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Front Page, Industry News
Old-fashioned films suffer at hands of 3D, IMAX features
Friday August 13th 2010Drugs may no longer be a big part of the Hollywood lifestyle, but those who make their money on the movie business still act like strung-out addicts always on the prowl for the next big hit.
Which is why the dominant Canadian film exhibitor Cineplex Entertainment pointed to some “highly anticipated movies” that failed to draw enough customers when explaining the company’s lower second-quarter revenue on Thursday.
Attendance plummeted 8.2 per cent over last year, but total revenues for Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund were off only two per cent as the company made up much of the difference with higher concession sales.
And what were those flops? Prince of Persia, Sex and the City 2, and Robin Hood, which took in about $90-million, $95-million, and $105-million respectively. (All figures are U.S. unless noted.) That was enough to land them in the top 20 films released so far this year, but like a pricey draft pick in a scoring slump, they suffered the hard prejudice of high expectations.
Still, Hollywood is on track to beat its record 2009 performance, with Canadian box office up an estimated 6.3 per cent on the year.
Anyone who has tried to find an old-fashioned movie to watch at the theatre-– that is, one that doesn’t require the donning of special eyewear or the ingestion of a Gravol to counteract the sometimes vertiginous effects of submitting to a six-storey-high screen – will understand why. In the first six months of this year, 30.1 per cent of Cineplex’s box office revenues stemmed from 3D or IMAX features, an increase of a whopping 186.7 per cent. Of the 31 weekends so far, 20 threw a film released in 3D to the top of the box office.
Exhibitors prefer the special formats, not only because they are able to exact a hefty premium – at one Toronto-area theatre, tickets for the current flop Step-Up 3 cost $12.75 in conventional format and $15.75 for the 3D presentation – but also because most audiences can not yet reproduce the cinema-like 3D experience at home. Indeed, Avatar, which is already the top-grossing IMAX release of all time, with a $275-million worldwide box office, and which hit DVD months ago, will be rereleased into IMAX 3D theatres later this month.
Even unlikely movie franchises are embracing the trend: This October, the numbnuts comedy series Jackass and the horror franchise Saw each expand into 3D.
All of which is making some Hollywood stars and their agents reach for the Valium, as fewer films than ever are being propelled by actors commanding multimillion-dollar paydays. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz endured a high-profile bomb – as did their audiences – with last month’s release of the comedy Knight & Day (total box office: about $75-million); Angelina Jolie’s heavily promoted and pricey espionage thriller Salt is fast losing steam (total box office: about $96-million; estimated production budget: $110-million); and even this weekend’s highly anticipated Eat Pray Love now seems likely to do only middling business despite the star power of Julia Roberts.
When stars are in smash hits, they tend to share the spotlight with a movie’s special effects or its so-called high concept, as in Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 2 and Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Front Page, Industry News
Old-fashioned films suffer at hands of 3D, IMAX features
Friday August 13th 2010Drugs may no longer be a big part of the Hollywood lifestyle, but those who make their money on the movie business still act like strung-out addicts always on the prowl for the next big hit.
Which is why the dominant Canadian film exhibitor Cineplex Entertainment pointed to some “highly anticipated movies” that failed to draw enough customers when explaining the company’s lower second-quarter revenue on Thursday.
Attendance plummeted 8.2 per cent over last year, but total revenues for Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund were off only two per cent as the company made up much of the difference with higher concession sales.
And what were those flops? Prince of Persia, Sex and the City 2, and Robin Hood, which took in about $90-million, $95-million, and $105-million respectively. (All figures are U.S. unless noted.) That was enough to land them in the top 20 films released so far this year, but like a pricey draft pick in a scoring slump, they suffered the hard prejudice of high expectations.
Still, Hollywood is on track to beat its record 2009 performance, with Canadian box office up an estimated 6.3 per cent on the year.
Anyone who has tried to find an old-fashioned movie to watch at the theatre-– that is, one that doesn’t require the donning of special eyewear or the ingestion of a Gravol to counteract the sometimes vertiginous effects of submitting to a six-storey-high screen – will understand why. In the first six months of this year, 30.1 per cent of Cineplex’s box office revenues stemmed from 3D or IMAX features, an increase of a whopping 186.7 per cent. Of the 31 weekends so far, 20 threw a film released in 3D to the top of the box office.
