Studio Woes: Finding Screens at the Multiplex

LAS VEGAS — Opening weekends are everything, too many films are vying for attention at the same time and they all cost too much to market and promote, according to the consensus at NATO/ShoWest, where film industry types are gathered for their yearly schmoozefest, now the world’s largest movie-industry convention.

But as industry executives lamented these conditions, theater owners, exhibitors and concessionaires from the United States and more than 70 other countries queued up to get an idea what upcoming movies will be like, as well as to network and get an eyeful of the latest in theater technology.

Walt Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures held a two-hour extravaganza Tuesday night in a huge theater in the Aladdin Hotel unveiling previews of 14 upcoming films, to be released from Memorial Day through Thanksgiving, and featuring appearances and comments by a host of actors, directors and producers representing the films involved. Disney’s elaborate presentation included a cast of hundreds of singers, dancers and carnival performers and was complete with exploding bags of colorful confetti and stage-struck Dalmatian puppies.

Disney’s product reel culminated with about 25 minutes of footage--some of it rough drawings with accompanying music--from its next animated feature, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which will be released June 21.

Earlier in the day 20th Century Fox introduced many stars from its upcoming films--ranging from Tom Hanks to Sandra Bullock to Arnold Schwarzenegger--and announced its upcoming re-release of the “Star Wars” trilogy, but showed portions of only one summer release, “Independence Day.”

While celebrating 1995’s record-breaking box-office tally--$5.5 billion--industry insiders also voiced concerns about rising film marketing costs and the shrinking period between a movie’s theatrical debut and its video release.

Seminar panels Tuesday and Wednesday focused on some of the industry’s biggest concerns: how to market pictures as the number of films released has grown so dramatically and the “bunching” of movies in which several big pictures--each of which could be the No. 1 opener--are released around the same time.

The latter phenomenon has led to films opening at lower figures, staying in theaters for less time and grossing, overall, less than expected, industry executives said.

“We have got a crisis at the studios,” said Jeff Blake, president of Sony Pictures Releasing. “The number of days our first-run movies are in theaters is dramatically down. I guess we can live with it on the ones with little marketability. But what we can’t live with is when you hit the home run with a movie, then you look at the month and there are 17 pictures opening in one month.”

Blake lamented the rougher road even the top movies, such as the ones contending for Oscars, face now.

“Despite the fact that good things may lay ahead for pictures like ‘Sense and Sensibility’ or ‘Dead Man Walking’ or ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ in the way of awards, we as distributors have to have the ability to hold these pictures in the market and it’s getting increasingly harder.”

“With this overall bunching of films, you’ll get one shot,” said Barry London, vice chairman, Paramount Pictures motion picture group. “If you don’t hit big on the first weekend [you lose]. . . . There’s too much product in the marketplace, too many choices for the consumer. That’s crystal-clear.”

Film marketers were slightly more sanguine about their lot, decrying the rising cost of marketing movies and the make-or-break importance of opening weekends, but extolling the growth of newer marketing forums like the Internet and various cable television outlets.

“This is the most exciting time in the marketing of feature films,” said Chris Pula, president of marketing for New Line Cinema. “The average consumer sees 10 movies a year. . . . We have to break through the clutter on a daily basis.”

“We’re constantly looking for new ways to market films,” said Brian Fox, president of B.D. Fox and Friends, a company that creates trailers and commercials and markets films. “We can’t just keep spending. We have to constantly look at new ways to reach people, new promotions. We’re creating more integrated campaigns than we have before.”

Many on the panel spoke about the successful creation of Internet Web sites that draw legions of users who tend to feel they’re getting inside information about films and regard themselves as almost part of the industry.

Others spoke about launching music videos in advance of a film’s release to create awareness and draw people to the theater, as in the case of “Waiting to Exhale” and “Dangerous Minds.”

Most of the film marketers on hand--those represented were from New Line, MGM and Miramax, which have masterminded some of the most aggressive and effective marketing strategies in the past year--advocated advertising buys that were targeted to specific audiences.

Others said that excessive spending on advertising is often prompted by nervous filmmakers and panicky studio heads under pressure to deliver blockbusters.

“You don’t have to buy nine episodes on ‘Friends,’ ” Pula said, referring to commercials for films airing during that popular sitcom. “Or air 60-second spots a month in advance of a film’s opening. There is a lot of obscene spending out there.”