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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Wridy's weekly podcast featuring conversations with

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Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm

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Speaker 1: Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My

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Speaker 1: guest is Michael O'Leary, President and CEO of Cinema United.

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Speaker 1: Cinema United is the largest trade organization for exhibitors in

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Speaker 1: the world. It represents the owners of about thirty one

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Speaker 1: thousand screens in all fifty states in the US and

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Speaker 1: about thirty thousand screens overseas. O'Leary's job got a lot

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Speaker 1: tougher earlier this month when Netflix reached its deal to

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Speaker 1: buy Warner Brothers and HBO. That immediately sparked fear in

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Speaker 1: the exhibition community that Warner Brothers would curb its enthusiasm

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Speaker 1: for the theatrical film business. Given Netflix's traditional approach to releasing

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Speaker 1: movies and theaters for all only very short times and

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Speaker 1: only very select titles, the loss of supply for Warner

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Speaker 1: Brothers would be a big problem for movie theater owners

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Speaker 1: because Warners is such a big supplier of theatrical film,

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Speaker 1: the biggest of the Hollywood majors most years O'Leary and

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Speaker 1: I talk at length about this dynamic and the general

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Speaker 1: impact of entertainment consolidation on exhibitors, and we also talk

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Speaker 1: about the state of movie going in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: It's been a very up and down year. It's likely

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Speaker 1: to end up flat at best with twenty twenty four's

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Speaker 1: domestic box office hall. But O'Leary points to encouraging signs

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Speaker 1: that he sees in the data, especially around gen Z's

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Speaker 1: attitude to moviegoing. He has some thoughts about how studios

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Speaker 1: and exhibitors can do more together to improve movie marketing

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Speaker 1: and customer experiences at the turnstiles. Cinema United was previously

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Speaker 1: known as the National Association of Theater Owners. O'Leary has

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Speaker 1: been head of Cinema United for nearly three years. He

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Speaker 1: clearly has a good command of the issue use his

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Speaker 1: members face. We're going to talk about the issue issues

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Speaker 1: facing the exhibition, But of course, in the last five days,

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Speaker 1: there's been no bigger topic being talked about in all

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Speaker 1: of Hollywood, but particularly in the film community. A lot

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Speaker 1: of very vocal opposition to the idea of Netflix, given

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Speaker 1: its dominant streaming position. Adding these significant assets, Warner Brothers

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Speaker 1: Studios and HBO. Netflix has a very different view and

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Speaker 1: very different strategic approach to how it handles movies. It

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Speaker 1: does put movies in theaters, but for a very short time. This,

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Speaker 1: as you know, has people really animated and really upset.

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Speaker 1: Let me start by asking you, Michael, what are you

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Speaker 1: hearing from your members?

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Speaker 2: There's the concern among our members. After this deal was announced,

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Speaker 2: we put out a statement very quickly signaling our opposition

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Speaker 2: to it. I think it's important to look at this

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Speaker 2: deal in the life larger context. So as we come

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Speaker 2: to the end of twenty twenty five, now this has

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Speaker 2: been kind of an uneven year for exhibition and for

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Speaker 2: the movie industry, and I think on the whole it

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Speaker 2: will be viewed when it's finished as a positive. But

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Speaker 2: it's not where we wanted it to be. And so

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Speaker 2: I think there was some you know, kind of noise

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Speaker 2: in the system in terms of how much stronger can

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Speaker 2: the industry get, what does a continuing recovery look like?

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Speaker 2: And then you layer this on top of that, and

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Speaker 2: it's just another incredibly important existential variable which has come

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Speaker 2: into play and which driving our approach to all this

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Speaker 2: is frankly history and recent history at that history shows

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Speaker 2: us that when legacy studios are absorbed, the overall production

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Speaker 2: of motion pictures for the theater goes down. And obviously

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Speaker 2: the most recent example of that is Disney acquiring Fox

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Speaker 2: resulted in about forty three percent less movies being made

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Speaker 2: for theatrical production by those two studios, and that translates

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Speaker 2: to roughly a nine hundred million dollar loss in box office.

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Speaker 2: That's almost a billion dollars. Imagine if you had an

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Speaker 2: additional billion dollars to put on the end of the

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five total. That gets us closer to where

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Speaker 2: we want to be. But imagine if you go the

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Speaker 2: other way and take another nine hundred out of it.

