The Big Picture

Film Production Growing in New Jersey

Mon, 03/18/2024 - 09:59 -- Nick Dager

The film industry in New Jersey employed more than 8,500 people throughout 2023 – and that number is on the rise. Netflix is investing $1 billion to build its East Coast flagship production studio at Fort Monmouth, creating 1,500 industry jobs. Lionsgate is building a major studio in Newark, and 1888 Studios, the largest ground-up movie studio complex in North America, will soon call Bayonne home. It’s expected that by 2026, the motion picture industry in the state will amount to $1 billion per year and, by 2035, the industry will cross the multi-billion-dollar threshold. In recent years, the state has played host to a number of successful film and TV productions. According to the Motion Picture Association, New Jersey has seen $2.15 billion in wages through the film industry since 2020 – with more than 19,000 jobs created in the larger motion picture and television industry, including indirect and induced impact on local vendors. I recently spoke, via email, with Tim Sullivan, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to get a sense of what lies ahead for his state in film and television production. Here is that conversation.

Cinema Remains Top Attention-Getter

Thu, 03/14/2024 - 10:53 -- Nick Dager

Cinema advertising leader National Cinemedia has announced its new offerings for the 2024-25 upfront, providing brands with full-funnel solutions to reach sought-after audiences, including programmatic buying and self-serve automation. NCM is also leveraging its data-driven approach and deep understanding of moviegoers to provide business outcome guarantees for select advertisers in their upfront deals, ensuring a return on their ad spend. In addition to these industry-firsts, NCM released the findings from its second attention study, reaffirming cinema as the number one platform for attention.

China Breaks Box Office Records

Tue, 02/20/2024 - 08:28 -- Nick Dager

The Chinese movie market this year shattered multiple previous records to become the highest-grossing Chinese New Year holiday in the history of domestic cinema. Statistics from the China Film Administration, the nation's top industry regulator, showed that during the holiday period from February 10-17, the country grossed 8.02 billion yuan ($1.12 billion) from 163 million tickets, representing an increase of 18.47 percent and 26.36 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year.

Challenging Times Ahead for Exhibition

Thu, 01/04/2024 - 16:18 -- Nick Dager

London-based Gower Street Analytics estimates that the 2023 Global box office hit $33.9 billion through December 31. This represented a +30.5 percent gain over 2022, continuing the global box office recovery. However, it remains -15 percent behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019). Gower Street also recently estimated that, due in part to a strike-impacted release calendar 2024 is projected to drop slightly to $31.5 billion (a seven percent drop from 2023).

National Film Registry Movies Chosen for 2023

Wed, 12/13/2023 - 13:00 -- Nick Dager

Twenty-five influential films have been selected for the 2023 Library of Congress National Film Registry, the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today. The films are selected each year for their cultural, historic, or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage. The newest selections include a diverse group of films, filmmakers and Hollywood landmarks exploring the drama of history, social justice and reform, the experiences of immigrants and more. This year’s selections date back more than 100 years to a 1921 Kodak educational film titled A Movie Trip Through Filmland about how film stock is produced and the impact of movies globally. The most recent films added to the registry are 2013’s Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom.

The Authentic Artificiality of Barbie

Mon, 11/27/2023 - 09:50 -- Nick Dager

To make a movie based on one of world’s most famous toy brands is to venture into a particularly public arena, where everyone has at least a passing familiarity and expects a certain recognizability. In bringing Barbie to the big screen, director Greta Gerwig and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC therefore had to find the right balance between the authentic and the inventive. Working with an inspired script by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, larger-than-life production design by Sarah Greenwood, and Panavision System 65 large-format spherical optics, Prieto helped realize a world that’s been welcomed by fans and newcomers alike, inviting one and all to participate in the fun and share in the joy. Gerwig has called the look of the film “authentic artificiality.” Here, Pietro speaks about his experiences in Barbieland and beyond.

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At AAM, People Matter Most

Mon, 11/13/2023 - 09:24 -- Nick Dager

This has been a momentous year for digital cinema pioneer Arts Alliance Media. The company celebrated its twentieth year in business and the tenth anniversary of one of its flagship products, the Screenwriter theatre management system that has supported cinema operations through the transition to digital cinema. First launched in 2013, Screenwriter was designed to supersede AAM’s first generation theatre management system that supported exhibitors enrolled in the virtual print fee program as they upgraded to digital cinema equipment. Consequently, Screenwriter embodied an operational restructure, enabling cinemas to centralize their workflows from a single screen instead of traditional, manual methods. The company also launched Screenlighter, a theatre management system designed to solely meet the operational requirements of independent and one-four screen cinemas. But today, the company is thinking only of the future and the ways in which it can help the cinema industry thrive in the months and years ahead. To get a better sense of the company’s plans, I recently spoke via email with David Ong, AAM’s chief commercial officer. One thing he made very clear was the fact that at AAM, people matter most.

AI Creates Another Persona

Tue, 09/26/2023 - 10:10 -- Nick Dager

What happens to a film when an actor's face is changed? Over the past year, everyone in the film world has started talking about artificial intelligence. Will the technology enable different and better films, or will it just make everyone unemployed? And how does AI affect how directors and actors create their art? In collaboration with SF Studios, Gothenburg Film Studios and The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, Göteborg Film Festival is producing an AI-generated version of Persona, featuring Alma Pöysti in Liv Ullmann's role as Elisabet Vogler.

Swift Moves

Mon, 09/04/2023 - 10:24 -- Nick Dager

Last week AMC Theatres announced that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film had officially become a record-breaking movie. The film, which was announced with tickets on sale Thursday morning, shattered the record for single-day advance ticket sales revenue at AMC at $26 million. The previous record of $16.9 million was held by Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Filming Oppenheimer

Mon, 07/24/2023 - 09:19 -- Nick Dager

"It's an intimate, emotional and immersive psychological drama, as well as spectacular event cinema," says cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema FSF NSC ASC, as he reveals details about capturing Christopher Nolan's nail-biting thriller, Oppenheimer, in Imax (15-perf) format using Kodak 65mm large-format film, including, for the very first time, sections on 65mm black and white shot in Imax. "I am super proud about the result and know it will provoke a lot of interesting discussion and debate," he adds.

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