WEEKLY CineBUZZ REPORT - 4 September 2011

Box office Malaise Continues

The box office slump is now in its sixth week, as the top grosser last weekend - Dolphin Tale (WB) - took in only slightly over $14 million. It was followed by Moneyball (Sony) and Lion King 3D (Disney) which were prior week holdovers. The other new comers, 50/50 (Summit) and Courageous (Sony) ranked fourth and fifth, but with dismal performances.

Other new releases: Dream House (Universal) and What's Your Number (Fox) made it into the top 10 but with minuscule numbers. In fact, the top 10 movies for the week only grossed an aggregate $88 million.

Year-to-date the U.S. box office totals $7.8 billion, which represents a decrease of $265+ million as compared to 2010.  We are all hoping for a break in the box office slump as there are some very good films being released over the next several weeks, lets keep our fingers crossed.

Streaming Content

Roku, launched in 2008, has quietly become the first streaming platform which has been really embraced by consumers and has become the partner of choice for content providers.

Roku is simple to use and its platform allows for quick deployment of content using a variety of monetization options.  Roku provides subscribers access to over 300 entertainment channels that deliver content which includes: TV shows and movies from both Netflix and Hulu, videos from Amazon Instant Videos, live and on-demand sports, music, photos and videos from Facebook and Flicker, plus regular news channels. Look for Roku to be a major player in the streaming content game going forward.

In other news, Amazon continued to build out its streaming service by inking a deal with Fox for access to over 2000 movies and TV shows. No first run films or current shows but it ups the amount of video available through its streaming service by 20%.

Unlike Netfilx and Hulu which stream across platforms and devices, Amazon's subscription is limited to PCs and web TVs but mobile devices can't be far behind as Amazon will be introducing a new tablet shortly and it still has the Kindle as a device which could be enhanced to receive content.

Exhibitors Need To Use Cashless Payment Options

I've written before on the need of cinema exhibitors to embrace the use of SmartPhone payment systems at their theatres. This technology, although not widely used at present, will become more and more popular.

Google Wallet

Last week, Google officially launch The Wallet, which allows consumers to tap or swipe their phones to pay for purchases.  While other companies, including Visa and American Express, as well as AT&T and Verizon have stated they will be offering digital wallets, Google is the first to take the wallet to market.

Citibank, MasterCard, and Sprint are the initial launch partners for The Wallet and it will be the first such device to use "near field communications" technology for digital payments. NFC allows for secure communication between devices at very short distances. Google stated that their "near field"  system will be licensed to AMEX, Visa, and Discover which means that upcoming versions of Google Wallet will support these credit cards as well.

Google wants its digital wallet to offer consumers and retailers more then just payments. It wants to incorporate and deliver Google Offers, a service which allows people to enter loyalty cards into their Wallets and also allow retailers to send promotional deals to customers based on where they have shopped in the past and where they are located.
Exhibitors get on The Wallet bandwagon!

Best and Happy Movie Going!
Jim Lavorato