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Speaker 2: Of particular concern is that in the present case, the

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Speaker 2: acquiring entity is Netflix, which has had a clearly stated

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Speaker 2: antipathy towards theatrical exhibition for going on a decade, and

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Speaker 2: so that causes, frankly, the concern to be even more elevated.

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Speaker 2: If the percentage of movies drops by forty three percent

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Speaker 2: when the acquirer is Disney, which takes a backseat to

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Speaker 2: no one in terms of their support of theatrical you

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Speaker 2: really have to wonder what the impact might be if

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Speaker 2: it's Netflix is the acquirer?

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Speaker 1: Can I challenge you on the forty three percent stat

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Speaker 1: because of course Disney acquired Fox in twenty nineteen. We

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Speaker 1: all know what happened in twenty twenty twenty one. Is

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Speaker 1: that skewed at all by the pandemic? Or are you

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Speaker 1: saying that a role average Now that the biz is

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Speaker 1: back to little.

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Speaker 2: Strength, we believe it's reflective of a larger trend. We're

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Speaker 2: happy to be proven wrong if we wake up next

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Speaker 2: year and that numbers are back where they used to be,

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Speaker 2: which is in the mid ti twenties. Further two, we

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Speaker 2: would welcome that with open arms. I don't think there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of evidence that that's going to happen.

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Speaker 1: We know that exhibitors feel the wide availability of movies

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Speaker 1: across many streaming platforms, especially so close to their initial release,

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Speaker 1: that that is just telegraphing to consumers. Don't go to

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Speaker 1: the movies, you can just wait a few weeks. It'll

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Speaker 1: be on one of these streaming platforms. Do you have

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Speaker 1: any anecdotal or any evidence to show that that is happening,

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Speaker 1: that that is costing certain movies box office. Netflix does

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Speaker 1: experiment with putting their movies in for very short time,

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Speaker 1: I think to get that pop, what do you see?

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Speaker 2: That's a very important question and the answer is more

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Speaker 2: complicated than simply streaming versus going to the movie theater.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of variables that go into the uncertainty

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Speaker 2: in our market right now, and one of them, which

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Speaker 2: is related to what you're talking about, is shrinking windows.

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Speaker 2: What's happening, we believe as a result of these increasingly

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Speaker 2: shrinking windows is that consumer perceptions are changing as to

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Speaker 2: when a movie will be available to them in the home.

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Speaker 2: And there's actually research that's out there now that suggests

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Speaker 2: that up to twenty six percent of the movie going

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Speaker 2: public believes that movies will be available to them in

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Speaker 2: the home faster than they actually are available in the home. So,

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Speaker 2: in this type of environment where people are being inundated

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Speaker 2: with information from all different directions, that type of perception

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Speaker 2: is fatal. And so we believe that if you had

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Speaker 2: a strong, consistent, reliable window that consumer could know is

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Speaker 2: how long it's going to be in the theater, you'll

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Speaker 2: put more people in the theater. And then I think

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Speaker 2: the other part of this which people often overlook or

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Speaker 2: don't completely appreciate is movies that begin in the theater

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Speaker 2: are more successful on each subsequent platform thereafter. So if

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Speaker 2: you're running a platform and you want to draw eyeballs,

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Speaker 2: one way to do it is to make sure that

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Speaker 2: you have a sufficient supply of movies that were theatrical.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's binary streaming versus movies, frankly, because

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Speaker 2: people that watch a lot of movies in the theater

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Speaker 2: probably subscribe to a lot of streaming services too, and

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Speaker 2: we need those people to come to the theater.

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Speaker 1: We've seen some experimentation at Netflix. We saw them experiment

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Speaker 1: with a theatrical sing along release of K Pop Demon

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Speaker 1: Hunters over Halloween weekend. Do you see signs on the

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Speaker 1: horizon that Netflix is loosening about the way they think

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Speaker 1: about movies.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't want to speak for Netflix. They're an

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Speaker 2: incredibly successful company and they are very good at what

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Speaker 2: they do. I think they are. As you note, they

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Speaker 2: have been putting things in theaters for different reasons, but

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Speaker 2: as we look at this as a core essential to

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Speaker 2: a strong theatrical ecosystem, they have yet to embrace a

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Speaker 2: truly meaningful window. They will some times put movies into

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Speaker 2: a theater long enough to allow them to qualify for awards.

