the [entire] 

moviegoing public.” A semiretired trade 

paper editor, Don Carle Gillette, criticized 

their quality. “Too many exhibitors still are 

more interested in making money from 

sales of popcorn, cold drinks, and hot dogs 

than from the sale of box office tickets. … 

But tawdry exploitation pictures can draw 

many munchers while quality films attract 

a more discriminating clientele that sits 

Film historians still try to 

understand the significance 

and impact of the genre. 

Was it an expression of 

Black empowerment, a 

manifestation of their anger 

toward the system, or just 

a new marketing angle for 

Hollywood? 



attentively all through a performance. … 

So what’s best for the industry—quality 

films or popcorn pictures?” he asked. 

Downtown Theaters Are Shuttered 

Criticism aside, blaxploitation films did 

invigorate Black filmmakers and audiences, 

especially urban moviegoers. But their 

success was not enough to keep downtown 

theaters from closing. In the local news 

sections of Boxoffice Pro, articles about 

theater closings proliferated. In an article 

dated February 1976, Shlyen attributed 

this to “conditions which [small theaters] 

have been unable to control,” including 

product shortages, excessive rental terms, 

and extended runs in inner-city theaters 

that “did not provide sufficient patrons to 

sustain such extended needs.” Moreover, 

as an anonymous contributor wrote in 

1972, “The audience that once looked 

to moviegoing big-city wise as a steady 

habit, has moved increasingly to the 

outlying sections and spilled over to the 

fast-growing suburban towns.” Because 

of the “frightening displays of violence 

in the streets, choking traffic conditions, 

[and] reduced parking availability,” they 

continued, “it’s a matter of persuading 

entertainment-seekers to ‘return’ to the 

central-core city after dark.” 

Suburbanization was taking a toll on 

drive-ins too, as more and more were razed 

to the ground to make room for parking 

lots and malls. Another institution of 

American moviegoing was particularly 

hard hit during that period: movie palaces. 

A September 1979 editorial entitled “Grand 

old houses fast becoming a memory” 

explained that “many of the survivors are 

threatened with extinction either through 

demolition, recycling, or restoration projects 

that would render their once grand 

appeal antiseptic by former standards of 

excellence—a sad throwback to the proverbial 

winds of change that we all so proudly 

hail as progress.” Boxoffice Pro advocated 

for the protection of these historically 

and culturally significant theaters, but the 

high costs of maintenance in the context 

of a wider moviegoing crisis made the task 

almost impossible. 

Some movie palaces, like the Hollywood 

Pantages or Radio City Music Hall, were 

converted to performing arts centers. 

Others were transformed into churches. 

Drive-ins, meanwhile, hosted swap meets 

to bring in additional revenue during the 

day. NATO dedicated many conferences 

and roundtables to the problem, with 

debates on topics like “Unconventional 

Uses for Conventional Theaters” or 

“Daytime Dividends for Drive-ins.” NATO’s 

1972 Showmanship Award winner, Joe 

Vleck, the advertising director of National 

General Theatres in Los Angeles, suggested 

making the theaters available for beauty 

operators’ conventions, travel agencies, 

garden-equipment dealers, sports-equipment 

suppliers, and savings and loan 

shows. In the end, it was grassroots activism 

from local moviegoers that contributed 

most to the preservation of movie palaces. 

Historic theaters like the 4,000-seat Chica- 


35 



Movie advertising in Boxoffice Pro 

during the 1970s ran the gamut, from 

more “respectable” pictures to the 

exploitation fare that kept downtown 

theaters running—for a time. 

36 



go Theatre or the Bandbox in Philadelphia 

were registered as historical landmarks 

thanks to their efforts. 

Movies Go to the Multiplex 

Suburban theaters were popping up just 

as fast as downtown houses were disappearing. 

The magazine’s Modern Theater 

section was continuously dominated by 

news of the construction of multiplexes, 

shopping center theaters, and “multi-mini-theaters,” 

defined as multiplexes with 

smaller auditoriums. Suburban theaters 

had their roots in the postwar years, but 

the 1970s truly became the decade of the 

“complex theater type,” as M.A. Lightman, 

president of Malco Theatres, described 

it in 1970. Shopping center theaters and 

multiplexes, where exhibitors could show 

more movies simultaneously to smaller 

audiences, were now the norm. This coincided 

with the phenomenon later known 

as the “malling of America,” a period from 

1960 to 1980 in which an estimated 17,500 

malls were built. These malls catered to a 

suburban crowd of largely white, middle 

class moviegoers—still considered the 

backbone of the exhibition industry. 

Far removed from the harsh realities of 

city life, shopping center theaters were 

places where cinema’s escapism could be 

literally felt. 

The multi-theater concept can be attributed 

to Stanley Durwood, president of 

Durwood Theatres, the Kansas City–based 

circuit that eventually became the exhibition 

giant AMC. After the success of its 

Parkway Twin in 1962, AMC pioneered the 

multiplex with the first-ever quadruplex in 

its hometown in 1966. In April 1971, Boxoffice 

Pro reported from Kansas City that 

AMC would open 70 new auditoriums and 

17 multiplexes in 13 cities in “one of the 

most intensive expansions in the history of 

motion picture exhibition.” AMC’s growth 

was such that it managed to become a 

nationwide franchise in less than 10 years. 

Stanley Durwood described the company’s 

“fresh and imaginative” approach in 

a press release: “The patron-oriented 

convenience, comfort, and choice add up 

to a totally unique experience that has met 

with immediate success everywhere it has 

been introduced.” Durwood also touted 

the free parking and the availability of “a 

wide variety of entertainment for a variety 

of patrons in a single complex.” 

Accounts from exhibitors supported 

Durwood’s argument. The genius of the 

mall multiplex was that when families 

were done with their shopping, they could 

all go to the movies without being obliged 

to watch the same film. They could go 

to the theater “together but separately,” 

wrote one mini-theater exhibitor in 1970. 

Multiple exhibitors pointed out that the 

cost of running a multiplex was now 

about the same as running a single-screen 

theater with 500 seats or more, thanks to 

advances in automation, which allowed 

theaters to serve multiple auditoriums 

from a single projection booth as well as 

invest in only one lobby, box office, and 

concession stand. Ben Shlyen, still urging 

the protection of smaller urban theaters, 

congratulated “progressive theatermen 

for their capacity to innovate and keep up 

with demographic changes,” as he wrote 

in 1973. “Competition may come and go, 

but the movie theater goes on forever. 

This has been shown in the upbuilding 

of new theater structures, improvement, 

and modernization of the existing ones 

that have kept apace of the demands of 

the times, population, and urban changes,” 

he argued. 

The Blockbuster Phenomenon 

With the “malling” of cinemas, movies 

were now less a cultural form of entertainment 

than a consumerist hobby. That shift 

was accelerated and epitomized by the 

advent of the blockbuster. 

After a harsh admissions crisis at the 

beginning of the decade, “lost” audiences 

started returning en masse in 1974 when 

hits like The Exorcist (which broke The 

Godfather’s box office record) and The 

Sting contributed to an increase of weekly 

attendance from 16.6 million in 1973 to 20 

million. But the history of the blockbuster 

cannot be told without Jaws. In 1975, a 

young director named Steven Spielberg 

created one of the biggest cultural 

phenomena in the history of the industry. 

Jaws became the highest-grossing film 

ever, as well as the most talked-about 

movie of the year. The movie was a 

landmark as well for its unprecedented 

release: It opened simultaneously in 409 

theaters nationwide, while most films 

until that point would hit screens in a few 

key locations before rolling into new ones. 

Jaws was also the first film to understand 

the power of the ancillary markets. It 

launched the biggest TV campaign up 

to then with a $700,000 spend for three 

nights of nationwide prime time TV ads 


37 



on all networks. And then came Star Wars 

(Episode IV – A New Hope). After opening 

on May 25, 1977, George Lucas’s opus 

became an instant hit. Its record-breaking 

success was made evident by the endless 

lines in front of theaters. “It broke records 

in every house in which it opened and set 

cumulative box office records in most of 

the cities where it is showing,” Boxoffice 

Pro breathlessly reported on the sixth day 

of its opening. 

Thus was the modern blockbuster born. 

Bigger, high-concept movies that generated 

“buzz” started flooding the market. 

New practices in marketing, wider releases 

in the summer, and longer runs steadily 

became the norm. Ben Shlyen pondered 

the social roots of the phenomenon in 

January 1979. “Has the public simply tired 

of the ‘deep think’ and ‘message films’? 

Some say that the type of pictures America 

chooses to watch are indicative of what we 

may be currently experiencing as a people. 

That is, the recent dramatic shift to the 

just-for-fun brand of motion pictures is 

symbolic of what the country is experiencing 

in the late ’70s. … Today’s audiences 

are tired of inflation, leery of politics, and 

are turning to the movies again as a source 

of entertainment.” 

What certainly amplified the escapism 

and wow effect of blockbusters were their 

special effects and sound innovations. 

True to its capitalist foundations, 

Hollywood seems to follow an economic 

cycle of booms and busts, the latter often 

accompanied by surges in technological 

invention. Much like the gimmick frenzy 

of the fifties meant to combat TV, the 1970s 

witnessed a technological boom that was 

supposed to attract the “lost” audiences 

flocking to cable and video cassettes. 

While advances in sound and special 

effects had been happening for decades, 

they gained an unprecedented popularity 

in the 1970s thanks to the blockbuster. 

