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    • THE PINK PANTHER Premieres on 12/18/1963
    • Weekend Results... 12/17-12-19
    • Cinemark CEO reflects on the movie industry’s chaotic year
    • Cineworld shares plunge by a third after $900m Cineplex damages ruling
    • Warner Bros. Has No Plans to Shift 2022 Theatrical Release Strategy
    • SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Emerges as a Must-See Movie Event
    • Where Are We as of 12/16
    • Studio Releases... 12/24 - 12/30

    THE PINK PANTHER Premieres on 12/18/1963

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    Fifty-eight years after THE PINK PANTHER premiered in Italy on Dec. 18, 1963, it’s remembered mostly for its animated opening titles character, who people think was the jewel thief Peter Sellers hunted as Inspector Clouseau.

    Actually, the thief was The Phantom/Sir Charles Lytton and was played by David Niven. The Pink Panther was the priceless diamond he’d stolen — so named because while staring into its center a flaw could be seen that resembled a leaping panther. Originally, Niven was to have been the film’s star. The smaller role of Clouseau was to have been played by Peter — not Sellers, but Ustinov. Ava Gardner was to have played his wife, Simone, who cheated on him with Lytton.

    Gardner quit when the producers wouldn’t hire the personal staff she demanded. Her exit also sent Ustinov packing. Director Blake Edwards, who’d made 1962 hit THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, wanted to replace Gardner with Janet Leigh. But she declined because PINK was filming in Italy and that would have kept her away from home too long. The role went to Capucine, who’d been in 1962’s WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, for which Edwards shot some uncredited additional scenes.

    Edwards cast Sellers to play Clouseau. Sellers was best known for the 1962 drama LOLITA and for his many English comedies, including Richard Lester’s 1959 short THE RUNNING JUMPING & STANDING STILL FILM, which later inspired The Beatles to have Lester direct their 1964 movie debut A HARD DAY’S NIGHT.

    When production began, Edwards shot many takes with his actors improvising. Sellers was great at improv and stole so many scenes that Edwards turned his supporting role into the starring role. Niven’s displeasure over that change was clear at a later Oscar ceremony when he asked that PINK’s famous theme by Henry Mancini not be his entrance music, explaining, “That was not really my film.”

    The 1963 Movie eventually spawned the Popular Saturday Morning Cartoon series

    It was, however, a film moviegoers loved. After opening in the U.S. on March 18, 1964, via United Artists, it did nearly $11 million, a sizable total then. It spawned nine sequels from 1963-93 plus two reboot sequels in 2006 & 2009. PINK’s animated Panther, designed by Hawley Pratt & Friz Freleng, wasn’t seen in the movie, itself, but was in the titles for all but two of the films. However, the Panther starred in his own theatrical cartoon series — starting with THE PINK PHINK, which won the short subject/cartoons, Oscar, in 1965 — and also had a Saturday morning TV series from 1969-80.

    “Crazy…Certifiable…I think, had he not been Peter Sellers he very likely could have ended up in an institution, truly.”  – Blake Edwards

    Box Office Results

    Weekend Results... 12/17-12-19

    In what can only be described as spectacular, the opening of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME beat even the most optimistic industry projections by ringing up $253M at North American box offices. Not only dies this number shatter all records for openings during the pandemic, it also beat the pre-pandemic opening of STAR WARS IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, which pulled in $177M on the same pre-Christmas weekend in 2019.

    After checking the record books, this year’s Spiderman easily broke the box office record for Spiderman franchise movie openings, set by SPIDERMAN 3 back in 2007 with a $151M 3-day total from 5/4-5/6. In fact, SPIDERMAN: NO WAY HOME has delivered a miraculous holiday gift to an industry in need, the third highest 3-day opening weekend box office in history.

    In fact, SPIDER-MAN’s opening was so dominant that it accounted for 92% of the total box office for all pictures in theatres. This is even greater than the dominance of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the number one opener of all time, which took in $357M from 4/26/2019 – 4/28/2019 and accounted for 89% of the total for all pictures in release that weekend.

    SPIDER-MAN carried the results for the current weekend to 113% of the same weekend of 2019, which only produced $243M. This is the first time in the pandemic era that an entire weekend exceeded the same weekend in 2019.

    Disney’s ENCANTO finished in second place, grossing $6.5M and dropping only 35% from last week. 20th Century’s WEST SIDE STORY came in third with $3.4M. Almost completely eclipsed by SPIDEY’S record-breaking performance was NIGHTMARE ALLEY’s opening weekend, which produced only $3.0M and finished in an embarrassing fifth place.

    Rank Title (Distributor) Week # TheatresWeekend $ Per Theatre Average $ Total $
    1 Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE)) 1 4,336$260,138,569$59,995 $260,138,569
    2 Encanto (Walt Disney Studios) 5 3,525$6,483,152$1,839 $56,822,363
    3 West Side Story (20th Century Studios) 2 2,820$3,657,197$1,297 $14,231,815
    4 Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE)) 5 3,282$3,413,963$1,040 $89,083,380
    5 Nightmare Alley (Searchlight Pictures) 1 2,145$2,811,703$1,311 $2,811,703
    See More Details

    Cinemark CEO reflects on the movie industry’s chaotic year (Business Insider)

    Cinemark’s Outgoing CEO Mark Zoradi

    On January 1st, Cinemark’s CEO Mark Zoradi will step down and pass the baton to his colleague Sean Gamble as the new chief at the country’s third-largest exhibition circuit.  In this interview with Business Insider, Zoradi expresses optimism about the future prospects for Cinemark and the movie business.