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Speaker 2: Those frequently are not marketed particularly well, and they're almost

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Speaker 2: never reported. The box office is never reported, and I

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Speaker 2: think that if you're truly committed to being in the theater,

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Speaker 2: you need to have that reporting function because people want

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Speaker 2: to show, hey, this is a good movie, this is

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Speaker 2: how much money we made, and they don't do that.

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Speaker 1: Do your members have a standard that they would like

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Speaker 1: to see embraced by major studios?

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Speaker 2: We have For purposes of this conversation, which has been

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Speaker 2: going on for a couple of years now, we have

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Speaker 2: talked about kind of the core essentials are a consistent

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Speaker 2: slate of wide movies going into the theaters, supported by

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Speaker 2: a period of exclusivity. Last year at Cenemacon, I made

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Speaker 2: a speech about this and I said it should be

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Speaker 2: at least forty five days. We've used that as a marker.

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Speaker 2: There needs to be marketing commiserate with the size in

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Speaker 2: the scale of the movie, and we believe that those

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Speaker 2: at core essential elements s FOD window, the subscription window,

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Speaker 2: maybe ninety days, but those are kind of the key

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Speaker 2: elements that we've been consistent about when we have conversations

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Speaker 2: with people.

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Speaker 1: I know you've heard this before from the distributors. They say,

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Speaker 1: but I do all this marketing for the theatrical release,

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Speaker 1: and it does telegraph to the audience this is important,

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Speaker 1: pay attention. And then they say that I want that

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Speaker 1: home entertainment window or the streaming window to come sooner

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Speaker 1: so I can still piggyback off of all of that marketing.

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Speaker 1: You know, marketing is one of the many things in

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Speaker 1: our world is changing. Have there been any constructive discussions

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Speaker 1: or experimentation to bridge that gap somehow?

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Speaker 2: So? I think marketing is an area where we can

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Speaker 2: work together for a better result, frankly, and we've started

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Speaker 2: to have some of those conversations about how do we

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Speaker 2: do this better. If you were to ask me, where

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Speaker 2: I really think the marketing pinch has felt the most,

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Speaker 2: it's not in the top twenty movies. It's not in

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Speaker 2: the blockbusters. It's in twenty one through one hundred, what

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Speaker 2: we call at Cinema United, the next eighty. The box

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Speaker 2: office drop post pay pandemic for those movies is three

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Speaker 2: times as big as the box office drop for the

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Speaker 2: top twenty. And those are the movies, they're the smaller movies,

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Speaker 2: the medium sized movies, they need the marketing, they need

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Speaker 2: the time in the theater to build an audience. So

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Speaker 2: that is an area where we should try and come together,

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Speaker 2: because the truth is our industry cannot survive without those

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Speaker 2: next dating movies. We cannot just become simply a blockbuster

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Speaker 2: industry that has a certain number of event films throughout

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Speaker 2: the year. It's unsustainable that we have to bolster the

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Speaker 2: rest of the sleep.

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Speaker 1: So Michael was a DC veteran. You can see that

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Speaker 1: this is leading to hearings that there's going to be

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Speaker 1: a lot of discussion about this before the sides get

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Speaker 1: to the finish line. What role do you see Cinema

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Speaker 1: United playing in the larger conversation about whether this merger

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Speaker 1: would make Netflix just simply too big and too powerful.

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Speaker 2: One of the things that interests me is when you

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Speaker 2: have these big mergers, not just in the entertainment space,

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Speaker 2: but in any space, they inevitably become narratives about stock price,

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Speaker 2: about how much money is in, about executive compensation, and

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Speaker 2: those types of things, and they're rarely about necessarily the

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Speaker 2: downstream practical impact of the merger itself. And so I

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Speaker 2: think that our primary focus is to educate people and

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Speaker 2: to elevate awareness. You know, the people that I represent

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Speaker 2: are the vast, vast majority of them are small business owners,

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Speaker 2: and they operate in rural communities, They operate in small towns.

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Speaker 2: It's not just the big circuits that you hear about

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Speaker 2: a lot or that appear a lot in variety. It's

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Speaker 2: different places all around the country, and they're the ones

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Speaker 2: that are going to feel the impact if there's fewer movies.

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Speaker 2: So we are getting out there trying to educate people

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Speaker 2: about these things. I grew up in western Montana, and

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Speaker 2: it's not uncommon for people or to drive thirty forty

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Speaker 2: miles and all types of weather to go to a theater.

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Speaker 2: Those theaters go away, then we're losing something, not just economically,

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Speaker 2: not just culturally, but a way that we communicate with

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Speaker 2: each other. And so part of our job is to

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Speaker 2: get out there and to make that case.

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Speaker 1: We've been talking about Netflix, but Paramount now is also

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Speaker 1: factor or really wants to be a factor in this

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Speaker 1: final decision. How do you think your members feel about

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Speaker 1: the possibility of these assets going to Paramount.

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Speaker 2: G at this juncture. The way I would characterize it

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Speaker 2: is we are concerned about consolidation in general. Obviously, if

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Speaker 2: you have an acquiring studio that has a historical reverence

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Speaker 2: and support for theatrical we think that's probably a positive.

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Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, goes back to

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Speaker 2: something we talked about right at the outset, which is

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Speaker 2: if the number of movies that are for theaters goes down,

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Speaker 2: that's a problem for us, and we would have to

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Speaker 2: date that opposition. So we are not in a position

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Speaker 2: right now where we're choosing sides. We're evaluating both of

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Speaker 2: the situations and we'll go from there. But our north

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Speaker 2: star is really, really very clear. If it results in

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Speaker 2: fewer movies in the theaters, that's bad for exhibition, it's bad

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Speaker 2: for consumers, and frankly, we think it's bad for the

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Speaker 2: entire industry.

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Speaker 1: Obviously, it's a very new regime at Paramount, first big

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Speaker 1: change there in more than thirty years. What's your general

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Speaker 1: sense of the new regime there. They certainly seem to

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Speaker 1: be very committed to theatrical movies.

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Speaker 2: I think they have a track record of being committed

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Speaker 2: to it. You know, David Ellison has done some incredibly

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Speaker 2: successful things for theater. They're building a team over there,

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Speaker 2: that believes in theatrical as well, So I think those

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Speaker 2: are all very positive.

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Speaker 1: Science setting aside Netflix and Paramountain and Warner Brothers of

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Speaker 1: it all, let's talk in general about moviegoing and the

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Speaker 1: exhibition market. As you mentioned, it has been an up

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Speaker 1: and down year for the box office that I know,

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Speaker 1: there's hopes for a strong finish with James Cameron bringing Avatar,

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Speaker 1: fire and ash. In terms of rebuilding since the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: where do you think twenty twenty five is going.

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Speaker 2: To follow on the whole? I think there are some concerns.

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Speaker 2: At the same time, there's some really good, you know,

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Speaker 2: information out there about consumer enthusiasm, which bolsters kind of

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Speaker 2: our optimism for the for the future. You know, over

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Speaker 2: two hundred million Americans went to the theater last year.

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Speaker 2: The percentage of people that are habitual moviegoers, which is

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Speaker 2: six or more movies a year, continues to rise at

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Speaker 2: one up eight percent just in twenty twenty five. The

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Speaker 2: enthusiasm for the theater is being driven frankly by gen

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Speaker 2: Z people, and so we feel like what's happening now

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Speaker 2: is we're building that next generation of moviegoers, and that's

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Speaker 2: not something that you do in one year or two

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Speaker 2: years or three years. It takes a certain amount of time.

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Speaker 2: You know, even younger people like this are starting to

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Speaker 2: go back to the theater. So we feel very good

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Speaker 2: about that. The slate for next year I think has

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Speaker 2: some real promise to it. So notwithstanding kind of the

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Speaker 2: inconsistent nature of twenty twenty five, we feel like we're

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Speaker 2: in a very good position going into next year. What

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Speaker 2: we really need is to not have these kind of

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Speaker 2: gaps in the schedule where there's just not a lot

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Speaker 2: out there that appeals to folks, because, as you know,

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Speaker 2: you know, movie going begets movie going and you go

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Speaker 2: to the theater and you have a good experience, and

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Speaker 2: you enjoy the movie, and you maybe see a trailer

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Speaker 2: or two and you say, oh, I want to come back,

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Speaker 2: and it becomes kind of a rhythm and you start

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Speaker 2: to come back. And when you have these gaps where

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Speaker 2: you have difficult quarters or difficult period of like six weeks,

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Speaker 2: you lose that momentum. And I think that is one

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Speaker 2: of the things that we still haven't fine tuned to

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Speaker 2: the point where we can carry that forward.

