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Topic: A minimum-three week policy is putting a P.E.I. drive-in theatre out of business

Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 07-09-2018 05:55 PM

A minimum-three week policy is putting a P.E.I. drive-in theatre out of business

quote:
The owner of a drive-in theatre in Prince Edward Island says a requirement that cinemas screen most new Disney releases for a minimum of three weeks is choking out small-town businesses.

Bob Boyle, owner of the Brackley Drive-In Theatre, said the standard has become a bigger problem since Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment and the Star Wars franchise, and he expects the issue to reach its breaking point now that the titan plans to acquire 21st Century Fox.

Boyle said that while Cineplex, Canada’s largest movie theatre company, can afford to take up their screens for weeks at a time, there isn’t enough demand to keep playing a film for three weeks straight in smaller communities, especially in a single-screen theatre.

“If we don’t have quality film on-screen week in and week out, we’re an empty parking lot,” he said. “Without people and without film … that’s what makes the magic happen.”

The Brackley Drive-In Theatre has been operating since the 1950s and has been in Boyle’s family for nearly 30 years.

Boyle said that drive-in theatres, especially in the Maritimes, only have a short window of profitability during the summer months, and they need to show a variety of films during that time to keep customers watching.

Disney also implemented another policy within the past couple of years that prevents theatres from showing double features of movies they haven’t screened before.

Boyle said this rule makes it even more difficult to come up with a good program, saying there’s “no point” in showing a months-old movie that the theatre has already screened.

“Disney is putting hurdle after hurdle in place,” he said, explaining that he has had no issues with Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, and other film companies. “No other studio does this.”

He added that not being able to watch the films they want in theatres may drive some customers to pirating films, furthering the decline of the already-endangered movie theatre industry.

Disney is putting hurdle after hurdle in place

Disney could not immediately be reached for comment, but a company spokeswoman told CTV Atlantic that each film is negotiated on an individual basis and that the company does not restrict all films to a three-week minimum.

In response, Boyle said he never claimed that Disney has this regulation for all of their films, noting that they have made exceptions in the past — although he reiterated that the rule applies to the “vast majority” of their new releases.

He said there’s no hard copy of the policy, but he understands that Disney could cut off its relationship with his theatre if he doesn’t play a movie for as long as the company tells him to.

Boyle recently took to his drive-in’s Facebook page to criticize the regulation, saying his theatre is no longer able to play “Incredibles 2” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” this week because of the studio’s strict rules.

It's mind-boggling, it's disappointing, and we're really hoping for change

He asked his customers to push back against the movie giant, saying “the studio will not listen to us, but they should listen to you.”

In turn, dozens of passionate movie-goers responded by flooding the Canadian Walt Disney Studios Facebook page with comments supporting Boyle’s stance.

On a photo advertising “Incredibles 2,” a user commented to express their disappointment in not being able to see the film at Boyle’s theatre: “You are losing out on sharing your work with our community. And leaving a sour taste for your brand as well.”

Another criticized the three-week policy, saying: “This is NOT SUSTAINABLE for seasonal drive-ins. Guess I’ll wait for Netflix.”

Boyle said he was “humbled” by the support he’s gotten and he hopes the public outcry will drive the studio to change its regulations.

He added that other drive-in theatres throughout the Maritimes have voiced their concerns over the issue, and that this rule would apply to all theatres in North America — though the adverse effects would be mostly felt in smaller communities.

“It’s mind-boggling, it’s disappointing, and we’re really hoping for change,” said Boyle.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-09-2018 10:47 PM

Well, we only played Coco for 2 weeks, but Avengers Infinity War, Solo and Incredibles 2 were all 3-week movies.

We played the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean on the break for only 2 weeks. So it's definitely not a blanket policy.

Disney does seem to be shooting itself in the foot with a lot of smaller players. We play a lot of their films on the break but we'd play more of them if we could get two weeks.

