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Time Warner and CBS Execs Suggest Theater Owners Calm Down; NATO Makes Its Own Suggestion

Posted Thursday, May 12th, 2011 - Comments Off on Time Warner and CBS Execs Suggest Theater Owners Calm Down; NATO Makes Its Own Suggestion
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Los Angeles, CA: May 12, 2011) Time Warner chairman Jeff Bewkes and CBS president and CEO Les Moonves offered some unsolicited advice for theater owners at the Jefferies 2011 Global Technology, Internet, Media & Telecommunications Conference, Wednesday morning.

According to published reports, “There has been too much excitement about this,” Bewkes said about premium VOD in highlighting that exhibitors and studios share the same interests. Discussing exhibitors, he emphasized once again that “nobody in the movie business wants them to be at risk,” and suggested that studios and theaters have aligned interests in making content accessible in legal and high-quality ways to combat piracy. (Hollywood Reporter, May 11, 2011)

Moonves said “I know theater owners are scared,” noting that all companies in media have had to adapt to new technology. “They are going to have to change a bit to prevent a crisis.” (Variety, May 11, 2011)

“Forgive us if we decline to take business lessons from the end of the industry that enabled the erosion of value in the home market,” said National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) president and CEO John Fithian. “The creation of $1.99 kiosk rentals and $7.99 monthly subscriptions have undercut the sell-through model in the home—not theatrical release windows.”

“Let me offer some advice in return, from the end of the business that has grown more than 25 percent globally over the last five years,” Fithian continued. “Your problem is in the home window: fix it there. You will not create extra revenue by introducing in the theatrical window the same self-cannibalizing channel confusion that has decimated the home market.”

On the issue of movie theft, Fithian added, “Combat piracy by charging $30 for a rental? Really? You can’t compete with free. Early VOD release will only exacerbate theft by giving the pirates a pristine digital copy of the movie much earlier than they have with DVDs.”

“Theater owners around the globe are indeed concerned. So are many leading movie directors and producers who care about the theatrical experience. Studio bosses should spend more time talking to their partners about models that might work, instead of asking us to calm down.”

About NATO
The National Association of Theatre Owners is the largest exhibition trade organization in the world, representing more than 30,000 movie screens in all 50 states, and additional cinemas in 50 countries worldwide. www.natoonline.org

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon