Judging from all the projections of doom and gloom that accompanied each new weekend’s box-office reports last summer and fall, you’d think organizers of ShoWest would have staged the annual gathering of theater owners in a funeral parlor, and not within the faux-sunny confines of Paris Las Vegas. Apparently, with business up in the first-quarter of 2006, the chain-dragging Ghost of Cinema Future has decided to vacation in Florida this week.
Not that anything’s changed, really. None of boogey-men that journalists claimed were responsible for last year’s “slump” — miniscule DVD-release windows, cross-platform distribution of content, intense competition for consumer eyeballs, a mass aversion to in-theater advertising viewers who refuse to turn off their cellphones – have been eliminated as obstacles to growth. They’re lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to pounce on beleaguered exhibitors.
At the Q&A session held Tuesday after their state-of-the-industry addresses to an assembly of theater owners – most of whom probably were there to get a sneak peek at “Mission Impossible 3” — NATO president John Fithian took issue with how the slump was reported.
“We had a terrific fourth-quarter, but no one wrote about that,” he asserted. “Instead, dozens of stories were written about this tiny independent movie (Bubble) that had started a ‘revolution’ in release patterns. It made $145,000 and disappeared … but, again, nothing.
“It’s all about the stories – the movies, themselves – and, from what I’ve seen, the line-up for the next two years is excellent.”
Typically, hope springs eternal at ShoWest, where the cream of the crop is put on display in special screenings, product reels and endless displays of one-sheets. It was here, for example, that exhibitors first saw “Shrek,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Crash,” and select scenes from “Spider-Man II,” “Episode III”and “Eyes Wide Shut.” Even such train wrecks as “Stealth.”
Monday night, exhibitors were able to sample such indie hopefuls as “Kinky Boots,” “On a Clear Day,” “Friends With Money,” “Confetti,” “Hard Candy” and “An Inconvenient Truth.” The latter title documents Al Gore’s international crusade for global-warming awareness. It could have been a deadly dull experience, but the former VP came across – on screen, and in Q&A’s that followed each showing – as poised, persuasive and charismatic … everything he wasn’t in the 2000 presidential campaign.
Davis Guggenheim’s cameras followed Gore as he traveled around the world to present his “slide show,” which makes the best possible use charts, graphs, grim statistics and scenes of disintegrating ice shelves. Even so, “An Inconvenient Truth” is neither overtly partisan nor without humor.
Gore’s announced presence clearly elevated the documentary from easy-to-ignore to must-see status. Like a Washington lobbyist, the Bill Clinton’s second-in-command presented exhibitors with a list of altruistic reasons for booking the film. It wasn’t until he mentioned that an army of volunteers would participate in an extensive grass-roots marketing campaign that the theater owners started sensing the potential for it as a sleeper hit on the order of “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “March of the Penguins.”
“How many of you saw the ‘Penguins’ movie during the first week of its release?” Gore asked, knowing full well how the audience would respond. “Now, how many of you were encouraged to see it by a friend, relative or by a newspaper or magazine article? Almost everyone …
“We’d like to see you make the same commitment to our picture … play this card! There will be a groundswell of support for ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ as well.”
The other picture to attract a large crowd was Nicole Holofcener’s “Friends With Money,” if only because of a star-studded cast that includes Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, Greg Germann, Scott Caan, Frances McDormand and Catherine Keener. Like the writer-director’s “Lovely & Amazing” and “Walking and Talking,” the hard-to-classify romance/drama/comedy might be described as a “thinking woman’s chick flick.” Whether Aniston can draw flies at the box-office remains open to question.
Tuesday morning’s opening ceremony didn’t reveal much beyond the same negative stats already distributed to the press last, in the MPAA’s pre-emptive press release. Organization chairman and CEO Dan Glickman, a former Secretary of Agriculture, announced plans for a generic promotional campaign on the order of “Pork … the Other White Meat,” “Beef … It’s What for Dinner” and “Got Milk?” He’s also supporting AFI head Jean Firstenberg in her drive to have Congress declare a week in March as “National Movie Week.” Money already has been set aside for a major survey to determine consumer attitudes about film-going, as well as more anti-piracy campaigning.
Knowing that none of these efforts will vastly improve the in-theater experience or raise attendance by more than a few degrees, Glickman also called on movie studios to produce better movies.
“The power of the story always has been and will continue to be the key to our success,” he said.
He probably was pleased by producer Paula Wagner and director J.J. Abrams’ choice of clips from “M:I-3.” In Tom Cruise will match wits with recent Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays a diabolical villain. Even as ShoWest teasers go, the presentation was exciting and likely to boost enthusiasm for a May box-office renaissance.
Immediately afterward, Lionsgate Films presented its much smaller in stature, “Akeelah and the Bee.” It tells the uplifting story of a young girl from South-Central Los Angeles, and her efforts to make the National Spelling Bee. The latest addition to the ever-growing subgenre of spelling, chess and math dramas stars Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne and Keke Palmer.
Tuesday night, the exhibitors were invited to preview Disney/Pixar’s highly anticipated “Cars.” Other screenings include Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” Paramount/DreamWorks’ “Over the Hedge,” New Line’s “Take the Lead” and a product reel from Warner Bros.
More on those, later …

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