Speaker 1: But welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcasts featuring conversations
Speaker 1: with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment.
Speaker 1: I'm Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety. Today,
Speaker 1: my guest is Ray Nut, CEO of Fathom Events. I'm
Speaker 1: happy to have him as a guest because one aspect
Speaker 1: of the business we haven't covered as much on Strictly
Speaker 1: Business is exhibition. It's a sector that is in transition.
Speaker 1: It's also in many ways still in a world of hurt.
Speaker 1: As moviegoing recovers from the pandemic, Fathom has emerged as
Speaker 1: a specialty distributor of content that is a little off
Speaker 1: the beaten path for movie theaters. It has a longstanding
Speaker 1: distribution deal with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City
Speaker 1: for live screenings of the Met's incredible productions. Fathom is
Speaker 1: also the distributor bringing Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey
Speaker 1: to America this winter. Patiently explains the business model behind
Speaker 1: the company that is owned by the nation's three largest
Speaker 1: exhibition chains, AMC Entertainment, Regal and Cinemark. Ray has been
Speaker 1: the head of Bathom since twenty seventeen, and he has
Speaker 1: a long background in exhibition. In closing, he offers his
Speaker 1: thoughts on what the road to health looks like for
Speaker 1: the multiplex business. That's all coming up after the break.
Speaker 1: Y Nut, CEO of Bathom Events, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining me today. Thank you for having me. It's
Speaker 1: great to be with you. Guys. Well, it's an interesting
Speaker 1: time to talk about the exhibition business. There's no shortage
Speaker 1: of transition, no shortage of opportunity, and for obvious reasons
Speaker 1: that the world has been talking about for the last
Speaker 1: three years, a lot of challenges in movie going, which
Speaker 1: although I have grown up covering the television business, I
Speaker 1: have since I was twelve years old and able to
Speaker 1: ride my bike to my favorite movie theater. I have loved.
Speaker 1: I truly loved the moviegoing experience. I'd like to start
Speaker 1: just by having asking you kind of describe this sort
Speaker 1: of size and scope of your business and what Fathom
Speaker 1: brings to the exhibition community. Well, Fathom, Fathom is currently
Speaker 1: an event cinema business, but to get some context from that,
Speaker 1: you know, I spent most of my years on the
Speaker 1: theater exhibition side of the business with United Artists Theaters
Speaker 1: and then Regal Entertainment Group and then I came over
Speaker 1: to Fathom about five and a half years ago. And
Speaker 1: when I came over, it was things were known as
Speaker 1: alternative content, and alternative content was something that over the
Speaker 1: first couple of years in doing this job, I got
Speaker 1: a little uncomfortable with. It just didn't didn't resonate with me.
Speaker 1: I don't think it resonated with a lot of our
Speaker 1: audience as well, or even the industry. So we started
Speaker 1: to transition into what we're calling now event cinema. And
Speaker 1: that's as technology developed, and you know, there became a
Speaker 1: new interest and a little thing called the pandemic cap
Speaker 1: and Whi's got people thinking much differently about content on
Speaker 1: the screen, not just commercial product, but other content and
Speaker 1: backups in production and everything. So so right now, you know,
Speaker 1: the scope of the business is isn't giant, but it
Speaker 1: is an opportunist to growing business right now, and it's
Speaker 1: a great place to be where theater exhibitors and content
Speaker 1: providers are coming up with new content, exhibitors are hungry
Speaker 1: for additional content, and so you know, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a great place to be right now. And you know,
Speaker 1: my crew is definitely excited about the opportunities ahead of us.
Speaker 1: You are jointly owned by AMC, Regal and Cinemark, which
Speaker 1: is that's a big footprint in exhibition ranked there. But
Speaker 1: you also send your events. Your special events can go
Speaker 1: to any exhibitor that raises their hand and says, I'd
Speaker 1: like to bring this to my theater or is it
Speaker 1: just for that those three circuits. No, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: brought that up, because there are misconceptions about there because
Speaker 1: we're owned by AMC, Cinemark and Regal, that we only
Speaker 1: distribute to them, and that's not the case at all.
