Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrel Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, you're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. Well, as we tee up the last hour
Speaker 1: of today's show, the Wednesday edition of Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to get into this because we're talking
Speaker 1: about reopening. We're talking about what the world looks like
Speaker 1: on the other side. And Carol, you know this very
Speaker 1: well about me. I love the movies. You love going
Speaker 1: to the movies. I love watching them at home, but
Speaker 1: I really love the theater experience. And it's why I've
Speaker 1: really enjoyed getting to know our next guest, Ray Not.
Speaker 1: He is the chief executive officer of Fathom Events. He
Speaker 1: joins us on the phone from Denver, and we last
Speaker 1: saw him. We were talking about this on our planning call.
Speaker 1: We were talking about the last time we saw you, Ray,
Speaker 1: which was you were very nice to come to our
Speaker 1: remote set there in sort of like out by the
Speaker 1: airport in Denver. We were there for the Commonwealth Conference,
Speaker 1: I believe, so that seems like about a million years ago.
Speaker 1: But I hope you're doing well well. I am, and
Speaker 1: thanks very much, and I hope you guys are safe
Speaker 1: and healthy as well, and UH, I look forward to
Speaker 1: the time when I can join you again in the
Speaker 1: studio or join you again at the convention center near
Speaker 1: the airport exactly. Yeah, totally. We'll tell us about your world.
Speaker 1: What it's been like personally professionally since we've had to
Speaker 1: lockdown because of the virus. Well, it's it's it's been
Speaker 1: very interesting, obviously, and things happened so very quickly. It's
Speaker 1: hard to believe that four months ago, you know, things
Speaker 1: were just booming everywhere, including the movie business, and then
Speaker 1: it all kind of came to a halt when movie
Speaker 1: theaters started closing. So professionally, UM, here at Fathom, we
Speaker 1: launched a program called Hope and UH it's our own
Speaker 1: little acronym, which stands for the Health of our employees.
Speaker 1: We were one of the first companies to send our
Speaker 1: employees homeworking remotely. And UH the O stands for optimism,
Speaker 1: which I'm very optimistic and I'm excited to talk to
Speaker 1: you guys a little it about the optimism in the
Speaker 1: movie environment right now. And uh P stands for persistence.
Speaker 1: We we have to be persistent, and we've been doing
Speaker 1: a lot of things during the shutdown. UM, and then
Speaker 1: he stands for excel. It means that we need to
Speaker 1: excel out of the other end of this thing and
Speaker 1: be ready to go when theaters do open. So it's
Speaker 1: what we stay focused on professionally here. I've got the
Speaker 1: whole team working on a number of different things. But
Speaker 1: I am extremely optimistic about where the industry is going
Speaker 1: and where Fathom's going. So tell us what you have
Speaker 1: on deck and and what it sort of looks like.
Speaker 1: And you've got some specific movies that I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about because I'm excited to see them
Speaker 1: in theaters all over again. But what does the planning
Speaker 1: look like? How do you put together a plan where
Speaker 1: you are in the business of literally gathering people. Well,
Speaker 1: we what we've done for the last couple of months
Speaker 1: is UH is really really focused on communication. Not only
Speaker 1: communicate with our employees, but a ton of communication with
Speaker 1: our content providers and and most of our content providers
Speaker 1: have not canceled their content that they had scheduled with us.
Speaker 1: They've moved it off into the second half of the year.
Speaker 1: And we are jam packed in the second half of
Speaker 1: the year. UH, and it it it entails communication obviously
Speaker 1: with our owners a MC, Cinemark and Regal and then
Speaker 1: a nine seven affiliate theater circuits that we distribute our
Speaker 1: content too as well. And then we've been in touch
Speaker 1: with organizations trade organizations like the National Association of Theater
Speaker 1: Owners who are representing all the theater circuits out there
Speaker 1: that are members of them. But we've um, we've put
Speaker 1: together first and foremost a series that we're calling the
Speaker 1: Welcome Back Series, and um, it's very fluid, not knowing
Speaker 1: exactly when theater is going to open, but it's thirty
Speaker 1: days of the best of Fathom's content and uh um.
