2018 News Review

As 2018 comes to an end, and now with over 17,000 stories on the website, I thought that I would look at some of the news items over the course of the last 12 months in cinema and cinema exhibition:

2018 has been full of mergers, buying, selling and the general consolidation of the global exhibition market. Back in January Cineworld was in the process of trying to buy the US Regal Entertainment chain to make it the second largest in the world. Later in the year, saw Australia’s Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited (EVT) agreed to sell the CineStar chain in Germany to Vue International. Vue already operates 30 sites and 257 screens in the country under the CinemaxX brand. Oliver Fock, managing director of CineStar Deutschland, said: “We are convinced that Vue, as one of the leading cinema exhibitors in Europe and worldwide, has all the know-how to build upon the success of CineStar.”

At CinemaCon 2018 Barco announced that its joint venture, previously announced in December 2017, with Appotronics and CFG would be called Cinionic with its headquarters in Hong Kong and offices in the United States, Belgium, and Mexico. The name “Cinionic” is a combination of cinema and ionic, defined as the “coming together of forces to create energy in the Cinema industry.” The new company focuses on a combination of innovative cinema solutions, flexible financing and a comprehensive service model that enables exhibitors to focus on engagement with their moviegoers while simplifying their technology and operations.

Cineworld announced at CineEurope an agreement with CJ-CGV, owner of the ScreenX product, to install 100 screens across the UK, US and eight other international locations. The first of the new ScreenX auditoriums opened at the Cineworld, O2, North Greenwich in August 2018 with the films Meg and Antman and the Wasp.

The opening of the ScreenX auditorium comes at a time where the company is not just expanding rapidly with Cineworld but also globally. At the time of writing, there were 147 screens in 10 countries. There are ambitious plans to expand ScreenX into 10,000 screens worldwide by 2020.

Experience designers Holovis has launched a new division called Extended Cinema to drive the development of a new out-of-home, location-based entertainment category. Extended Cinema promises to reinvigorate cinema as a destination asset for operators by extending and enhancing the guest experience with lobby entertainment solutions, pre-shows, interactive gaming, and 4D theatres.

The new venture is being headed up by Heather Blair with the experience design and unique products from Holovis.

On 18th April the first cinema in more than 35 years opened in Saudi Arabia, showing the action movie Black Panther. The resurgence of the movie industry results from the social reforms promoted by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The majority of the 32 million residents of the country are under 30, an audience that’s hungry for movies and cultural experiences. Throughout 2018 their were plenty of news stories relating to the number of cinemas that were being planned and built in the Kingdom. AMC alone is planning to open 40 theaters comprising 300 screens across 15 cities over the next five years.

“The first Emerging Cinema Markets Conference, held in Istanbul is crucial to the development of the new opportunities across Africa, Central Asia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Turkey.

The conference provided suppliers, exhibitors and content providers from the regions a unique chance to come together at #ecmistanbul to explore, discuss and learn about the key developments, technical challenges, and innovations that are central to the cinema industry today and looking ahead to the future.  The organisers were very pleased that so many people signed up to attend what was a very informative and interesting event and one that also offered a unique chance to network with industry experts and professionals.

Also in November one of the most anticipated cinema openings happened when the 25th Everyman cinema opened its doors at Crystal Palace. The story of this cinema opening has been long in its creation, but finally, after many years there is now a cinema again in this part of London.

Throughout the year, stories about Samsung Onyx Cinema LED appeared, often talking about a new site or country that had purchased the technology. The year finished with Samsung unveiling

World’s Largest Onyx Cinema LED Screen at Beijing Capital Cinema. At

14 meters wide, the new immersive Onyx Cinema LED Screen is the biggest ever, installed at one of the top five theaters in China. Samsung first launched Onyx in July 2017 with a model measuring roughly 10 meters (33.6 feet) wide. Responding to consumer demand for ultra-large screens and business demand to drive higher profit and ticket sales, Samsung’s new Onyx model stretches 14 meters (46.2 feet) wide. The new Onyx variant is 1.4 times wider and features nearly twice the surface area of the original model, providing movie-goers with an unprecedented immersive, high-end cinema experience. The extraordinary display installed at Capital Theater combines 4K resolution, HDR picture quality and peak brightness level of 88fL — nearly six times greater than standard projector technologies. Onyx is also 3D-ready and Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI)-certified, providing the flexibility to display a wide variety of content types. Samsung’s Onyx LED screens have been installed across the world, through partnerships with Pacific Theatres in Los Angeles, USA, and Arena Cinemas’ Sihlcity theater in Zurich, Switzerland.

Europe’s most famous cinema, London’s ODEON Leicester Square, will reopen this Christmas following an 11 month, multi million pound Luxe refurbishment that has transformed the UK’s ‘home of the premiere’ back into a global icon in the heart of London’s West End. ODEON Luxe Leicester Square will be the European flagship for Odeon Cinemas Group, Europe’s largest cinema operator, an AMC Entertainment company.

The reborn and lovingly restored cinema blends the historic glamour and charm of the original venue (first opened in 1937) with state of the art luxury and technology.

ODEON and Dolby have partnered to offer film fans the UK’s first Dolby Cinema experience. Combining dramatic imaging that delivers a spectacular, leading-edge visual experience through the Dolby Vision dual laser projection system and moving audio which fills the cinema and flows all around you with Dolby Atmos, every person will get a truly immersive and unforgettable cinematic experience, no matter where they are in the 800 seat auditorium.

And to finish the year off. Another strong showing for cinema admissions in November has kept UK cinema on course for its highest annual admissions in almost 50 years according to the UK Cinema Association.

Latest figures for the month show that total cinema admissions stood at 14,847,358, over 5 per cent up on the same month in 2017 and leaving the sector tantalising close to the 176 million mark for the year, the first time that level of cinema-going has been reached since way back in 1970.

Strong showings from a broad range of titles, but in particular Bohemian Rhapsody, Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald and The Grinch pushed annual admissions to date past 161 million, and with a strong line-up of films in December, the sector looks all set for a record-breaking year.

And of course, there were so many other stories that haven’t been included here – further news on the former Odeon, Bradford along with MoviePass and Netflix.