Exhibitors prefer the special formats, not only because they are able to exact a hefty premium – at one Toronto-area theatre, tickets for the current flop Step-Up 3 cost $12.75 in conventional format and $15.75 for the 3D presentation – but also because most audiences can not yet reproduce the cinema-like 3D experience at home. Indeed, Avatar, which is already the top-grossing IMAX release of all time, with a $275-million worldwide box office, and which hit DVD months ago, will be rereleased into IMAX 3D theatres later this month.
Even unlikely movie franchises are embracing the trend: This October, the numbnuts comedy series Jackass and the horror franchise Saw each expand into 3D.
All of which is making some Hollywood stars and their agents reach for the Valium, as fewer films than ever are being propelled by actors commanding multimillion-dollar paydays. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz endured a high-profile bomb – as did their audiences – with last month’s release of the comedy Knight & Day (total box office: about $75-million); Angelina Jolie’s heavily promoted and pricey espionage thriller Salt is fast losing steam (total box office: about $96-million; estimated production budget: $110-million); and even this weekend’s highly anticipated Eat Pray Love now seems likely to do only middling business despite the star power of Julia Roberts.
When stars are in smash hits, they tend to share the spotlight with a movie’s special effects or its so-called high concept, as in Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 2 and Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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Front Page, Industry News
Old-fashioned films suffer at hands of 3D, IMAX features
Friday August 13th 2010Drugs may no longer be a big part of the Hollywood lifestyle, but those who make their money on the movie business still act like strung-out addicts always on the prowl for the next big hit.
Which is why the dominant Canadian film exhibitor Cineplex Entertainment pointed to some “highly anticipated movies” that failed to draw enough customers when explaining the company’s lower second-quarter revenue on Thursday.
Attendance plummeted 8.2 per cent over last year, but total revenues for Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund were off only two per cent as the company made up much of the difference with higher concession sales.
And what were those flops? Prince of Persia, Sex and the City 2, and Robin Hood, which took in about $90-million, $95-million, and $105-million respectively. (All figures are U.S. unless noted.) That was enough to land them in the top 20 films released so far this year, but like a pricey draft pick in a scoring slump, they suffered the hard prejudice of high expectations.
Still, Hollywood is on track to beat its record 2009 performance, with Canadian box office up an estimated 6.3 per cent on the year.
Anyone who has tried to find an old-fashioned movie to watch at the theatre-– that is, one that doesn’t require the donning of special eyewear or the ingestion of a Gravol to counteract the sometimes vertiginous effects of submitting to a six-storey-high screen – will understand why. In the first six months of this year, 30.1 per cent of Cineplex’s box office revenues stemmed from 3D or IMAX features, an increase of a whopping 186.7 per cent. Of the 31 weekends so far, 20 threw a film released in 3D to the top of the box office.
Exhibitors prefer the special formats, not only because they are able to exact a hefty premium – at one Toronto-area theatre, tickets for the current flop Step-Up 3 cost $12.75 in conventional format and $15.75 for the 3D presentation – but also because most audiences can not yet reproduce the cinema-like 3D experience at home. Indeed, Avatar, which is already the top-grossing IMAX release of all time, with a $275-million worldwide box office, and which hit DVD months ago, will be rereleased into IMAX 3D theatres later this month.
Even unlikely movie franchises are embracing the trend: This October, the numbnuts comedy series Jackass and the horror franchise Saw each expand into 3D.
All of which is making some Hollywood stars and their agents reach for the Valium, as fewer films than ever are being propelled by actors commanding multimillion-dollar paydays. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz endured a high-profile bomb – as did their audiences – with last month’s release of the comedy Knight & Day (total box office: about $75-million); Angelina Jolie’s heavily promoted and pricey espionage thriller Salt is fast losing steam (total box office: about $96-million; estimated production budget: $110-million); and even this weekend’s highly anticipated Eat Pray Love now seems likely to do only middling business despite the star power of Julia Roberts.
When stars are in smash hits, they tend to share the spotlight with a movie’s special effects or its so-called high concept, as in Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 2 and Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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