Horror-meister Zack Snyder directed and wrote ‘Army of the Dead.” getting Cinemark/Netflix play.
The nation’s third-largest theater circuit, Cinemark Holdings, reached a deal with all five Hollywood major studios allowing rapid video-on-demand adjacent to cinema release, indicating the industry is moving to shorter windows and cooperation.
In a separate initiative, the Plano, Texas-based theater chain booked Netflix original movie “Army of the Dead” apparently on a somewhat exclusive basis among cinemas and so suddenly Cinemark is the trend-setter for sorting out adjacent cinema/VOD release windows.
Days ago, Cinemark reached a VOD windowing accord with Walt Disney Co., Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Picture Group on moving up the VOD window close to theatrical premiere. In November, Cinemark concluded a similar deal with Universal Pictures (so that’s all of Hollywood’s five major studios).
Terms of the accords are not public, but probably were tailored to the needs for each film to play on its studio’s corporate-sibling streamers. Cinemark said that “each deal has unique attributes specific to the individual studio that mutually benefits both parties.” Look for provisions over time to converge because all parties want stability and different arrangements invite constant revisions.
The length of the current agreements varies. “Some go for multiple months; some go for multiple years,” Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi said on a conference call with investors.
Under the November agreement with Universal, movies that are on course to gross over $50 million domestically (and there were 56 such movies in 2019 out of hundreds of releases) get a five-weekend exclusive theater windows/31 days, though that window spacing is down from 2.5 months/71 days a year ago as the pandemic took hold.
Many would assume that the movies would immediately end cinema runs when VOD starts, but such reasoning overlooks the following. Often films are shown on just one streamer, so consumers not subscribing to that streamer can’t see that film in that particular window. In contrast, cinema is universally available. It’s not like broadcast TV that is seen in nearly all TV homes and cable/satellite that was at 90 percent/100 million+ TV household penetration a few years ago. Netflix has 74 U.S./Canada subscribers that, of course, is huge, but others are smaller. Paramount Pictures’ parent ViacomCBS has 36 million worldwide divided among its Paramount+, Showtime and BET+ streaming services.
On the Netflix accord, Cinemark agreed to show the streamer’s original “Army of the Dead” on May 14 and then the zombie film lands in Netflix streaming May 21.
Netflix has reached similar deals with short windows in the past with streamers on an irregular basis in the past but now Cinemark trumpets the “Army” streaming windowing deal as a template for the future.
Sometimes it will be a short window, sometimes it will be a little bit longer window.
— Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi
Cinemark CEO Zoradi said that “We tested a couple of Netflix titles. ‘Christmas Chronicles 2’ was probably the largest of them late last year. And so that was the beginning of it. But those were in three, four, five market tests. The difference for ‘Army of the Dead’ is we’re doing it circuit wide. … We have a very strong relationship, both our film team with Netflix, and also up through the executive ranks. And we believe that this one will be the first of many to come. Netflix has got some great movies where their filmmakers and talent want to have a theatrical exposure. And so we’re going to find a way through various testing to be able to do that. And sometimes it will be a short window, sometimes it will be a little bit longer window. But we’re able to — we’re going to find a pathway with Netflix.”
The two largest U.S. exhibition circuits, Regal and AMC, will not play “Army” and it remains to be seen if they book Netflix movies down the road. Not doing so deprives the movie of wider availability, but at the same time should drive up grosses at the theaters playing the movies.
A story on IndieWire by Tom Brueggemann says, “Per sources, [Cinemark] will be joined by other [smaller] circuits for a total of around 600 screens. These include Harkins, Landmark, Alamo, Marcus, Cinepolis, and iPic. Of those, Cinemark will be the largest with around 250 [screens]. Theaters will have the option of playing the film beyond the one-week exclusive theatrical run.” Six hundred screens are at the bottom end of the range for a “wide” national cinema release, which can run into the mid-to-high-single-digit thousand screens in non-pandemic times, according to the third edition of business/academic book “Marketing to Moviegoers.”
On past Netflix deals getting cinema runs, in 2018 its Alfonso Cuaron-helmed Oscar contender “Roma” had a three-week exclusive window, and the Coen brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and Susanne Bier’s “Bird Box” booked one-week exclusive theatrical runs. In 2019, critically acclaimed gangster movie “The Irishman,” an Oscar contender, and other Netflix movies were booked for short theater runs to qualify for cinema awards before appearing rapidly on VOD.
Regarding the new arrangement for “Army,” Justin McDaniel, Cinemark SVP of global content strategy, said in a Cinemark press release that the circuit “work with Netflix on our first wide release and provide movie lovers the opportunity to see ‘Army of the Dead’ in our theaters across the U.S. [director] Zack Snyder’s fans will love seeing the action in an immersive, cinematic environment with larger-than-life sight and sound technology.”
“Following the success of our limited-run in-theater tests with Cinemark for films like ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ ‘The Midnight Sky’ and ‘The Christmas Chronicles 2,’ we are looking forward to the wider theatrical release of ‘Army of the Dead,’” Spencer Klein, head of distribution at Netflix, said in the same press release. “We are thrilled to offer consumers the opportunity to watch this highly anticipated film in theaters and on Netflix.”
Though the larger Regal and AMC circuits are better known, the No. 3 Cinemark is still a potent cinema platform with 4,345 U.S. screens at 345 locations in 42 states (and some others cinemas overseas). Cinemark theaters are high performers accounting for 20 percent of U.S. boxoffice in normal times, from just 11 percent of the nation’s screens. Its brands are flagship Cinemark, and also Century Theatres, Tinseltown, CinéArts and Rave Cinemas.
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Most informative, Bob. I’m glad I have a Cinepolis. multiplex near me. I will keep an eye on its bookings.