Content Alternatives At Cinemas

THE IDEA OF HAVING CINEMAS BECOME "VIEWING VENUES" where a variety of content is exhibited is nothing new!  In fact, I wrote an article on this topic over a decade ago - Theatres Become Viewing Venues, September 1999, Film Journal International.
Although the notion has been around for over 30 years (in the 1970s boxing matches were exhibited in cinemas via satellite feed) non-movie content has not caught the public's interest and , in our mind, will never be a big revenue generator.  According to Screendigest the U.S. market accounts for 58% of the global in-cinema alternative market which totaled $112 million in 2010.  The most screened content being the Opera followed by sporting events and live concerts.

NCM Fathom and CinemaLive are the major players offering non-movie content to cinemas.  Their goal is to have cinemas go well beyond the Opera and other cultural offerings and move into areas like children's programming.  For example, CinemaLive offers a Junior Series which includes productions by The Wiggles and Dorothy The Dinosaur.


Although the concept is worthy, and I am certainly a proponent of any initiative that increases a cinema's utilization, the notion of non-movie content ever becoming more than "filler" for a slow Tuesday or Wednesday evening or Saturday morning at a cinema is wishful thinking.

Having said that, for years I have harped on the downside ramifications of digitizing cinemas, as, to me, it would introduce the end of Hollywood's reign over the distribution of movies.  Could it be that the giant media congloms (and owners of the studios) don't care about cinema exhibition in light of all the new avenues of distribution for movie content now evolving (PCs, tablets, smartphones, WebTV, and yet to be developed mobile devices) - and are willing to relinquish their control of "film" distribution to the digital domain and a myriad of competitors offering cinemas alternative content.

Think hard Hollywood. Don't wish for a digitized cinema world, you might just be the loser in the end.

Best and Happy Movie Going
Jim Lavorato