One of those innovations was Imax, 

which premiered at the Expo ’70 World’s 

Fair in Japan with the 17-minute-long 

Tiger Child. Special effects also captivated 

audiences in memorable sequences in 

films like The Exorcist, Superman: The 

Movie, and Alien. Star Wars perhaps did 

more than any other movie to popularize 

special effects with its first extensive use 

of animated 3-D CGI, widely lauded in the 

pages of Boxoffice Pro. The film’s VFX 

editors, including several of George Lucas’s 

Industrial Light and Magic co-founders, 

went on to receive the Academy Award for 

Best Achievement in Visual Effects. 

Star Wars also cemented Dolby’s 

dominance as surround sound made its 

comeback. In 1971, A Clockwork Orange 

had become the first film to use Dolby 

technology for recording sound and 

noise reduction. Dolby Stereo, an optical 

four-channel sound system technology, 

was used in A Star Is Born five years later. 

But to quote famed sound designer Walter 

Murch, “Star Wars was the can opener that 

made people realize not only the effect of 



sound but the effect that good sound had 

at the box office.” When Star Wars opened 

in the summer of 1977, only three prints 

out of the 40 screens where it played were 

Dolby. Lucas, despite distributor 20th 

Century Fox’s objections, had insisted 

on using Dolby Stereo. As the Star Wars 

phenomenon took off, so did the demand 

for Dolby. In the first weeks after the 

launch of the film, more and more space in 

the magazine was dedicated to the installation 

of the system in theaters all over 

the country. Exhibitors bragged about the 

modernity of their theaters and the box office 

effects of the technology. A showman 

in Louisville was reported as saying that 

the Dolby system was “excellent, making 

even regular films sound better.” Another 

exhibitor in Milwaukee boasted about 

recently installing the system, “which 

people tell [him] is half the film.” 

Dolby Stereo had become a must. For 

many, it was the way to fight home entertainment. 

Dennis Udovic, a Wisconsin 

projectionist writing to Boxoffice Pro 

in September 1977, argued, “The basic 

movie customers are young people, and 

stereophonic sound is right up their alley.” 

Two years later, writer John M. Novak 

urged exhibitors to abandon the view that 

stereo sound was “just another fad” and 

advised them to invest in the technology. 

“The average theater is 30 years behind 

the times in terms of sound quality. … In 

competition with the quality of today’s 

home stereo components, never mind 

what’s in store for tomorrow; the average 

theater sound system would lose by 

forfeit,” he argued. 

The blockbusters, in combination 

with multiplexes and technological 

innovations, gave new life to the industry 

and changed it forever. Ben Shlyen wrote 

in March 1976 that good blockbusters 

have “caused people, again, to talk 

enthusiastically about motion pictures.” 

Nevertheless, as waves of blockbusters 

overwhelmed theaters, critics—including 

Shlyen—pointed out that the lack of diversity, 

embodied by the predictable stories 

copying the Star Wars and Jaws formulas, 

coupled with long runs could eventually 

hurt the market. It was not enough to have 

big films. They needed to be good as well. 

Many articles in Boxoffice Pro warned 

of the importance of protecting smaller, 

high-quality films. One writer in Knoxville, 

in a 1976 review of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry 

Lyndon, declared, “It takes a lot of guts 

to assemble a film of this magnitude to 

compete with today’s made-for-money 

movies.” The exhibition landscape was 

indeed very different from what it was in 

the early 1970s, with its independent New 

Hollywood productions. 

Sex, Censors, and Videotapes 

The end of the 1970s was radically 

different in another respect. The first half 

of the decade did not only see the height 

of New Hollywood and blaxploitation—it 

was the heyday of sexploitation. MPAA 

“Competition may come 

and go, but the movie 

theater goes on forever.” 


39 



president Jack Valenti’s rating system had 

failed to trademark the X rating, which 

led to a boom of adult films in downtown 

theaters. In particular, 1972 and 1973 were 

the golden age of sexploitation. Deep 

Throat was mainstream (even Jacqueline 

Kennedy Onassis saw it, and Bob Hope 

talked about it on TV), and adult film 

exhibitors, now organized in their own 

trade group, the Adult Film Association 

of America, were preparing their own 

ratings code. And while Boxoffice Pro 

frequently wrote about the need for more 

general and family products, most of the 

ads in the magazine during that period 

were for X-rated films. 

Sexploitation relaunched debates about 

censorship and the precise meaning of 

“obscenity” and “pornography,” which 

lacked an official legal definition. Roth v. 

United States had established in 1957 that 

sex and obscenity were not synonymous 

but did not define what obscenity actually 

was. A few years later, an exhibitor from 

Georgia, Billy Jenkins, was arrested for 

showing Mike Nichols’s Carnal Knowledge. 

His case was taken to the Supreme Court, 

which ruled the movie was not obscene. 

But in 1973, the Supreme Court found that 

obscenity should be defined “by contemporary 

community standards,” leading 

many local courts to ban erotic films. 

Adult theaters were subject to crackdowns 

by the police and picketed by citizens. 

Some cities even developed zoned areas 

specifically for adult theaters, as many 

people feared their effects on children. In 

fact, another debate frequently animating 

the magazine was the impact of these 

movies on the behavior of audiences. Most 

of the studies presented concluded that 

pornography had no impact on “moral 

character and sexual orientation.” 

James H. Nicholson, president of 

American International Pictures, said in a 

keynote speech at a NATO convention in 

1970: “I cannot believe we are all voyeurs, 

and I know this present ‘flash’ of box 

office gold is mostly the result of fleeting 

curiosity.” Looking at the example of 

Europe, he warned, “The audience who 

liked the almost pornographic films got 

tired of them, and the audiences they had 

alienated no longer cared about going to 

the movies.” Letters from exhibitors in the 

magazine certainly show that there was 

indeed sexploitation fatigue by the mid- 

1970s. However, it was not the end of that 

“fleeting curiosity” that killed adult film 

exhibition. Adult exhibition was an early 

victim of the industry’s newest threat, 

video cassettes, which were to become so 

contentious in the eighties. 




41 

41_AD-Dolphin-Seating.indd 41 29/09/2020 12:34

Industry INDUSTRY INSIDERS 

POPCORN 

POWER 

Shelly Olesen on Nearly 

30 Years at C. Cretors & 

Company 


Photo: Shelly Olesen 

It was during her job interview that 

Shelly Olesen knew she belonged 

at C. Cretors & Company. “I looked at the 

guy who was interviewing me and I said, 

‘OK, no, you have to hire me. This is the job 

for me,’” she recalls. “I knew it. It felt like 

home.” Nearly 30 years later, the job title 

has changed, but the feeling of belonging 

hasn’t. Now, as Cretors’s V.P. sales and 

marketing, overseeing the company’s 

sales to theaters, bars, bowling alleys, and 

the like, Olesen’s love and pride for her 

company, her industry, and (naturally) 

popcorn comes through loud and clear. 

It’s not uncommon at Cretors, says 

Olesen, for people to stay as long as 

she has—but 30 years is nonetheless 

a small span compared to the history 

of the company, founded in the 1880s. 

Charles Cretors, so the company history 

goes, invented the popcorn machine 

back in 1893, inspired by watching street 

vendors pop their wares over an open 

fire. He wheeled his new machine over to 

Chicago’s World’s Fair later that year, but 

“nobody wanted to buy the product. They 

didn’t know what it was,” says Olesen. 

Undeterred, Cretors began giving the 

popcorn away for free; after 10 minutes, 

the line was so long that he could start to 

charge for it. “With that one invention, he 

not only gets credited with inventing the 

first popcorn machine,” says Olesen, but 

also with being a “catalyst that started the 

concession industry.” 

From humble beginnings, Cretors 

expanded. Horse-drawn carts soon added 

products like chewing gum, beverages, 

and cigarettes to the standard peanuts and 

popcorn, bringing wares to fairgrounds, 

baseball parks, and movie theaters. They 

(the concessions vendors, not the horses) 

weren’t allowed inside the theaters until 

the Depression, when theater owners 

realized that selling food—and keeping a 

cut of the proceeds—could help them stay 

open through tough times. 

During World War II, Cretors took 

a government-mandated break from 

making popcorn machines for two years, 

shifting operations to parts for radios and 

machine guns to aid the war effort. In the 

’60s, Charles D. Cretors—current CEO 

and great-grandson of founder Charles— 

invented the industrial popcorn machine, 

allowing factories to make popcorn in 

large volume. And the ’90s, when Olesen 

was new to the company, saw a boom in 

the construction of multiplexes, causing 

an increased need for popcorn machines 

among rapidly expanding chains. “It was a 

really busy time,” she modestly recalls. 

Since that first foray into the World’s 

Fair, Cretors has stayed in the family while 

expanding its product line to include 

nonpopcorn concessions machines and, 

more recently, Covid-19 safety equipment. 

The company has also expanded across 

borders; per Olesen, international sales 

make up approximately 60 percent of 

Cretors’s business. 

Not that Olesen knew much of the 

company’s history when she went in for 

that first, fortuitous interview. She studied 

elementary education and science at 

the University of Illinois at Urbana- 

Champaign, but since “teaching jobs 

were hard to come by,” she moved to New 

York to work for her father’s friend doing 

sales. Two years later, she realized that 

sales was for her but New York wasn’t. She 

moved back to Chicago and got in touch 

with a placement agency; her only hard 

and fast criterion was that the company 

she worked for had to be the “Cadillac” of 

its particular industry, selling a top-ofthe-line 

product that she’d be proud to 

promote. 

“‘What? How many can you sell?” 

Olesen recalls thinking when she found 

out she’d be interviewing for a job selling 

popcorn machines. But the interview 

wasn’t even over when she was convinced 

that Cretors was the sort of place where 

she could settle down permanently. 

“Sometimes you have to follow your gut. 

