Apparently we are the 25th biggest cinema chain in the US

A good article from the LA Times that gives an overview of our cinema chain in the US. There is even mention of what we are doing on the digital front:

Seeking to upgrade the experience and the environment, Big Cinemas is spending $12 million to renovate theaters -- many of which it acquired from mom-and-pop operators -- with new digital projectors and sound systems, computerized accounting controls, stadium seating and concession stands serving Indian food.

...

Reliance reached out to Indian film distributors, offering to act as a "one-stop shop" to deliver their movies across the U.S. via a company-owned fiber-optic network that pipes films directly from Mumbai to New York. That assures quicker and cheaper distribution than in the past, when canisters of film would have to be flown in and could get held up in customs, causing costly delays.

The Hindi films are subtitles, so any of you non-Indians out there tempted by this, go and have a visit and see it for yourself. You can say that 'Patrick sent me" - but that won't qualify you for a free mango lassi drink or samosa. Just admire the digital picture.

Adlabs ties up with Pathe in first European deal and opens multiplex in Chicago

Adlabs has become the first Indian movie major to tie up with a major European exhibitor to establish a virtual Bollywood presence in Europe. The deal between Adlabs' BIG Cinemas and Pathé Theatres will give India's largest film distributor and exhibitor an outlet for Bollywood and other Indian films in all major cities in The Netherlands. From the article in Economic Times:

In the Netherlands, the company will roll out three Big Cinemas screens in Pathé Theaters' existing megaplexes in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hague. "Pathé is a perfect fit in our global strategy to bring Indian movies to Europe and other continents. Starting with the Netherlands, we will explore other countries in Europe," says Anil Arjun, CEO of Adlabs Films.

Pathé Theatres is a part of EuroPalaces movie theatre chain that runs 834 screens in France, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands.

Indian distribution houses prefer Pathé for exhibiting their films to cash in on the 7,00,000 Hindi movie fans of Indian, Pakistani, Afghani, Turkish and Moroccan origin.

Here, Hindi movies like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Singh is Kinng, Jodhaa Akbar, Dostana and Om Shanti Om have grossed $130,000-200,000. "We believe that the admissions can be over 400,000 annually. The efforts so far to distribute Indian films can be described as sub-optimal. There are segments the world over where the demand for content is more than the supply, and we believe we can tap into this," adds Mr Arjun.

While the UK constitutes the largest overseas market for Bollywood and other Indian films, the rest of Europe makes up a significant and under-served share. This virtual presence is a further step in the direction of smart and tactic expansion by Adlabs at a time when most other Indian media companies are retreating or re-grouping.

Meanwhile in the US Adlabs is opening its first purpose re-built multiplex with a high-end luxury five-screen multiplex in a wealthy suburb of Chicago. While Adlabs already has more than 170 screens across the US, these were acquired from different cinema operators, while this is the first one refurbished inside-out to BIG Cinema specification. From The Business Standard:

The multiplex, Big Cinemas-Golf Glen, is located in Niles, Chicago. It will have five screens and a premium lounge. The facility will be digitally connected to Adlabs India, enabling the films to be transferred on fibre optic cable within four to six hours instead of using physical films, a statement issued by the company said.

"The Chicago launch is in keeping with our vision to establish a strong foothold for Big Cinemas worldwide in markets with an appetite for Indian cinema," said Anil Arjun, CEO, Adlabs Films.

"Big Cinemas has a significant presence in the US with 170 screens and accounts for 25 per cent of the box office turnover for Hindi Films and over 65 per cent for Tamil and Telugu films released in the US. This multiplex at Niles, Chicago is part of Big Cinema's strategy to actively promote and ensure better reach of Indian movies," he added.

The multiplex will screen a mix of Hollywood, Indian, Polish and Korean films and will have stadium seating to enable live telecasts of cricket matches and other events.

The grand opening will be on 29 May. Wish I was going, but too many other things going on in India right now. I will try to post some photos from the opening party when I get them sent to me.

The short shelf-life of Bollywood actresses

 Jai Ho! Slumdog is top dog at the Oscars. I'm very happy that the film did as well as it did and congratulations to everyone involved - including Adlabs' small contribution. So much has been written about it in Indian media, however, that there is nothing new or original that I can tell you about it - though ask me when you meet me what Danny Boyle told me when I met him at Mumbai airport, prior to the film's shoot, was the worst aspect about making a film in Mumbai. These days he is either to effusive or polite to discuss the one horror. And, no, it's not the stench of the slums. 