Speaker 1: We distribute to them obviously, but we distribute to ninety
Speaker 1: seven other theater circuits domestically and theater circuits worldwide as well.
Speaker 1: In fact, you know, when it comes to distribution, probably
Speaker 1: our owners are you know, exercised as much discretion, if
Speaker 1: not more, about the content that we bring to the
Speaker 1: screen because they are the biggest and everybody's knocking on
Speaker 1: their door to distribute content to them, including us obviously.
Speaker 1: So it's it's it's really good. We you know, from
Speaker 1: a technology standpoint, we have one of the most cost
Speaker 1: effective ways to get content from our office or from
Speaker 1: the content providers to the movie theaters, and that's through
Speaker 1: what we call our Digital Broadcast Network. It's a satellite
Speaker 1: based network that has eleven hundreds theaters and twenty two
Speaker 1: hundred screens domestically, and it's very easy to get content
Speaker 1: and efficient to get content. So a lot of our
Speaker 1: content partners like that. But we also launched something just
Speaker 1: last year. You know, eleven hundred theaters doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: a lot, but it is sometimes for events cinema. But
Speaker 1: we launched something called DCP only, and what that is
Speaker 1: is we have the ability to now just go ahead
Speaker 1: and do things like a regular movie, distribute content like
Speaker 1: a regular movie to movie theaters. And so some of
Speaker 1: our recent events like The Chosen for example, and others
Speaker 1: that decent distribution are up to two thousand plus screens.
Speaker 1: And what we changed is our philosophy. And we used
Speaker 1: to anyone and we partnered with on the exhibition side
Speaker 1: used to have to have and install that digital broadcast network.
Speaker 1: We've eased that a little bit now and said, you
Speaker 1: know what, if you've got a digital projector and you
Speaker 1: can accept a DCP, then we're in business with you
Speaker 1: if you if you want our content and we think
Speaker 1: it's right for you as well. How do you go
Speaker 1: about what makes for good a good Fathom event offering.
Speaker 1: Your upcoming slate, which we'll talk about, has a quite
Speaker 1: a range of things going on. What do you look
Speaker 1: for to make up for the right thing for Fathom Events? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, as I previously mentioned, this is one of
Speaker 1: the things that cause me to balk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the brand alternative content and move into events cinema
Speaker 1: and actually talk a little bit about where we're going
Speaker 1: in the future, because we're actually working on transitioning the
Speaker 1: industry and our company from away from the events cinema
Speaker 1: brand into what we're calling a specialty distribution. But what
Speaker 1: we look for is content that has an audience, and
Speaker 1: that's the first thing a lot of people. The reason
Speaker 1: I was uncomfortable with alternative content because it makes it
Speaker 1: sound like anything other thing commercial product that's out there
Speaker 1: can be slapped up on the screen and boy, there's
Speaker 1: going to be an audience there. But people have to
Speaker 1: realize we started this business on a Monday through a
Speaker 1: Thursday type of business. It's very difficult to get people
Speaker 1: off their couching into movie theaters or you know, Monday,
Speaker 1: it's going to be something special so there has to
Speaker 1: be an audience out there. And I have a spectacular
Speaker 1: team that does the research, does the programming, does the marketing,
Speaker 1: and does all of the operations for everything. We're an
Speaker 1: end to end solution for our content providers. But the
Speaker 1: main thing is that you have to have that audience.