I knew it was a good company. I knew 

[it had] family-owned values. Good 

midwestern values. … [The Cretors family] 

treat you like family. And they’re fair. I 

think people just want to be treated well, 

treated fairly. It’s not hard to work here.” 

(Cretors is a family business in more 

ways than one for Olesen, who met her 

future husband, Martin Olesen, on the job 

when he moved from Denmark to work 

in international sales. Yes, they did serve 

popcorn at the wedding.) 

Though selling popcorn machines 

seems a far jump from what Olesen 

initially wanted to do for a living, she 

finds that her educational background 

comes in handy. In fact, teaching others 

all that she’s learned about Cretors since 

that first interview has become one of her 

favorite parts of the job. “I like to share 

the way I feel about the company, the way 

I feel about the industry,” she says. The 


42-43_Industry-Insiders.indd 42 29/09/2020 12:34

“We have a small 

museum here. We have 

popcorn machines that 

go back to the 1800s. 

And they still work!” 

industry of making popcorn proved much 

more interesting and complex than Olesen 

first imagined, particularly given Cretors’s 

focus on engineering and inventing. As a 

company, it mixes the high tech with the 

old school, integrating new techniques 

and materials into its products to provide 

improved ROI for customers, while still 

remaining connected to its past. “We have 

a small museum here. We have popcorn 

machines that go back to the 1800s. And 

they still work!” Olesen says. 

For Olesen, sharing her knowledge of 

popcorn—the history, the maintenance 

practices to keep machines working longer, 

the percentage of moisture needed in 

every kernel to make it pop (“about 13.5 

to 14%,” if you’re curious)—comes with 

learning from others, as well: customers, 

fellow vendors, and all the various other 

attendees of the 20-plus trade shows 

Olesen typically attends in a year. Her 

very first trade show was the NAC’s yearly 

expo in 1991; it’s an organization she “can’t 

speak enough about.” 

“I think associations are important,” 

she adds—something she believes 

people will come to feel more strongly 

in the wake of a global pandemic that’s 

brought trade shows to a near standstill. 

“It’s not just meeting the customers. 

It’s meeting people like you. It’s 

meeting other vendors.” Getting “fresh 

perspectives” from people both inside and 

outside the industry—the NAC features 

members representing a variety of sports, 

recreation, and entertainment industries, 

not just movie theaters—allows Olesen to 

be more fluid in the way she operates. “If 

you’re not constantly reevaluating and 

learning from new stuff coming in,” she 

says, “then you’re missing out on a really 

good opportunity.” 

For now, the face-to-face meetings 

Olesen prizes so much are on hold. But 

working for a company with such a deep 

history has made Olesen hopeful that the 

theater industry will be able to bounce 

back. “Something on the outside of your 

business often affects your business. We’ve 

been through the Spanish Flu, two world 

wars, the Great Depression. The coming of 

the television—everybody thought movie 

theaters would go out of business,” she 

says. “We know that it was popcorn and 

soft drinks that kept the movie theaters 

open in the 1920s. And it’ll be popcorn and 

soft drinks that bring it back out” today. 

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43 

42-43_Industry-Insiders.indd 43 30/09/2020 09:01


44_AD-BXCo-x2.indd 44 29/09/2020 12:34

Next Act Cinema 46 | Cranford Theater 50 | Maysles Documentary Center 52 

THEATER 

Cranford Theater 

“I wanted to do something that would make people happy. 

Movies have always been an escape from reality.” 

Pivoting in the Pandemic, p. 50 


45 

45_THEATER-Opener.indd 45 30/09/2020 09:02

Theater NEXT ACT CINEMA 

A NEXT ACT 

FOR NEXT ACT 

CINEMA 




In March 2019, Anthony Fykes and 

Robert Wright officially became 

cinema operators with the grand opening 

of Next Act Cinema. Located in Pikesville, 

Maryland, about a half hour outside 

Baltimore, Next Act Cinema began its 

life as a ’30s art deco theater that closed 

in 1984 and subsequently went through 

several changes in ownership. By the time 

Fykes and Wright found the space, it had 

been closed since 2016. 

Recalls Fykes, “We weren’t really sure 

how to build [Next Act Cinema] and 

structure it so that it would be inviting to 

the community.” Despite the challenges 

of being first-time theater owners, the pair 

successfully launched Next Act Cinema 

and integrated it into the Pikesville 

community through their thoughtful 

and responsive programming. “Everyone 

knows that it’s really hard to turn a profit 

at a movie theater,” says Fykes. But “in 

our first year, we were doing pretty well. 

Before Covid hit.” 

Almost a year to the day after opening 

its doors, Next Act Cinema closed—and 

it remained closed for over five months, 

before being one of the first cinemas to 


46-48_Next-Act.indd 46 30/09/2020 09:03

“A lot of movie theaters 

don’t want to be in 

economically underserved 

communities.” 

Photo: Next Act Cinema 

welcome moviegoers back over Labor 

Day weekend for the release of Warner 

Bros.’ Tenet. 

Next Act Cinema is one of a very small 

handful of Black-owned cinemas in the 

United States. Minority-owned theaters 

were more common between 1905 and 

the 1950s, notes Fykes, when segregation 

meant that Black audiences would have 

their own, dedicated theaters. (Not that 

this was necessarily a golden age of Blackowned 

theaters; many of them were run 

by Black managers but owned by white 

men, and certain cities with high minority 

populations—including Charlotte and 

Chapel Hill, N.C.—never had a dedicated 

theater for Black audiences.) Former 

basketball player and entrepreneur 

Magic Johnson founded his own cinema 

circuit in the ’90s, making Magic Johnson 

Theatres the only Black-owned chain in 

the U.S. at that time; now, those theaters 

are owned by AMC. Though it’s difficult to 

get an accurate number as to how many 

Black-owned theaters currently exist in 

the United States, Fykes knows of only 

four others. “A lot of movie theaters,” he 

says, “don’t want to be in economically 

underserved communities.” 

It was never the intention of Fykes 

and Wright to be a quote-unquote “Black” 

cinema—Pikesville itself is a diverse 

community, containing a mix of Black, 

white, Hispanic, and Orthodox Jewish 

populations. “We have to be sure that we’re 

showing movies that appeal to a wide 

audience,” Fykes says—which is why, when 

the two-screen theater opened in 2016, 

they screened Captain Marvel. Though 

the duo “didn’t honestly know how people 

were going to perceive us” when they 

opened, Next Act Cinema held its own with 

that film, “against the AMCs and the Regal 

that are our competitors in the area.” 

For the next movie, something changed 

that would impact Next Act’s mission 

and programming strategy going forward. 

“When Us came out, we couldn’t get it, 

actually. … And so we had our movie 

booker basically complain and say, ‘Listen, 

you have a Black-owned theater showing 

the movie Us. Why wouldn’t they be able 

to get it?’ Without going into a whole long 

drama—we got the movie literally about 

two days before it was going to be released.” 

Next Act Cinema put some social 

marketing together for Us—“a little more, 

not much more” than what they’d done 

with Captain Marvel. And the floodgates 

opened. Email and social interactions 

came pouring in, from moviegoers excited 

that they could see Jordan Peele’s Us in 

a theater owned and run by Black men. 

“There was one guy—I kid you not, he 

was our influencer, because he put us on 

the map. I’ll never forget this guy,” says 

Fykes. “He came in with about three or 

four friends, and they took a video. And 

what he said on social media was, ‘We are 

watching Us inside of us,’ basically.” D.L. 

Hughley and Steve Harvey reached out 

to do interviews. Us outgrossed Captain 

Marvel at Next Act Cinema and “really put 

us on the map.” 

Us represented a shift in how Next Act 

could best serve its customer base—not 

only people in Pikesville, but those driving 

from Virginia and D.C. It’s best summed 

up by a piece of advice Fykes gives to 

aspiring exhibitors: Be able to pivot. Fykes 

and Wright initially thought that Pikesville, 

being an older community, would enjoy 

classic films like Casablanca and Gone 

with the Wind. Harlem Nights and Coming 

to America were also on the docket in 

those early days. It didn’t work—Fykes 

estimates that five people total showed up 

for Coming to America. 

“You have to keep your ear to the 

ground, understanding what your local 

market is demanding to see” he says. Older 

films that people could rent for a few bucks 

at home didn’t draw people in during those 

opening months. Next Act eventually 

found success in mixing big Hollywood 

blockbusters, with their wide appeal, with 

medium-budget, Black-led films like 

The Banker, Queen and Slim, 21 Bridges, 

Black and Blue, and Harriet. The Harriet 

Tubman biopic earned more money for 

Next Act Cinema than Avengers: Endgame, 

the highest-grossing movie of 2019. 

With dozens of movies coming out each 

month and only two screens to put them 

on, picking the right movie can be a matter 

of “luck,” Fykes admits—but Next Act 

Cinema weights the scales in their favor 

by providing experiences around many 

of the films they program. The theater 

lobby was decorated for The Lion King and 

Harriet. Shaft and Avengers: Endgame 

had people dressing up in cosplay. “We 

created a boutique-type experience, where 

the guests would feel part of the movie 

from the lobby to the big screen. … That’s 

making us stand out. We’re very focused 

on doing that, because the community 

then doesn’t just see us as a movie theater. 


47 


Theater NEXT ACT CINEMA 

It’s a destination. They have an experience. 

They can eat, they can drink, but they also 

can take pictures with the owner, take 

pictures with the staff. We decorate it with 

them in mind.” 

Community helped Next Act Cinema 

even before it opened—Fykes remembers 

people from local churches coming in to 

lend their expertise on audiovisual tech. 

