• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Screenings bring music events to wider audience

Posted on: Saturday, 6 August 2005, 12:03 CDT

By Jill Kipnis

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Young couples on dates, baby boomers with their kids, teen girls with moms in tow. They stand in line at the movie theater, waiting to buy tickets. Deciding to have nachos or popcorn. Large or medium soda. But they are not there to see the summer blockbuster film or the latest indie buzz movie. They're there to check out their favorite band.

Increasingly, record labels, promoters and artist managers are teaming with National CineMedia to create in-theater screening events touting new music DVDs or concert tours. It is becoming a key new promotion tool for the music industry.

These one-night-only events typically involve beaming programing to theaters in as many as 75 markets across the country. The program could feature a full-length music DVD before the title's release date or a live performance from a stop on an artist's tour.

Though the concept is not new -- in-theater music events trace back to about 2002 -- the music industry and National CineMedia, a Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Theatres company, are expanding use of the events because of their all-around benefits.

Twenty-two in-theater music programs took place in 2004, and National CineMedia's goal is to host two to four per month, according to Dan Diamond, the company's VP of digital programing.

Some individual music events have been attended by 40,000 patrons nationwide. By 2006, Diamond expects that number to grow to more than 100,000 nationwide for a single event.

Additionally, in a partnership between National CineMedia and Buena Vista Music Group, the first in-theater branded concert series is debuting this summer and may become an annual event.

All events take place at Regal-owned theaters (which includes United Artists Theatres and Edwards Theatres). It is expected that AMC locations will become involved as early as next year.

PROMOTIONAL VALUE

"Everybody needs help with marketing," Kiss manager Doc McGhee says.

McGhee helped produce the June 27 screening of "Rockin' the Corps," a concert filmed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego featuring such acts as Destiny's Child, Godsmack and Ted Nugent, that was broadcast at 132 Regal theaters in 74 markets. He says "the retention span of (a movie-theater) audience is 80-something percent versus television." Image Entertainment is releasing a "Rockin' the Corps" DVD and CD Sept. 6.

For the theaters, these events help fill auditoriums on Mondays and Tuesdays, which are slower movie traffic nights.

"We look at this as an opportunity to drive additional concession revenues," says Ray Nut, senior VP of business relations for Regal Entertainment Group. "The reason why music made a lot of sense is we could premiere a DVD on a Monday night before it was released on Tuesday. A Monday night in a theater is pretty quiet."

National CineMedia's $75 million in-theater digital network makes these events possible. For live events, an uplink located at the concert facility sends the data to a satellite at each movie theater. For prerecorded events, content is coded to National CineMedia's digital network specifications at the company's Denver headquarters, and is then sent to individual satellite receivers at the specific movie theaters.

SALES GENERATOR?

The theaters are making money from concessions, but the financial impact on the music industry is less clear. Music executives say it is difficult to pinpoint how many music DVD or concert ticket sales are a direct result of the events.

It is also unclear how the theaters and music industries share in ticket revenue; admission prices range from $10 to $20. Both sides are shelling out their own marketing dollars for each event. Neither party would comment on specific financial details of these deals, though Diamond says that "from a revenue prospective, it's deal-by-deal dependent. In all cases, everybody wins."

The new "Summer Break 2K5" concert series venture between National CineMedia and Buena Vista Music Group features three 90-minute shows broadcast to 86 Regal theaters in 66 markets across the country throughout the month of August. They feature Hollywood Records acts Jesse McCartney and Aly & AJ and Jive Records' Bowling for Soup.

In the best cases, "If an artist is playing Seattle, but not Spokane and Boise, this would be a way to extend a tour to reach more fans," Meglen says. "Also, the concert ticket might be $75, but it's only $15 to see it in the theater."

McGhee jokes that maybe in the future "people will want to see a show in a theater instead of sitting in the mud."

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category