2020 At The Boxoffice (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

Cinemark just announced that they will be closing all locations beginning tomorrow, March 18. So that's basically all theaters now.

The email I just received from their mailing list reads:

Dear Valued Guest,

I cannot thank you enough for your loyal support of Cinemark Theatres. The entire Cinemark team cares deeply about our guests, employees and communities, and we have made the incredibly difficult decision to close our U.S. theatres to ensure we are playing our part to slow the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Each of our theatres will be closed beginning Wednesday, March 18, until we believe it is safe to once again welcome moviegoers to our auditoriums.

We appreciate your many concerns during these truly unprecedented times, and we want to relieve any uncertainties that you may have about your loyalty membership with Cinemark. To do this, we have increased the flexibility of our Cinemark Movie Rewards programs by:

• Extending the expiration date for all Cinemark Movie Rewards points to June 30, 2020, providing you the opportunity to redeem the rewards you earned; and
  
  
  
  
• Pausing your Movie Club membership while our theatres are closed. During this challenging time, we are looking out for you and will not bill you your monthly fee. Don’t worry, active members will never lose unused movie credits, even while your membership is paused.
  
  

We will, of course, refund all tickets that were purchased in advance. Online purchases will be automatically refunded in five to seven business days. Tickets purchased at a Cinemark box office can be refunded by filling out a request at www.cinemark.com/contact-us.

Cinemark will continue to follow guidance from local and national governmental health organizations, and we will continue to share updates as we have them at www.cinemark.com.

We also understand the profound impact the closure of our theatres has on our employees, and it is not a decision we made lightly. We will continue to support our employees to the best of our abilities as we navigate through this most turbulent time. I am thankful for the unwavering dedication of our Cinemark employees, as well as your trust and support. We greatly look forward to inviting you to once again enjoy the immersive experience of watching movies at Cinemark.

Sincerely,

Mark Zoradi
Chief Executive Officer
Cinemark Theatres

 

[Malcolm R]

Only independent theaters around here. Most have closed but one is attempting to stay open with a limited schedule (only 2 shows per day instead of 4-5).

 

[Jake Lipson]

My independent arthouse closed on Sunday.

Also, Charting with Dan has moved to Twitter for the time being instead of having a taped show, analyzing the box office, or what's left of it: https://twitter.com/MurrellDan/status/1240053870279053313

 

[TravisR]

The independents near me already closed last week basically at the same time that the AMCs closed around here.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Is Studio Movie Grill still open?

 

[Jake Lipson]

I read on Deadline today that 20% of movie theaters in the U.S. remain open. I'd like to know where they are and why they think that's a good idea.

 

[Malcolm R]

The theater near me that seemed like it was trying to stay open appears to be closing on Friday. Their last showtimes on their website are for tomorrow.

 

[BobO'Link]

The regional chain here (Malco) announced a couple of days ago they're closing until further notice.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The new adaptation of Emma just went live on iTunes, and it's $19.99 for a rental. At that pricing, the movie theater chains have nothing to worry about when we leave the coronavirus behind.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The new adaptation of Emma just went live on iTunes, and it's $19.99 for a rental.

Yes, that's what Universal announced earlier this week and I am sure they decided to go with that price point as a way to attempt to make up for losses being incurred by the sudden stoppage of the theatrical release.

I think that price makes some sense to do that if you are a family (renting, say, Trolls), because if you've got a family of four or five people then the rental fee is lower than what would have been paid for everyone to see it in theaters anyway. Or, if you live in a particularly high-priced theatrical market, it might work out to being a deal. However, doesn't make sense for me because my ticket price here would have been $8.15 for a matinee, so the $20 price point is a significant markup over that. I'm not saying I have access to Emma theatrically right now, but I did before all of this happened and I chose to see Onward instead of it. So I'm not suddenly going to pay more to rent it than I would have theatrically.

That being said, even if a family can justify renting Trolls at that price point, you'd have to really want to see Trolls to make it worthwhile. With the same $19.99, you could subscribe to Disney+ for what, something like three months? If you're going to the theater, making the outing of it is part of the value, but if parents are just looking for a way to occupy kids when they're stuck at home, Disney+ with far more content is a better long-term value for that money.