Once Next Act Cinema was screening 

movies, fraternities and sororities would 

rent out theaters to see Harriet. Even 

after the Covid-19 pandemic cut them 

off from their patrons in a physical sense, 

community remained on the cinema 

owners’ minds. 

“All the things that the country is going 

through right now with the deaths of 

George Floyd and Breonna Taylor—we’re 

a part of that,” Fykes says. As such, Next 

Act hosted a Juneteenth celebration that 

also served as a sort of soft opening for the 

theater; an outdoor portion of the event 

got rained out, but inside the theater, staff 

acted out their own sitcom, played music, 

and performed comedy—all viewable 

to customers sitting at home on their 

computers. “Juneteenth is supposed to 

be a celebration. We got so many emails 

and thank-yous after we did that,” says 

Fykes. “As a small, boutique theater, even 

a large theater, you have to be engaged 

with your customer base.” Theaters and 

customers need each other, he argues. “We 

have issues that our community is facing, 

but then you have an entertainment 

establishment that’s supposed to be 

uplifting. That’s what we’re trying to 

remember. That’s our mission.” 

And it’s a mission that—based on 

conversations Fykes and Wright have had 

since founding Next Act Cinema—other 

Black entrepreneurs and movie lovers are 

hungry for. Neither man had experience 

in the exhibition world before opening 

Next Act. Wright knew audiovisuals, and 

Fykes knew operations, but everything 

specific to running a theater had to be 

learned. The bank turned them down, so 

when it came to financing, “We kind of 

had to figure it out ourselves.” Two years 

later, Fykes is unaware of a mentorship 

program or something similar geared 

toward people of color who want to get 

into the exhibition space, noting that “I 

would have loved to have a mentorship 

or a roadmap.” Now, Fykes and Wright 

are considering writing something 

themselves, “something that would help 

the next Rob and Tony. Or the next Next 

Act Cinema.” 

For now, the pair is busy. In June, they 

launched a crowdfunding campaign for the 

cinema that, as of press time, has earned 

just north of $11,000. And finally, over Labor 

Day weekend, a long-awaited moment: the 

reopening of Next Act Cinema. 

“It was like turning the Titanic,” Fykes 

recalls—updating systems, securing staff, 

and retraining that staff where necessary 

in a matter of two or three days. “We had 

such a short window. We thought we 

would get at least a week!” Not wanting 

to miss Tenet’s opening weekend—and 

wanting to show their support for director 

Christopher Nolan, whom Fykes admires 

for his strong advocacy on behalf of 

theaters—Fykes, Wright, and their staff 

kicked it into high gear and got Next 

Act open on Friday, September 4. Fykes 

guesses that about half of the openingweekend 

crowd were people who had 

never been to Next Act before, drawn in by 

a combination of outreach the theater has 

done during its shutdown and the relative 

lack of other open theaters in Maryland. 

Speaking to Boxoffice Pro shortly 

after his theater’s (re-)opening weekend, 

Fykes said he understands that not 

everyone feels ready to return to the 

movies, though he’s confident more 

people will be swayed as word of mouth 

spreads about the theater’s safety 

measures. These include following the 

government-mandated capacity limit of 50 

percent, as of press time, plus closing the 

bar area, installing air purifiers, instituting 

a one-way flow of traffic, and having a 

Photo: Next Act Cinema 

staff member in place to give patrons hand 

sanitizer when they walk in. For those who 

wanted to show their support for Next Act 

without actually seeing a movie there, the 

cinema turned one of their windows into 

a guest book where people could come 

by and share their good wishes. “We said, 

‘Hey, listen, if you don’t feel comfortable 

coming in to watch a movie, just come 

in and buy some popcorn and sign our 

window with the marker,’” Fykes says. “I 

hope that theaters across the country are 

seeing the same thing. Because it is fun. 

You want to remember, ‘Netflix and chill’ 

has its place. But movies are social.” 

Visit BoxofficePro.com/Boxoffice-Podcast/ 

(episode 17), for a conversation with Next 

Act Cinema’s Anthony Fykes. 

“We have issues that our 

community is facing, but then 

you have an entertainment 

establishment that’s supposed 

to be uplifting. That’s what 

we’re trying to remember. 

That’s our mission.” 



RTS 

Change with the Changing Times 

#UpgradeTo 

info@galalitescreens.com 

www.galalitescreens.com 


49 

49_AD-RTS-Galalite.indd 49 29/09/2020 12:35

Theater CRANFORD THEATER 

PIVOTING IN 

THE PANDEMIC 

How New Jersey’s Cranford 

Theater Is Surviving (and 

Thriving) in the Pandemic 

BY CHRIS EGGERTSEN 

Like many exhibitors in the age of 

Covid-19, Cranford Theater owner 

Doreen Sayegh is leaning into the drive-in 

model, giving many customers their first 

taste of the resurgent moviegoing format. 

As it turns out, it’s new for her, too. 

“I have to be honest, [I’d] never been 

to a drive-in,” says Sayegh, who in June 

opened a “pop-up” location in the parking 

lot of a swimming pool located just a short 

drive away from her five-screen theater in 

Cranford, New Jersey. “Once the movie 

starts, I park my car in the back.” 

Sayegh is far from the only U.S. theater 

owner who has opened a so-called pop-up 

drive-in since the coronavirus forced a 

shutdown of hardtop theaters beginning 

in mid-March, but her approach has been 

more creative than most. At the Cranford 

drive-in, screenings of old classics come 

with a variety of bells and whistles, from 

costumed employees to tailor-made preshow 

PSAs to themed souvenirs. Guests 

who arrived at a recent screening of the 

original Superman received a custom dog 

tag; for a “Christmas in July” screening of 

Elf, moviegoers were checked in by men 

dressed as Santa Claus and Buddy; and 

to secure entry to an August 5 screening 

of the 1971 classic Willy Wonka and the 

Chocolate Factory, potential customers 

had to track down one of 65 tickets by 

shopping at local businesses. On the night 

of the screening, each car was handed a 

Wonka bar—one of which held a Golden 

Ticket that won the lucky guest a one-year 

supply of Ferrara candy. 

Sayegh is driven by a sense of 

purpose that goes beyond just keeping 

the Cranford afloat during the crisis. “I 

wanted to do something that would make 

people happy,” she says. “Movies have 

always been an escape from reality.” 

The theater has also baked in a 

charitable component to every screening. 

In addition to an ongoing canned-food 

drive for the local homeless shelter, the 

Cranford has partnered with nonprofit 

organizations including the Christopher 

and Dana Reeve Foundation, which 

solicited donations from customers at the 

Superman screening and even brought in 

a speaker to raise awareness about spinal 

cord injuries, which Christopher Reeve 

suffered during a 1995 horseback-riding 

accident. (The theater has also agreed to 

match every donation that comes in and 

is hosting a virtual donation box for the 

foundation on the drive-in’s concessions 

page.) A portion of ticket proceeds from 

a recent screening of Despicable Me went 

to support the Children’s Specialized 

Hospital’s Better Together initiative; in a 

partnership with Buddy Valastro, star of the 

TLC reality series “Cake Boss,” each car at 

the screening also received a “sweet treat” 

from the New Jersey baker. The theater is 

additionally hosting a virtual donation box 

for the hospital on its website. 

These activations are Sayegh’s way of 

adding depth to the drive-in experience, 

which prior to the pandemic had been 

whittled down to just over 300 drive-in 

theaters across the U.S.—down from a 

high of around 4,000 in the late ’50s and 

early ’60s. So far, the experiment has 

been a rousing success; with a capacity of 

roughly 60 cars, the drive-in sold out its 

first week of screenings in less than three 

minutes. In the second week, she says, two 

showings of The Goonies sold out in just a 

minute and a half. 

“When we looked at the analytics … in 

the queue, [there] were hundreds of people 

five minutes before tickets went on sale,” 

says Sayegh. “They were waiting.” 


50-51_Cranford.indd 50 29/09/2020 12:35

“I wanted to do 

something that would 

make people happy. 

Movies have always been 

an escape from reality.” 

Photo: Cranford Theater 

Photo: Cranford Theater 

Sayegh has a lifelong history in the 

exhibition business. When she was a child, 

her father owned a chain of movie theaters 

in New Jersey that included the Cranford. 

“I always worked for him,” she says. After 

the chain’s business operations (though 

not the properties themselves) were sold 

in 2010 to DigiPlex Destinations—later 

acquired by Carmike—Sayegh remained 

on board, only opting to leave after AMC’s 

subsequent acquisition of Carmike would 

have required her to relocate. She went 

on to consult for ScreenVision for a time 

and was on the cusp of switching careers 

altogether when fate intervened. 

“I was actually just about to go into 

a whole different industry [when] the 

company that was operating our theaters 

in Cranford and Westfield abandoned 

both buildings at the end of the summer 

last year,” says Sayegh. Noting that the 

previous tenants had left the Cranford 

in “really bad shape,” she spied an 

opportunity to return the 100-year-old 

theater to its former glory. Thus began a 

process of renovating the Cranford and 

bringing it up to code before reopening it 

on November 8, 2019. 

By Sayegh’s account, business was brisk 

at the Cranford for the first four months— 

and then came the coronavirus. “By the 

first week of March, my staff was already 

in gloves and masks, and the numbers 

had declined terribly,” she says. Two 

days before the government mandated 

it, Sayegh shut the theater down. “People 

were scared and, you know, I didn’t want 

my staff getting infected,” she says. “It 

wasn’t socially responsible to stay open.” 