An article that may have escaped your attention was an opinion piece by Praveen Dass in Times of India (One for the times) that tracks the antecedents of the film extremely well and in the process dispels some of the myths and caricatures about the film:

So, is Slumdog superfluous? Is it guilty of caricature? In parts, perhaps, but not in sum. Besides, soft burlesque, as many parts of Slumdog surely are, is not without its uses. Indeed, three outlandish sequences in Slumdog should point us to its real nature as fabulist melodrama. One is the moment when Jamal, the plucky protagonist, cheerfully plunges into a pool of shit to get an autograph. Another is the surreal image of a child dolled up as a blue Rama in the middle of a riot. And, finally, the dance sequence at the end is the film-makers' paying back their Bollywood debt. All point to Slumdog's true nature as an over-the-top modern fable, best consumed with a pinch of masala. In fact, the film's premise should give that away. Surely randomness and chance never get this good in life, real or reel. Boyle has tried this formula before with his underappreciated Millions. Second time was better. And maybe it needed India.

It is worth reading the whole article. Not least, it made me think that Scotland should have rebelled against how the wannabe independent part of the UK was portrayed in Trainspotting (heroin use, filthy toilets, random pub violence), had they been as easily offended or prone to manufacture controversies as some of Slumdog's critics - admittedly a very small minority in these post-Oscar days. 

While honest self criticism of India is admirably widespread, the same cannot often be said about the Hindi film industry (aka 'Bollywood'), which is why I was all the more fascinated to come across an article this past weekend about how the industry's leading ladies are finding themselves having shorter and shorter careers on the silver screen with each 'generation' (actually 'season' by now). 

The article is called 'Tick Tick Three Your Time is Up' by Indu Mirani. The article is far from preachy but asks some penetrating questions:

So, why is it that heroes can play the lead role for decades while the girls have a shelf life of just four to five years? Earlier, before the multiplex generation came along and changed the way we perceived filmmaking, there was the notion that the minute a heroine entered her 30s or got married, whichever was sooner, she lost her allure. “Women were to be fantasised about” was the explanation and the only way she fitted the traditional Indian (Bombay to Bihar) fantasy was if she was seen to be young, curvaceous and virginal, with particular emphasis on the last virtue. And so any girl who wanted to last longer made sure she was all this.

This often lead to the ridiculous situation where a girl who had debuted at say 18 suddenly claimed that she made her first film at 15, which soon became 12. That that kept her poised at 26 for many years was the idea and in most cases it succeeded.

To keep the virginal image intact was slightly tougher but they managed that too by making statements like “I’ve never been on a date,” or “Love? Never felt it. I’m dying to fall in love.” Sridevi, it is rumoured, was so unaware of things that when she got pregnant and felt the first stirrings of the child she thought she had gas.

This sadly means that Freida Pinto, the female star of Slumdog, cannot look forward to a long career in Bollywood, should she get a break there thanks to the film (far from given). Her best hope is to keep straddling both worlds - these days Aishwarya Rai features largest in the poster for Pink Panther 2. 

Bollywood's BO takings slump in 1st half of 2008

Half way through the box office year in Bollywood the industry is feeling distinctly glum at the lack of a significant number of hits so far. Just three to four films have genuinely done gang buster business, if THR.com is the be believed:

Bollywood lost about $37.5 million in the first half of 2008, as most films released here sold fewer tickets than expected, a leading business daily reported here Monday.

A survey published by the Economic Times of India also showed ticket receipts of only $75 million for the 47 Hindi-language films released from January through June, well below industry expectations.

Bollywood, the most famous segment of India's vast movie industry, does not have an independent source for boxoffice data.

"It's been a bad year (in that) major films have just tanked," film critic and industry analyst Rajeev Masand told The Hollywood Reporter.

The few successes in the first half of the year included UTV's historical epic "Jodhaa Akbar," which collected $30 million worldwide on the way to recovering its $10 million budget; the action-packed "Race" from the Abbas-Mastan directing duo; and "Jannat" (Heaven), Kunal Deshmukh's look at illegal betting in cricket.

The second half of the year got off to a so-so start, with the Aamir Khan Productions/PVR film Jaane Tu... doing well, while the Adlabs-backed Love Story 2050 did less well.