Speaker 1: And we've done some things that people, you know, when
Speaker 1: we announced it, they'll raise their eyebrows and say, what
Speaker 1: in the world is that, But they find out that
Speaker 1: we've done our research. You know recently, you know, just
Speaker 1: February fifteenth, we opened Winnie the Pooh and um, you
Speaker 1: know this was a horror picture. We need to pooh
Speaker 1: blood and honey, which is I should say, winning the
Speaker 1: poo blood and honey, don't a mil I don't think
Speaker 1: he ever anticipated Christopher Robin having this, but it is
Speaker 1: an interesting it's an interesting example of copyrights. Have you know,
Speaker 1: the copyright has expired, so Winnie the Pooh is now
Speaker 1: the new versions can be had. But so you did
Speaker 1: your homework on that. Yeah, it's a great example of
Speaker 1: us identifying an audience for that. We were watching you know,
Speaker 1: socials on that and you know, when my team first
Speaker 1: brought it to me, I was like, I don't you know,
Speaker 1: I don't get it. And then they brought me all
Speaker 1: the backup and the research and everything, and I so, okay,
Speaker 1: it looks like there is an audience for it. And
Speaker 1: you know, opening night it did at least in North
Speaker 1: America about seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars, so you know,
Speaker 1: on a Wednesday night, that's uh, that's that's pretty darn
Speaker 1: good for for event cinema. So we were very happy
Speaker 1: with that. But that gives you a little bit of
Speaker 1: a flavor of of you know, how we go about
Speaker 1: looking at our content. And by the way, our content
Speaker 1: is very diverse, as you probably know, and you know
Speaker 1: it's everything from the Metropolitan Opera to children's programming to
Speaker 1: anime original you know, original programming. Uh. And the biggest
Speaker 1: category that we had last year, which was huge for us,
Speaker 1: was faith based. So um, so there's you know, you
Speaker 1: have to do a lot of research and understand what
Speaker 1: audience is. We'll get up off that couch I refer
Speaker 1: to and get to the movie theater on on a
Speaker 1: weekday or on weekends. We do get this distribution on
Speaker 1: weekends as well. We had, uh some of the time
Speaker 1: documentaries we had ten of the thirty top documentaries in
Speaker 1: the industry in twenty twenty two, and you know that
Speaker 1: was led by our number two, the number two documentary
Speaker 1: in the industry, which was Mother Teresa. So it was
Speaker 1: a dot on Mother Teresa. So a lot of our
Speaker 1: faith based content, our films, we have a lot of
Speaker 1: live content that does come with them because we have
Speaker 1: added values. So somebody through our network will do either
Speaker 1: prerecorded or live added content, but they're added value, i
Speaker 1: should say. So, so you know that has been a
Speaker 1: and we're getting into different categories as well. If you
Speaker 1: look at the Chosen, which we've done three events with them.
Speaker 1: Now we're getting into episodics, so we did season three
Speaker 1: episodes one and two late last year and then we
Speaker 1: did episodes you know, the final episode seven and eight
Speaker 1: as well. And you know, to your point that you
Speaker 1: were talking about maybe early about the communal experience and
Speaker 1: that type of thing, that's a great example about something
Speaker 1: that we sourced out there. We've been talking to these
Speaker 1: guys for years and we knew that they wanted to
Speaker 1: gather communally because the only place they've ever been able
Speaker 1: to see their content is through the app that they
Speaker 1: have so we've made that available to them in movie theaters,
Speaker 1: and they came out in droves for not only a
Speaker 1: Christmas movie called The Messengers in twenty twenty one, but
Speaker 1: also the episodics that I just mentioned as well, in
Speaker 1: the example of faith based films or a Winnie the Pooh,
Speaker 1: Blood and Honey. What is the benefit to a film distributor,
Speaker 1: an independent distributor to going with Fathom rather than trying
Speaker 1: to set up an you know, an art house deal
Speaker 1: or a regional circuit deal with a more with an
Speaker 1: AMC or a regal or a cinema. Do you offer
Speaker 1: them better better economic terms? The economic terms are very favorable,
Speaker 1: But I think one of the biggest things they come
Speaker 1: to us for is distribution. And they know that, you know,
Speaker 1: per my previous comment about who we distribute to, not
Speaker 1: only our owners but others out there. They know they're
Speaker 1: going to get good distribution through Fathom, and they're going
Speaker 1: to get a marketing partner as well. And with that marketing,
Speaker 1: you know, comes things like you know, they'd have to
Speaker 1: pay for trailering, you know, if they go to traditional route.
