Movies theaters, one of the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic, are looking to bring audiences back — at the expense of streaming. Following Netflix reporting a loss of subscribers for the first time (attributed somewhat to the war in Ukraine), cinemas are taking the opportunity to entice moviegoers to get back to in-person viewing. Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TVREV, joined Cheddar News to talk about the new strategies that could help. "We saw success with a lot of these movie theaters that had — chains like Cinépolis — that had you know recliners and food and things like that," he said. "They just need to make it a more special experience in order to get people out of the house and to sort of do hings that make it worthwhile to go to the movie theaters."

Closing Bell

Movie Theaters Hope to Capitalize on Netflix Subscriber Loss

Welcome back to cheddar news is closing. Well everybody, I'm Manitoba and for kristen Schoeller now to entertainment news, Hollywood's ongoing battle over the future of movies recently took an interesting turn. The streaming giant Netflix recently reported a massive subscriber loss. We told you about that and the outlook surrounding the entire streaming industry as a whole and its long term growth potential. It's now turned negative. The movie theater industry though is looking to capitalize and is planning new and innovative ways to lure movie fans away from their TVs at home and back to the cinema joining us now to discuss his co founder and lead analyst for tv rev. Alan Wolk Allen Allen, welcome back to the show. Always a pleasure talking to you. Movie ticket sales of course movie ticket sales started to pick up here in the U. S. What do you think is driving this? Is it more people are missing the movie theater people are just tired of staying home and streaming or do you think it's something different altogether? Okay, I think it's a little bit of both but I do need to miss, I do need to correct something before we start, which is that Netflix did not suffer a man anything close to a massive subscriber loss. They lost 0.09% of the subscriber base 200,000 people out of 222 million and had Putin not invaded Ukraine and they did not give up to 700,000 Russian subscribers. They would have had a net plus of 500,000 that said people are getting sick of watching movies on netflix and staying home, they don't want to, you know, they they crave the social interaction of a movie theater of watching. You know, we've all had the experience and especially a comedy, But even a drama is just more entertaining when you're with other people, if you're with 50, 100 other people who are all laughing at the same jokes, that's just much more fun. And I think people are really craving that interaction again, thank you for that netflix clarification earlier. So movie theaters across the country are planning to offer more experiences, different experiences to market people and lure people to get back into the theater. What do you think they have to do in order to compete with streaming? Um I think they just need to up their experience. I mean the biggest complaint people had about movie theaters in the past was that they were noisy, dirty, you know, the sightlines weren't very good. They, you know, they were making you buy tickets for the movie theater and then you were winding up crowded, you know, in in between with everybody. You had a sort of, you know, wait took out the spontaneity, we saw success with a lot of these movie theaters that had chains like Sin Oppel is that had you know recliners and food and things like that, they just need to make it a more special experience in order to get people out of the house and I think you know, and to sort of do things that make it worthwhile to go to the movie theater. The ceo of National Association of Theaters owners said something very interesting recently that he would welcome netflix movies into the theater. Do you think that will benefit movie theaters and netflix as well here? Alan I think so. I mean personally I would definitely go see a movie in a theater if I thought it was, you know, something I wanted to see, even if it was already on netflix. I mean like I said before, it's a very, very different experience when you watch at home, you know by yourself with just a couple of other people versus in a somewhat crowded theater with a lot of other people all having that same experience at the same time, that's something really special. And I think that especially for netflix, a lot of their movies that they've been producing oral, you know, sort of, I would say indie film, but but in that vain and I think that's something that can really benefit from being in a movie theater too. And seeing it on that big screen, I mean I think about seeing something like um I'm blanking on the name, the dog movie, um the jane campion movie, you know, the scenery on that on a big screen would have just been wonderful for our viewers that don't know netflix does have the paris theater here in new york city where they, it's only single screen theater right now. Netflix releasing theaters for premieres and special events. Do you think they can do that in other parts of the country, renting out these independent theaters and putting their movies on those screens? Oh, 100%. I think there's a real, you know, Hollywood has become sort of overwhelmed by all these franchise movies now. So I think that all the people who want like seeing independent films and want to see it would certainly flock to a netflix theater, especially if it's sort of one theater in a in an area. Yeah, I can see it in Los Angeles san Francisco. Austin Nashville. So many places where I think people would, you know, flock to, something like that would be a wonderful idea. We've seen a lot of movies, well we've seen a lot less movies coming out both in the theater and on streamers the same day now, movies typically get a 45 day when days in the theater before going to streaming services. Do you think that formula is here to stay 45 days in the theater than heading to streamers? I think that window could get a little bit shorter. Um I think that, you know, it's going to really depend on what people see as the optimal amount of time, you know, to keep people going to the theater. It's 45 days. It's just a month and a half. It's a fairly long time. Um, things are in a much tighter cycle right now. It's interesting because the marketing for something like that is very different, right? You need to get people out than in there versus say a tv series, which has all this time to build out. So having shooter windows might also allow them to sort of condense the marketing period. Some so that they are able to market it to, people are going to see in the theater and on streaming, you mentioned earlier that movie theater should offer more experiences, more immersive experiences. Do you think any big name movie theaters are better positioned to do that? And I think the big chains could, because they can do it at scale right, They can get something like that or you know, some of them have, you, you have imax theaters too, which are just really big, you know, by the nature of being and I'm actually, it's just a really big theater, it can accommodate more people that has a bigger screen. So I think there's some cool stuff they'd be able to do there and then for a lot of the individual theater changes, just looking at what their theaters look like, upping things like cleanliness and just kind of, you know, and seating and views owns and all that and I think that, you know, it's not super difficult to do, but I think they do have to put in the effort to do it and also make it more local things that you know that that's sort of our newsworthy and that make it an event rather than just a movie. I'm glad you mentioned imax a moment ago because they announced they will broadcast the summer game festival, the game awards in a lot of its theaters. What do you think about that? That is an experience. Do you think that will bolster the theaters? Do you think it's a good marketing opportunity for these chains? I think it is. I mean I think especially you know they have to do stuff with it. In other words, they can't just have the games and then ignore it, but if they, everybody who shows up for the games thing gets a coupon to go see their next movie or a coupon for a free box of popcorn, which is probably more than the ticket these days. Um then sure, I think it'd be a great opportunity. It's a chance to get people aware that the movie theaters there again, that they're sort of part of the local community. I mean that's something that's sort of missing a lot too that you realize how much movie theaters sort of anchor a community and bring people together and I think they have the chance to do that again, alan let's talk about the future of movies, do you think they'll lean towards scream streamers theaters or a combination of both moving forward. I think it's gonna be a combination of both because I think, you know, you have people have these giant screen TVs at home um you know, they want to watch things at home. And also, I mean another thing which I think is very key that sort of flies under the radar is that movies are relatively short, it's a 23 hour experience maximum. And with so much good programming on streaming these days for a lot of people I know for myself sometimes say, oh great, here's a three hour movie. I can watch this, you know, in one night or two nights rather than having to invest in a 12 hour series, which is gonna take me the whole month to get through. So I think there's really gonna be a desire for people to watch movies on the, on the fast channels, the three streaming channels, movies are the most popular content. People love watching movies at home, you know, on tv. But there's also like I was saying before that theater experience, I think people are going to make that call as to which movies are sort of theater worthy in which you're homeward streaming worthy and we're going to see a real hybrid experience. Allan Wall co founder and lead analyst for tv rev. We always like talking to you, we always appreciate it. Thank you so much. Alan