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Speaker 1: That old fashion foot traffic is so important over the

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Speaker 1: year's variety. We have reported on efforts to build that

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Speaker 1: kind of bridge between the exhibitor and the home online

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Speaker 1: access to movies. None of them ever really took root.

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Speaker 1: And then again we closed our eyes and Netflix, you know,

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Speaker 1: came and really invented the model. But is there anything

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Speaker 1: you think exhibitors can lean into in terms of dealing

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Speaker 1: with that gap, How the exhibition, how that experience can

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Speaker 1: be a little bit more connected with the swirl that

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Speaker 1: goes on about movies and movie personalities and movie franchises

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Speaker 1: twenty four to seven on social and online.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, look, I think part of it this

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Speaker 2: goes back to the conversation we were having about marketing

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Speaker 2: and what is it that drives people to the theaters.

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Speaker 2: It's not necessarily like it used to be, which was

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Speaker 2: commercials on linear TV. It's different things. You're seeing people

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Speaker 2: starting to experiment with different ways using social media more effectively.

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Speaker 2: TikTok obviously has a huge influence. The studios do that,

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Speaker 2: and exhibitors do it. Individual exhibitors do it again under

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Speaker 2: the auspices of marketing. Is this an area where we

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Speaker 2: could maybe work together more effectively. Absolutely, I think there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of potential for growth there. You know, if

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Speaker 2: I know, for example, that someone goes to see Superman

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Speaker 2: three times, well they might be a candidate for seeing

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Speaker 2: it in the home later on, and so how do

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Speaker 2: we make that make those things work? So I think

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of opportunities there, but we've got to

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Speaker 2: seize that those opportunities and make the most of them.

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Speaker 1: You reference that so much of exhibition ownership in the

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Speaker 1: US is small businesses. Is that at all a challenge

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Speaker 1: in that studios are dealing with a lot of smaller

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Speaker 1: companies In terms of trying to affect anything that could

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Speaker 1: be more like national skew in terms of an online

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Speaker 1: promotion or something like that.

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Speaker 2: It really shouldn't be And I think we should be

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Speaker 2: sophisticated enough that you can do multiple things at the

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Speaker 2: same time. You may not have the exact same approach

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Speaker 2: with a multi national circuit that you do with a

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Speaker 2: four screen in the middle of Idaho, but you should

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Speaker 2: be able to make that work. The truth is we're

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Speaker 2: in the digital age where films are transferred digitally, So

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Speaker 2: getting the films to the people should be relatively seamless,

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Speaker 2: and there ought to be ways similar to communicate how

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Speaker 2: to market it. But one of the challenges that some

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Speaker 2: of the smaller circuits have is they don't necessarily know

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Speaker 2: they're getting a movie told right before it's there, and

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Speaker 2: it's very hard to market in that short window. I

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Speaker 2: don't see kind of the diversity of sizes of theaters

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Speaker 2: domestically or internationally. I see that as a strength, not

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Speaker 2: a hindrance to creating more movie going audiences. The one

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Speaker 2: thing that I've learned I travel a lot, and I

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Speaker 2: go to different size theaters all over the country. The

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Speaker 2: one thing that I've learned a lot is there's not

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Speaker 2: a person in the industry who knows the people that

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Speaker 2: go to a specific theater than the person who owns

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Speaker 2: that theater. And you will see them in the lobby

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Speaker 2: talking to people, asking them how their kids are, what

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Speaker 2: did you think of that movie? What movie are you

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Speaker 2: excited about seeing? This fall? And we have to take

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Speaker 2: that knowledge and make it work for us. So there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of opportunities out there. We just have to

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Speaker 2: figure out how to create critical mass with all the

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Speaker 2: different things that we know about people who love coming

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Speaker 2: to the theater.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel like the adversity of the last five

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Speaker 1: six years has made people more open to change?

