Digital financing gets spirited debate at ShoWest

By Sarah Sluis

FJI Executive Editor Kevin Lally continues his report from the annual ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas.

All the pieces seemed to be in place to make 2009 the year the transition to digital projection finally happened in earnest. The big studios were counting on it, preparing an ambitious slate of 3D productions that could only be shown with the new digital equipment. Then, in the fall of 2008, the financial markets plummeted, and a credit freeze dramatically impacted those grand conversion plans.

Some exhibitors with healthy balance sheets have been exploring the avenue of self-financing digital installations for the coming 3D wave, rather than being beholden to a bigger third-party integrator. The decision to self-finance was the topic of a surprisingly lively and substantive panel discussion on Wednesday at ShoWest in Las Vegas, with a sometimes outspoken group of participants representing a diverse range of viewpoints.

Moderated by G. Kendrick Macdowell, VP, general counsel and director of government affairs at NATO, the panel featured two studio execs who have pledged support in the form of virtual print fees to individual exhibitors. Mark Christiansen, executive VP of operations at Paramount Pictures, deemed his studio's plan "incredibly easy�something you can do now." But Fox exec VP of digital exhibition Julian Levin, who is also reaching out to individual cinema owners, bluntly criticized the streamlined Paramount offer document as having "a lot of holes," contrasting the Fox approach as that of "a grown-up business."

Even more contentious was exhibitor George Solomon, CEO of Southern Theatres. Dismissing the role of third-party integrators like Cinedigm and Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, he declared, "I believe that mid-size circuits should be able to negotiate virtual print fees directly or have their own consortiums� I don't believe in giving a cut to an integrator."

The plain-speaking Solomon, whom Macdowell at one point compared to a crafty Southern lawyer, proved not much of a champion of the digital revolution. "35mm is still better," he contended. "What's the difference between a hard drive and 35mm film? Forty pounds!" Arguing that the benefits of digital accrue mainly to the studios, he challenged, "If distribution wants 2K, give us the money!"

Fox's Levin quickly countered that a digital platform has great benefits for exhibition, including the growing business of alternative content and the higher per-screen revenues from 3D. He warned, "I don't know if Fox will be there forever to help with financing� You may not get these VPFs if you're waiting for certainty."

Everyone on the panel seemed to agree on one fundamental: that the commitment of two distributors to VPF deals is not enough to warrant individual exhibitor investments in digital equipment, that "a critical mass of studios," in Levin's words, is needed.

Also on the panel was Bill Campbell, the new managing director of NATO's Cinema Buying Group for smaller exhibitors, who took the most conciliatory role, seeking "multiple options" and a way to "make it all fit."

On a positive note, the panel's rep from the banking industry, Andrew Sriubas, managing director of JP Morgan Investment Banking, forecast a significant unfreezing of credit by this summer. If that proves true, perhaps the 3D product coming in the second half of 2009 will get the wide rollout that was always part of the plan.

PG-rated 'Coraline' and 'Pink Panther 2' provide kid-to-adult fare

By Sarah Sluis

It's been three whole weekends since PG-rated comedy Hotel for Dogs released, and two since the much-maligned PG fantasy Inkheart, so the field is ripe for the two PG-rated pictures releasing this weekend, The Pink Panther 2 (3,243 screens) and Coraline (2,298 screens, half 3D). Debuting the

week before President's Day weekend, when many schoolchildren have the day or the week off (mid-winter break!), these films are banking on strong openings that will generate strong word-of-mouth through the holiday weekend.

Coraline has that difficult problem of being an animated film whose appeal extends beyond--while not entirely including--the "animated" demographic. Sensitive kids will have a hard time with this film, not only because it's suspenseful, but because its world is truly creepy. Henry Selick creates a world, according to our Executive Editor Kevin Lally, that's "anything but standard kids' fare: It's dark, creepy, surreal and



idiosyncratic. But then again, so was Lewis Carroll's Alice's

Adventures in Wonderland." I also had a chance to see the film, which should really be watched in 3D, and had the sense that those button eyes would have given me nightmares as a wee'un. Only half of the theatres will screen in 3D, which, incidentally, can be linked back to the recession. While exhibitors and distributors had rather lengthy negotiations working out who should pay for the conversion to digital projectors, agreements are now in place--but there's no money being lent due to the collapse of the credit markets. With nearly a dozen 3D movies releasing this year, the next up on the list, Monsters vs. Aliens, is especially nervous about lining up adequate 3D venues.

Based on an advice book penned by writers on the television show "Sex and the City," He's Just Not That Into You (3,175 screens) is a fluffy romance about doormats, sexpots, commitment-phobes, etc.,

that's just in time for Valentine's Day, though I suspect many of those attending will be singles "celebrating" by wallowing about being unlucky in love, just like main character Ginnifer Goodwin. While embellished with cutesy flourishes, the film just isn't that funny, and has a squirmy, condescending feel to it carried over from the book. With about the same satiety as one of those boxes of Sweetheart hearts (kindly provided at the screening I attended), you pretty much get what you expect, and a little less.

Superhero movie Push (2,313 screens) also releases this week, and suffers from the worst of errors, according to our Ethan Alter: "a great premise...marred by disastrous execution." Unlike the well thought-out universes it borrows from, like X-Men and The Matrix, the movie has holes you can poke your head through, not the kind you can ignore for the sake of fun.

The Weinstein Company is quietly releasing bomb Fanboys on 44 screens, and it will probably turn up on DVD shortly after. The film has been delayed for over two years, and follows boys on a roadtrip to see The Phantom Menace for the first time. With the fairly "basic Star Wars references that actually condescend to geeks under the guise of celebrating their peculiar culture," Ethan Alter predicted the movie won't even have cult status among those who should love it best.