ShoWest Day Two

By Kevin Lally

The buzzword at ShoWest 2008 is 3D. It's become the main driver, the killer app for the transition to digital cinema, and if the success of Hannah Montana earlier this year didn't convince exhibitors of the juggernaut ahead, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg was here in Vegas Tuesday morning to make the future crystal-clear.

Katzenberg told delegates at the official opening ceremony that there will be ten digital 3D releases in 2009, including DreamWorks' own Monsters vs. Aliens. Calling digital 3D "the greatest [movie] innovation since color," he revealed that the DreamWorks 3D projects will be branded "Ultimate 3D." Rather than go back and reconceive movies already in the works like this summer's Kung Fu Panda, these will be features that began as 3D ventures. "Nothing compares to what can be done when movies are originated in 3D," he argued.

Still, the DreamWorks animation chieftain had a special surprise for the ShoWest audience: a scene from Kung Fu Panda the studio used to test out its new 3D authoring tools, something the general public may not get a glimpse of until Katzenberg changes his stance on revamping CG features for 3D. It's a shame, because the action sequence we watched offers some of the most dynamic 3D this fan of the medium has ever seen. In this breakneck-paced escape/fight scene, the stark, cavernous setting is downright vertigo-inducing; you've probably never eyed 3D that seems this deep. On the huge screen at the Paris Theatre des Arts, this was a truly awesome glimpse at the future of movie entertainment.

Katzenberg also previewed a scene from Monsters vs. Aliens that didn't feature any of the zany monsters or aliens he showed us in illustrations, but it did have the voice of Stephen Colbert as the President of the United States, gingerly greeting the mammoth alien craft that has landed somewhere in a parched area of the country. The sequence is big in scale, very funny in its use of the beloved Comedy Central star, and complete with not one but two jabs at famed alien movies by Katzenberg's partner, Steven Spielberg.

As usual, the ShoWest opening ceremony included the Texas Instruments DLP Cinema montage of the past year's movies that topped $100 million (28 in total), a slam-bang mashup whose most curious transition was from Juno to the mayhem of Live Free or Die Hard. Seeing all these blockbusters (and one not-quite hit, Bruce Almighty) in vivid condensed form set the audience cheering.

State of the Industry

Also at the ceremony, MPAA chairman Dan Glickman delivered his annual "State of the Industry" address, commenting, "Today we stand on a new mountaintop, and I have to say: I like the view. We had about 5% growth in both domestic and worldwide box office, all-time highs on both fronts."  Glickman called movies "the baseball of the art world," viewing the public's obsession with box-office numbers as "a sign of affection" for a medium that seems to be in people's "genetic code."

The MPAA head addressed movie theft and the struggling economy, but also broached an issue new to his annual overview: the concept of "net neutrality" and efforts to promote government regulation of the Internet. Glickman vowed to fight this movement, stating, "Today, new tools are emerging that allow us to work with Internet service providers to prevent illegal activity. And new efforts are emerging in Washington to stop this essential progress. Government regulation of the Internet would impede our ability to respond to our customers in innovative ways, and it would impair the ability of broadband providers to address the serious and rampant piracy problems occurring over their networks today."

As for competition from high-end home-entertainment systems, Glickman cited research finding that "the more folks 'pimp' their living rooms, the more they go to the movies"--50% more often.

NATO president John Fithian had good news to share with delegates on another recurring issue: the preservation of the theatrical release window. Reversing a pattern, the average theatrical window actually grew from four months and 11 days in 2006 to four months and 16 days in 2007.

"Theatrical release remains the locomotive that drives the movie train," Fithian argued. "The big screen will always be the best way to experience movies. You can check out Michelangelo's artistry on the Internet--but who would prefer a computer screen if you could visit the Sistine Chapel itself for ten bucks?"

But movie theft remains a major challenge, Fithian noted. Combining the glass-half-full analogy and a current movie catchphrase, he observed, "If our 2007 glass had 9.6 billion record-breaking dollars in it, there was a 670 million dollar empty space at the top of that glass. Somebody else's straw is in our milkshake, and they're drinking it up. That straw is movie theft."

One answer to the problem, Fithian said, is education and training of movie theatre employees, and he announced a new joint award program by the MPAA and NATO for theatre managers who develop the best job training on movie theft.