Speaker 1: Our economic deal and our comprehensive deal involves dedicated trailering
Speaker 1: that we have as a deal with our owners out
Speaker 1: there as well. So so there's marketing assets that they
Speaker 1: get get access to, certain things that we have access
Speaker 1: to with our owners. Maybe that's the loyalty programs that
Speaker 1: are out there. So a lot of its distribution, a
Speaker 1: lot of its marketing, and again it's an end to
Speaker 1: end solution. A lot of our content providers they just
Speaker 1: you know, they don't want to, you know, go through
Speaker 1: everything that there is to go through a traditional distribution
Speaker 1: and it's a very turnkey approach with us. So that's
Speaker 1: what a lot of the content partners do. And there's
Speaker 1: a lot of content partners that are coming to us
Speaker 1: that that have done traditional distribution as well. I mean
Speaker 1: we did Life Mark with the Kendrick brothers. You know.
Speaker 1: Fireproof is what they've done in the past amongst other movies,
Speaker 1: thirty to sixty million dollar movies and Fireproof did about
Speaker 1: five and a half million dollars with us. That was
Speaker 1: a picture with Kirk Cameron, who we've worked with in
Speaker 1: the past to do live events with us. So it's
Speaker 1: it's just a it's we try to make it very
Speaker 1: very easy for the content providers to get their content
Speaker 1: on screen and distribute it. Is the box office split?
Speaker 1: Is it about comfortable to what it would be through
Speaker 1: a more traditional exhibition. Um, you know what our content
Speaker 1: Our economic model is based on a rev share off
Speaker 1: the tickets, and it's very unusual. We don't pay a
Speaker 1: dime to acquire content. We basically license content for a
Speaker 1: period of time and then there's a piece of the
Speaker 1: box office that automatically comes off the top and goes
Speaker 1: to our theater owners or theater affiliates, and it's all equals,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't matter whether it's our owners or affiliates.
Speaker 1: And that percentage is a little bit less on weekdays
Speaker 1: because of the opportunity costs, and it's a little bit
Speaker 1: more on weekends because the opportunity costs of getting that
Speaker 1: screen on the weekend is a little bit more. And
Speaker 1: then generally after that we would depends who. It depends
Speaker 1: on who brings what to the table in terms of
Speaker 1: a marketing plan, but generally it's fifty fifty after a
Speaker 1: there's a contribution to our theater operators. And so the
Speaker 1: reason it's set up that way is that everybody's got
Speaker 1: a dog going to haunt that that way and everybody
Speaker 1: has an incentive to bring what they have to the
Speaker 1: table to make that film as successful as possible. Exhibition,
Speaker 1: Fathom Content, and any of the marketing partners that might
Speaker 1: be brought on as well to handle the P and A.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, it's it's it's a very different model,
Speaker 1: and in many cases it's it's much more favorable to
Speaker 1: the content provider than they could get if they went direct. Well,
Speaker 1: as you're talking about independent productions, that you know, a
Speaker 1: turnkey solution to P and A, which is so such
Speaker 1: a big part and important to get right and expensive
Speaker 1: part of the movie making after you've spent all the
Speaker 1: money to make the movie. So I can see I
Speaker 1: can see the appeal of that, especially to independent Talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the focus on Monday through
Speaker 1: Thursday and why that matters to exhibitors. It sounds like,
Speaker 1: you know, getting people in there, any anything that will
Speaker 1: get people in there at a time when the room
Speaker 1: is usually is going to be a good thing for
Speaker 1: an exhibitor. It is. And you know, coming from exhibition,
Speaker 1: and I'll speak maybe not in current times, but in
Speaker 1: times you know, way prior to the pandemic. You know,
Speaker 1: these theaters are all least for the most part, for
Speaker 1: most of them, you know, probably ninety five theaters at
Speaker 1: least are least out there. So there's a tenant landlord issue,
Speaker 1: and they're paying rent. These theater operators are doesn't matter
Speaker 1: whether it's Monday or a Friday night, they're paying. They're
Speaker 1: paying the same rent. And I can tell you that,
Speaker 1: you know, way back in the day, we actually had
Speaker 1: discussions about does it even make sense to leave the
Speaker 1: theater open Monday through Thursday, that's how quiet they are.
