Gower Street’s CEO, Dimitrios Mitsinikos again gave his thoughts as part of Celluloid Junkie’s latest #CJCinemaSummit this week.
As this week’s version of the webinar turned its focus on Canada, Dimitrios joined panellists Nuria Bronfman (the Movie Theatre Association of Canada) and Vincenzo Guzzo (Cinémas Guzzo) as well as regular hosts Patrick Von Sychowski and J.Sperling Reich.
In what was a frank and refreshing discussion, Dimitrios opened the webinar with insight into the global outlook. Citing recent Gower Street research, he spoke about the positive outlook in markets outside of Domestic. In particular EMEA and Asia Pacific, as well as noting China hitting recovery targets recently. Despite these positive signs, the Domestic box office could have it’s lowest year since 1991 with under $4.5B. Globally, based on Gower Street forecasts, the year stands to end up around $15B. Although, this is barring any major changes – of which we’ve had many lately.
Dimitrios then answered questions on the traditional release window. Giving insight into standard releases, he divulged that a film captures 80% of box office by the 17 day mark.
Gower Street’s FORECAST service helped aid the successful release of FATHER THERE IS ONLY ONE 2 in Spain. In response to this, Dimitrios mentioned that we could see more international films releasing earlier given the unpredictable situation and the differing circumstances regionally.
The succeeding panel discussion with Nuria, Vincenzo and hosts Patrick and Sperling was an honest and refreshing discourse. Primarily focused on cinema re-openings in Canada, the panellists spoke about dealing with the lack of product and capacity restrictions. As well as this, there was a lengthy discussion on the recent deal between AMC and Universal. Speaking from an outside perspective (the deal does not include Canada), both panellists and hosts gave their opinions on the ways in which it may affect the industry, both in the short and long term.
You can watch the full webinar, “How Canadian Cinemas Are Tackling the Pandemic”, here.
