This is a season of hope. It is Christmas, the time of year when we should reflect on the past as well as the promise of the upcoming year. Yesterday I attended a sold-out screening of “Christmas Vacation” at The Historic Artcraft Theater. Folks were lined up at 5:00 PM tickets already in hand. waiting for the 7:30 PM Show. It should be noted that this screening was sold out days before. I sat in the audience with 622 other movie fans. At least one third of the audience was adorned in a garish Christmas jacket, Santa Claus hats. or Christmas bulbs necklaces. They were exuberant, clapping when the movie started and clapping when the movie finished. They shouted out the dialog in unison with the on-screen characters. It was nothing short of glorious.

There is hope for movie-going. Audiences are truly hungry for collective movie-going experiences. I know because I see it every week. Take a bona fide world-class showman like Rob Shilts, (the man behind the miracle that is the Artcraft) a decent venue and pricing that will not induce a coronary and you have a winner sir. I know the need is out there, the love of movie-going still exists. I think its high time we give audiences what they want.

Movie going on a macro scale has been derailed. The studios we know by the VPF’s, egregious movie rentals they impose…coupled with the fact that they seem to have forgotten how to weave a decent story. There is as well, deep fault on the side of exhibition. The two large circuits and the companies that were folded into them have a huge amount of blame to shoulder. One of the repeated comments I hear from readers is that they go to conventions like Cinemacon and ShowEast and they listen in on the conversations of employees of the majors and they are surprised that these executives do not seem to talk about movies or even like movies.

I think that we can point a finger to the moment of time when these large exhibitors forgot what business they were in. It was the early 1980’s, Reagan came to power. There was an explosion of money. The only thing that seemed to matter was money. Our heroes stopped being the ones that exhibited character or had transcended themselves and became those that were able to accumulate wealth quickly. John Wayne faded and Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Steve Jobs took his place. There was a paradigm shift in our society. A form of social engineering was inflected on society on a whole that placed a spotlight on wanton consumption and profit-taking.

Money became cheap and easy. Retail developers began to build mall after mall after mall. They needed anchors and there was no better anchor tenant than a movie theater. Lucas and Spielberg had shown that this business could easily have a 3500 print release instead of the traditional 600. Theaters chains filled their ranks quickly with young men and women whose focus was not on movie-going but the operational dexterity of 24-plexes. These chains attacked the business of exhibition with the finesse and subtlety of a Tijuana Donkey show. Movie showing behemoths rose. All across the country the major exhibitors fueled by cheap money and massive tenants improvement fees built and built and built. Like butter over too much toast, audiences were diluted. Lines to see a movie because of the number of screens available began to go away. These men and women of the major exhibitors focused on trying to extract as much money out of the pockets of the audiences as they could. Audiences started to resent the picking of their pockets. Movie going changed slowly from an experience to a process. If the majors complain about the state of the movie exhibition business they should look in a mirror and admit that they are a deep part of the problem.

As for the retired or soon to be retired major chain employees, I think they have done damage to the movie-going tradition. In short, I think their time has come and gone. They are really bringing no base of applicable knowledge to the challenges faced by the business. They re-shaped a business and their vision was found more than wanting. Their passion was put into square footage and not on the end product. They forgot or ignored the movie-going experience.

This week Cineworld a London based, Israeli run exhibitor reached an agreement to acquire Canadian based Cineplex. I have long thought that this was the best run chain in North America. With their announcement of the Junxion concept, I thought they had laid the course for integrated movie-going experiences. The thought that immediately came to me after the acquisition was that Cineworld was buying a North American management team that could possibly take Regal into the 21st Century. That with the acquisition Cineworld could inject vision and discipline into the business of North American Exhibition. Ellis Jacob is a smart and thoughtful man. His Toronto based team is the best of breed. Together they have built a concession program second to no other chain, acknowledged the future by investing heavily in virtual reality and using their subsidiary Player One to create market beachheads for integrated concepts

Ellis and team are kind of brilliant. I hope that Cineworld gives him the reins of Regal.

I am blessed to live in Franklin, Indiana. The legacy of Frank and Truman Rembusch hangs in the air in Franklin. Frank was the exhibitor who paved the way for feature-length movies. His chain was Syndicate Theaters. This family truly innovated the form and length of modern cinema. I also have front row seats for the disciplined resurgence of The Historic Artcraft Theater. I am blessed.

My Christmas wish for the major chains is that they should take a good look at themselves and acknowledge that is they want to bring back life to exhibition, they have to decentralize their management and make the movie-going experience affordable for all.

My Christmas wish for the smaller chains is that they begin to experiment with alternative or retro content in a much bigger way and they look at how they serve the needs of the community. A community in Hilo Hawaii is different from Salt Lake and should be addressed on a local base. A deep attempt should be made to re-establish the craft of showmanship. Enable local management enable and your local community.

My Christmas wish for independents and community-based theaters is that you realize that on your shoulders rests the future of movie-going. You are the most important piece of the puzzle. You go and the community you served is vastly diminished. Build from the community, ignore Hollywood. Please understand the markets that you serve are not well served by the studios, look for alternatives. You have the potential to be amazing. Make a pilgrimage to The Artcraft, sit in its seats, and take in the audience.

My Christmas wish for drive-ins, the truest movie-going experience is that you begin to talk more with each other. Develop other lines of content. Do movie festivals, show operas and concerts. Work with local businesses. Know that there is no purer movie-going experience on the planet. You have a great tradition in your hands and you must celebrate it.

My Christmas wish for the studios is that you approach the market with honesty. Stop your half promises and commitments. Either respect movie-going or get out of the business of exhibition. Open your vaults and allow the tradition of the movies to explode on a big screen for all generations to witness. Stop playing chicken with our culture and tradition.

As I drove down the street, after watching “Christmas Vacation” I was transfixed by the glow of the Artcraft Blade Sign and marquee. People were still gathered, illuminated by the soft glow of racing neon. Shilts and the team had placed a Cousin Eddie style RV in front of the theater. People were taking picture after picture. Movie-going is still strong and people are still inspired, entertained and brought joy by those images on the big screen.

I love movies, and I think I have a grasp of what they mean to the human experience. During this season of hope, I wish all of you a re-kindling of the passion for the movies. They are the stories of us and our lives. We are the movies.

Have Blessed Christmas one and all. Go see a movie.