A hardened survivor in an industry that 

has faced constant threats to its model 

over the last several decades, Sayegh 

jumped into action almost immediately, 

selling concessions, gift certificates, and 

T-shirts and creating gift packs, including 

discounted movie tickets, to encourage 

customers to return to the theater once it 

reopened its doors. By the end of April, she 

caught wind of the phenomenon of popup 

drive-ins—some of which, she found, 

were established by people outside the 

exhibition business. 

“I said to myself, I’m going to really kick 

myself if I don’t do this, because I’m in the 

business,” she says. “If anybody should do 

it, it should be one of us.” 

What followed was a nearly two-month 

period that saw Sayegh researching, 

planning and, finally, putting together 

a proposal for the Cranford mayor and 

city council. Once approved, plans for 

the Cranford drive-in were published in 

the township newsletter and ultimately 

made their way onto social media and 

local news outlets. Sayegh’s own Facebook 

and Instagram posts on the project were 

collectively shared over 2,000 times, 

increasing the theater’s social media 

footprint and more than tripling the 

circulation of its newsletter. 

Though setup costs for the Cranford 

drive-in “were up there” (the theater 

erected a high-quality 40-foot screen and 

also built a projection/concessions booth 

out of an oversized shipping container), 

Sayegh is quick to note that the investment 

has been worth it. Sellouts have continued 

for forthcoming screenings of films 

including The Karate Kid, Uncle Buck, and 

Beetlejuice, and some customers have even 

begun to ask if the theater is planning to 

continue with the concept next summer 

(it’s currently slated to run through Labor 

Day and potentially into October). With 

no end to the pandemic in sight, Sayegh 

certainly isn’t ruling it out. Whatever the 

future looks like, she’s determined to keep 

the Cranford—not to mention the business 

that has shaped the trajectory of her life 

and career—alive. 

“I’d say there’s definitely some concern,” 

says Sayegh when asked if she’s worried 

about the viability of her industry during 

the pandemic. “But I’m definitely not 

going down without a fight.” 

Visit BoxofficePro.com/Boxoffice-Podcast/ 

(episode 19), for a conversation with 

Cranford Theater’s Doreen Sayegh. 


51 

50-51_Cranford.indd 51 29/09/2020 12:35

Theater MIGHTY MAYLES 

MIGHTY 

MAYSLES 

Harlem’s Documentary 

Theater Stays Connected 

to Its Community 


New York City has no shortage of 

independent and art house theaters, 

but Harlem’s Maysles Documentary Center 

is something different. The Maysles was 

established by late documentary pioneer 

Albert Maysles in 2005—with the physical 

cinema opening three years later—as a 

place to explore and discuss documentary 

films. Core to its mission are conversation 

and community involvement—made more 

complicated by a pandemic that has shut 

the theater’s doors and driven many of its 

customers inside. But the Maysles forges 

ahead, never forgetting the community it’s 

here to serve. 

On Saturday, July 25, the Maysles took 

advantage of its copious sidewalk space (a 

rarity in New York City) to host an outdoor, 

socially distanced screening of John Lewis: 

Good Trouble (pictured), about the late 

congressman. The event was the first in 

the Maysles’s Sidewalk Cinema series—a 

“spontaneous, slightly guerrilla” bit of 

programming, explains Executive Director 

Dale Dobson, that caters to “people on a 

sidewalk in New York trying to find some 

normalcy [in] their lives through the kinds 

of things that they enjoy doing.” Future 

Sidewalk Cinema events, said programmer 

and cinema manager Allason Leitz after 

that initial screening, would be kept 

intentionally small, with seats laid out solo 

or in small groups so that people—whether 

visiting the Maysles intentionally or 

just passing by on still-bustling Lenox 

Avenue—can stop and see a movie on the 

screen hung in the theater’s front window. 

For Dobson, a major part of the 

Sidewalk Cinema’s appeal is that it allows 

the theater “to make certain that people 

Image courtesy Maysles Documentary Center 


52-53_Maysles.indd 52 30/09/2020 09:11

within the local community are getting 

something that they’re accustomed to 

from us.” Since shutting down in March, 

the Maysles—like many other art house 

cinemas across the United States—has 

provided content digitally, offering film 

screenings and educational programming 

online. But to offer only online programming, 

Leitz explains, runs counter to the 

Maysles’s goal of “bringing in people from 

across economic backgrounds in Harlem.” 

In normal times, the Maysles runs on 

suggested donations; as long as there are 

open seats, no one is turned away for lack 

of money. But with digital programming, 

there are more than financial barriers— 

viewers need computer equipment and 

know-how to access the Maysles’s virtual 

theatrical platform. Sidewalk Cinema, 

Leitz continues, “has been a way for us to 

equalize, as much as we can … who has 

access right now.” 

“It’s really important to our mission 

that we serve our local community,” says 

Dobson. “And if the local community 

doesn’t have the tools, that’s concerning.” 

To that end, the Maysles is exploring additional 

ways to provide in-person screenings, 

both in Harlem and elsewhere in 

the city, potentially by collaborating with 

outside groups. Meanwhile, the Maysles’s 

virtual programming continues—providing 

opportunities that this small, 51-seat 

theater didn’t have before. 

Traditionally, Dobson says, “it’s 

difficult for a cinema like ours to do a lot 

of first-run docs” due to high licensing 

fees. Now, with the digital business 

model operating “more like a rev share,” 

the Maysles has been “able to [program] 

some of those best-in-class, theatrical 

docs, particularly [ones] that would be of 

interest to a POC audience.” And the audience 

itself has expanded; Dobson was 

surprised to see, on attending a digital 

documentary and poetry workshop held 

in May, that there were participants from 

“Ireland and Romania—all these parts of 

the world.” 

While digital has opened some doors 

for the Maysles, it has also required the 

cinema to be vigilant about its identity 

and its brand, Dobson says. Without the 

physical atmosphere and little theatrical 

“It’s really important to our 

mission that we serve our local 

community. And if the local 

community doesn’t have the 

tools, that’s concerning.” 

extras, like the intimate Q&As that were a 

signature part of the Maysles experience, 

there’s not as much to separate one theater 

from another, she says, especially if there’s 

substantial overlap in programming. The 

key, then, is to more tightly embrace the 

Maysles’s highly curatorial approach. “We 

needed to make sure that we carried the 

essence of what people look for in our 

curation into the digital space,” Dobson 

says. “The curation of the programming 

[needs to have] the certain quality that 

we’ve been known for, for over a decade.” 

The Maysles’s curatorial approach to 

programming allows them to be involved 

in conversations about issues of racial 

justice, even at a time when their doors 

are closed. The cinema’s first outdoor 

event—a live V.J. set that took place in 

mid-July—brought together audio and 

video, from the Harlem Renaissance 

to today, to encourage contemplation 

and conversation about how lessons 

from the past can inform a fight for a 

new future. And the concept of Western 

civilization—and its roots in imperialism 

and conquest—is interrogated by 12 films 

in the Maysles’s After Civilization series 

(some with accompanying Zoom Q&As). 

After Civilization, like much of the 

Maysles’s online programming, is paywhat-you-can. 

Indoor screenings, when 

the Maysles could still hold them, operated 

on a suggested donation basis. “The 

bulk of how we work as an organization 

is through grants,” Dobson explains. She 

expresses gratitude and “pleasant surprise” 

that people are still donating to the theater, 

and the Maysles has received some 

emergency money from the government, 

as well. But the life of a nonprofit remains 

a “constant cycle” of fundraising—something 

that hasn’t changed, even if the rest 

of the exhibition landscape has. “What I 

really think has been beautiful this year,” 

says Dobson, “is I’ve seen us really come 

together and work harder. I’ve never seen 

my board work as hard. I’ve never seen my 

staff work as hard before. … You’re in such 

uncharted terrain. You have no playbook.” 


53 

52-53_Maysles.indd 53 30/09/2020 09:11

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54_AD-RCM-Media-Advertorial.indd 54 30/09/2020 09:16

Filmmaker Interview 56 | Coming Attractions 64 | Booking Guide 71 

ON SCREEN 

Watch trailer 

Nicola Dove © 2020 Danjaq, LLC and MGM. All rights reserved. 

No Time To Die 

In Theaters on November 20 

Scan the QR code with a mobile device to 

watch the official trailer. 


55 

55_ON-SCREEN-Opener.indd 55 29/09/2020 12:36

On Screen FILMMAKER INTERVIEW 

FEELING 

THE 

SOUL 

Pete Docter and Kemp Powers Tread New 

Ground with Pixar’s Metaphysical Latest 



56-63_Soul.indd 56 29/09/2020 12:37


57 



“I feel like when you have an 

opportunity to do something at this 

scale, you can’t hold any part of yourself 

back.” So speaks Kemp Powers, who logs 

his first co-directorial credit with Disney- 

Pixar’s Soul, in theaters November 20. A 

writer whose credits include TV’s “Star 

Trek: Discovery” and the upcoming One 

Night in Miami, which he adapted from 

his own play, Powers prefers to think 

of himself simply as a storyteller. “The 

medium might change,” he explains. 

“But the one thing that’s never changed 

is you’re always chasing after telling a 

“I have a feeling— 

and I think that most 

people have this in 

their gut—that we’re 

more than just our 

physical stuff.” 

really great story, a story that connects to 

people.” The story Powers is after in Soul 

is a big one. As put by Soul director Pete 

Docter, Soul was developed around the 

idea of “proving the worthiness of life.” 

Tackling big ideas through the medium 

of animation is nothing new, either for 

Pixar or Docter himself, whose Inside Out 

(co-directed by Ronnie Del Carmen) took 

on nothing less than how the human brain 

works. “The research we did on Inside 

Out”—in which characters personify a 

young girl’s basic emotions—“was very 

much based on things you can measure,” 



Below left: Joe Gardner 

(voiced by Jamie Foxx) 

represents history for 

Pixar as the studio’s first 

Black lead. 

