Arclight Hollywood Lost Its L.A. Supremacy Even Before the

And whereas the ArcLight Hollywood benefited for years with unique dibs on Oscar contenders together with one or two prime screens in New York City, many specialty movie distributors are contemplating shifting away from the four-screen, Los Angeles/New York platform launch technique now that the pandemic has hastened the shortening of the theatrical window.

“Pacific Theaters probably saw the writing on the wall and realized there was no way for them to quickly get back to the model they relied on with ArcLight,” Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock informed TheWrap. “They threw in the towel rather than try to brave what was always going to be an unpredictable 2021 for even the biggest theater chains.”

Representatives for ArcLight didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

ArcLight’s place throughout the L.A. theatrical market has declined in recent times. According to information offered by prime distribution executives, ArcLight Hollywood’s grosses fell from $18.1 million in ticket gross sales in 2017 — the yr of Oscar hits likes “La La Land,” “Moonlight,” “Call Me by Your Name” and “The Shape of Water” — to only $15.three million in 2019.

The web site fell behind close by AMC Century City, which turned fashionable with West L.A. residents in addition to with studios that noticed the 15-screen multiplex as an alternative choice to the ArcLight for press screenings. Grosses at AMC Century City elevated from $13.5 million in 2017 to $17.7 million in 2019.

Even with Oscar contenders supporting ArcLight, tentpoles like “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Endgame” had allowed AMC Century City, with its IMAX and Dolby premium screens, to achieve traction amongst common audiences and make it a extra fashionable native option to see the most important blockbusters.

The second large problem for art-house theaters just like the ArcLight Hollywood is the best way even indie distributors are rethinking launch methods — particularly the gradual rollout of titles that has been their mainstay for many years. For a surefire Oscar contender, opening in New York and L.A. earlier than including main markets like San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and Austin like was a strategy to construct nationwide buzz with out attempting to match tentpole movies with a giant advertising and marketing spend.

But in an period of social media and streaming, as studios are planning to launch movies on house codecs 17-45 days after theatrical launch as an alternative of 90 days, that mindset is altering. The lingering uncertainty over COVID-19 is making an preliminary 5o-100 display launch in prime 10 markets a extra engaging possibility, at the very least because the field workplace recovers over the course of this yr.

“We still don’t know if next awards season COVID’s still going to be around and if there’s still going to be audience capacity limits in the major markets,” one distribution government who requested to stay nameless stated. “Obviously, that’s something every distributor is thinking about whether you’re going wide or limited. But why would it make sense to start with a release at just the Landmark and the ArcLight Hollywood in L.A. and the IFC Center in New York if you can only sell out half the auditorium?”

Over the previous decade, ArcLight and Landmark loved at the very least 1-2 weeks of exclusivity on main awards contenders earlier than they expanded to different arthouse chains like Laemmle and finally to main chains like AMC and Regal. Sources say that even with California Gov. Gavin Newsom setting a aim to completely reopen the state by June 15, considerations over capability limits nationwide are pushing distributors in direction of a possible launch technique for a lot of movies that couldn’t assure ArcLight the seven to 14 days of theatrical exclusivity it loved in L.A. earlier than these movies expanded to different indie chains like Laemmle and finally to nationwide chains like AMC.

There may additionally be a problem in luring the…