Boxoffice Podcast

Opening day recap: global executive roundtable and Sony’s CinemaCon presentation. An interview with Rolando Rodriguez (Chairman, NATO & CEO, Marcus Theatres).

CinemaCon Preview and Interview with John Fithian (President & CEO, NATO) and Charles Rivkin (Chairman & CEO, Motion Picture Association).

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Daniel Loria, Rebecca Pahle, and Shawn Robbins discuss the opening weekend of Free Guy, next week’s upcoming events–both film releases and CinemaCon—and Disney’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings sticking to a 45-day theatrical exclusivity window. In the interview segment, Rebecca talks to Christie Marchese of Kinema—a platform that uses technology to deliver film, manage and reach  audiences, and provide marketing assets to screening hosts—about their goal to make booking of niche and demographic films seamless for local hosts.

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Episode Resources:

• CinemaCon Schedule
• Kinema
• Kinema Discover

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:44 Free Guy opened above expectations
• 04:38 More titles coming out this weekend
• 08:12 Venom and Clifford the Big Red Dog’s theatrical release has been moved
• 11:33 Families respond well to private rentals
• 12:13 Shang-Chi sticks to a 45-day theatrical exclusivity window
• 18:50 Christie Marchese on creating Kinema
• 22:30 Aiming to help make booking films seamless for local hosts
• 23:54 Looking forward to individuals and space who are becoming regular screening hosts
• 26:09 Niche films have a hard time pulling in enough people for multiple-week run
• 30:17 Building relationships with repeat hosts and bookers
• 34:10 Currently at 20k hosts, 450 active on the platform 
• 35:07 How to find Kinema and join the community
• 37:54 The daily CinemaCon podcast next week

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Daniel Loria and Rebecca Pahle discuss the opening weekend of The Suicide Squad along with other top films in the box office. Brain Schultz of Look Dine-In Cinemas joins the team to talk about his new dine-in theater initiative, the changes the exhibition industry will deal with post-COVID, and the evolution of the dine-in space.

Sponsors: Spotlight Cinema Networks, Mondelez International

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Episode Resources:

• CinemaCon Schedule

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:55 Two weeks away from CinemaCon
• 04:32 Recent box office numbers with The Suicide Squad’s opening weekend
• 08:36 New titles that will be exclusive to cinemas: Respect and Don’t Breathe 2
• 12:44 The panel for Rebuilding and Diversifying the Post-COVID Workforce and Cinemas topic
• 15:15 Brian Schultz’s first job in the exhibition industry
• 16:03 Passion for In-theater dine-in space 
• 17:55 Additional tests to continue to evolve and improve
• 18:57 Food preparations, picking staff, and choosing what film to screen has always been a challenge
• 21:16 Movies are a platform for opening perspectives
• 24:27 Cinemas with a distraction-free experience and focus solely on the film
• 28:29 Change management in larger organizations
• 29:49 What can the industry do to emerge from the pandemic?  
• 31:23 Spotlight Cinemas’ partnerships is both entertaining and informative

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Daniel Loria and Rebecca Pahle discuss Scarlett Johansson’s against Disney over the day-and-date release of Black Widow. Rebecca also recaps the latest edition of the WIE webinar series with insights from future leaders of exhibition. In the feature segment, Daniel and Rebecca discuss the newly announced proof of vaccine requirement for New York City movie theaters. The Boxoffice Company’s Romeo Duchene joins the podcast to talk about France’s experience in implementing proof of vaccination at cinemas, and how audiences and exhibitors have reacted to the new requirement.

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Episode Resources:

• NYC Follows France in Requiring Proof of Vaccination for Moviegoers

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:05 Jungle Cruise opened at $35M in 4310 locations  
• 04:36 Women in Exhibition - the necessity of diversity in programming
• 09:12 Vaccine Passports, select areas will require vaccination pass
• 12:24 What does the Vaccine Passport mean for French audience?
• 15:18 Camelot’s nationwide premiere in France
• 16:26 Currently, the vaccine pass is creating confusion
• 18:19 The confusion continues and people are finding answers online
• 20:34 Implementation of vaccine passport caused a huge drop in moviegoing
• 21:26 Possible detrimental effects of unclear policies

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Daniel Loria and Rebecca Pahle recap the most recent box office numbers and news from Disney before shifting to an interview with Jungle Cruise producers John Davis and John Fox, who discuss the film’s hybrid release model and the presence—or lack thereof—of concrete numbers by which to measure the success of a film’s streaming release. That interview is followed by a recap of Boxoffice Pro’s Giants of Premium Formats LIVE webinar, featuring insights from D-Box and ICE Theaters executives.