Unlike Hollywood, which has a box office summer stretching from May until Labour Day, the Indian box office summer is usually in May before the monsoon, though the IPL cricket stole away the viewers this year and will have a dampening effect next year. Hopes are instead high for Diwali and the releases tied to the other Indian national and religious holidays.

Despite this the investment in Indian films continues to grow, Hollywood studios are stepping up their local productions, more and more multiplexes are being opened and the expectations are for the industry as a whole to continue growing.

Interestingly websites that host pirated Bollywood content that is downloaded by NRIs (non-resident Indians) in UK, US and even Finland (!) are doing terrific business according to this article. For Bollywood, digital cinema and legit digital overseas distribution cannot come soon enough to help fill the coffers.

Adlabs embraces the concept of megaplexes

While I've been impressed by the standard of multiplexes in India, which are as comfy as anything in the UK and US (and the Ebony Lounges are even more luxurious - see above), I've always been puzzled by the fact that a 'multiplex' in India is only four to six screens. This means that even with flexible programming of up to three to four different films per screen each day, the choice is often limited as the dame film tends to jump between screens and when a blockbuster like 'Race', 'Krazzy 4' or the up-coming 'Tashan' play, 80 per cent of screen real estate is booked up.

So welcome news that Adlabs Cinemas (it would be them) are going to pioneer the concept of multiplexes in India, with screen counts in the double digits, which earns it the title of 'mega-plexes'. Here is what the Economic Times had to say about it:

As a part of its new venture, Adlabs will be setting up a number of megaplexes, which would be around 5-6 times larger than the size of a multiplex offering not only multiple screens for films, but also gaming, alternative cinema, sports and others.

"The idea is to create an entertainment destination which will have something for everyone. We will have megaplexes for those looking for entertainment through and beyond films," Adlabs Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra said.

To begin with, Adlabs will open six megaplexes with each one spread across 1.5 lakh square feet in cities, including Mohali, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. While, the plan for the first phase was at least 12-15 such destinations.

"All the six sites are at different stages of development. The first one is going to be either in Mohali or Hyderabad," Dhingra said without specifying when was the first project expected to be operational.

One of the reasons that there haven't been many 10-15 screen cinemas to date is that the multiplex concept itself is still less than a decade old in India, plus that real estate (reel estate?) is difficult to come by even for a five-screen cinema in places like Mumbai. But my colleagues over at Adlabs Cinemas also face hurdles in cutting through red tape to get permissions to open a regular cinema that make applying for permission for opening a nuclear power station in a place like UK seem like getting permission for a garage extension by comparison.

In other news, Adlabs/Reliance has partnered ImaginAsian, which means that we now have flagship screens in both New York and Los Angeles, though these are only the tip of the activities that this partnership will bring. As reported in The Hollywood Reporter:

ImaginAsian owns such properties as iaTV, iaRadio, Web portal iaLink, New York's ImaginAsian Theater and the ImaginAsian Center in Los Angeles, which offer a diverse range of Asian-inspired programming including comedy and variety shows, drama series, documentaries and features.

"The agreement with ImaginAsian is a nonexclusive media marketing agreement in areas such as advertising sales and content marketing with both parties sharing access to various kinds of programming," Mumbai-based Reliance Big Entertainment senior vp Anil Arjun said Wednesday.

All this and Lowry Digital too - Reliance/Adlabs is on a roll right now. Meanwhile we are not slacking off on the digital cinema side too, but more about that in a future post.

Incredible !ndian cinema goes US

No sooner did I write the previous post about the cinema situation in India then the news breaks that my client Adlabs has acquired 200 screen in the US. While it is not the first time an Indian exhibitor buys into the US market, this deal dwarfs the acquisition of FunAsia's four sites in Texas with 17 screens by Pyramia Saimira a few weeks ago. Not only that but to put the size in perspective, Landmark Theatres operates 232 screens in 58 locations, while Muvico has 14 cinemas with a total of 259 screens. Both of these are US exhibition house hold names and so too soon will be Adlabs.

As of yet there is not detailed information about what the locations are. Also, I have not seen coverage yet by either Variety or Hollywood Reporter, which I find perplexing, but maybe they are pre-occupied by the WGA strike. Here is what DNA India has to say about it:

Making its first international foray, Adlabs has entered into multiple agreements with existing theatre owners in the United States to operate some 200 screens.