Speaker 1: And you know, obviously the answer to that is the
Speaker 1: least prohibited and you couldn't do that, but if you could,
Speaker 1: it would make financial sense to do so, because you're
Speaker 1: doing most of your business Friday, Saturday and Sunday, no
Speaker 1: big secret. So I think starting the business, you know,
Speaker 1: you're ago, you know, Alternative Content and starting the Fathom business.
Speaker 1: That was actually a business that was purchased by amc
Speaker 1: reegoing Cinemmark back in twenty thirteen from National Cinemedia. Now
Speaker 1: National Cinemedia has made people know as the leading cinema
Speaker 1: advertising operator out there. A company that I helped found
Speaker 1: as well, and it was a step child. You know,
Speaker 1: Alternative Content was a stepchild to advertising in theaters because
Speaker 1: most of the revenue was coming from advertising at that time.
Speaker 1: And so you know, the theater owners now amc reegoing Cinemark,
Speaker 1: found it in their best interests to separate this business,
Speaker 1: focus on itself, and then make it something more than
Speaker 1: that Monday through Thursday business. And that's literally what it
Speaker 1: has become. I can tell you it was probably a
Speaker 1: thirty million dollar business when the Three Circuits bought the company.
Speaker 1: When I joined in two thousand seventeen, that jumped to
Speaker 1: fifty five million dollars, and then by two nineteen we
Speaker 1: grew to eighty million dollars before the pandemic. And just
Speaker 1: to give you some context, in two thousand and twenty two,
Speaker 1: our company was eighty six percent of two thousand nineteen numbers,
Speaker 1: where there's you know, the general industry was sixty six percent,
Speaker 1: give or take of two thousand nineteen. So it gives
Speaker 1: you a little context about the growth opportunities that I
Speaker 1: talked about before with the Gun Cinema. I can't do
Speaker 1: the Keger in my head, but I know it's good.
Speaker 1: That's pretty impressive. And in terms of like, is there
Speaker 1: a sweet spot for the time of day that you
Speaker 1: have an event is in my understanding, it's kind of
Speaker 1: earlier than an usual evening evening sweet spot for a
Speaker 1: for a more traditional film. Yeah, we're usually taking up
Speaker 1: maybe you know, one show time a day or a
Speaker 1: traditional run during the days, maybe five show times on average,
Speaker 1: that type of thing. And it depends, it really depends
Speaker 1: on the type of content. If it's children's programming, we're
Speaker 1: probably going to be looking at a Saturday or Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: You know, we're trying to get in there where it's
Speaker 1: between nap time with the kids, depending on the age
Speaker 1: or we're you know. So these are the kind of
Speaker 1: things that my team goes through in terms of recommending
Speaker 1: optimal distribution times with play age and showtimes, and they're
Speaker 1: very very good at it. So, you know, there's that,
Speaker 1: and on the other end of the spectrum, maybe there's
Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Opera, so that comes you know, we do
Speaker 1: about twelve events a year and that comes out of
Speaker 1: comes out of the Met in New York Live, and
Speaker 1: that's a matinee on a Saturday. So that at the
Speaker 1: average age of a Met goer is about seventy three
Speaker 1: years old. So a little bit a little bit on
Speaker 1: the other end of the spectrum from the kids, and
Speaker 1: then we repeat it with a matinee and a evening
Speaker 1: show the following the Wednesday as an encore to give
Speaker 1: that audience an opportunity to get to the movie theater
Speaker 1: as well. So it really given how diverse our businesses
Speaker 1: and our content is. Um, you know we need to
Speaker 1: pooh for example, you'll you'll probably be running or exhibition
Speaker 1: will be running maybe seven and a ten o'clock show,
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what night, you know, that type of thing.
