No matter what you think of this city for the balance of the year, New York at Christmas has a deep magic to it. Being a movie fan the luster shines brighter because I can experience first hand the experience of locations where classic movies were shot. From the New York Public Library, where first scenes of Ghostbusters were to the museum in When Harry Met Sally where Billy Crystal tried to get Meg Ryan to properly pronounce the work paprikash and to the post office where Kris Kringle received an avalanche of letters in Miracle of 34th Street At all times New York’s cinematic resume shines and shines very bright. Every corner you turn, some scene from a classic movie unfolds in front of you. One Christmas my family was in Central Park, on a guided bike tour and were amazed at how rich this city was woven into the fabric of movie history.
Tonight as I looked over the Hudson and saw the lights of Fort Lee New Jersey where Edison made his first movies, I reflected on the fact that the predominant movie advertising in the city was for the Netflix day and date release ROMA , AQUAMAN and MARY POPPINS. AQUAMAN was everywhere, in Times Square, plastered on building sites and even the ad boards placed above urinals. It struck me that that it was more than unfortunate that the focus of the movies this Christmas was a singular title. It also was surprising that the reboot of Mary Poppins had gotten so little exposure. I remember on past trips that there was much more diversity and even the odd independent movie was acknowledged.
This year it became painfully obvious that the powers that be see the theatrical market as secondary. There was a ton of ads for Netflix titles and even on Sirius XM Christmas Station had air play from the Netflix production, Christmas Chronicles…..which in my mind deserved a large screen release. Streaming was everywhere and the perception that streaming was ruling the entertainment was evident and brash in that proclamation. This drove home the point that in the end of the year frenzy to yell from the mountain tops, that this year saw an expanding box office, the revenue that was being generated was shared by fewer and fewer titles. This is dangerous and builds an unstable industry.
The lack of market diversity is dangerous and frankly increases the vulnerability of the already fragile theatrical market. The industry is in desperate need for a ramping up of the injection of product diversity onto the theatrical screens. This will bring in wider audiences and lessen the risk of a repeat of the summer of 2017 when Hollywood decided to release a steady flow of turkeys into the market. Because of this practice by the studios, smaller breakthrough pictures stand less of a chance to gain any market share. The studios were given a free hand to manipulate the market through the vehicle of the nasty VPF. If there was ever an example of a violation of the Sherman Act, it was the implementation of the VPF fee.
I am baffled by the lack of similar voices proclaiming the need for a much more varied content offering. What baffles me is that on various professional social media platforms there is a massive emphasis on the physical facilities being adopted by theaters but little mention of the need for a more diverse product that might have a chance to get people into these theaters. It’s fabulous that you have refitted all your auditoriums with the latest model of the Turbo Tush 2000 or that you have put a ball pit for the in kiddies, but if you are not programming your screen that expands your audience what’s the use. It’s very silly. It’s very short sighted and given that everyone is jumping on to the chicken tenders bandwagon seems to lemming like. Theater owners must bring diversity to their premises or they will endure a very painful stagnation or fall off a cliff, just like the lemmings.
Netflix is doing some original feature length movies but is seeing much more success with it binge-able short form series. Like I have said previously, the best Christmas movie of note this year was Christmas Chronicle and one should not ignore (as much as I would like to ) the steady stream of Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel and Lifetime that have become a genuine cultural phenomena. Kind of amazing really. In Christmas Chronicles, the producers wisely cast probably the last movie star, Kurt Russell as Santa Claus who manages to take a genuine heart warming tale and inject a ton of Snake Plisken into the Jolly Old Elf. It is a well made original movie with a tone of late 80’s attitude. I loved it. It was truly a movie that would have exploded onto the big screen and would have dominated the Christmas box office.
While in New York, I was invited to a movie screening held in Brooklyn. It was held in a restaurant/bar whose focus was Venezuela fast food…..the placed was packed and the audience was engaged and more than enthusiastic. The projection was via a middle of the road industrial projector and a blu-ray. I am seeing more and more of this grass root cinema erupt in major centers like New York, Chicago and Houston. Like in Europe, I feel that these kind of efforts will lead urban audiences in their quest for genuine cinematic entertainment coming back to the idea of movies on a large screen and especially the thrill of communal viewing.
It is like the movie audience are beginning to take matters into their own hand and are attempting to define the movie going experience themselves rather than depend on the dictates of Hollywood.
At the climax of Miracle of 34th Street during Kris Kringle’s sanity trial, Kris’s lawyer has a brilliant idea, deposit all the letters addressed to his client on top of the the presiding judges desk. The Post Office seeing the chance to off load its mountain of letters to Santa Claus readily agrees to oblige. With a government institution like the Post Office acknowledging that Kris is the Santa Claus the case is dismissed. There is a comparative for our business, people want to see movies, they like watching good movies…the problem is that the circuits have considerable less influence on Hollywood and Hollywood is now ruled directly by the Mandarins of the cable companies. The screens and the theaters need diversity and they need community.
At Christmas, its customary to issue a Christmas wish. My wish is that movie theaters find alternative sources of product, regain their position as the prime venue for cinematic entertainment and that theater owners assume the mantle of showmanship and provide their customers the movies they are seeking.
I look out at the streets filled with holiday shoppers, the glow of lights of the Rockefeller Plaza tree and the wreathes adorning Radio City Music Hall. It takes me back to a better time, a time when the communal viewing of movies meant something. I know that need exists still. It’s just that the powers that be are suppressing it.
By the way the Artcraft in Franklin Indiana programmed 7 Christmas Movies this year, all shows were sold out. Your audience is waiting.
God Bless Us Everyone, Merry Christmas
