Cine-BUZZ - 17 July 2014

Most Frequent U.S. Moviegoers

Which demographic attends movies most often?  Teen-boys - Adult Males - Parents with Small Children - Teen Girls. No, No, No, and No! The most frequent cinema-going group in America is Hispanic women over the age of 25! Believe it.

A recent market research study commissioned by The Wrap, a Hollywood trade journal, found that for even high-impact, action hero films, it was Hispanic women that made up the biggest audience on a percentage basis.  Hispanic audiences consistently poll as visiting the cinema more often than any other group.  These finding coincide with the finding of the Motion Picture Association of America which report in their annual report of 2013 that 25% of all U.S. cinema admissions were sold to Hispanics, even though they make up only 17% of the U.S. population.

This trend has been noticed by Hollywood studios which up to now have not tailored many movies to this audience in a way they have for other ethnic groups, but this is going to change given the ever increasing ticket sales to Hispanics in general and specifically to over 25 Hispanic women, coupled with an increasing Hispanic populace in the U.S.

Disney and Netflix Ink Exclusive Deal for Streaming First-Run Films

Both companies announced yesterday that they had reached a multi-year deal whereby Netflix well be the exclusive internet streaming service for all of Disney's live-action and animated feature films in Canada.  This follows a similar deal reach for the U.S. market in 2013.

The agreement calls for Netflix to have the exclusive first-right to stream all of Disney's new titles including all Live Action, Animated, Pixar, Lucasfilm and DreamWorks films within 8 months or less after their theatrical release.

This moves the line of separation one step closer to the day-and-date release of first-run movies across all types of media distribution.  Netflix has already signed similar release deals with Paramount and Fox.

Hollywood and Bollywood Snuggle Up

We hear a lot about the collaboration between Hollywood and China, with co-productions and Chinese investments into building new studios and purchasing distribution and exhibition outlets such as the Wanda Group's purchase of  the AMC Cinema circuit for $2.6 billion, etc.  But below the radar, there is increasing integration between Hollywood and Indian (Bollywood) film production.

Bollywood got its start in 1934 with Bombay Talkies, the first India film studio, which got its start with American production and technical know-how and flourished from there.  Today, more films are produced in India than anywhere else in the world.

The Hollywood/Bollywood collaboration is not just for action films or feel-good films such as the recent 'Million Dollar Arm' by Disney but for docu-dramas, like the upcoming Emma Thompson produced 'Sold' - a docu-drama which deals with the over 27 million labor and sex slaves currently in countries like India, Nepal, and Pakistan. "12 Years a Slave wins all these awards" says Thompson, "yet slavery is one of the world's fastest growing industries.  What goes on is unbelievable and it needs to be exposed. This is happening now, it's not something that happened 200 years ago."

I think we will see more and more joint productions coming out of the Hollywood/Bollywood studios. India has a very long and creative cinema history and a great heritage of story-telling which links up nicely with Hollywood's current mode of producing high-impact, technically complex movies.

Best
Jim Lavorato