Speaker 1: So it's it's really all over the place, but it's
Speaker 1: very focused and targeted at when can we create a
Speaker 1: convenient time for that customer to get to the movie
Speaker 1: theater Having been to that, I have had the good
Speaker 1: fortune to have gone to a Metropolitan Opera production, and
Speaker 1: I think it's it's wonderful that through this distribution, this
Speaker 1: long standing distribution arrangement, I know that the MET is
Speaker 1: one of your long standing partners, that people can see
Speaker 1: the amazing spectacle and talent that is on display in
Speaker 1: these operas. It is it is I think you know,
Speaker 1: any anybody the MET will tell you that it is
Speaker 1: an older audience and sadly seems like it's fading, and
Speaker 1: hopefully this is a way to make it available to
Speaker 1: people that would never be able to get to Lincoln
Speaker 1: Center and see the the incredible spectacle that is just
Speaker 1: that is just this this art form that is you know,
Speaker 1: that that really needs that needs the boost of having
Speaker 1: more people than can get to Manhattan and Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and Paris and Rome to be able to hear this
Speaker 1: incredible music, the beauty of the Met when that's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's been You're right, it's been a long, long term relationship.
Speaker 1: We have a great, great relationship with them, and it
Speaker 1: was an ingenious idea that would predates my time at
Speaker 1: Fathom to actually take that live out of Lincoln Center
Speaker 1: and bring it not only to the United States but
Speaker 1: all over the world. And I think the one thing
Speaker 1: that really impressed me when I first became familiar with
Speaker 1: the Met and the relationship and the programming of it
Speaker 1: was was kind of like you said that if you're
Speaker 1: sitting in that movie theater, you're actually seeing something that
Speaker 1: you cannot see. If you're sitting in that seat at
Speaker 1: the mat, you're seeing something in backstage. You're seeing costume changes,
Speaker 1: you're seeing some backgrounds, you know, stories about the actors
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it really is fascinating and will grab
Speaker 1: your attention in movie theaters. And that's also something about
Speaker 1: Fathom in general. Every single one of our events, whether
Speaker 1: it's a classic movie or the mat or whatever, has
Speaker 1: added value content. Like I said before, for example, for
Speaker 1: some of our classic movies, now we just hired Leonard
Speaker 1: Malton to give a four or five minute introduction to
Speaker 1: every single one of those. We have Casablanca coming up
Speaker 1: and I just saw, I just saw his intro to that,
Speaker 1: and he did an absolute fabulous job. So you know,
Speaker 1: one of the renowned critics that is still left out there.
Speaker 1: He just that he's a super super guy into the
Speaker 1: super job for us. So it brings that added value
Speaker 1: to the audience. And by the way, we command a
Speaker 1: little bit higher ticket price at the box office as
Speaker 1: well because of that added value. So that all plays
Speaker 1: into the model with Fathom with classic movies. I did
Speaker 1: see Casablanca was on your on your upcoming slate. What,
Speaker 1: of course there are many classic movies. Is there something
Speaker 1: that makes a classic movie that really work for a
Speaker 1: Fathom Events presentation? Yeah, the first The first thing is
Speaker 1: an anniversary title. So it's it's it's got to be
Speaker 1: an anniversary. You love anniversary's. We love anniversaries, and I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we look at things like every five years.
Speaker 1: So we do have a slate that says, Okay, this
Speaker 1: one's coming out, that one's coming up. But the as
Speaker 1: I always say, the classics are what reminds me of
Speaker 1: how old I'm getting when I see a rain Man
Speaker 1: that we're going to do later this year, or National
Speaker 1: Lamp Run's vacation or something that just doesn't really seem
Speaker 1: like it should be a classic, but it actually is.
Speaker 1: We're all getting older, so so you know, the classics
Speaker 1: have been a great, great source of entertainment for our audience.
Speaker 1: Is a great source of revenue actually, and we've got
Speaker 1: such a great partnership with all the studios. But the
Speaker 1: reason for the getting back to the anniversary typically you'll
Speaker 1: get home Entertainment division of the studios to participate with
Speaker 1: the marketing or whether that's PR or you know, whatever
Speaker 1: it is social and they may be releasing a blue
Speaker 1: Raid do you know, whatever it might be as part
Speaker 1: of the anniversary, so we'll help them with that advertising
Speaker 1: in our movie theaters as well. So great mutual relationship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and for the studios, you know, to be able to
Speaker 1: dust off a you know, custom blanca and get it,
Speaker 1: you know, get it, put it out on it, give
Speaker 1: it another run. It's I think some of these are
Speaker 1: some of the most amortized movies of all time. But
Speaker 1: but also I mean, you know, it's a chance to
Speaker 1: see them on a big screen. I was fortunate that
Speaker 1: I did grow up. There was a wonderful revival house
Speaker 1: in South Pasadena where I grew up, and I just
Speaker 1: got to see so many great movies. And there's just
Speaker 1: no there's no replacement for seeing it on that big
Speaker 1: silver screen. It's it's it's it's interesting because we did.
