CineEurope, the largest European conference for theatrical exhibitors, was convened last week in Barcelona from June 16-19. Much in the same way that CinemaCon brings cinemas and studios together every spring in Las Vegas, CineEurope is a forum for studios to showcase their upcoming film slates and exhibitors to discuss key topics impact their business. UK-based Screen Daily covered the event and noted seven takeaways from the conference.
One overarching theme was the underlying tension surrounding the length of the exclusive theatrical window for new releases. Many European exhibitors blamed the stalled box office recovery on studios’ decisions to shorten that theatrical window. Exhibitors consider Disney to be the golden boy among the major studios, because of its stance to hold a relatively long theatrical window.
Disney’s head of theatrical distribution Andrew Cripps spoke at a roundtable discussion about his frustration that other studios were “confusing” audiences about how long a new movie plays in theatres and when it becomes available online. Cripps called on other studios to adopt a similar timeline to Disney or if they do not then to have exhibitors favor Disney titles.
Another observation from CineEurope was the relative lack of star power at studio presentations. While Disney, Universal, and Sony showed some new footage from upcoming releases, no full screenings of upcoming films were premiered. In addition, no top-level filmmakers or actors appeared at Barcelona.
This stands in contrast to CinemaCon, only 2 ½ months ago, where a flurry of top directors and stars came out on stage to promote their upcoming movies, and Universal hosted an advanced screening of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON.