Below right: Kemp Powers, 

Pete Docter, and producer 

Dana Murray work out the 

meaning of life behind the 

scenes on Pixar’s Soul. 

Docter says. The germ of Soul began with 

such spiritual questions as, “‘Where 

is it that we come from? How is it that 

we’re born into the world with a sense 

of personality?’” says Docter. “I have a 

feeling—and I think that most people 

have this in their gut—that we’re more 

than just our physical stuff.” 

The film’s core questions—Why are we 

here? What is our purpose on this planet?— 

are examined through the character 

of Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a music 

teacher and aspiring jazz musician who 

finally lands his dream gig—only to have 

an accident that puts him in a coma. He 

initially looks to be on his way to the Great 

Beyond (maybe he’d have met some of the 

characters in Pixar’s Coco?) before going 

rogue and landing instead in the Great 

Before, where souls develop personalities 

before being sent off to Earth to be born 

in human bodies. In the Great Before, Joe 

meets a soul named 22 (Tina Fey), who’s 

skeptical that this whole “being alive” 

thing is all it’s cracked up to be. 

Asked how one gets from “What is the 

meaning of life?”—a concept so basic yet 

so expansive— to concrete characters and 

story, Docter jokes, “If I knew, it might 

be easier! Each one of these [movies] is 

very different than the others.” Prior to 

directing Soul and Inside Out, Docter 

helmed Monsters, Inc. and Up in addition 

to notching myriad credits on other 

Pixar films, going all the way back to Toy 

Story (on which he was a story artist/ 

supervising animator and helped devise 

the original story) and earlier shorts. His 

work with the studio has gotten him two 

Oscars (Best Animated Feature for Up and 

Inside Out) and landed Pixar its first Best 

Picture nomination (for Up). 

To stick the landing on Soul, Docter, a 

bona fide veteran of animation, turned 

to Powers, who had never worked on an 

animated project before. Docter had first 

worked with Mike Jones, with whom he 

“laid some of the very broad strokes of 

the story.” Powers was brought on as a 

writer and co-director whose “specialty 

and focus was writing, initially. But then, 

as we got into it, I realized how over my 

head I was about the cultural specificity 

of things. The design of, say, even [Joe’s] 

apartment or the type of clothing he 

would wear. All these things that are 

beyond my life experience. And so Kemp 

really became a vital part of not only the 

writing, but the crafting of the world and 

the characters.” 

Soul is Pixar’s first film with a Black 

lead, something that Kemp—himself, 

like Joe, a Black man in his 40s, born 

and raised in New York City, with an 

interest in jazz—does not take lightly. 

“I’m a Black man. I never forget that. It’s 

been the case with everything that I do 

that I’m always thinking about what it’s 

going to be like for my children and my 

family to see my work on-screen. And 

I take that responsibility very seriously 

because, unfortunately, there hasn’t been 

a great deal of representation of Black 

characters—in animation in general, 

and particularly at Disney.” (It was 2009 

before Disney’s famed set of princesses 


59 



had its first Black member—Tiana, from 

The Princess and the Frog.) 

Determined to ensure the accurate and 

respectful depiction of Black characters 

in Soul, Powers acknowledged from the 

get-go that he, by himself, should not— 

and could not—be the sole arbiter of what 

Blackness would look like in this film. 

“‘Please do not assume that I represent 

every opinion of all Black people,’” he 

remembers telling his new team. “‘In 

fact, anyone who ever steps forward 

and tries to convince you that they do 

speak for all Black people, that should 

alert you to the fact that they’re a fraud. 

“I love the fact that we 

took the deep dive of 

inviting so many voices, 

both internally and 

externally.” 

Because such a thing is pretty much 

impossible.’” 

Enter a “culture trust” of Black 

consultants—people both within and 

outside Pixar—to “make sure we were 

getting things right,” says Docter. Issues 

of clothing (would this character wear 

a chain or would he not?), design (what 

should the barber shop Joe visits look 

like?), lived experiences (what’s it like 

being a teacher in Queens?), and more 

were discussed at length to ensure 

authenticity in the final product. “I love 

the fact that we took the deep dive of 

inviting so many voices, both internally 



Below: A middle school 

music teacher, Joe has 

dreams of leaving the 

classroom behind for 

the stage. 

and externally. And it’s not a rubber 

stamp thing. It’s very easy to just say, 

‘Here’s this film we’ve done. Is it OK with 

you guys?’ But that wasn’t the case with 

Soul,” says Powers. Consultants were 

brought in “particularly at the early stages, 

when it came to character design, sets, so 

many details.” 

Later in the process, Selma and “When 

They See Us” cinematographer Bradford 

Young—who became the first Black 

cinematographer to be nominated for an 

Oscar for his work on Arrival—came on 

to instruct Soul’s lighting crew on how to 

light various Black complexions. “I really 

enjoyed watching and being a part of the 

presentations that involved showing best 

case scenarios and situations where Black 

skin is lit correctly,” recalls Powers, noting 

that a good chunk of those examples are 

from recent projects—“films that Bradford 

Young shot or [from] TV shows like 

‘Insecure.’ [The proper lighting of Black 

skin is] not something that I think the 

industry really was that concerned about 

until very recently. And I’m glad they 

finally are, because a film like Soul gets to 

be the beneficiary.” 

The team at Pixar, always a proponent 

of heavy research, also consulted with 

people of different faiths and cultural 

traditions—pastors and theologians, 

philosophers and rabbis (“It’s going to 

sound like a joke in a minute,” quips 

Docter)—about their beliefs about the 

human soul, both what it is and, crucially, 

what it looks like. On the latter front, 

“there were a lot of things that we found 

that were very similar,” Docter says. 

“People talked about it being breath or 

light or ethereal or nonphysical. And 

invisible. And that was all interesting, 

but it doesn’t really help us too much in 

terms of nailing down the design, because 

of course you can’t draw that.” The end 


61 



design of the soul became “sort of foggy 

and semitranslucent and somewhat 

ghostly—but we wanted to be clear that 

they weren’t ghosts.” 

For the human characters, meanwhile, 

a challenge was crafting designs that 

diverge enough from those in previous 

Pixar films to be unique, but not so much 

that they’re “stylized just for the sake of 

stylizing them,” Docter says, an approach 

that can land the animator in the land of 

“unappealing or distancing effects, where 

the characters look weird or puppet-y or 

doll-like in a way that makes you pull back 

a little bit. I was really proud of the design 

group on this film, because I think if you 

put our characters next to, say, Toy Story 

or [Finding] Nemo, or something like that, 

they don’t fit in. It’s a different approach to 

doing the humans. And yet, to me, they’re 

very appealing, still.” 

In terms of character design, animation 

still has “a lot of room to explore,” Docter 

says. “Once we find something that works, 

I think the industry tends to churn around 

in that same zone.” In not just the look, but 

the sound of Soul, Docter and Kemp sought 

to stretch the boundaries of what had 

previously been done at Pixar. Three core 

people contributed to the score. The first, 

Grammy-nominated musician Jon Batiste, 

is responsible for all the jazz compositions 

heard in the film. He was brought in early 

in the process, because Docter, Kemp, and 

their team—armed with dozens of GoPro 

cameras—had to record him and the 

other musicians playing, so the film’s jazz 

performers could accurately match the 

movements of their real-life counterparts. 

Brought in later in the process, but 

still earlier than is typical for previous 

Pixar films, was the duo of Trent Reznor 

and Atticus Ross, whose moody, synthheavy 

score for The Social Network netted 

the film one of its three Oscars. Their 

SOUL 

SEARCHING 

“The thing that we did first was to 

try to figure out what do various 

religious traditions and historical 

traditions, cultural traditions, tell us 

about how people view the soul? 

Are there any commonalities?” 

—Pete Docter 



Left: Joe’s No. 1 argument 

to 22 (Tina Fey) as to why 

life is worthwhile: pizza. 

Right:Jazz great 

Dorothea Williams 

(Angela Bassett) gives 

Joe his big break. 

All images 

© 2020 Disney/Pixar. 

All Rights Reserved. 

“You could have the best 

TV and sound system in the 

world in your house, and it 

will not be the equivalent of 

seeing it in a theater.” 

subsequent work on projects like Gone 

Girl or HBO’s “Watchmen”—or, for that 

matter, Reznor’s status as founder and 

front man of Nine Inch Nails—doesn’t 

exactly scream “Pixar movie.” Getting 

Reznor and Ross to do Soul’s score was 

another “example of us going, ‘OK, how 

can we shake things up a bit?” says Docter. 

“I’m certainly very proud of the music in 

all our films. It’s beautiful. But how do we 

get a different sonic thumbprint to this 

film? How can we make it feel unique and 

special?” Working with frequent Pixar 

collaborators like Randy Newman or 

Michael Giacchino, Docter notes, involves 

the bulk of the score being written after 

the film is “more or less locked.” With 

Soul, Reznor and Ross came in earlier, 

writing “themes and cues that we started 

cutting into the film as we were crafting 

the story”—a melding of music and image 

befitting the film’s roots in jazz. 

Pixar, jazz, and Trent Reznor and 

Atticus Ross—“When you see those 

names on paper, it seems like it would 

clash,” Powers admits. “But it’s actually 

very symbiotic. I don’t want to spoil it, but 

there are a few moments in the film that I 

find transcendent, and it’s actually [due 

to the melding of] the work of Trent and 

Atticus and Jon Batiste.” While Soul gives 

its viewers—or listeners—a different sonic 

experience than what they might expect 

based on previous Pixar movies, ultimately 

“it works better than even I suspected it 

would.” 