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful life and this past holiday season great
Speaker 1: movie obviously, but you could, you know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: You could see that as all your listeners knowing, you know,
Speaker 1: you could see that on TV starting the day after Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: if not Thanksgiving, and running all the way through Christmas,
Speaker 1: and and on Prime Network too, right, So it people
Speaker 1: came out to the movie theaters to see it, and
Speaker 1: I have my doubts, and I'm like, but it just
Speaker 1: tells you what a great, great movie that is, and
Speaker 1: how people want to take their grandkids to that or
Speaker 1: whomever you know, their family members and just make it
Speaker 1: a communal outing at the movie movie theaters. So it's
Speaker 1: a great example of the classic movie that you can
Speaker 1: see on that little box at home if you want,
Speaker 1: but people wanted to actually see it at movie theaters Somewhere.
Speaker 1: Frank Capra is smiling over that. Don't go anywhere. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back with more from Ray Nuts, CEO of
Speaker 1: Fathom Events. And we're back with more from Fathom Events
Speaker 1: CEO Ray Nuts. You mentioned you get good trailer support
Speaker 1: from your parent companies, which is a very big footprint
Speaker 1: and obviously a huge boost. But are there other things
Speaker 1: that you do. Do you use social media? How do
Speaker 1: you get the word out with your target audiences, which
Speaker 1: sometimes are not the most artment moviegoers. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: we have a great, great marketing department. There's we rely
Speaker 1: a lot on social and I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people just talk about social, but our social is very,
Speaker 1: very targeted to that audience. Uh. In terms of the trailer,
Speaker 1: it's great. You know, I've mentioned winning the pool a
Speaker 1: couple of times, but you know, we were fortunate enough.
Speaker 1: We try to program content so it gets the eyeballs
Speaker 1: that it needs as well. So we were trailering in
Speaker 1: front of Knock at the Cabin for two weeks prior
Speaker 1: to winning the Pooh coming out, so you know the
Speaker 1: audience that we need. UM. So there's that. We also
Speaker 1: rely on our content partners to bring a solid marketing
Speaker 1: plan to the table and that's all negotiated in advance
Speaker 1: of us accept that are licensing and distributing content to
Speaker 1: the theaters. So if there's if there is a solid
Speaker 1: marketing plan, we obviously are interested in it. But I
Speaker 1: will tell you there's we do about one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventeen while last year we did one hundred and seventeen
Speaker 1: events during the year UM, and we look at about
Speaker 1: three thousand pieces of content. So it gives a little
Speaker 1: perspective on how many you know, things that we look at. UM.
Speaker 1: And I sort of look at at Fathom as kind
Speaker 1: of kind of servicing this middle window that's really not
Speaker 1: competitive with anything at the end of the day. UM,
Speaker 1: it's you know, there's content that that is worthy of
Speaker 1: product production that goes to the major studios and so forth.
Speaker 1: Although I will say Fatom is the temph largest distributor
Speaker 1: in North America right now behind all of those guys Disney,
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers and so forth. Um. And then on the
Speaker 1: other end of the spectrum is content that you know,
Speaker 1: we look at and it just doesn't meant for the
Speaker 1: big screen. So we reject that and it probably never
Speaker 1: does get get to hit the big screen. For the
Speaker 1: most part, we service that thing right in the middle.
Speaker 1: And um, and it's a it's it's not competitive, it's
Speaker 1: an incremental window. And it's a way for content partners
Speaker 1: to certainly um, you know, monetize in a different window
Speaker 1: and an incremental incremental window um their content with Fathom, right.