Precise details on this arrangement have not been made public yet as the deal has been executed by an Adlabs official in charge of developing international operations. The company refrained from divulging details stating it will be made public in due course.

Following the deal, Adlabs will have a footprint across the US covering 28 cities including the key markets in east coast (California is full of Indian techies), midwest and west coast (New York and New Jersey has a substantial Indian population).

These cinema theatres will be showcasing mainstream Hollywood films in addition to movies in the Indian languages viz., of Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

I would expect more details to follow soon. If Pyramid Saimir is prepared to spend $75m to grow from 17 to 75 screens, you can bet that Adlabs will not settle for just 200. Also too soon to talk about digital, other than that I can assure you that whatever they may or may not launch will definitely NOT be e-cinema.

Consider this the first move, with more to come. True to their motto, there's never a dull moment when you are with Adlabs.

Incredible !ndian cinema market

CineAsia is over and while it looked like an interesting programme and first year in Macau, I was unable to attend. What struck me about the details of the events, though, was that there was absolutely nothing about India in the whole three days - unless you count Real Image co-sponsoring a breakfast and the screening of 'Elizabeth: the Golden Age' (directed by Shekhar Kapur).

You might think that I have a thing about India at the moment, but it was Variety that recently began an article with the observation that "India is 'in the midst of a revolution' that will see the fastest theatrical growth in Asia in the coming five years." (Boom time for India's film industry - Country spends $2 billion on movies each year). This is based on a new report by Dodona examining the trends on the Asian sub-continent:

Dodona describes the Indian movie industry as "the largest in the world and one of the most fascinating." Growth is being powered by demographics and an explosion in numbers of multiplexes and digital cinemas.

"On the basis of current plans, in 2011 half of all the screens in the country will have been built or re-equipped within the past five years. Even at its height, the European and North American multiplex boom did not match this scale of investment," report author Katharine Wright said.

Based on my observations on the ground I definitely agree [and an apology to Dodona for previously getting my facts wrong on their Euro digital cinema reports]. But don't take my word for it. Here is what Adlabs and PVR have to say about it in their own words, from a Q&A in moneycontrol.com article ('What are PVR, Adlabs Up to?'), about how they will grow through acquisitions and newly built multiplexes over the coming years:

Q: A few issues the market is quite excited by about - the Adlabs now; one, there is rumour that you could probably looking at Sringar Cinemas for a buy out, is that true?

Venkat Devrajan, CFO, Adlabs Films: Whether it’s organic or inorganic, (we are) ultimately looking at the plan at which Adlabs is today. With 111 screens in the next 24 months, we are looking at at least 400 screens to rollout. So within that space whether any company comes by or we do it on our own as an execution project; at the end of the day it’s number that counts and that is what our plan is.

That's quadrupling the size of India's largest cinema circuit in just two years! If cinema growth like that doesn't take away your breath away, nothing will. And these are not idle boasts. And the growth of the multiplexes is transforming the entire Indian cinema landscape, as this article ('Multiplexes fast gobbling up India's single hall theatres') from The Economic Times makes clear:

From one multiplex in Saket, south Delhi, in 1997 their number today has crossed 400 across the country with about 20,000 screens, redefining the way films are viewed.

PVR Ltd, which brought this concept to India, has a total of 95 screens in 22 multiplexes across India, Fun Cinemas has 50 screens in 11 cities, Inox Leisure Ltd. has 19 multiplexes with 65 screens and Adlabs Cinemas has no less than 100 screens in 22 cities.

"Up to 97 per cent of urban youth prefer to watch movies in multiplexes," says a report recently released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"I can't even recall which was the last film I saw in single screen movie hall. The experience of watching a film in a multiplex compared to a stand-alone cinema hall is beyond comparison," Smriti Singh, a college student, told IANS.

And that's even before we get to digital, whether you are talking about e-cinema or true digital cinema. India is unique in having succeeded in having effectively establishing an alternative standard to DCI (UFO's MPEG-4 and E-City's MPEG-2) for all major releases, and even the odd Hollywood title (Snakes on a Plane, The Messengers). But that's a long posting for next year.

While a lot attention is being lavished on film and exhibition in China, it is easy to forget what a tightly controlled market it is and the risks that Hollywood studios and other Western companies face in dealing with the country. Not only have exhibitors like Warners effectively been forced to withdraw, but now Hollywood films face an un-official three month ban. From Variety:

In its most drastic measure ever against Hollywood, Chinese authorities have banned the release of American pics for at least three months.

