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Olympics Screenings in Movie Theaters Highlight Exhibitors’ Need for Alternative Content

Movies & TV
Olympics Screenings in Movie Theaters Highlight Exhibitors’ Need for Alternative Content
While most Americans are tuning into the 2024 Summer Games at home, some have been going to movie theaters, from the 137 Imax exhibitors that broadcast the dazzling opening ceremonies to the select AMC Theatres offering live viewing of popular events including swimming and gymnastics.
This underscores interest among theater owners in alternative content, which can generate additional revenue particularly during non-peak moviegoing times and days — a topic long appealing to the exhibition community. But while this isn’t a new subject, it might be even more relevant this year, due to how the theater business has suffered, both from Hollywood’s double strikes in 2023 and the general production slowdown.
There’s audience interest in all sorts of non-film experiences in theaters, finds The Cinema Foundation’s “Theatrical Audience and Growth Opportunities” study, prepared by The Quorum in August 2022. Survey results, fielded from 6,000 frequent, casual and non-active theatergoers, found 77% of respondents were interested in television experiences on theater screens and 63% were interested in watching live sports, underscoring the potential of the Olympics.
One challenge, theater owners say, is licensing rights. In the case of the Olympics opening ceremony, Imax CEO Richard Gelfond tells VIP+ that NBCUniversal owns the exclusive licensing rights to the content in the U.S. — both streaming and television. “[This involves] streaming technology. So we didn't have to seek out a special license. We were able to piggyback off the license that NBC has,” he says, adding that this effort “came out of a meeting I had with [Comcast president] Mike Cavanagh right after ‘Oppenheimer,’ and we started talking about what other kinds of things we could do together, especially non-theatrical content.”
The large-format company’s recent alternative content has included sports, for instance showing the NBA Finals in Taiwan and Hong Kong; concerts, such as Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” and the restored “Queen Rocks Montreal”; and select special events, including a Q&A from the recent “Twisters” premiere in New York.
Gelfond says finding the right event includes zeroing in on something most theatersgoers won’t attend in person, such as the Olympics.
That could mean big business. For instance, the 2023 Taylor Swift “Eras Tour” played in a range of theaters, including Imax venues, en route to becoming the highest-grossing concert film of all time in the domestic market while bringing in $249.2 million at the worldwide box office.
Another challenge for theaters owners could be raising public awareness of this alternative content, as these events don’t carry the promotional budgets major studios allocate to tentpole movies. In the case of the Olympics opening ceremony, marketing included trailers in Imax theaters and on-air promotion via NBC.

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