Speaker 1: I know that before coming to Fathom, you have a
Speaker 1: long a long history, a long track record of working
Speaker 1: in exhibition and film the film distribution area. What, um,
Speaker 1: you know, what what do you think in the big picture?
Speaker 1: I know this, we could talk for another hour about this,
Speaker 1: but in the in the big picture, what do you
Speaker 1: think is going to be? What are what's the road
Speaker 1: back to you know, real health for traditional exhibition. I
Speaker 1: just loved if you have any thoughts about what the
Speaker 1: marketplace needs to do, because one thing I know is
Speaker 1: that even before the pandemic, there was there was some
Speaker 1: pain in them in the sector. It was, there were
Speaker 1: there were some there were some problems that were kind
Speaker 1: of coming to the bore, and then of course the
Speaker 1: pandemic just was the wallop that you know, nobody really
Speaker 1: saw coming, but would love your perspective on the larger inhibition. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had spent thirty to thirty five years on the
Speaker 1: theater exhibition side of the business with United Artists Theaters
Speaker 1: and then a Regal Entertainment Group before coming over here
Speaker 1: to Fathom five and a half years ago. And I've
Speaker 1: seen in those years many many changes in this industry.
Speaker 1: I also come from the cable television background, so it
Speaker 1: was you know, VCRs and then cable television that was
Speaker 1: going to put theaters out of business and that didn't happen,
Speaker 1: and it was windows and that has had an impact
Speaker 1: on the theatrical business. But it hasn't put the theaters
Speaker 1: out of business either. You know, theaters obviously went through
Speaker 1: a very difficult time, as did Fathom during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: So coming out of there we had a Fathom, we
Speaker 1: had an acronym called Hope. You know, it was the
Speaker 1: you know, I started this right at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the pandemic. I said, I don't know where this thing's going,
Speaker 1: none of us with faces before, but it's the health
Speaker 1: of our organization. We need to remain optimistic, we need
Speaker 1: to be persistent in what we're doing, and then we
Speaker 1: need to excel coming out of the pandemic. And certainly
Speaker 1: in that excel period right now. I've been very fortunate
Speaker 1: enough in my career to maybe be at the right
Speaker 1: place at the right time. I formed four or five
Speaker 1: joint ventures with theater operators. Fathom was one of them.
Speaker 1: NCM was one of them. DCIP financing the technology to
Speaker 1: put into movie theaters DCDC, which actually you know, put
Speaker 1: a network into theaters. And so you know, I look
Speaker 1: at Fathom as being in the right place at the
Speaker 1: right time right now. In terms of the biggest the
Speaker 1: bigger picture with the industry, there's there's no smoking gun
Speaker 1: that is, in my opinion at least that's going to
Speaker 1: quote say the industry or move it forward. It's people
Speaker 1: with vision that entails many different things, and I'll just
Speaker 1: relate it to distribution of content because that's what I'm
Speaker 1: in right now. You know, people recognize, you know, when
Speaker 1: Fathom finishes eighty six percent of twenty nineteen the industry
Speaker 1: sixty six percent. That should send a message that this
Speaker 1: is viable in terms of the future of the business.
Speaker 1: Not Is it the holy grail that's going to say
Speaker 1: the industry. Absolutely not. I'm not going to ever pretend
Speaker 1: that that's going to be the case. I hope I
Speaker 1: eat my words. But anyway that that that probably won't happen.
Speaker 1: Will it be a vital factor of many different factors
Speaker 1: in the industry. Absolutely, And so I think I think
Speaker 1: the industry has some visionaries that have done some things
Speaker 1: in the past, have learned some things in the past,
Speaker 1: have been humbled. You know, we've all been humbled by
Speaker 1: the pandemic obviously in the past. And I think that
Speaker 1: those folks with the greatest vision of a little here,
Speaker 1: a little there, and a little over here will will
Speaker 1: really help the industry grow and becomes something that, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever the next phase is. But I can tell you
Speaker 1: that the kind of content that Adam is distributing, we
Speaker 1: will play a significant part of that moving forward. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. Be sure to leave us a review at
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Speaker 1: next week for another episode of Strictly Business.