Good times roll at ShoWest
Glickman predicts huge box office in '07
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The morning session started with a prayer -- followed by Jerry Bruckheimer.
The entire crowd at the Theater des Arts at the Paris stood up as a spiritual "coach" offered thanks to God for such things as "the high marks exhibitors have received, and for enforcing the ratings system. May we have an only uplifting positive impact."
The sermon was followed by a short welcome from Hollywood's master of bombast, Bruckheimer.
Then Glickman and Fithian took their shots at those naysayers -- media, mainly -- who said the movie business is in freefall.
Touting 2006 numbers that were released last week -- domestic box office was up 5.5%, international box office up 11% -- Glickman used the oft-paraphrased quote that "reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated." He went on to tout the sequel-heavy summer as one that will be potentially record-setting -- highlighting "Spider-Man 3," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and the next "Harry Potter."
"My prediction is that 2007 will be even bigger than 2006," Glickman said.
Glickman briefly went through the overall numbers. (Under Jack Valenti's watch, the ShoWest announcement had been usually a bigger deal, as yearly stats were always released during the session, not a week earlier.)
The big draw of the morning was a 12-minute presentation of "Ratatouille," Pixar's summer hopeful that mixes French ambiance with the story of a rat who wants to be a chef. Pic, voiced by Patton Oswalt and Peter O'Toole, opens June 29.
Director Brad Bird began the clip by taking a tongue-in-cheek jab at sequel-mania.
"I feel a little bit out of place here," he said. "So I thought of selling it as 'Ratatouille I' ... the prequel to the sequel."
The clip got a great reception, as did a short trailer for the new "Pirates," which is being released on May 25.
As for the more serious issues, Glickman took his standard swipes at piracy, which, he claims, has cost the movie business $18 billion worldwide.
He then gave way to Fithian, who tackled the issue of theatrical windows, noting that big films increased time between theatrical release and DVD rollout, while smaller films brought the average window timeline down in 2006 -- a fact that didn't please him.
"Presently, the theatrical release window is our primary concern ... the studios are most concerned about the fight about movie theft."
And as for shrinking windows, Fithian said, "Aren't we just saying that the movie was bad? Don't convince the consumer that they can get a movie really fast just because that movie sucked."
The other main topic of conversation centered on the ratings system -- mainly the fight to persuade indies to rate their movies, something they do not have to do, since they are not part of the MPAA.
Fithian also chastised the major studios for not incorporating a rating system into their DVD releases; the studios have been successfully releasing unrated and uncensored versions of certain titles, particularly ones that appeal to young male auds.
"We're calling on our studio partners to rate their DVDs. It's a slap in the face of the ratings system to have unrated DVDs," he said.
The other ratings issue brought up was the NC-17 classification, which, Fithian said, is a necessary component of the system and needs to be accepted. The stigmatized NC-17 -- which is still perceived as a replacement for the old X rating -- has been largely avoided by the studios. And indie companies in such cases have also shunned the designation, choosing to release pics unrated.
"We call on all moviemakers not to release films as unrated," Fithian said. "When non-MPAA members release their films as unrated, it challenges and flouts our ratings system."
Fithian went on to explode some myths surrounding the NC-17, saying, for instance, that the majority of newspapers will indeed accept advertising for such films and that the vast majority of theater chains will play them. To back it up, he claimed the average NC-17 movie grossed $3.9 million, while the average unrated film brought in $1.8 mil.
Fithian and Glickman had attended Sundance this year to try to persuade the indie world to embrace NC-17.
When it came to digital cinema, Fithian pegged 2009 as the year that all of the talk would turn to action. He highlighted several films, including pics from James Cameron ("Avatar"), Disney and DreamWorks Animation as movies that will be released in 3-D digital technology by then.
Digital cinema has become the key component of most of the ShoWest panels and presentations, which continue through Thursday.
