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How many F-T'ers were at CinemaCon this year and what were your reactions to it?
1. I was very glad to actually see some open discussion and encouragement of longer windows. 45 days seems to be the goal, with some studios even on board -- although I think that's still too short and I wish they had shot for something more like 60 to 75 days. They also said that studies have shown that most people believe that movies will be available on home video within 30 days of their theatrical release, which erodes theatrical moviegoing. They seem to think that if they all can agree on a 45-day window and promote that fact, everyone will hurry back to the theaters for the 45 days. I don’t think that’s long enough to keep people from still thinking everything’ll be out in a month. However, if the studios (and theaters) would keep marketing the theatrical release after opening day, and Amazon etc. didn’t start trumpeting the home release on Day 2, that situation might improve.
2. We didn't get to the whole trade show. The one thing I hate about Caesars Palace is the goofy multi-floor layout of the tradeshow space. I've been to the convention about 8 times and I still get lost easily in the ballroom areas, what with all the escalators, elevators, hallways, and stairways. And restrooms are almost always a long hike away. I suppose the whole thing is caused by them combining several buildings into one. Anyway, we aren't in the market for anything "tech" right now, so we stuck mostly to the concession floor, which was filled with the usual stuff.
3. Coca Cola makes their hospitality area too user-unfriendly. I'm a soda guy, so I would love to pick one up on the way to meetings, but.... they don't open until 10 AM, and there are often no drinks available in the meetings. Why don't they just forget the hospitality area and just station somebody with a cooler full of drinks at each meeting room or dinner entrance? That'd get more Coke into people's hands and save the convention some money.
4. The studio presentations were good -- they brought the excitement, the celebs, and the extra cool features (Universal brought a 40-piece orchestra!), but the footage shown was kind of lackluster, I thought, in comparison to previous CinemaCons. This year there was no single movie with longer than 10 minutes of extended/previously unseen footage, and a bigger-than-usual share of the presentations were the same trailers we can watch on our own systems without having audio pneumatic drills jamming into our brains. Plus when it's just trailers, considering all trailers are basically cut from the same template, the result is almost zero memory of what we saw.
5. As a teenager of the '70s, I was happily surprised to see Cheech and Chong receive an "Achievement in Comedy" award. They seemed genuinely humbled by it ("I think this is the first award we ever got...isn't it?"). You gotta hand it to those guys, they are survivors. Despite the vast majority of their work not being all that great, the stuff that WAS good was really good.
6. The seminars were good this year. One on "A.I." was pretty interesting. The industry think tank one was really good. There was no seminar this year that featured a Q&A period, which I thought was sad.
7. Barco's brief demo of their HDR projection was impressive. The 3-D presentations in the Disney show were super. Even with glasses, it was just as bright as a typical analog presentation. Kudos to the projection team.
8. When "The Naked Gun" trailer was shown, I was like "Thank heavens, finally a comedy!" and it was quite funny. I’m not sure if Liam Neeson is the right choice to take over for Leslie Neilsen, though. He just doesn't have that goofy mug that Neilson had. The writing was pretty funny though. I definitely want to see it, but I worry about it. One of my favorite memories of an early convention I attended was when Leslie Neilsen appeared in an “Airplane” intro clip and said, “I really wish I could be there with all you exhibitionists.”
9. There are way too many horror movies. I get that it's one format that seems to be kind of home-video-proof, but they’re still only good for one weekend and a quick fade. They're slicing the pie too thin. I’ll bet there were at least 15 horror movies on offer, and that’s just from the majors.
10. “Seat saving” in the Colosseum has gotten completely out of hand. First, over half of the main floor seats (including most of the ones in the middle, and the entire front section) are already reserved for whatever studio that’s putting on the presentation and other “special” CinemaCon people, whoever they are. The independents, who, by the way, make up the majority of Cinema United members, are shuffled to the seats in the side or balcony sections, which are OK, but you get a distorted view of the image. Then, you have people “saving” mulitiple seats for their “group” who is not there yet and sometimes never does get there. I believe “seat saving” should be completely outlawed, or at least restricted such that you can only save the seat next to you.
12. I’ve always had a dislike of convention food, and this year was no exception. There was only one “plated” meal this year, and it was a cold lunch. Beyond that, it was all buffets.