    At last, the box office appears to be rebounding after two tumultuous years filled with theatre restrictions and a general unease with going out in public.  Zoradi added, “We’re in the midst of a strong fourth quarter.  The recovery really began in October because the content started to come back.” The movies that have done best this year have been the superhero tentpoles and horror genre, with the box office for films focused on young families and adult audiences lagging.  Zoradi expects that the full spectrum of moviegoers will re-emerge in 2022, helping to boost attendance and make week-to-week attendance more consistent.

    As streaming has emerged, both studios and exhibitors have used the recent period to experiment with new release models, including straight-to-streaming, and the reduction or elimination of exclusive windows for theatres.  Cinemark has even begun to work with Netflix on playing some of their new releases for brief one or two-week runs in Cinemark theatres before their streaming debut.  Zoradi concludes that “We know that a movie will perform better if one, it’s a good movie; two, it has an exclusive window; and three, it has an extensive marketing campaign behind it.”

    See also: Inside AMC’s Crazy, Bonkers, Upside-Down Year of Apes, Memes and Shorts and ‘West Side Story’ and the Decline of the Movie Theater (Wall Street Journal)

    Cineworld shares plunge by a third after $900m Cineplex damages ruling (Financial Times)

    Cineworld shares plunged last week after a Canadian court ruled that the company had to pay $900M in damages to Cineplex, Canada’s largest exhibitor and the fourth largest in North America.  UK-based Cineworld is the second-largest global cinema chain and owner of Regal Cinemas, the second-largest U.S. exhibitor.

    This legal battle has been roiling since the early days of the pandemic, when Cineworld pulled out of a December 2019 agreement to acquire the Canadian circuit for $1.6B.  During the court case, documents surfaced showing that Cineworld’s investors pressured company management to cancel the deal after the pandemic forced a global shutdown of theatres.  Cineworld announced in June 2020 that it was canceling its merger, prompting Cineplex to file suit against its suitor, characterizing the action as “nothing more than a case of buyer’s remorse.”

    The price of Cineworld shares dropped by a whopping 38% after the ruling, with investors worried that this new financial obligation would jeopardize the exhibitor’s post-pandemic recovery.  Cineworld is expected to appeal the ruling.

    See also: AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron Sees “Opportunity” In Regal Legal Woes – Is There?

    Warner Bros. Has No Plans to Shift 2022 Theatrical Release Strategy (Hollywood Reporter)

    Warner Bros.’ CEO Ann Sarnoff

    At an investor conference last Wednesday, Warner Bros.’ CEO Ann Sarnoff reaffirmed her studio’s decision to release their new features in 2022 with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window.  Sarnoff explained that, despite the continued disruptions in moviegoing caused by the COVID pandemic, the studio had made commitments to theatres, agents and talent to release new features in theatres.

    Warner Bros.’ 2021 experiment with day & date releasing may have resulted in an increased number of HBO Max subscriptions, but this came at the expense of box office returns.  Nine of the ten highest domestic grosses in 2021 were for movies released exclusively in theatres.  In addition, Warner Bros.’s shift today & date releasing created friction with talent, especially because many talent contracts included financial incentives based on box office performance.  In particular, a number of high-profile filmmakers were incensed, most notably Christopher Nolan who proclaimed, “some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.”  After making his films with Warner Bros. over the last 20 years, Nolan has since decided to work with Universal on his next feature.

    Evidently, Warner Bros. execs have determined that the benefits of exclusive theatrical releasing once again outweigh its limitations.

    SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Emerges as a Must-See Movie Event

    SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME’S astounding global launch proves there’s no way moviegoers will stay home when something’s playing they really want to see.

    This isn’t what Wall Street analysts & consumer media pundits believe. To them, moviegoing is a relic of the pre-pandemic past. Why they ask, would anyone visit a cinema when they can see the same movies at home free (not counting monthly fees) sitting on their couches and munching microwaved popped corn?

    The moviegoing experience is, of course, an integral part of why people like going to theatres. Moviegoers know the difference between seeing a movie like the new Spidey (pictured) on the big screen and viewing it at home. After years of lockdowns & working-from-home, people are eager to get out of the house. They want the shared experience of enjoying a movie with friends or family & hundreds of strangers there in the cinema darkness.

    Movies have always been a product-driven business. People pay to see the films they want to see or that marketing’s made them think they want to see. Hollywood would sell a lot more tickets if it just listened to what audiences like and made more movies like those.

    Where Are We as of 12/16

    Industry results have been trending down since Thanksgiving, and were not helped much by the soft opening of WEST SIDE STORY on 12/10.  The 49th film week of the year (ending on December 16th) produced only 39% of the same week in 2019.  The most recent four-week run rate dropped down to 48% of the same period of 2019.  Pre-SPIDER-MAN, results from the fourth quarter of 2021 had dipped to 63% of the same quarter in 2019.  After fifty weeks, the year-to-date performance is stuck at 36% of 2019 returns.  Of course, the record-breaking opening of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME will reverse this downward trend and give exhibition a much-needed boost to finish out the year.  What’s more, additional reinforcements arrive this Wednesday when SING 2, THE MATRIX RESSURECTIONS and THE KING’S MAN open on 12/22.

    Studio Release Calendar

    Studio Releases... 12/24 - 12/30

    Title (Distributor) Rating Runtime Distribution
    American Underdog (Lionsgate) PG 112 Wide
    A Journal for Jordan (Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE)) PG-13 131 Wide
    The Tragedy of Macbeth (A24) R Limited
    Jockey (Sony Pictures Classics) R 94 Limited
    Arjuna Phalguna (Independent) NR 130 Limited
    See More Details

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