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Speaker 2: I think that the last five years should make our

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Speaker 2: industry stronger. At the same time, change is always difficult,

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Speaker 2: and people embrace it at different speeds, And part of

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Speaker 2: what's challenging is I think we all recognize that there's change,

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Speaker 2: but we don't know what the next iteration looks like exactly,

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Speaker 2: so that creates some uncertain and but one of the

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Speaker 2: things you've started to see in the last couple of

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Speaker 2: years is this kind of notion of experiential theater and

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Speaker 2: people coming to the theater for the movie and then

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Speaker 2: staying afterwards and talking about it, or going early and

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Speaker 2: doing some type of activation around the movie. That's really

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Speaker 2: really important. One of the things that gives me a

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Speaker 2: great deal of hope is if you'd have asked me

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Speaker 2: three years ago, what do I think one of the

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Speaker 2: biggest problems our industry has, I would have without question

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Speaker 2: said access to capital. You know, coming out of the pandemic,

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Speaker 2: the economy wasn't great, and there were just all money

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Speaker 2: was tight and there's left of eggs. But I also

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Speaker 2: think that what happened that probably doesn't get the attention

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Speaker 2: that it deserves is at that difficult fiscal time, theater

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Speaker 2: owners of all size is recognized that in order for

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Speaker 2: us to survive, and not only survive, but to thrive,

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Speaker 2: we have to create special experiences and a lot of

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Speaker 2: that goes to what happens when you walk into the theater.

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Speaker 2: So they started reinvesting. We did a report recently which

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Speaker 2: said that in the last twelve months, the North American

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Speaker 2: theater and industry alone reinvested one point five billion dollars

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Speaker 2: in their theaters. And you're going to see that in

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Speaker 2: terms of, you know, better projectors, better sound, better chairs,

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Speaker 2: nicer lobbies, more food and concession options, new carpeting. It

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Speaker 2: should you should see it as soon as you walk in.

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Speaker 2: And we believe that that one point five billion dollar

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Speaker 2: investment again by the one screen theaters all the way

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Speaker 2: up to the biggest theaters, that's a sign of intent

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Speaker 2: that we are committed to making experience as special for people.

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Speaker 2: And so in terms of the evolution and the change

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Speaker 2: you're talking about, I think you see it in small way.

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Speaker 2: We talk about the next great era of cinema. We're

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Speaker 2: at the beginning of that, and I'm excited about the

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Speaker 2: commitment that our folks have to that.

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Speaker 1: Did us exhibition overall? Did it lose a significant number

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Speaker 1: of screens in the US after the pandemic. Were their

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Speaker 1: theaters that closed, It just never reopened.

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Speaker 2: There were some that closed. I wouldn't say that lost

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Speaker 2: a significant amount. This industry has always ebbed and flowed.

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Speaker 1: We've seen efforts to kind of create these movie going events,

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Speaker 1: not just in anticipated franchises, but things like Taylor Swift

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Speaker 1: putting her concert movie in theaters for a limited amount

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Speaker 1: of time, putting her Life of a Showgirl album release

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Speaker 1: party for a weekend. You know, show up on the

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Speaker 1: weekend or you'll miss it, kind of thing. I would

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Speaker 1: imagine exhibitors love those kinds of stunts, anything with Taylor Swift,

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Speaker 1: But are those challenging to work with to like marshal

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Speaker 1: everything for one weekend and you're not going to have

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Speaker 1: that like the longer tail effect as you would with

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Speaker 1: a more typical film.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, there are challenges with things like that. There's a

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Speaker 2: lot of amazing work going on out there in exhibition

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Speaker 2: where they will curate specific events, and they will start

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Speaker 2: weeks in advance, and they will put together and they'll

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Speaker 2: create specific posters, and they will reach out to specific

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Speaker 2: audiences in the community that they know that are going

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Speaker 2: to be interested in that. Obviously, it's very hard to

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Speaker 2: compete with Taylor Swift, so that's kind of the high

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Speaker 2: water mark. But there's a lot of great things that

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Speaker 2: are going on out there. Well.

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Speaker 1: Taylor Swift is nothing if not the queen of all

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Speaker 1: media and marketing. And if she finds value in the

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Speaker 1: theatrical experience, which she clearly does, that says a lot.

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Speaker 1: One thing we talk about every week when we're talking

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Speaker 1: about box office premium large format screens, those have become

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Speaker 1: a bigger and bigger factor, a bigger component of box office,

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Speaker 1: especially for big, big tent pole titles. How is the

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Speaker 1: premium large format world plugging into the overall box office picture?

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Speaker 1: And are there is there any tension between more traditional

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Speaker 1: the more traditional mom and pop exhibitors. Is that seen

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Speaker 1: as a bit of cannibalistic.