Speaker 1: And it'll be themed by day. So a Monday's might
Speaker 1: be inspiration, faith type of idols, Tuesday might be anime,
Speaker 1: Wednesday's might be classics or girls night out or arts
Speaker 1: and entertainment. Um. So we've got a whole host of
Speaker 1: titles that were working on right now. UM. And I
Speaker 1: can certainly talk to you about a few of those
Speaker 1: if you like, well, absolutely, but I do wonder you
Speaker 1: know what's the timeframe are you can you can you
Speaker 1: put any specifics on it yet in terms of opening
Speaker 1: and how do you do it so people feel comfortable
Speaker 1: going back to a theater. Yeah, A lot of the
Speaker 1: safety and health issues are obviously the responsibility of the
Speaker 1: theater owners, you know. As you guys know, I spent
Speaker 1: about thirty years on the theater exhibition side of the business,
Speaker 1: and coincidentally, I actually broke into this business in the
Speaker 1: risk management area. So I can assure you that from
Speaker 1: a safety and risk management standpoint that these theaters will
Speaker 1: not be open until it is completely safe to do so.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's talk about the sanitization and the checkerboards.
Speaker 1: See you know, every other seat maybe being purchased in
Speaker 1: that type of thing for social distancing. So I'm sure
Speaker 1: that all of those things are going to be in place.
Speaker 1: Um Our content providers are also very concerned that you know,
Speaker 1: they're showing content in a safe environment as well, and
Speaker 1: and most of them, that's been the communication with them
Speaker 1: in terms of making sure that they're they're A confidence
Speaker 1: level is ups as we move forward, because this is serious,
Speaker 1: because all right, I'm just gonna have a little fun.
Speaker 1: But I'm thinking our listeners are saying, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: you know, I step on GM when I'm in the theater,
Speaker 1: Like there's stuffs built on the floor, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So you're talking about, you know, sanitation levels
Speaker 1: at a much higher level than maybe we've seen before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm getting a great deal of confidence from the National
Speaker 1: Association of Theater Owners, like I said, who do represent
Speaker 1: all of them, that there are programs that are being
Speaker 1: put in place. And let's face it, these are programs
Speaker 1: that are being put in place and other retail stores
Speaker 1: and other locations that have never really been done to
Speaker 1: this extent before, So theater won't be any exception to
Speaker 1: that rule. Still with us is Ray Nut He is
Speaker 1: Ray uh he is the CEO at Fathom Events. Can't
Speaker 1: even read my own notes on the phone from den
Speaker 1: type the type. That's what's really sad. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: what day is it? It's Wednesday? Right? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm curious about is, you know, we've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the increase in streaming and everybody kind of going
Speaker 1: after content, especially kind of you know, as everybody's home
Speaker 1: and they're watching so much stuff, has it gotten more
Speaker 1: difficult for you to access titles? No? No, not really.
Speaker 1: As I as I said before, we uh we you know,
Speaker 1: almost all of our content providers have have come back
Speaker 1: to us, and they want a theatrical release of their
Speaker 1: content before that goes downstream. So you know, the only
Speaker 1: about the only ones that have canceled on us, and
Speaker 1: there's only been a handful have been those that have
Speaker 1: had commitments to their downstream and they had to take
Speaker 1: it to v O D or DVD whatever at the points. So,
Speaker 1: uh so all, you know, all our content providers, for
Speaker 1: the most part of them very very encouraging and uh
Speaker 1: supportive of what we're doing and where we're going. And
Speaker 1: they know theaters will open again someday soon and people
Speaker 1: do want the communal experience, like you say, and people
Speaker 1: will be back to theaters and so ray. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the interesting things about Fathom events is you
Speaker 1: know they're obviously you're showing movies, but you're also showing
Speaker 1: you know, other live events or other sort of theatrical events,
Speaker 1: things like Broadway. And we got a chance, Caroline I
Speaker 1: did to catch up with Charlotte Saint Martin from the
Speaker 1: Broadway League last week, and one of the things that
Speaker 1: she was talking about was how difficult it's going to
Speaker 1: be for Broadway to come back. Are there other elements
Speaker 1: like Broadway and and other things that sort of feed
Speaker 1: in um that ultimately down the line will will affect
Speaker 1: you or now. Well, I think Broadway is a little
Speaker 1: bit different than movie theaters and that you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're crowding an orchestra on a pit. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: and it's it's difficult to do social distancing there. And
Speaker 1: I suppose you know, you could do something with the seating,
