Boxoffice Pro—Q4 2021

ShowEast 2021 ROLANDO RODRIGUEZ
DAN FELLMAN
Show E AWARD
ROLANDO
RODRIGUEZ
Chair, President, and CEO, Marcus
Theatres, and Chairman, National
Association of Theatre Owners
Rolando Rodriguez is this year’s
recipient of the Dan Fellman Show
“E” Award, a lifetime achievement prize, at
ShowEast. The award, renamed in 2015 to
honor long-time Warner Bros. distribution
executive Dan Fellman, is presented
annually to an industry member or
company in honor of their achievements,
accomplishments, dedication, and
longevity in the industry.
“We are extremely honored to present
Rolando Rodriguez with this award at
ShowEast this year. There is no better
example in our business that truly
represents what this award is all about,”
says Film Expo Group President Andrew
Sunshine. “Rolando’s dedication and
commitment to the theatrical community
is second to none.”
Rodriguez is the chair, president, and
CEO of Marcus Theatres and executive
vice president of The Marcus Corporation,
in addition to his roles as chair of the
National Association of Theatre Owners
(NATO) and board member of the Global
Cinema Federation.
Prior to his role at Marcus, Rodriguez
served as CEO of Rave Cinemas and
executive at Walmart and AMC Theatres.
He has advocated for diversity, equity, and
inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the business
community and has served as the board
chair for the Hispanic Collaborative,
which is committed to advancing the
overall well-being of Hispanic people in
the greater Milwaukee area.
Boxoffice Pro spoke with Rodriguez
ahead of ShowEast to get his perspective
on the challenges remaining for exhibitors
and why inclusion is a key objective for
Marcus Theatres.
We’re seeing positive signs in the
market, but this is still a period of
transition. Where would you say the
industry finds itself in terms of its
recovery here in the United States?
What signposts will you be checking
to assess progress in the coming
months?
The good news is, obviously, there’s a
solution. There are multiple solutions,
with the vaccination, which we should all
be encouraging for our own safety and
the safety of others, and there are also
treatments. This is a totally different place
than where our country was a year ago.
That is the positive aspect of the external
factors that impact our industry.
Secondly, thanks to the support of our
film company friends in California, with
new releases hitting the market, we’re
starting to see momentum. We are getting
back to the norm of what would happen in
our industry in 2019 and early 2020, when
you would have two to three new films
released on a weekly basis. That is positive
momentum. It is positive momentum
“We are extremely honored
to present Rolando Rodriguez
with this award at ShowEast
this year. There is no better
example in our business that
truly represents what this
award is all about.”
toward educating consumers that we’re
back. You can’t get that by just flipping on
a light switch. Our industry was practically
shut down for a period of 15 to 18 months.
We were able to reopen, yes, and did so
with library titles from our partners in
California. That helped us welcome back
our most loyal moviegoers and bring back
as many associates as we could during that
difficult time.
We continue that journey with the help
of the vaccines, of studios providing new
films, and by continuing to educate our
consumers that we have safe, enjoyable
out-of-home entertainment options, at
an incredible price-value relationship, to
participate in.
Where are we on that journey? I think
we started to walk around May of this year.
Now we’re in a faster walk, kind of a jog,
and picking up momentum. My hope is
that as we start getting into the fall, as we
start heading into October, November, and
December, that’s when we get into an even
faster jog to ideally get ourselves into a
running situation.
Communicating with moviegoers
about returning to cinemas is a
sensitive task during this crisis. How
have you addressed that challenge
at Marcus Theatres and on behalf of
the industry as a whole with The Big
Screen Is Back campaign?
We started in the walking phase of that
marketing task in May with The Big Screen
Is Back. We held a big launch event in
L.A. to let the world know that theaters
are open. But at that point in time, if you
recall, only around 65 percent or so of
theaters were open. Many were challenged
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