My big dream is for the studios to wake up and let small theaters play their movies for ONE week on the break. I would gladly pay the higher rental fee and open something on the break almost every week. Instead we have to choke up the screen with one film for 3 weeks, and do "fair" business on the third week, while having to skip a film we could do stellar with. The most recent Deadpool is a great example...it came out one week ahead of Solo, so we skipped it. Could have played it for one week and done killer business. Instead we had to wait until Incredibles was done, and we are now playing Deadpool to mostly-empty houses.

I keep pitching this one-week concept to anybody who will listen at conventions, but to a person they've all told me that it's never likely to happen. "Screen count" is almost as important to these guys as grosses are. Maybe moreso after the first weekend is done.

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Brent Barnhart
Film Handler

Posts: 12
From: Terre Haute, IN USA
Registered: Jan 2018

posted 07-10-2018 09:07 AM

I agree completely on shorter runs. Would make for a much better business model. If you’re a single screen, then you commit to one week. If you’re a twin, 2 weeks. For a triple or higher then you can grab those 3 week deals. I mean, in the big sceme of things, just how many single screen indoors and outdoors are there? What would barely make a difference in a negative way to some people would make a huge difference for the small theaters and their communities. (And in fact, the negative should be offset by the positive because you are now adding screens on the break that you otherwise would not have.)

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 07-10-2018 12:04 PM

It's my understanding that the film companies don't want to have too many small screens on the break because it drags down their per-screen average take for the first weekend, which is important in future negotiations for cable tv and whatnot.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-10-2018 01:24 PM

I wonder how many small screens would be willing to pay the high percentages. I know I would because we already do.... but I wonder how many MORE would?

If it was a relatively small number then it wouldn't make much difference to the overall average but I can see their argument if thousands of small venues would go for it.

You'd think they could just separate the small operators out of the overall calculations. In this age it should be easy to do that.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-10-2018 01:37 PM

The movie distributors obviously don't give a damn about small towns. And they're not living up to one of the sales pitches they gave about making theaters convert to digital projection: more flexible booking arrangements and greater variety of movies to play. I guess that's all bullshit.

Most movies don't have enough audience drawing strength to justify holding a small town movie theater screen exclusively for just a full week, never mind two or three. That's not just artsy fare either; plenty of mainstream studio movies fall into that category. Very few movies made these days have any repeat viewing potential; it's one of the reasons why home video sales have been in the toilet. It's just another factor why these movies play themselves out so fast.

I don't understand the motivation behind these types of restrictive booking arrangements. Aren't these studios currently obsessed with getting the biggest opening weekend gross possible? Aren't they wanting to make the most money they can in the fastest manner possible? If that's the case it would seem getting the movie booked onto every available screen possible would be the bigger priority. Forcing small town theaters to skip movies (or play them much later to mostly empty seats) would seem to get in the way of that motivation. It's a pretty contradictory booking strategy.

Movie theaters are arguably an important quality of life feature to small towns. They're not as vital as a public school or fire dept but they make a difference whether a town seems alive at all, especially after dark.

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Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-10-2018 01:49 PM

Easy solution Mike,

Just turn your office into a very small VIP auditorium!

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-10-2018 01:51 PM

Sometimes it's justified - in fact, even if Incredibles 2 or Avengers Infinity were only booked for 2 weeks, we did well enough that Disney would have insisted on another week anyway.

Solo, however, would have been a great one-week title.

Our booker describes the situation as "if you want to play with the big boys, you have to play by the same rules" which I can sort of understand, but then we also don't get any of the perks they get, like promotional goodies, so it's not exactly an even field.

quote:
Easy solution Mike,

Just turn your office into a very small VIP auditorium!

Hey there you go....except a projector alone would take up the whole office!

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 07-10-2018 02:07 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
I wonder how many small screens would be willing to pay the high percentages. I know I would because we already do.... but I wonder how many MORE would?

Disney will let me have one of their movies for a one-week booking anywhere from four to eight weeks after the initial release (depending on which movie it is), but I still pay the same percentage that I would have if I had it on opening day.

