Cinemark invites streaming to the screenings

Future. Cinemark’s executive came out in praise of mergers, acquisitions, shortened theatrical windows, and exclusive pre-release screening partnerships with streaming companies (even if just for a week). The comments show that the third-biggest chain is already planning for what the new future of moviegoing — and it may involve screening more movies for shorter amounts of time.

The more, the merrier
Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi and CFO/COO Sean Gamble don’t have a problem with streamers seemingly coming for their business anymore, according to comments at the 23rd annual Credit Suisse Communications Conference.

• Gamble believes that the Discovery/WarnerMedia merger and Amazon’s acquisition of MGM will “invest more in content” and make “bigger and more diverse film content.”
  • (Clearly “content” is the buzzword).
• Zoradi accepted that the theatrical window (how long a movie plays exclusively in theaters) has shifted for good, landing somewhere in the 30-45 day range (as opposed to the traditional 74-90 days).
• Zoradi said that he believes the ultimate effect that will have on the box office will be “slight.”

Coexistence

In a surprise acknowledgement, Gamble also revealed that the company was happy with their one-week long, exclusive nationwide run of Zack Snyder’s Netflix movie, Army of the Dead. Cinemark was the largest chain to carry the movie the week of May 14 before the movie hit the streamer on May 21. Even though it only made $780,000, Gamble said that the company is “obviously still in somewhat of a test-and-learn mode, but the results were really encouraging about the prospects of future releases.”

In the new world of streaming, Netflix and Amazon may soon be the biggest suppliers of movies, releasing more titles than the traditional studios by several multiples… meaning Cinemark may have no choice but to adapt to a world that has already moved on from the old ways. Whatever puts more movies on the marquee.