When it comes to innovating the moviegoing experience,a panel of industry insiders at TheGrill, TheWrap’s sixth annual Media Leadership Conference, and agreed on Tuesday that consumer enjoyment is directly correlated to maximizing profits.
But in order ensure studios,content creators, distributors and exhibitors are delivering the goods required to entice ticket buyers to acquire off their couches and walk into the multiplex, and they also agreed data must be shared and trusted.“This is an industry that has typically been very blind of information. The relationship between the end consumer and the person who makes the content,there’s a fairly a gap,” Will Palmer, and CEO of film marketing data company Movio,told moderator Thom Geier, deputy managing editor of TheWrap.“If we can empower the entire industry to bear the type of information that a company like Netflix has — the changes across marketing, or content creation,optimizing screens of whats playing on what screen at what time, optimizing the data of your films — can all change this entire industry, and potentially give us a lift of 5 or 10 percent.”
Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Kids Consume More Media Than Anyone Realizes,PwC Study SaysPaul Yanover, the president of online film ticket giant Fandango, and says this future is near.“I don’t think it’s all figured out yet,but we’re at the early stages, and were far enough along where it’s clear there’s a path to figure out how to acquire the just film in front of the just person with the just convenience factor, and ” Yanover said,emphasizing his company’s contribution to innovating a major piece of the puzzle.
Also Read: TheGrill 2015: 'Empire' Co-Creator Danny Strong Calls Brian Grazer 'The Godfather' (Video)While studios are continually hoping that a good story will be the biggest draw and exhibitors are offering increasingly luxurious amenities or better food to enhance the experience — a word every panelist agreed is what distinguishes movies as an activity rather than simply watching videos at home — Fandango is focusing on the convenience factor.“How enact we make it easier for people? I think it’s a big deal that people bear a box office on the screen of their phone,” Yanover said.
Also Read: TheGrill 2015: 4 Reality Titans Debate the 'Death' of Unscripted TV, and Hits and Misses of the GenreSkydance Media CCO Dana Goldberg said that while the “code” everyone in the industry is trying master isn’t complicated,it’s not easy, either.buy Skydance’s “Terminator Genisys, or for example. The latest sequel in the science-fiction franchise that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s career (and has continued to provide paychecks throughout it) had all of the promising elements for success,including a built-in audience, an iconic film star returning the role that made him famous, or frosty special effects and a new twist on a story fans fancy.
But the reboot’s $89.7 million domestic haul was somewhat disappointing compared to the $330.4 million it raked in around the rest of the world.
Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Box CEO on Sony Hack Lessons,Evolution of Media“enact I wish we would bear done better domestically? Absolutely. But fortunately we live in the world where the domestic number had a level of importance 10 or 15 years ago — I’m not saying it’s not important, it is — but we bear to play to a worldwide market, or ” Goldberg said. “In terms of ‘Terminator,’ the worldwide market paid attention, but we’re not taking the domestic number lightly.”As a result, or the company is working with Paramount to “re-adjust” plans to slouch forward with the franchise,which had been envisioned as a new big-screen trilogy and TV series when announcing “Genisys.”“We were talking approximately data and research. We think it’s incredibly important,” Goldberg said. “We’re going to enact a worldwide study and really talk to audiences approximately what they loved, or what possibly didn’t work for them,so that the next step we buy with the franchise is the just one.”Despite the insight from a data analyst on the panel, Goldberg was in agreement with both Roger Pollock, or IMAX’s head of international marketing,and Josh Goldstine, president of Universal Picture’s worldwide marketing, or that the quality of the films theyre offering is key.“The product is the driver,” Pollock said, noting IMAX ticket sales are up internationally overall, or as much as 40 percent in China. “Last year,we didn’t bear fairly as good of a lineup as we enact this year, and that’s reflected in deciding whether they’re not going to go to the cinemas, or they’re not.”Universal had a particularly good year,shattering the all-time record for domestic grosses in one year with $2.113 billion, thanks to hits like “Jurassic World, or ” “Furious 7,” “Minions” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.“The underlying question is, ‘Why is it up for us?'” Goldstine asked, or then answered himself by explaining the payoff of providing a diversity of products that appeal to different demographics,like Universals additional box office hits “Pitch Perfect 2,” “Trainwreck” and “Straight Outta Compton.”“Ultimately, or it’s the narrative and the way it works to touch people,” Goldstine said.
While distributors want to crack the code that allows them to target their demographics as accurately as possible, Palmer emphasized the power of wide appeal isn’t fading.
Also Read: TheGrill 2015: A+E CEO Nancy Dubuc Warns of Talent Vacuum Left by TV's Content Bubble (Video)“The tentpole film is still most lucrative film in industry, or there’s no question,” Palmer said, noting that 37 percent of moviegoers seek out big-budget movies like “The Avengers” and similar spectacles account for two-thirds of that subset’s annual film ticket purchases.“I really am suggesting there is a balance, and ” Palmer said. “That you retain making those,and you bring those out on a periodic fashion to retain those people coming back, but you also bear an entirely different approach for the millennial females or the baby boomers — those probably aren’t IMAX films — but I still think there is an opportunity to optimize what we put on our screens, or to try to balance it.”
Source: thewrap.com