The Pros Of The Cons

Back in the 90s, when I was writing for Us Magazine (when it was a monthly and, therefore, still respectable), I went to ShoWest a couple of times to see what the studios had in store for theatergoers in the coming year. It lasted three days in Las Vegas and there were a bunch of presentations and some pomp and circumstance and a screening or two. It was kinda fun, but nothing special, more of an opportunity for the studios to ferry in celebrities from Los Angeles to help them kiss up to the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) than anything else.

Of course, this was still in the early days of the internet, way before social media, when the only person around who was really commenting on what the studios were doing was Harry Knowles (remember him?), and even he and his Ain’t It Cool News really only focused on fan boy fare and not the prestige stuff the studios were parading in front of their exhibitors.

How times have changed. ShoWest is now CinemaCon (so established in 2011), it’s a huge deal, covered by every industry periodical in town and then some, allows for a platform to make important announcements. CinemaCon has become the biggest item on the studios’ calendars.

In April, that is.

CinemaCon comes, of course, hot on the heels of March’s SXSW Festival in Austin and WonderCon in Anaheim, and ahead of Cannes in a few weeks, and then there’s ComicCon in San Diego come July. There’s no end to it, because there’s no end to the coverage, and the competition, and the fact that the studios are desperate to get people to come see their movies and the theatre owners are just as eager to get those people to see said movies in their establishments.

Sometimes, such as this past week, there are actually major issues to be covered, discussed and fretted over, like The Screening Room — previously addressed in this space — the latest enormous threat to NATO’s existence.

Along with all the big announcements that came out of Vegas — Ben Affleck doing the Batman movie we all knew he was going to do, James Cameron announcing a fourth Avatar sequel, the surprise screening of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, and the first appearances of STX Entertainment and Amazon, not to mention AMC Theatres briefly considering allowing millennials to text in their theaters before wisely listening to the tremendous uproar opposing it and reversing course — was the presence of TSR principal Prem Akkaraju and some of his investors as they pitched the new service to those in town for the convention.

While one foreign exhibitor said of the service that, “There’s only risk,” MPAA chief Chris Dodd said he would meet with Akkaraju and his people during the week to discuss “technology copyright topics.” Either way, the program took another step toward reality as the NATO members saw the future ahead and, quite possibly, made the decision to deal with it head on and realistically, as NATO CEO John Fithian said, “in the modern world, we have to talk about having more sophisticated business models.”

Box office expert Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, spent his 21st consecutive year at the Vegas confab, and he was struck by the attitude of both exhibitors and distributors alike. “I saw a real circling of the wagons,” he said. “People really rallying behind the health of the industry, ready to do whatever needed to insure its survival.”

So, it was an eventful week, with the studios showing the exhibitors, as well as the press, all the various movies they have coming to theaters between now and the end of the year, and there was plenty of excitement about it from all corners. And that should keep us sated for a few months, until everyone reconvenes in San Diego for more explosive announcements involving all the tent poles each of the major studios have in store for us in the coming months. More footage, more surprise screenings and celebrity appearances, all in service of one, singular goal: to get butts in seats.

Which is, let’s face it, the new way of things. Desperation, they say, is the worst cologne, and yet that’s the eau de toilette that Hollywood is wearing these days. The studios have put all their eggs in the tent pole basket and will do what it takes, whatever it takes, to get people to see them. They’ve painted themselves into a corner and have no alternative but to pull out all the stops to make sure these films on which they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars have a huge opening weekend.

That means spectacle, and these conventions provide the perfect platforms for it. The thing is, they can actually use one of them to set up another. Show up in Vegas with a few announcements of new projects and footage of films scheduled for release, but holding back and not showing anything from other flicks on the slate, despite a clamoring to put some eyes on it. Then, by the time they hit San Diego, people are in something akin to a frenzy, wanting to see the thing they didn’t get to see in Vegas, three months earlier.

All the while, they’re really just playing to the proverbial cameras. Everyone involved knows that everything that happens here is not only going to get maximum coverage, it’s going to be examined and dissected to the nth degree by all the fans paying attention, which, these days, is most of the people who might see the movies. The studios have never been accused of being especially nimble, but with this kind of thing, and the press it engenders, they can respond right now! Today! At this very second! We’re almost to the point at which a studio’s stock price can rise and fall based the “likes” and re-tweets their latest post has received.

It’s kind of brilliant, and typical of the world in which we’re now living. More, bigger, and more bigger. Not just in the size of the films themselves, we know that, but also in the selling of them. As the studios — both new and old — require so much attention for their product, so do the conventions form in size to accommodate them. Cinema-Con used to be called ShoWest and was one of several like conventions that NATO threw, now it’s the central event on the schedule. Comic-Con used to be about, y’know, comic books and stuff. Now, they’re an after thought because Hollywood has taken over.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. If it’s not SXSW, or WonderCon, or CinemaCon, or Comic-Con, it’s Paleyfest, or something else. As long as there’s a need for a place to sell the sizzle, there will always be another one popping up to fill that need.

So, if you missed the scene in Vegas and can’t make it to San Diego, don’t worry. You’ll have another opportunity to check it all out in October at the Javits Center, when New York Comic-Con comes around.

Neil Turitz is a filmmaker and journalist who has spent close to two decades in the independent film world and writing about Hollywood. Aside from being a screenwriter/director and Tracking Board columnist, he is also a senior editor at SSN Insider.