And it’s a musical experience that’s 

more than worthy, Powers argues, of the 

theatrical experience. “You could have 

the best TV and sound system in the 

world in your house, and it will not be the 

equivalent of seeing it in a theater. The 

film was made for theater. I really hope 

that everyone has at least an opportunity, 

or a choice, to see it that way. Because it’s 

pretty incredible. It’s a big-screen film. 

That’s for sure.” 


63 


On Screen COMING ATTRACTIONS 

COMING 

ATTRACTIONS 

All release date information is accurate as of September 23. 

Sony Pictures Animation. © 2019 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

CONNECTED 

TBD 2020 / Sony Pictures Animation 

When Katie is accepted into the film school of her 

dreams, her plans to meet “her people” at college are 

upended when her nature-loving dad decides that the 

whole family should drive her to school and bond as 

a family one last time. But the ultimate family road 

trip is interrupted by a tech uprising, as all around the 

world the electronic devices people love decide it’s 

time to take over. 

Voice Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Eric 

André, Olivia Colman 

Director: Mike Rianda 

Rating: PG Running Time: TBD 

Watch trailer 

64 


64-69_Coming-Attractions.indd 64 30/09/2020 09:36

THE CLIMB 

November 13 / Sony Pictures Classics 

Zach Kuperstein, courtesy Sony Pictures Classics 

Kyle and Mike are best friends who share a close 

bond—until Mike sleeps with Kyle’s fiancée. 

The Climb is about a tumultuous but enduring 

relationship between two men across many years 

of laughter, heartbreak, and rage. It is also the story 

of real-life best friends who turn their profound 

connection into a rich, humane, and frequently 

uproarious film about the boundaries (or lack 

thereof) in all close friendships. 

Cast: Michael Covino, Kyle Martin, Gayle Rankin, George 

Wendt, Judith Godrèche 

Directors: Michael Covino, Kyle Martin 

Rating: R Running Time: 94 Min. 

AMMONITE 

November 13 / Neon 

BFI London Film Festival 2020 

In 1840s England, acclaimed self-taught fossil 

hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and a young 

woman (Saoirse Ronan) sent to convalesce by 

the sea develop an intense relationship, altering 

both their lives forever. 

Cast: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Fiona Shaw, Gemma 

Jones, Charlie Rushbrook 

Director: Francis Lee 

Rating: TBD Running Time: 136 Min. 


65 



SOUL 

November 20 / Disney 

Ever wonder where your passion, your dreams, and 

your interests come from? What is it that makes you 

... you? In 2020, Pixar Animation Studios takes you 

on a journey from the streets of New York City to 

the cosmic realms to discover the answers to life’s 

most important questions. 

Voice Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Phylicia Rashad, 

Daveed Diggs, Ahmir Questlove Thompson 

Director: Pete Docter 

Rating: TBD Running Time: TBD 

© 2020 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved. 

HAPPIEST SEASON 

November 25 / Sony-TriStar 

Happiest Season captures the story of a young 

woman (Kristen Stewart) whose plan to propose 

to her girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis) while at her 

family’s annual holiday party is upended when 

she discovers her partner hasn’t yet come out to 

her conservative parents. 

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Mary Steenburgen, 

Victor Garber, Alison Brie 

Director: Clea DuVall 

Rating: PG-13 Running Time: TBD 

Lacy Terrell, courtesy TriStar Pictures 



Nicola Dove © 2020 Danjaq, LLC and MGM. All rights reserved. 

NO TIME TO DIE 

November 20 / United Artists 

James Bond (Daniel Craig) has left active service and 

is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is 

short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey 

Wright) from the CIA turns up asking for help. The 

mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out 

to be far more treacherous than expected, leading 

Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with 

dangerous new technology. 

Watch trailer 

Cast: Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, 

Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas 

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga 

Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 163 Min. 

Fall 2020 67 



NOMADLAND 

December 4 / Searchlight Pictures 

Nomadland is a road movie following Fern (Frances 

McDormand), a woman in her sixties, who after 

losing everything in the Great Recession embarks 

on a journey through the American West, living as a 

van-dwelling modern-day nomad. 

Cast: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, 

Charlene Swankie 

Director: Chloé Zhao 

Rating: R Running Time: 108 Min. 

Photo courtesy Searchlight Pictures 

DEATH ON THE NILE 

December 18 / 20th Century Studios 

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot’s Egyptian vacation 

aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying 

search for a murderer when a picture-perfect 

couple’s idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut 

short. Set against an epic landscape of sweeping 

desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, 

this tale of unbridled passion and incapacitating 

jealousy features a cosmopolitan group of impeccably 

dressed travelers and enough wicked twists 

and turns to leave audiences guessing until the 

final, shocking denouement. 

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie 

Hammer, Annette Bening, Ali Fazal 

Director: Kenneth Branagh 


© 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Photo by Rob Youngson. 



Clay Enos © 2018 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 

WONDER WOMAN 1984 

December 25 / Warner Bros. 

Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s 

(Gal Gadot) next big screen adventure finds her 

facing an all-new foe: The Cheetah (Kristen Wiig). 

Cast: Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig, Chris Pine, Pedro Pascal 

Director: Patty Jenkins 


Watch trailer 



Big 

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Bigger cause. 

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® is 

leading the way the world understands, 

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©2020 ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (PRNS1692) 

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ON SCREEN BOOKING GUIDE 

BOOKING 

GUIDE 

Release calendar for theatrical 

distribution in North America 

Release dates are accurate as of September 23. For the latest 

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

RON’S GONE WRONG 

Fri, 4/23/21 LTD 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Death on the Nile 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

20TH CENTURY STUDIOS 

310-369-1000 

212-556-2400 

DEATH ON THE NILE 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Annette 

Bening 

Director: Kenneth Branagh 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Cri/Dra/Mys 

DEEP WATER 

Fri, 8/13/21 WIDE 

Stars: Ana de Armas, Ben Affleck 

Director: Adrian Lyne 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

THE EMPTY MAN 

Fri, 10/23/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Cri/Dra/Hor 

FREE GUY 

Fri, 12/11/20 WIDE 

Stars: Ryan Reynolds 

Director: Shawn Levy 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com/Act 

WEST SIDE STORY 

Fri, 12/10/21 WIDE 

Stars: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler 

Director: Steven Spielberg 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Mus 

THE LAST DUEL 

Fri, 10/15/21 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 

THE KING’S MAN 

Fri, 2/12/21 WIDE 

Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Gemma 

Arterton 

Director: Matthew Vaughn 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

BOB’S BURGERS 

Fri, 4/9/21 LTD 

Stars: H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen 

Schaal 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

© 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Photo by Rob Youngson 

UNTITLED 20TH CENTURY 2021 2 

Fri, 9/10/21 LTD 

Rating: NR 

UNTITLED 20TH CENTURY 2021 2 

Fri, 12/3/21 LTD 

Rating: NR 

DISNEY 

818-560-1000 

Ask for Distribution 

BLACK WIDOW 

Fri, 5/7/21 WIDE 

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, 

David Harbour 

Director: Cate Shortland 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv 

Specs: 3D 

SOUL 

Fri, 11/20/20 WIDE 

Stars: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey 

Director: Pete Docter 

Rating: PG 

Genre: Ani 

Specs: 3D/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

ETERNALS 

Fri, 11/5/21 WIDE 

Stars: Richard Madden, 

Angelina Jolie 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/SF 

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON 

Fri, 3/12/21 WIDE 

Stars: Awkwafina, Cassie Steele 

Directors: Paul Briggs, Dean Wellins 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Specs: 3D 


71 

71-79_Booking-Guide.indd 71 29/09/2020 12:38


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, 

Emma Thompson 

Director: Craig Gillespie 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

LUCA 

Fri, 6/18/21 WIDE 

Director: Enrico Casarosa 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

JUNGLE CRUISE 

Fri, 7/30/21 WIDE 

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, 

Emily Blunt 

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra 

Rating: NR 


Specs: Dolby Vis/Atmos 

THE BEATLES: GET BACK 

Fri, 8/27/21 WIDE 

Director: Peter Jackson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION 2021 

Fri, 11/24/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION 2021 

Fri, 12/17/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

FOCUS FEATURES 

COME PLAY 

Fri, 10/30/20 WIDE 

Stars: Gillian Jacobs, 

John Gallagher Jr. 

