In the weeks before South by Southwest, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Theaters (the first and second largest movie theater chains in the United States, respectively) are close to launching a joint venture to enter the independent film distribution business, a market underserved of newcomers in the wake of the rising video-on-demand (VOD) revolution, Warner Bro’s closure of studio independent imprints and several upstarts that have failed to pick up traction or have been consolidated to other, bigger film studios.
It’s reported Tom Ortenberg, formerly of Lionsgate and Weinstien Co., will head the joint venture. If this all sounds like something that’s been tried before, it’s because it has. AMC had once experimented with distributing films by screening content directly from poor quality pre-show projectors, including Robin Williams in The Final Cut. This proved to be less than lucrative.
Here’s hoping Regal and AMC can make a go of it, as fleets of theaters progressively move towards digital (most of their top performing multiplexes have been completely converted to Sony 4K digital, along with whole top performing markets such as Metropolitan New York). Digital allows for more flexibility and across the board it has reported programming from the New York Metropolitan Opera House, distributed by Fathom Events (a subsidiary of NCM, also a venture of AMC and Regal). However, it has not been used to its full potential to showcase films that may have a more limited appeal than say Fast Five, barring sports programming, certain live events and kiddie movies on Saturday morning. Digital project and satellite distribution offers much promise – so much so that filmmakers like Kevin Smith are taking a stab at distributing their own films via a standard $200 external hard drive verses a $2,000 35MM print.
The role of the major chains should be to program versus distribute and exhibit, perhaps one or two nights a week while they slowly build an audience so they aren’t running empty theaters for the majority of their 5 shows a day, 7 days a week runs. It could work in some markets with the right kind of advertising and if the films are well-reviewed, but I am increasingly weary of exhibitors getting into the distribution business. While National Amusements, the parent company of CBS and Viacom, and the owners a shrinking cinema empire offer no special terms of exclusivity or other apparent advantages for Paramount Pictures and CBS Films product, there is no doubt IFC Films (owned by Cablevision who runs both the IFC Center in New York and the New York metropolitan area Clearview Cinemas chain) has and does. IFC Films will often use their New York City complex as a springboard for major releases. Most of their films are simultaneously available on demand and are given a brief run at the theater to satisfy a contractual obligation to the producers. They range from foreign films from such masters as François Ozon to poor quality (both technically and theoretically) garbage from Joe Swanberg. They even tried to leverage Clearview Cinemas – unsuccessfully – by showing Michael Showalter‘s The Baxter opening weekend in all of their complexes. With an opening gross of (per IMDB) $37, 437 on 47 Cablevision-owned screens, the experiment wasn’t worth repeating.
The new venture stands in direct contrast to IFC Films, which distributes a wide array of films ranging from small budget Mumblecore films, foreign films and some independents that in better years would have been pursued by Lionsgate and the Weinstein’s Miramax. Though it be exciting for filmmakers, however the model will not work if AMC and Regal do not receive flexibility from their studio partners to make it work. Here’s hoping that after one or two unsuccessful releases they do not throw in the towel – indie film is a tricky business even for distribution vets. Audiences for this type of film require careful cultivation. And although AMC and Regal combined control 31% of the screens in the United States, there are some cities where they do not have a presence vis-à-vis where art films typically play, particularly in markets such as Providence, RI and Hartford, CT. For such a venture to work they will have to work with art houses, and be smart about their projects and theatrical runs. If the IFC Center can bury an independent film with five screens, imagine what AMC and Regal can do if they aren’t proactive and prudent at a 20-screen multiplex.
Is a venture like this too far past its prime to make any kind of dent in the film business?