In a wide-ranging CinemaCon press conference NATO (National Association Of Theatre Owners) head John Fithian welcomed remarks earlier in the day from David Zaslav when the Warner Bros Discovery CEO spoke in support of the exclusive theatrical window.
“David defined what it means… it helps [downstream]. Theatrical runs make money for movies and they create awareness… and drive the streaming business,” Fithian said, a couple of hours after his state of the industry address when he declared the day-and-date business model was dead due to piracy.
Zaslav told analysts earlier in the day that theatrical releases created value throughout the release chain and said the data did not show a need to shake up theatrical windowing.
On the subject of Netflix Fithian (pictured with MPA head Charles Rivkin at CinemaCon 2019) gave a statement that one would not have expected from the top US lobbyist for theatre owners several years ago. Asked about his thoughts on the streamer, whose market cap plunged $54bn following last week’s Q1 earnings report when it announced a net loss of 200,000 global subscribers, he said: “We love those guys.
“[CO-CEO] Ted Sarandos knows movies and television probably better than anyone else in Hollywood…our door is open for bigger, broader plays of Netflix movies if that’s the way they want to go.”
More broadly Fithian remained cautious over definitions of “normal” but did assert that the exhibition space was rebuilding. On the backs of Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Batman and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 he expected summer box office to be very strong and was looking to continued growth into 2023.
He did not expect to see more of pre-pandemic release models whereby studios offloaded theatrical releases to streamers – although he noted some films are made for streamers and others for theatrical and “the consumer knows the difference” – and said he was excited to watch a diverse slate of films unfold including non-tentpoles like Olivia Wilde’s thriller Don’t Worry Darling (New Line, September 23) starring Florence Pugh and Chris Pine and Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical drama The Fablemans (Universal, November 23).
The executive confirmed along with Motion Picture Association (MPA) head Charles Rivkin that approximately 2% or 800 out of 41,000 US screens had closed permanently due to the pandemic. No doubt plenty of screens will be deployed to present James Cameron’s Avatar 2 on December 16, which Fithian said would see more technological versions accommodating 3D, Imax, large screen format, high resolution, high frame rate and sound technology “probably. That at any other time in history”.
The issue of when Hollywood might expect to get films back into of Russia and China produced nebulous replies as the executives expressed hope that the war in Ukraine would end as soon as possible.
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