WEEKLY CineBUZZ REPORT - 12 February 2012

Disney's Bob Iger

DISNEY'S IGER SPEAKS OUT on RELEASE DATES & ULTRA-VIOLET

Last week Bob Iger, President & CEO of Disney spoke in a webcast regarding the release window for movies and other topics, here's what I learned.
Bob, what are your feelings about the current state of release windows?
Currently after the theatrical release the movie is sold via DVD and pay-per-view. Then to Internet streamers like Netflix and Hulu.  However, we want Redbox, the kiosk based movie distributor, to wait 28 days after the DVD release before it can buy new movies for rental.

Disney no-go on UltraViolet

We feel this would be a wise thing for us to do. Don't forget, under the First Sale doctrine , companies like Redbox can by DVDs from third-party distributors (ie. Walmart) if they do not want to honor release window delays.
Isn't this exactly what Redbox is going to do?
Probably, they are doing that now with Warners Bros. that has imposed a 56 day hold-back on sale of their DVDs to Redbox.

Disney's KeyChest

What about Disney's position on UltraViolet?  Note: UltraViolet is the cloud-based technology that allows consumers to have individual "lockers" with stored entertainment content such as movies, TV shows, etc. (see CMG post "The Moola Report", July 11, 2011).
We are the only major studio not committed to the UltraViolet consortia. I have no plans for Disney to join the Group and as you are aware we are developing our own digital locker technology - KeyChest. I don't want to sound too critical, but we're taking a wait and see approach on UltraViolet. I'm not suggesting that we're not open-minded about it, but so far I'm not sure that it's proven to be as robust as we expected or as consumer-friendly as hoped.
Thanks Bob, I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more on both subjects.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG MEN GONE ?

This is the burning question being asked by both movie distributors/exhibitors and TV broadcast and cable companies.  According to media research company, Nielsen, American males, ages 12-34, are spending less time going to the cinema or in front of their TV sets.
Last week, Nielsen released a study on media use. The study revealed that Internet videos, social networks, mobile devices, and video games - alternatives to the cinema and television - are taking up ever larger slices of the young American males' attention span.  They are still watching the same movies and TV shows but they are streaming them on computers, tablets, and cell phones to a greater degree than any other segment of society, and if this trend continues the long-term implications are huge.
Echoing the Nielsen findings, several major media companies, have stated that their own research affirms that there has been a drop-off in overall young male viewership of TV and visits to the cinema.
For cinemas, as behavior shifts, there is likely to be a scramble as cinemas re-script themselves. They don't want to get tagged as stodgy, un-hip, low-tech places to access entertainment.

JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF WRONG !
For some time now (years actually) I have been talking about the U.S. cinema's down-slide. 2011 witnessed a decrease in admissions just shy of 5% as movie-watchers continued their gravitation to less expensive movie downloading, rental, and streaming.
Additionally, the cinema exhibition business has become a summer business with the majority of box office grosses being realized in the May - August time frame, and as we reported in the above post, the 18-35 male demographic is becoming a no-show at cinemas.
Has Hollywood become to same-old in terms of story lines, actors, sequels and even in animation - last year only Cars 2 made it into the top 10 highest grossing films.  Tinseltown's only salvation appears to be the international cinema, which has been growing each year, in stark contrast to the U.S. market.  Unfortunately, if the overseas cinema goes the route of the U.S. box office and it gets saddled with the expense of digital conversion the same fate will befall it.
The U.S. cinema has been going in the wrong, lock-step direction for some time.  The studios have and are still making crazy quilt decisions regarding content and their relations with exhibitors. For their part, movie theatres are in need of  a strategic deep-tissue massage, as their only answer to their problems seems to be higher pricing.

Cheers,
Jim Lavorato