Ban began Saturday and will continue until the end of February at least, but Chinese sources say it could continue until May.

Central-government order came from echelons higher up than the State Administration for Film Radio and Television or the Film Bureau, which normally handle movie industry policy and application. Ruling likely emanated within the Propaganda Ministry.

The Asian and Chinese arms of the studios have not been given any release slots in the first two months of 2008.

Unlike China, it is not restrictions or quotas that is keeping Hollywood films' market share low in India but the phenomenal success of the local market Hindi films (aka 'Bollywood'), Tamil, Telugu, Malayam language films and other local Indian film productions. Western films do show, but they just cannot compete with the success of the latest Shah Rukh Khan release. And Hollywood has started to take notice. The Sony produced 'Saawariya' recently outperformed Tom Cruise's 'Lions for Lambs' at the global box office. Not bad for a three-hour song-and-dance adaptation of a Dostoyevsky short story. Incredible !ndia indeed.

Lastly, the vertical integration and emergence of film exhibitors as producers and distributors means that the ground is set for digital cinema in a way that it can never be, because of the enforced separation between cinema owners and the Hollywood studios. The impact of this vertical integration and the emergence of producer-distributor-exhibitor power houses is examined in Glamsham.com's 'Multiplexes and the dawn of a new era':

The trend has also to be seen from the perspective that there would not be any acrimony about sharing of the revenue in the first week when the film is released. This trend is already there in Hollywood and it has slowly started gaining momentum in India. It is a healthy trend, as it would bring in further transparency into the business of filmmaking. The participation on the part of the cinema owners has increased as the investors into the shares of these companies have provided the capital for the same.

Next year I hope to be able to go into more detail about the digital changes taking place and facing India. So for now, Namaste to you all. It's 10pm and I'm off to the Adlabs Metro cinema, "Bollywood's most famous red-carpert theatre" (pictured above), where there is digital work to be done.

India rips into Hollywood's d-cinema standards

It's not often that you get an out-and-out assult on Hollywood standard-setting efforts for digital cinema. Mostly it is low key grumblings, punctured by the occasional inane idea of a 'French' or 'European' digital cinema standard. But it seems like the Indians, who have as much if not more experience in distributing films digitally to cinemas as Hollywood, have had it up to here according to this article in Variety:

Rajaa Kanwar, vice chairman of UFO Moviez and chairman of the Ficci (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) digital entertainment forum, described standards put together by the Digital Cinema Initiative's committee of Hollywood studios and vendors as "rigid, unrealistic" and "not appropriate" to many territories, including India.

Kanwar described a series of myths he ascribed to DCI and d-cinema systems that claim to be DCI compliant.

He said that theater chains do not generally invest in technology; that distributors are fragmented and not able to manage technology themselves; that interoperability is not a reality; and that the human eye is largely unable to detect the higher image quality delivered by DCI standards.

Kanwar said that the cost of a DCI -compliant d-cinema system is about $125,000; his company charges theaters as little as $4.60 per screening for 2K projection equipment.

UFO Moviez provides turnkey digital cinema systems that are typically leased or rented by multiplex operators. Antipiracy protection comes from satellite delivery of movies that requires no human intervention.

Company has e-cinema installations in 625 theaters in India and is selling its system in Singapore, Malaysia and Europe.

Bill Jasper Jr., prexy, director and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, admitted that he had not understood the DCI's decision to switch from MPEG to JPEG2000 standards for video compression. (JPEG2000 is a standard derived from technology for still images.)

He suggested problems ahead for the DCI as studios want to do away with the virtual print fee, which may be as high as $1,000, in a few years. But he said that 3-D cinema, made more possible by 4K DCI-compliant technology, was popular with auds and is an "effective antipiracy tool."

As Walt Ordway is always at pains to stress, a) DCI is not a 'standard' but a set of specifications, and b) it describes a baseline, but is open to expansions and extensions. Before you knock the Indians, remember that they are the only ones to have made e-cinema possible on a big scale without needing Hollywoods virtual print fee (VPF) solution. I'm also surprised that Jasper should not have understood the switch from MPEG to JPEG (even though he worked for an audio company at the time) and I'm sure that he is misquoted in linking digital 3D and 4K.