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When I was much younger, I really\nenjoyed going to record stores and browsing the thousand of albums\nthat were set out is various kinds of display bins. Lifting the\nalbums out admiring the art on the front cover and then reading the\nback seemed to be a noble way to pass the time. Almost going to a pop\nculture kind of art gallery. It was both entertainment and education.\nI used to do the same thing at a local poster shop, looking at the\nlarge 27×40 posters or really admiring the British quad posters that\nwere hung up. This habit evolved into walking up and down the aisles\nof video stores, again admiring artwork and reading the back cover. \nFor the most part we picked the movies we were going to see based on\nthe compelling cover art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a classic old theater in the\ntown that I lived in that one year prior to its release in 1991\ndisplayed a poster for \u201cSILENCE OF THE LAMBS\u201d. It was haunting\nartwork that combined female figures into a skull with bees on it. It\nwas stunning. When the movie was finally released it was the artwork\nthat made me go see it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one time the entertainment section\nof the local papers had huge ads proclaiming the movies that were\nplaying in your market. Huge ads proclaimed the arrival of a certain\nmovie or would boast of how well the movie was doing. Movies were\ntreated as something special and a real event. For me though the\ninteresting thing was how fair and democratic this was. While the\nstudios did attempt to sway you in the end your viewing choices were\ntruly your own. Because a blockbuster was only released into 600-800\ntheaters, there were crowds lining up and a building of excitement. \nMovies were special and sat on the top of entertainment period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has all\nchanged. I get that technology does change things. Netflix and Amazon\ndo try to emulate a video store ( they do it very badly). Netflix has\nset up algorithms which choose your movies for you and show you\nvarious kinds of artwork based on their profile of you and what they\nthink you think. For the most part they get it totally wrong. I\nreally regret the loss of a free market system and the loss of the\nsense of democracy which was instilled in movie going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fandango is an American ticketing\ncompany that sells movie tickets via their website as well as through\ntheir mobile app. They are owned 70% by NBCUniversal and 30% by\nWarner Media. Fandango is a ticket service which is owned by the\nstudios. They gather email addresses and a movie profiles of your\ncustomers and even own their own streaming service Fandangonow.\nNeedless to say on top of the higher cost of ticketing through\nthem….the folks at Fandango are not your friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nEarlier this week I received a call from a theater operator I\nrespect. He was justifiably concerned about a move that Fandango had\nmade. It turns out that it is offering theaters which subscribe to\nits service early access to the movie, ‘How To Train Your Dragon: The\nHidden World’. <\/strong>The \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon 3\u201d offering\nis to say the least incestuous. NBCUniversal owns 70% of Fandango\nand Dreamworks is a wholely owned subsidiary of Universal. Fandango\nis looking to use this promotion to widen it’s streraming subscriber\nbase by offering a perk to members of Fandango VIP rewards, a free\nDreamWorks Animation movie through the FandangoNow streaming service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Feb. 2 screenings, 20 days in\nadvance of the Feb. 22 premiere date for the third and final\ninstallment in the \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d movie franchise, is\none of the earliest advance nationwide screening events for a major\nrelease. At first blush the question that arises is why is this at\nall legal. It is restricting screenings to those theaters which are\ncurrently involved with Fandango. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course the larger circuits are\njumping at this, The \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World\u201d\nearly screenings on Feb. 2 will run across 1,000 theaters in the\nU.S., including select AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas, Cinemark\nTheatres, Marcus Theaters, Harkins Theatres, Southern Theatres,\nNational Amusements, and B&B Theatres. There will be just one\nshowing per theater on that date. It is truly baffling why the major\ncircuits are consistently drinking the hemlock offered to them by the\nstudios. Again, it is another indicator that movie going will be\nsustained by the efforts primarily of the independents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems that this promotion has been\ncrafted keeping a close eye on State laws like Pennsylvania’s law\nwhich prohibits\nmotion picture distributors from giving exclusive licenses to show a\nfirst run film lasting longer than 42 days unless the license\nprovides for showing the film in other theaters in the geographical\narea. The State Of Kentucky has similar legislation. My opinion is\nthat the actions by Universal and its subsidiary Fandango contravenes\nthe intent of laws put in place to combat the dangers of exclusive\nbooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After\nthinking about the motivation of Universal, I believe that it comes\ndown to propping up a stagnant movie ticket system by providing added\nbenefit to its user and to breathe some life into a streaming service\nwhich is facing a more than crowded marketplace. Whatever the\nmotivation is, I just do not think it’s right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nI am\na big believer in free enterprise and all theaters should expect is a\nfair playing field. We all should demand no more and no less.<\/p>\n