Director: Jacob Chase 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Hor 

LET HIM GO 

Fri, 11/6/20 LTD 

Stars: Kevin Costner, Diane Lane 

Director: Thomas Bezucha 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO 

Fri, 4/23/21 LTD 

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, 

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie 

Director: Edgar Wright 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor/Thr 


FREESTYLE RELEASING 

310-277-3500 


2 HEARTS 

Fri, 10/16/20 WIDE 

Stars: Jacob Elordi, Adan Canto 

Director: Lance Hool 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Rom/Dra 

GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT 

HARRY CHAPIN: WHEN IN DOUBT, 

DO SOMETHING 

Fri, 10/16/20 LTD 

Director: Rick Korn 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

IFC FILMS 

bookings@ifcfilms.com 

SHITHOUSE 

Fri, 10/16/20 LTD 

Stars: Cooper Raiff, Dylan Gelula 

Director: Cooper Raiff 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

KINDRED 

Fri, 11/6/20 LTD 

Stars: Tamara Lawrence, 

Jack Lowden 

Director: Joe Marcantonio 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

EMBATTLED 

Fri, 11/20/20 LTD 

Stars: Stephen Dorff, 

Darren Mann 

Director: Nick Sarkisov 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

STARDUST 

Fri, 11/25/20 LTD 

Stars: Johnny Flynn, Marc Maron 

Director: Gabriel Range 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

DEAR SANTA 

Fri, 12/4/20 LTD 

Director: Dana Nachman 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

SAVE TIME 

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FAREWELL AMOR 

Fri, 12/11/20 LTD 

Stars: Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, 

Zainab Jah 

Director: Ekwa Msangi 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

MLK/FBI 

Fri, 1/15/20 LTD 

Director: Sam Pollard 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

LIONSGATE 

310-309-8400 

FATALE 

Fri, 10/30/20 WIDE 

Stars: Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy 

Director: Deon Taylor 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Sus 

VOYAGERS 

Fri, 11/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Tye Sheridan, 

Lily-Rose Depp 

Director: Neil Burger 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: SF/Thr 

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 

SPIRAL 

Fri, 5/21/21 WIDE 

Stars: Chris Rock, 


Director: Darren Lynn Bousman 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL 

MAR 

Fri, 7/16/21 WIDE 

Stars: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo 

Director: Josh Greenbaum 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

Spiral 

Fri, 5/21/21 WIDE 

THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODY- 

GUARD 

Fri, 8/20/21 WIDE 

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, 


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 

Brooke Palmer, courtesy Lionsgate 

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73 



JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 

Fri, 5/27/22 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

MAGNOLIA PICTURES 

212-379-9704 

Neal Block 

nblock@magpictures.com 

COLLECTIVE 

Fri, 11/20/20 LTD 

Director: Alexander Nanau 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

ZAPPA 

Fri, 11/27/20 LTD 

Director: Alex Winter 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

CROCK OF GOLD – A FEW ROUNDS 

WITH SHANE MACGOWAN 

Fri, 12/4/20 LTD 

Director: Julien Temple 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

IP MAN: KUNG FU MASTER 

Fri, 12/11/20 LTD 

Stars: Dennis To 

Director: Li Liming 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

NEON 

hal@neonrated.com 

Rumble 

Fri, 1/29/21 WIDE 

AMMONITE 

Fri, 11/13/20 LTD 

Stars: Saoirse Ronan, 

Kate Winslet 

Director: Francis Lee 

Rating: NR 

OPEN ROAD FILMS 

AFTER WE COLLIDED 

Fri, 10/23/20 LTD 

Stars: Josephine Langford, 

Hero Fiennes Tiffin 

Director: Roger Kumble 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom 

PARAMOUNT 

323-956-5000 

COMING 2 AMERICA 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

RUMBLE 

Fri, 1/29/21 WIDE 

Stars: Will Arnett, Terry Crews 

Director: Hamish Grieve 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED LEE DANIELS BILLIE 

HOLIDAY FILM 

Fri, 2/12/21 WIDE 

Director: Lee Daniels 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Bio/Dra 

TOM CLANCY’S WITHOUT RE- 

MORSE 

Fri, 2/26/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

A QUIET PLACE PART II 

Fri, 4/23/21 WIDE 

Stars: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy 

Director: John Krasinski 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Hor 

INFINITE 

Fri, 5/28/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

MICRONAUTS 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

TOP GUN: MAVERICK 


Stars: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller 

Director: Joseph Kosinski 

Rating: NR 


Specs: IMAX/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

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 

JACKASS 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

MY LITTLE PONY MOVIE 

Fri, 9/24/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

SNAKE EYES 

Fri, 10/22/21 WIDE 

Stars: Henry Golding, Andrew Koji 

Director: Robert Schwentke 

Rating: NR 


CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG 

Fri, 11/5/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fam 

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 

Fri, 11/19/21 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Cruise 

Director: Christopher McQuarrie 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES 

212-556-2400 

NOMADLAND 

Fri, 12/4/20 LTD 

Stars: Frances McDormand, 

Linda May 


Rating: R 

Genre: Dra 

ANTLERS 

Fri, 2/19/21 LTD 

Stars: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons 

Director: Scott Cooper 

Rating: R 

Genre: Hor 

SONY 

212-833-8500 

HAPPIEST SEASON 

Fri, 11/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Kristen Stewart, 

Mackenzie Davis 

Director: Clea DuVall 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom/Com/Hol 

Paramount Animation 

ESCAPE ROOM 2 

Wed, 12/30/20 WIDE 

Director: Adam Robitel 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor/Thr 



Top Gun: Maverick 

Wed, 7/2/21 WIDE 

Paramount Pictures 




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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 


The Father 

Fri, 12/18/20 LTD 

UNTITLED SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM 

HOME SEQUEL 

Fri, 12/17/21 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Holland 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 

Tom Prassis 

212-833-4981 

THE CLIMB 

Fri, 11/13/20 LTD 

Stars: Michael Covino, Kyle Marvin 

Director: Michael Covino 

Rating: R 

Genre: Dra/Com 

THE FATHER 

Fri, 12/18/20 LTD 

Stars: Anthony Hopkins, 

Olivia Colman 

Director: Florian Zeller 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS 

Fri, 12/25/20 LTD 

Directors: Michael Dweck, 

Gregory Kershaw 

Rating: NR 

I CARRY YOU WITH ME 

Fri, 1/8/21 LTD 

Stars: Armando Espitia, 

Christian Vazquez 

Director: Heidi Ewing 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

NINE DAYS 

Fri, 1/22/21 LTD 

Stars: Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz 

Director: Edson Oda 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

THE HUMAN FACTOR 

Fri, 1/22/21 LTD 

Director: Dror Moreh 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Doc 

FRENCH EXIT 

Fri, 2/12/21 LTD 

Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, 

Lucas Hedges 

Director: Azazel Jacobs 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Com 

UNITED ARTISTS RELEASING 

310-724-5678 


NO TIME TO DIE 

Wed, 11/20/20 WIDE 

Stars: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek 

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga 

Rating: NR 


Specs: IMAX 

RESPECT 

Fri, 1/15/21 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 


Stars: Channing Tatum 

Directors: Reid Carolin, 

Channing Tatum 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

SAMARITAN 


Stars: Sylvester Stallone 

Director: Julius Avery 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED RUSSO BROTHERS FAMILY 

FILM 

Fri, 8/13/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fam 

DARK HARVEST 

Fri, 9/24/21 WIDE 

Director: David Slade 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

UNTITLED ADDAMS FAMILY 

SEQUEL 

Fri, 10/8/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Sean Gleason. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics 


77 



GUCCI 

Fri, 11/26/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

UNIVERSAL 

818-777-1000 

FREAKY 

Fri, 11/13/20 WIDE 

Stars: Kathryn Newton, 

Vince Vaughn 

Director: Christopher Landon 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor/Com 

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE 

Fri, 11/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone 

Director: Joel Crawford 

Rating: PG 

Genre: Ani 

NEWS OF THE WORLD 

Fri, 12/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Hanks 

Director: Paul Greengrass 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE PRODUC- 

TIONS 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

355 

Fri, 1/15/21 WIDE 

Stars: Jessica Chastain, 

Lupita Nyong’o 

Director: Simon Kinberg 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

MARRY ME 

Fri, 2/12/21 WIDE 

Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson 

Director: Kat Coiro 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom/Com 

NOBODY 

Fri, 2/19/21 WIDE 

Stars: Bob Odenkirk 

Director: Ilya Naishuller 

Rating: R 


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 

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: PG 

Genre: Ani 

THE FOREVER PURGE 


Director: Everardo Gout 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

UNTITLED M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN 

THRILLER 

Fri, 7/23/21 WIDE 

Director: M. Night Shyamalan 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE PRODUC- 

TIONS 

Fri, 8/13/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

THE BAD GUYS 

Fri, 9/17/21 WIDE 

Director: Pierre Perifel 

Rating: NR 



UNTITLED FANTASTIC BEASTS 3 

Fri, 11/12/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fan/Act 

KING RICHARD 

Fri, 11/19/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Bio 

BLACK ADAM 

Fri, 12/22/21 WIDE 

Stars: Dwayne Johnson 

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Fan 

Dune 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

Chiabella James, courtesy Warner Bros. 

WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMENT 

theatrical@wellgousa.com 

SYNCHRONIC 

Fri, 10/23/20 LTD 

Stars: Anthony Mackie, 

Jamie Dornan 

Directors: Justin Benson, 

Aaron Moorhead 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF/Hor/Thr 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL EVENT FILM 2 

Fri, 9/24/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

HALLOWEEN KILLS 

Fri, 10/15/21 WIDE 

Director: David Gordon Green 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

SING 2 

Fri, 12/22/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani/Mus 

WARNER BROS. 

818-977-1850 

DUNE 

Fri, 12/18/20 WIDE 

Stars: Timothée Chalamet, 

Rebecca Ferguson 

Director: Denis Villeneuve 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

WONDER WOMAN 1984 

Fri, 12/25/20 WIDE 

Stars: Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig 

Director: Patty Jenkins 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/Fan 

Specs: IMAX/3D/Dolby Vis/Atmos 

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 

THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE 

ME DO IT 


Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga 

Director: Michael Chaves 

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 

UNTITLED NEW LINE HORROR FILM 

2021 

Fri, 9/10/21 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

THE BATMAN 

Fri, 10/1/21 WIDE 

Stars: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz 

Director: Matt Reeves 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

UNTITLED ELVIS FILM 

Fri, 11/5/21 WIDE 

Director: Baz Luhrmann 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Bio/Mus 


79 


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The Boxoffice Company 12, 44 

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ADVERTISE IN THE 

WINTER ISSUE OF 

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310-876-9090 


80_AD-Index-Fractionals.indd 80 30/09/2020 09:42

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