By Zahava Aroesty
(Covering ShoWest in Las Vegas at the Paris Hotel from March 15-17 on special assignment for 3DHollywood.net)
Several thousand movie theater exhibitors gathered for the final ShoWest in Las Vegas, where the annual three-day confab was dominated by discussions of skyrocketing interest in 3D and the how to quickly convert more theaters to digital projection.
ShoWest is jointly produced by NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) and the Sunshine Group, which until recently was owned by Nielsen Business Media. Nielsen sold ShoWest among other assets in January to private equity firm e5 Global Media.
Next year NATO plans to take over ShoWest in an effort to boost studio participation, and will rename the event CinemaCon. NATO’s board voted last year to begin hosting the annual convention on its own beginning in 2011. By making it a nonprofit event, NATO believes it can increase attendance, keep costs down, and attract studios and independent distributors to become stronger financial supporters of the show.
This year the major talk around the floor was centered on upgrading theaters to digital projection to handle the flood of at least 20 3D releases expected from studios in the next year.
Owners were elated over the huge box office success of James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” and discussed how to increase the availability of 3D projection in the nation’s theaters. So far, “Avatar” has brought in more than $700 million in domestic box office sales and more than $1.9 billion overseas.
According to NATO President and CEO John Fithian in his opening remarks, in 2009, the North American domestic market box office increased more than 10% to reach $10.6 billion. That’s the fourth straight annual increase.”
He emphasized that 3D receipts were only 11% of the total North American gross. “But 3D penetration has only reached about 7% on a global basis, and about 10% in North American. So the transition is just beginning.”
He added that digital cinema and 3D projection have begun to provide the ultimate immersive visual experience.
Currently, 3D movies can only be shown on digital cinema projectors with 3D capabilities. The general view from theater owners is that investing in digital projection is inevitable; but the cost of installing a digital screen projection system in the range of $100,000 is prohibitive for many smaller chains. Many of the independent theater owner/operators simply don’t have a budget to invest in digital projection systems or silver screens, and estimate it would take years to recoup their investment.
You say, “Currently, 3D movies can only be shown on digital cinema projectors with 3D capabilities,” and then go on to moan about how hard this is for smaller circuits. You completely missed the demos and floor exhibits of my company, SoliDDD, and of Technicolor and Oculus3D, all of which allow showing of 3D on film. Dreamworks and Warner promoted 3D releases on film at the show. We film people solve the smaller circuits’ financial issues regarding 3D, SoliDDD most of all, and that’s why we had long lines at our booth to view our system.
So, did you actually cover Showest, or have you simply put together a few press releases with old ideas?