I also don't think the theaters feel threatened by this because it is clear to me that this is an emergency measure to continue to get some funds out of these big movies that have already had marketing campaigns going for weeks. By which I suppose what I mean is, if coronavirus never happened, there's absolutely no way this would be happening right now. If (I wish) we woke up tomorrow and the virus was gone and things could return to normal, the studios would remove these things from VOD and rebook them into theaters and the first-run window would be reinstated. That's not going to happen, so the studios had to get creative to continue making these films available that they have already spent significant monies on releasing and promoting. But I really don't see this as a sign of things to come after moviegoing is able to resume.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

With the same $19.99, you could subscribe to Disney+ for what, something like three months?

That's it exactly.

I do happen to live in a particularly high-price theatrical market, and I'm willing to spend $15 for a regular movie ticket. But that's a particular experience: Seeing a movie on a massive screen as part of a communal experience.

The pricing for the digital home market is $3-7 rentals, $5-20 for ownership. A $13 rental markup to get something three months earlier just isn't worth it to me.

 

[Jake Lipson]

A $13 rental markup to get something three months earlier just isn't worth it to me.

I get that and I agree with it. However, I also get why the studio would try to start these at a higher price point to see if people are willing to pay for it. I hope they are not.

It seems clear with the VOD releases that there will be no attempt to re-book these films into theaters whenever they reopen. So, theoretically, the disc versions will maintain the standard windowing they would have had if theaters had stayed open. When those come out, the rental prices should then be slashed to normal levels because the films will no longer be new.

I'm not particularly interested In anything that Universal is releasing with this method anyway, but if I was, I would just wait until the regular in-home release which will probably be this summer.

However, they are putting some money behind promoting this strategy; I saw a TV spot for The Invisible Man advertising the in-home release ("The Invisible Man is in your home") during Grey's Anatomy tonight. It will be interesting to see if they release any numbers for the rentals. My guess is if they're happy with it, they will issue a press release proclaiming it as a big success, and if they don't get many takers we won't hear about the results at all.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m getting to a point in my life where I’m done with the crowds and the hassles to see something opening day, and I’m also frustrated by the way spoilers have been weaponized to get you to see the movie opening day, or else. I wouldn’t pay $20 for everything but I could imagine paying it for something I really wanted to see right away especially if it was in a gross weather part of the year. And for movies I end up loving, I often wish I had the time to go right back to the theater to see it again. So $20 to rent the new Star Wars on opening night with 48 hours of access to it to watch it a second or third time does hold some appeal.

 

[Jake Lipson]

So $20 to rent the new Star Wars on opening night with 48 hours of access to it to watch it a second or third time does hold some appeal.

I know you're talking hypothetically here. But I'm still not convinced it would ever happen for Star Wars, and I also believe that it should not. The "weaponized spoilers" thing you mentioned often refers to only the largest tentpole event movies, like Avengers and Star Wars. As long as the theatrical market still exists, running those movies through the traditional windowed model is going to bring in more money for Disney than doing a premium VOD option such as this.

Universal knows this too; they have Fast and Furious 9 affected by the coronavirus outbreak, and they could have chosen to send it to VOD too, but they didn't. They chose to delay its release by 11 months because they know it's a billion-dollar property and they're unwilling to leave that kind of money on the table. There's a big difference in the type of movie and budget structure comparing The Invisible Man and Emma and a huge blockbuster title like Star Wars.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For sure. I don’t think it would happen tomorrow. But it’s closer than its ever been.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

$20 to own a digital movie seems expensive. $20 to rent???

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I mentioned this in some other threads, but I wonder how many of the movies that are/were on the spring/summer docket are done.

The "Minions" sequel got delayed because they're not done and shutdowns won't allow them to complete it in time.

Gotta be a lot of effects-heavy movies in the same boat, right?

 

[TravisR]

$20 to own a digital movie seems expensive. $20 to rent???

I agree. I can buy a Blu-ray for $20 and that actually involves a physical product and shipping, etc. while digital has none of the costs associated with a physical product. Although I will say that since it's basically a brand new movie, $20 isn't insane but it's certainly not a price that I see people paying on a normal basis for anything except big blockbusters.

And before anyone points it out, yes I know that $20 is much cheaper than a night out at the movies with the price of tickets and food but even if this became the norm, I still don't see people paying that much for anything except franchise movies once the "Wow, I can see a brand new movie for $20!" factor wears off.

 

[Tino]

The only title I’m considering renting is The Invisible Man as I was planning on taking my wife to see it since I know she’s gonna love it. I saw it and thought it was terrific.

I have free rentals on iTunes up to $5.99 so for this one time I’ll pay the $13.99 for a rental.

 

[Malcolm R]

Plus a lot of people are out of work, so $20 movie rentals are likely a no-go when prioritizing their budgets.