Speaker 1: uh like movie theaters are going to do. Uh, And
Speaker 1: it's difficult with the talent on stages as well. Um,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, we we do a fair amount
Speaker 1: of live content. That content will come back. The Metropolitan Opera,
Speaker 1: for example, one of our biggest uh uh content providers. Um,
Speaker 1: we do boxing, we do UFC. We've been in heavy
Speaker 1: discussions with all of them, and when uh, when they're
Speaker 1: ready to go uh, we believe that the theaters will
Speaker 1: be ready to go uh immediately after all Right, So
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about some of the movies
Speaker 1: that we can see later this summer, because I'm excited
Speaker 1: about a lot of these, especially some of the big
Speaker 1: screen classics. Yeah, the the the thirty day welcome back
Speaker 1: program that we have, We've we've got something for everyone there.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's anime content, a couple of great titles,
Speaker 1: Mothering with You and Mary and the Witch's Flower. If
Speaker 1: you're an anime fan, uh, documentary you are here about
Speaker 1: nine eleven. Um, you you talked about Broadway. We've got
Speaker 1: Allegiance Bandstand, Memphis Oklahoma coming back, some really oldies and
Speaker 1: goodies and some newer ones as well. Uh. In this time,
Speaker 1: there's some inspiration in faith category that's been a huge
Speaker 1: vertical for us. And we've got titles like Insanity of God,
Speaker 1: Kingdom and Rising. And we've got a Steve McQueen picture
Speaker 1: that we showed before which was awesome. And then you
Speaker 1: know what, statistics are also telling us that people want
Speaker 1: to see something lighthearted, some some comedy. So we've got
Speaker 1: a riff track series where um the History Science three
Speaker 1: thousand guys riff on certain movies and that'll be fun
Speaker 1: and uh. And then we have some children's programming coming
Speaker 1: as well, but that's all in our our thirty day
Speaker 1: welcome back program excuse me. And and then we've got
Speaker 1: some other titles coming ing, uh, some of our classics,
Speaker 1: Blues Brothers, Ghosts, Fiddlers On, Fiddler on the Roof, the
Speaker 1: Shining Um Airplanes, forties. Whenever we talk about these classics,
Speaker 1: I always feel old. And my favorite movie one Flew
Speaker 1: Over the Cucos and Us with Jack Nicholson is as well.
Speaker 1: So and then we've got some things. I think the
Speaker 1: last time we talked, we broke into the TV network
Speaker 1: UM Vertical with Friends. We were talking about that that
Speaker 1: was very successful for us. So we've got uh the
Speaker 1: best of Carol Burnett coming as well, and we think
Speaker 1: that will do very very well in the theater with
Speaker 1: some of those episodes. But uh, you know, Chasing Whiskey
Speaker 1: is another really good one. Uh it's a it's a
Speaker 1: title that looks into the Jack Daniels distillery. From a
Speaker 1: documentary perspective, is that we think that will go over
Speaker 1: very very well as well. So again you can see
Speaker 1: the genres, they're very diverse and that's what makes it
Speaker 1: exciting here. We also have a first run which is
Speaker 1: a little different for Fathom. We usually do event cinema,
Speaker 1: which is only a night or two. But we've got
Speaker 1: a first run film that we're negotiating right now and
Speaker 1: we're just in negotiations with that and that will be
Speaker 1: announced probably in the next week or so. Interesting. Interesting,
Speaker 1: So first run in the sense that you will you'll
Speaker 1: be the sort of you'll help distribute a brand new film. Yep,
Speaker 1: it'll be a brand new film, never seen before. It's
Speaker 1: got some big names in. It will be a limited
Speaker 1: theatrical release, probably for about a week or so, so
Speaker 1: it won't have your traditional you know, say three or
Speaker 1: four or five week run, but it will premier Uh
Speaker 1: with our theater circuits and through Fathom. Wow. Interesting, very
Speaker 1: cool stuff. Great, just twenty seconds. What brings in the
Speaker 1: most money? What kind of things is that? The things
Speaker 1: like friends or what is it? Just quickly? Uh? Well,
Speaker 1: our top ones are arts and entertainment, vertical, our our classics,
Speaker 1: UM and uh anime. Those are our topic once and
Speaker 1: then the emerging ones would be things like, uh, we're
Speaker 1: working with publishers right now to help authors get their
Speaker 1: word out there, especially in this time where they're not
Speaker 1: you know, touring or anything, the book tours or anything.
Speaker 1: So those are the top categories. And then we've mentioned
Speaker 1: also we have a B two B business where people
Speaker 1: come in and use our network to uh to hear
Speaker 1: their message. And we feel that in this time when
Speaker 1: theaters get back open, there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: companies using US. Yeah, that's a really interesting point. Really
Speaker 1: interesting man. All right, Ray, not great to catch up
Speaker 1: with you. Thank you so much for your time and
Speaker 1: see you fathom events that at the first run thing
Speaker 1: is interesting. We're gonna have to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: that because I would love to talk more about that.