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Dustin Grush
Film Handler

Posts: 14
From: Johnstown, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2018

posted 07-10-2018 11:44 PM

My concern isn't so much with Disney's three week deals, It's what happens if everyone else starts to follow suit. If the remaining studios were to insist on 3 weeks for each first run, I think that all but a handful of single screens, and a large portion of two screen theatres will be out of business.

That would basically limit a theatre to 4 different movies for the entire summer, and killing much of its repeat customer base. The only hope for survival would be if you were the only game in your town or the next.

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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-11-2018 10:30 PM

If you have the land available, open a second very small screen and put those films there. Isn't that essentially what multiplexes do? The move the film over to a 45 seat screen.

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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 777
From: Perth, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 07-13-2018 03:35 PM

Brackley is a sweetheart of a drive-in (and if you like beaches, warm gulfstream water and golf, PEI is great too!). We pick and choose with Disney, Incredibles was definitely worth 3 weeks, but we passed on Ant-Man, and we'll likely never play Solo.

We're trying to get a 2nd screen done to combat even the usual "2 week" minimums. The big issue of course is that even small projectors still sit at $60k ($100k if you're using Canadian pesos) and so it's hard to just wedge something in for the sake of move-overs, it has to draw some as well. I can sympathize with the spirit of it, but it's not really that new of an issue. At our single screen, we tend to get cute with it, typically we'll play 3-week films starting before summer when we're weekends only, and by week 2 or 3 move it to second in the lineup.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 07-13-2018 04:38 PM

One of the other issues with Disney is their film rental winds up being outrageous if you aren't playing another Disney movie as the second feature. This is something else that makes it difficult to put together a good program. Especially in the third week. Fortunately in the case of Incredibles 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp opened the same weekend we were going to move Incredibles 2 from our Cinema to our drive-in. But we've wound up having to play Avengers: Infinity War for a total of 4 weeks in order to be able to play other movies.

As Disney continues to have the lion's share of good grossing titles, it only reinforces the issue.

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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 777
From: Perth, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 07-13-2018 04:49 PM

The ability to play double-features of course is a great help, but I think that second screen is going to be a necessity. Customers I think are going to be fine with something new 2 out of every 3 weeks, but one every 4 is tough. I'm still not sure what we would've done with Jurassic coming out a week after Incredibles. Incredibles sold out the first Saturday and was maybe 85% the second, but we'll take those "problems". As it was, we ran those two as a pair and had a good 3rd week, now Transylvania and Jurassic should do well.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 07-13-2018 11:19 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
And they're not living up to one of the sales pitches they gave about making theaters convert to digital projection: more flexible booking arrangements and greater variety of movies to play. I guess that's all bullshit.

Maybe a little, but I think most of this is a function of assumptions, made by many independents during the rollout.

I remember hearing what you're talking about. "A hard drive is only a fraction of the cost of a 35mm print. They'll be handing those out to anyone who wants them". I also heard the studios caution that this wasn't in their plans, as print cost was only part of the voodoo that determines who gets prints and when. Unfortunately, this was soon forgotten by the exhibitors... until they got their machines installed and found things didn't change all that much. If anything, it got worse if you were on VPFs. It wasn't supposed to, but...

As time has passed and the exhib window has shortened, I'm seeing more first-run product at theatres & drive-ins that never used to run the stuff. Part of it might also be because a few distribs charge first-run rates whether you start on the break or try to wait it out. If you're gonna get hit anyway, might as well get in while the crowds are interested.

quote: Justin Hamaker
One of the other issues with Disney is their film rental winds up being outrageous if you aren't playing another Disney movie as the second feature.

That's usually true, but Disney is also known to deviate from that... if it benefits Disney.

A number of drive-ins up here are running Hotel Transylvania 3 with Incredibles 2... something that would have been unheard of before digital. Percentages are steep, but not beyond what we've been willing to pay in the past for a good draw.

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