May 16, 2003

easyLosses.

fri-review.jpg Let's begin by juxtaposing personalities. Opposite extremes - with regard to movies, at any rate. In one corner, a cluster of "cinemaniacs," people who come awfully close to literally living for movies. Instead of punching the clock, they study schedules and catch three to five movies a day. Every day. For DVD Talk, Jason Janis talks to one of them and to Stephen Kijak, co-director of Cinemania, the doc that follows their lives for a couple of years and a festival hit around the world (and now opening for a limited engagement in New York). "It's inevitable that some of the similarities between the intended audience and the obsessive subjects will prove identifiable, painfully funny, and maybe even a little disconcerting," writes Janis. No doubt.

In the other corner, Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Here's his take: "Most people who go to the cinema are indifferent; they just want to go out and be entertained. We're making the cinema into the destination. The film is incidental." Now that's disconcerting. And actually, you'd like to appreciate what the guy is trying to do: bring ticket prices down. But that attitude gets in the way. Stelios Haji-Ioannou is the founder and chairman of easyGroup, whose holdings include easyJet, the no-frills airline; easyEverything, a chain of cybercafes; and a rental car company, easyRentacar. Next up: easyCinema.

The idea, briefly, is to introduce "yield management" to the theatrical sector of the film business. Haji-Ioannou was shocked to learn that four out of five movie theater seats in Britain go unsold. So he'll start selling tickets at 20p each and raise the price as demand rises.

Now, I'm no economist, but it's not too hard to see why all but two distributors are balking at the idea of giving him movies to show. They know that it's not the number of tickets sold that puts bread (or a light salad with a lo-fat vinaigrette) on the table. In 2002, 1.64 billion tickets were sold in the US, an increase of 10.2 percent over 2001. But box offices rang up $9.5 billion, an increase of 13.2 percent. (The numbers come, by the way, from - whom else - Jack Valenti.) The math is easy. Five out of six, nine out of ten, all the seats in the world could go empty as long as that box office number keeps rising.

You've got to wonder if Haji-Ioannou understands anything at all about the business he's getting into. For example, he won't be selling popcorn. Or anything at all other than the movie. But without concessions, most movie theaters would go under, and it's doubtful that selling seats at 20p a pop would save them, either.

All that said, especially for those of us for whom the film isn't "incidental," it would be great to see a movie for a buck or two on a large screen in digital surround and all, and of course, as decent home movie set-ups become more and more affordable, that's beginning to happen. Of course, we could all soon be cinemaniacs. Better than TV addicts.

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Posted by dwhudson at May 16, 2003 7:53 AM

Comments

Cinema economics are strange. Close to where I work is the Prince Charles Cinema. For years it's been London's cheapest movie house, despite being on the fringes of Leicester Sqaure, just around the corner from the Warner and Odeon monstrosities. By all accounts it seems to have been pretty successful (it's still there), but I've never been. Why? For the same reason that I buy Ben & Jerry's as opposed to a supermarket brand of Ice Cream, I guess - if I treat myself, I want to do it properly. Recently I saw Donnie Darko at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, which is close to ten times as expensive, but the couple of hours you spend there are far more worthwhile - huge leather chairs, armrests that include a wine cooler, a bar inside the auditorium. Instead of clutching your back and hobbling towards the exit at the end of the film, you're almost loathe to leave. I guess my point is that the cinema is still a relatively inexpensive night out - much cheaper than an evening in the pub or a meal at a restauraunt, and if I'm going to spend any money at all, I'd much rather be in comfortable surroundings and pay £12 rather than 20pence - I'm still saving money.

Besides, you just know that Stelios will paint his cimemas bright orange.

Posted by: fraser at May 16, 2003 5:06 PM

Then he could program A Clockwork Orange, Soldier of Orange... and... oh, look, there're a whole bunch of them at IMDB.

At any rate, you're right, of course, and there's a wide variety of movie viewing experiences on offer. One of my own favorites, as I indicate below, is the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. The idea's simple - movie and a meal - but they often put a lot of thought into special theme evenings. An Italian chef guested for a showing of the Godfather, there've been Mexican evenings, etc. And the regular fare's not bad, either. Not by a long shot.

Naturally, that's not appropriate for every film. You don't want to be munching nachos or have anyone next to you munching nachos during a showing of, say, Night and Fog.

But yes, overall the *experience* is worth that little bit extra. And clean carpets, as Stelios promises, ain't exactly what most of us have in mind.

Posted by: David Hudson at May 17, 2003 6:42 AM

i'll never forget going to an evening showing at the saint francis in SF, when it was a ratty end-of-run movie theater, and having this big slimy guy try to feel me up during ~star trek 6~.

Posted by: "chirp" at May 17, 2003 11:10 AM

That's what I mean. Some experiences are just worth that little bit extra.

Of course, some aren't.

Posted by: David Hudson at May 17, 2003 12:33 PM

I saw Cinemania at SXSW Film fest in March and looooooved it. Catch it while you can. I think you could make the same film about any pop culture obessive, such as record collectors and perhaps antique store owners.

Posted by: Chuck Olsen at May 20, 2003 6:47 PM

Or, you know, bloggers.

Hee.

No, seriously, I look forward to seeing how this turns out, Chuck. So far, it's looking like great fun, a post-boom, post-bust version of Doug Block's Homepage. All the best as you forge on.

Posted by: David Hudson at May 21, 2003 3:12 PM