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Episode Resources:

• CinemaCon 2021
• Video of the Giants of Premium Format Panel
• Ice Theaters
• D-BOX
• Jungle Cruise Long Range Forecast

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 03:33 Two new films joins the Top 5 in the box office
• 08:39 It took 6 years for Jungle Cruise to finally debut in theaters
• 11:29 Being compared to Pirates of the Caribbean adventure movie
• 15:06 The success metric for Jungle Cruise 
• 17:47 There has to be a fundamental reason why Black Widow dropped in its second week
• 20:53 Half of the fun of the movie is with the audience’s reaction
• 22:20 Producers are tasked to make great movies
• 24:16 Every movie being developed is geared toward theatrical release
• 27:20 What premium large formats auditoriums mean for the industry
• 29:17 Ice Theaters ventures into global PLF
• 31:03 D-BOX offers better watching experience today  
• 32:10 Boxoffice Pro and Women of Exhibition collaborating on a webinar series 

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Daniel Loria, Rebecca Pahle, and Shawn Robbins talk about Black Widow’s second box office weekend and NATO’s statement on Disney’s hybrid release strategy. In the main segment, Daniel and Rebecca sit down with Brandon Jones to discuss Cinema Lab’s continuous effort to revitalize moviegoing in community theaters, the challenges of marketing new locations, and the organization's future plans and projects.

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Episode Resources:

• CinemaCon 2021
• Cinema Lab

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:16 What’s up with the team this week?
• 03:36 Box office numbers this week
• 08:23 A breakdown of the PVOD revenue 
• 11:00 Black Widow’s 2nd week didn’t see much of a drop
• 14:13 Young audiences are driving ticket sales
• 15:57 The stances of players that have committed to day-and-date releases
• 19:04 Black Widow was the summer movie
• 20:26 This weekend’s box office predictions
• 22:56 Brandon Jones on revitalizing community theaters
• 24:17 Cinema Week bounced back after being closed for more than a year
• 25:30 The Cinema Lab project
• 27:01 The challenges of marketing new locations 
• 30:39 How can community theaters thrive?
• 33:21 What’s the future for Cinema Lab in the future?
• 35:09 There is a willingness to bring theaters in real estate properties
• 36:55 Loyalty programs are reward programs in a unique way
• 38:35 Movie theaters owned the relationship with the moviegoers 
• 40:35 Tools to utilize to get in touch with the target audiences
• 43:49 Most exhibitors only push out the content studios give them

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Russ Fischer, Daniel Loria, Rebecca Pahle, and Shawn Robbins talk about Black Widow’s opening weekend and assess how its hybrid model may have affected its box office as well as the potential of the future of the MCU.

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Episode Resources:

• CinemaCon 2021
• Black Widow Opening Weekend

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:11 Black Widow opens at $80.3M domestically
• 04:39 Pre-sales are evolving, probably more heavy into the opening days
• 07:15 More households opted to pay $30 to watch Black Widow at home
• 10:18 The unvaccinated population remains a factor for moviegoing numbers
• 14:36 It may not be ideal to open on a weekend with major sports event happening
• 17:10 Marvel launching phase 4 and introducing new characters
• 20:09 Disney still weighing how Black Widow would fair in the international market  

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Russ Fischer, Daniel Loria, Rebecca Pahle, and Shawn Robbins talk about their predictions for Black Widow’s debut, Quentin Tarantino’s purchase of Los Angeles’ historic Vista Theatre, and movies to look forward to from the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. 

In the main segment, mK2 Cinemas co-owners Nathanael and Elisha Karmitz discuss the success of the recently concluded Cinéma Paradiso Louvre festival and the concept behind their hotel/cinema Hotel Paradiso, as well are sharing their opinions on the premiumization of cinema and cultural differences between French and American moviegoers.

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Episode Resources:

• CinemaCon 2021
• Boxoffice Pro LIVE Sessions: Giants of Exhibition - Premium Formats
• Quentin Tarantino’s Vista Theatre Deal
• Cinéma Paradiso Louvre
• Hotel Paradiso

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 03:16 Predictions for Black Widow weekend debut
• 04:43 F9 is about to hit the $500M mark in global sales
• 05:45 Marvel is good at selling the experience of watching their titles
• 09:07 Vista Theatre is purchased by Quentin Tarantino
• 12:51 Films premiering at the Cannes Festival 
• 18:41 Nathanael and Elisha Karmitz of mK2 joins our podcast team
• 20:33 The history of mK2
• 23:19 Being a brand about film culture
• 26:16 Cinéma Paradiso Louvre - Outdoor cinema festival
• 27:45 Hotel Paradiso: the first hotel cinema in the world 
• 32:12 How cinemas can co-exist with other platforms
• 37:22 Keeping the price low with great experience 

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Russ Fischer, Rebecca Pahle, and Shawn Robbins talk about the box office success of F9 on its domestic debut as well as predictions on two more Universal titles to debut next weekend—one getting theatrical exclusivity one going day-and-date.

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Episode Resources:

• CinemaCon 2021

What to Listen For

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:29 Dune is rescheduled to debut on October 22
• 03:21 Domestic box office hits $1B sales for 2021
• 05:05 F9 opens at $70M gross in 4179 locations
• 09:51 We still cannot rush how people are quickly coming back to the cinemas
• 16:26 A Quiet Place Part 2 drops 32% in its 5th weekend
• 18:19 Universal is putting out 3 movies within a 2-weekend timeframe 
• 20:48 Predictions for The Forever Purge