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Speaker 2: It can be To be candid with you, and I

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Speaker 2: think that one of the things that's happened over the

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Speaker 2: last twelve to eighteen months is we've become more sophisticated

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Speaker 2: in the way we talk about There's clearly an audience

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Speaker 2: for the big PLF experience that's willing to pay a

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Speaker 2: higher price point to have certain bells and whistles. But

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Speaker 2: one of the things that's super important for people to

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Speaker 2: remember and incredibly important for us as an industry to

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Speaker 2: constantly reinforce is that every theater, in your local theater

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Speaker 2: is a premium experience, and so there's something there. We

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00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 2: talk about there being something for everyone at the theater. Now.

439
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:09,879
Speaker 2: We talk about that most often in terms of the

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00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:12,719
Speaker 2: variety of films, but it's also in terms of what

441
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,240
Speaker 2: is the experience that you want to have, and if

442
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 2: you have a family and you've got five kids in tow,

443
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:21,960
Speaker 2: you may want a more traditional setup, which is still

444
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 2: an amazing setup. So you know, if you go to

445
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,400
Speaker 2: some of the theaters that are out there right now,

446
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:31,120
Speaker 2: you will see ten or eleven auditoriums, and they're all

447
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:35,679
Speaker 2: different because they're all catering to different types of crowds. Ironically,

448
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:38,000
Speaker 2: some of them are purposely very small to kind of

449
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:42,480
Speaker 2: create the one screen experience. So PLF is very very

450
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,800
Speaker 2: important and it will continue to grow, but it cannot

451
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:47,639
Speaker 2: be at the expense of the rest of the house,

452
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,479
Speaker 2: and we have to be very careful about that. So

453
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,440
Speaker 2: when we're creating experiences, we do it across the spectrum

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00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:55,640
Speaker 2: of facilities that we have let.

455
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,760
Speaker 1: Me close by asking you what would you like our

456
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:02,679
Speaker 1: audience of Showbiz Insider ten know about exhibition, about what

457
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 1: it takes to run a theater, about the business of

458
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 1: movie going.

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00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 2: One of the things that we've really focused on on

460
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,399
Speaker 2: the last year, because we think it's critically important, is

461
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:12,680
Speaker 2: we talk about our industry not as a Hollywood industry,

462
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,679
Speaker 2: but a main street industry. And I'm always talking to

463
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 2: my friends in distribution and saying, go to the middle

464
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,480
Speaker 2: of America and see what's happening there. Go to places

465
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:26,160
Speaker 2: in western Montana, or in Nebraska or Iowa or wherever,

466
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 2: and what you're going to find is that movie theaters

467
00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 2: are the heartbeat of main streets all over the country

468
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 2: and in the world, frankly, And one thing that I

469
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 2: don't think people understand is how important the movie theater

470
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,159
Speaker 2: is beyond just being a place to go see a movie.

471
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,399
Speaker 2: There's recent research that shows that for every dollar that

472
00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 2: is spent in a movie theater, there's an additional dollar

473
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 2: and fifty cents which is spent in the surrounding community.

474
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:53,360
Speaker 2: So that could be in a restaurant, in a bar, shopping, transportation,

475
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 2: you name it. And so these really are the cornerstones

476
00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 2: of towns all over the United States, and it's a

477
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:03,679
Speaker 2: place where people can come together and have a shared experience.

478
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 2: And the truth is, in our society that doesn't happen

479
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 2: very much anymore. And I may be alone in this,

480
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:11,880
Speaker 2: but I actually think that's really important. And I think

481
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,640
Speaker 2: that so we talk about the economics of the industry,

482
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 2: and we talk about the cultural impact of film, but

483
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:19,159
Speaker 2: there's also an impact in terms of the types of

484
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:21,280
Speaker 2: communities that we live in. And we think that's an

485
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 2: incredibly special thing which doesn't show up on a balance sheet,

486
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 2: but is very very important.

487
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,720
Speaker 1: Current events and are going to put a bigger spotlight

488
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:31,199
Speaker 1: on this realm of entertainment and the particular pressures and

489
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 1: the challenges. I think this is the moment time when

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00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: Hollywood really has to decide whether it's going to invest

491
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,959
Speaker 1: in moviegoing. So much to discuss, Michael, Thank you so

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00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:41,120
Speaker 1: much for coming on in.

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00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:42,120
Speaker 2: Thank you it's terrific.

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00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review

495
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 1: at the podcast platform of your choice. Please go to

496
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,880
Speaker 1: Variety dot com and sign up for the free weekly

497
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 1: Strictly Business newsletter, and don't forget to tune in next

498
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: week for another episode of Strictly Business