AMC employee films Milk Duds mischief on YouTube

In a video that made its way onto Reddit and then Gawker this morning, an AMC employee working the concession stand films a prank. His manager told him to throw away some Milk Duds, but he has some other ideas about how to actually accomplish the task. As far as pranks go, this one is pretty harmless. But what can it tell us about teen employees and managing them in a movie theatre environment?

The video brings to mind concerns that Keith Wiedenkeller (an executive of AMC) often talks about in his "People Factor" columns. How do you inspire and motivate workers? And how do you deal with a teen workforce?

I think this kind of goofing off could mean a few things:

1) The teen loves his job and his workplace, and has a good boss that appreciates humor now and then.
2) His boss has no control over his employees, but goes along with the behavior because at least that way he feels like he has control.
3) The supervisor would hate the prank, but the teen likes to irritate him (in which case he was very stupid to put the video on the Internet).

The best-case scenario would be #1. In an interview with a Cinebarre manager Victoria Karol last year, she emphasized to me the importance of a fun workplace where people enjoy clocking in. Pranks can build a group identity and a sense of being part of a team. When the concessions are sold and everyone is tucked away into their theatres to enjoy the show, there just may be time to do something else besides sweep the floors. What do you think? Did the employee exercise poor judgment by putting the video on the Internet? Is the prank itself harmless or a sign of an employee who goofs off too much?

Bad string of movies hurts Wall Street ratings of movie theatre chains

March needs a hit. Last year it was The Hunger Games, the year before was Rango, and the year before that was Alice in Wonderland. March hits are kind of like spring weather though--unpredictable. Last year the top three March releases earned $758 million. In 2011, though, the top three only added up to $285 million. 2010 was good year, with the top three totaling $618 million. So March is fickle, but so are Wall Street analysts. Analyst Eric Wold of B. Riley Caris recently downgraded the ratings of Carmike, AMC, and Cinemark from buy to neutral, sending their prices sliding downward.

Caris' main reason for the downgrade was the low opening of Jack the Giant Slayer, which should have been a bright spot in six weeks of disappointing box-office returns. He now predicts there will be a year-over-year decline of 15% in the first quarter, instead of 10%. This Friday's release Oz the Great and Powerful should do better than Jack, but it's unlikely it will approach the huge success of Alice in Wonderland.

The unfortunate thing is that the downgraded ratings have nothing to do with the theatres themselves. As many theatre owners have told me during interviews, it's all about the product. If there are good movies, people come. Theatres can dial up the experience with great service and presentation, but without great movies, people stay home.

Now for the good news. Wall Street analysts only care about the next quarter, not the long-term future of the business. This may be a bad March, but what about the summer and winter ahead? Or the amazing lineup of Oscar nominees a few weekends ago, most of which earned over $100 million at the box office? In the wake of so much change, whether it's day-and-date on-demand releases or digital projection, the exhibition industry has been holding strong, and a few bad movies aren't anything the industry hasn't seen before or won't see again.

New strategies for theatre chains, digital movie downloads

By Sarah Sluis

Technology is a tricky beast, and changes in home entertainment technologies have caused both exhibitors and the home entertainment market to change their tune.

First up, AMC and Regal announced their plan to get into the acquisition and distribution market. Yes, exhibitors are adopting vertical integration, the same strategy that was outlawed by the 1948 U.S. vs. Paramount case. According to this article by the L.A. Times, enforcement of the edict has become lax, and there are several instances of exhibitors also involved in production or distribution. AMC and Regal will acquire small independent films for theatrical release. What could this be a response to? The rise of the simultaneous theatrical/on-demand market. Distributors like IFC Films have offered VOD releases for amped-up prices during a film's theatrical run, or even in advance of its release. However, AMC and Regal also plan to handle video/Internet distribution, so preventing the theatrical window from disappearing isn't their whole rationale. The article also points to declining amount of movies. Even as the number of screens increased slightly, product decreased 15%. I'm more skeptical of this argument. Theatres need more quality product, not just more product--even with more films, there could still be the same percentage of duds and winners.

The market for downloadable/streaming movies is also in flux. A recent survey of people who pirate movies conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers released dismal news. Many of the piraters would only buy movies if they were cheaper, around $3. THR pointed out another comment from the survey's responders: They download because of window restrictions, wanting to watch the movie at home before it comes out on Netflix or legitimate online downloads. Because of the pressure to see content sooner, I predict the windows of availability for Blu-ray/Netflix/online rentals/downloading will continue to change. It's still being figured out. Warner Bros. is trying something new for its marquee releases Inception and The Dark Knight. A free "app edition" can be downloaded by iPhone/iPad/iPod users, which has a few short extra features and five minutes of the movie. Then, for prices ranging from $7.99-$23.99, depending on the country, users can download the full movie. The app-to-download purchase allows for flexibility between devices and could also be a way to include more bonus content, like an Inception-themed game for a mobile device, for example. But it appears that Warner Bros.' biggest reason for releasing this is to work around Apple's own shortfalls. Apple simply doesn't have iTunes stores (or ones that offer video downloads) in every country, and this could be a way to bring Warner Bros. releases to underserved territories.

With new innovations (and challenges) in the movie downloading market and AMC and Regal stepping into the independent acquisition and distribution game, the entertainment market is showing itself to be surprisingly dynamic. It already seems laughable that people used to have to wait six months to see a movie on video. What other practices will seem dated a few years from now?

Buzz on Eventful leads to distribution deal for 'Mooz-lum'

By Sarah Sluis

Eventful may be best known as the conduit for Paranormal Activity's "Demand It" campaign, which led to the movie's viral-like success. Now the site, which also allows users to set up "Demand It" campaigns themselves, has rewarded one of its most successful campaigns. The movie Mooz-lum will be shown in twenty AMC theatres in February. The areas with the most users requesting the movie will be rewarded with a screening in their city.

Mooz-lum seems like the perfect movie to have targeted distribution. The coming-of-age drama follows a black Muslim college student struggling with his identity. It's a typical second-generation immigrant struggle, with a man stuck with one foot in his family's culture and another in the mainstreaming force of American culture. 9/11, and the heightened tensions toward Muslims that occurred during that time period, also comes into play. The writer/director Qasim Basir, a black Muslim himself, likely drew from his own life when making the movie--for example, both he and his male character go by their first initial instead of their full Muslim name.

After watching the trailer, it's clear that this movie is not a festival-type, arty film--it has more of a commercial feel to it, with some moments approaching broad melodrama. But it's clear that this story interests a group of people that will feel compelled enough to see this story on the big screen. If Eventful and AMC Entertainment team together for more films, it will be interesting to see how this type of model evolves, and what kind of films end up succeeding in this space. When people "Demand" a film, they feel more psychologically invested in the movie and more apt to see it when it actually does visit their town. It's the total opposite of how most movie marketing works--blanketing viewers with ads trying to convince us this is a movie we'd like to see. "Independent" film is often equated with arty films that appeal to cinephiles, but this movie has a commercial style but a niche subject. Perhaps these are the kind of independent films that would succeed in this independent-to-exhibition model. With so many films in the marketplace that go unseen or straight to DVD, this type of model could bring niche movies exactly to the audiences motivated to see them.