1. I was very glad to actually see some open discussion and encouragement of longer windows. 45 days seems to be the goal, with some studios even on board -- although I think that's still too short and I wish they had shot for something more like 60 to 75 days. They also said that studies have shown that most people believe that movies will be available on home video within 30 days of their theatrical release, which erodes theatrical moviegoing. They seem to think that if they all can agree on a 45-day window and promote that fact, everyone will hurry back to the theaters for the 45 days. I don’t think that’s long enough to keep people from still thinking everything’ll be out in a month. However, if the studios (and theaters) would keep marketing the theatrical release after opening day, and Amazon etc. didn’t start trumpeting the home release on Day 2, that situation might improve.
2. We didn't get to the whole trade show. The one thing I hate about Caesars Palace is the goofy multi-floor layout of the tradeshow space. I've been to the convention about 8 times and I still get lost easily in the ballroom areas, what with all the escalators, elevators, hallways, and stairways. And restrooms are almost always a long hike away. I suppose the whole thing is caused by them combining several buildings into one. Anyway, we aren't in the market for anything "tech" right now, so we stuck mostly to the concession floor, which was filled with the usual stuff.
3. Coca Cola makes their hospitality area too user-unfriendly. I'm a soda guy, so I would love to pick one up on the way to meetings, but.... they don't open until 10 AM, and there are often no drinks available in the meetings. Why don't they just forget the hospitality area and just station somebody with a cooler full of drinks at each meeting room or dinner entrance? That'd get more Coke into people's hands and save the convention some money.
4. The studio presentations were good -- they brought the excitement, the celebs, and the extra cool features (Universal brought a 40-piece orchestra!), but the footage shown was kind of lackluster, I thought, in comparison to previous CinemaCons. This year there was no single movie with longer than 10 minutes of extended/previously unseen footage, and a bigger-than-usual share of the presentations were the same trailers we can watch on our own systems without having audio pneumatic drills jamming into our brains. Plus when it's just trailers, considering all trailers are basically cut from the same template, the result is almost zero memory of what we saw.
5. As a teenager of the '70s, I was happily surprised to see Cheech and Chong receive an "Achievement in Comedy" award. They seemed genuinely humbled by it ("I think this is the first award we ever got...isn't it?"). You gotta hand it to those guys, they are survivors. Despite the vast majority of their work not being all that great, the stuff that WAS good was really good.
6. The seminars were good this year. One on "A.I." was pretty interesting. The industry think tank one was really good. There was no seminar this year that featured a Q&A period, which I thought was sad.
7. Barco's brief demo of their HDR projection was impressive. The 3-D presentations in the Disney show were super. Even with glasses, it was just as bright as a typical analog presentation. Kudos to the projection team.
8. When "The Naked Gun" trailer was shown, I was like "Thank heavens, finally a comedy!" and it was quite funny. I’m not sure if Liam Neeson is the right choice to take over for Leslie Neilsen, though. He just doesn't have that goofy mug that Neilson had. The writing was pretty funny though. I definitely want to see it, but I worry about it. One of my favorite memories of an early convention I attended was when Leslie Neilsen appeared in an “Airplane” intro clip and said, “I really wish I could be there with all you exhibitionists.”
9. There are way too many horror movies. I get that it's one format that seems to be kind of home-video-proof, but they’re still only good for one weekend and a quick fade. They're slicing the pie too thin. I’ll bet there were at least 15 horror movies on offer, and that’s just from the majors.
10. “Seat saving” in the Colosseum has gotten completely out of hand. First, over half of the main floor seats (including most of the ones in the middle, and the entire front section) are already reserved for whatever studio that’s putting on the presentation and other “special” CinemaCon people, whoever they are. The independents, who, by the way, make up the majority of Cinema United members, are shuffled to the seats in the side or balcony sections, which are OK, but you get a distorted view of the image. Then, you have people “saving” mulitiple seats for their “group” who is not there yet and sometimes never does get there. I believe “seat saving” should be completely outlawed, or at least restricted such that you can only save the seat next to you.
12. I’ve always had a dislike of convention food, and this year was no exception. There was only one “plated” meal this year, and it was a cold lunch. Beyond that, it was all buffets.
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