The independent and art house theater communities were true pioneers in establishing virtual screenings at the very start of the pandemic shutdown. One driving force was the respected independent distributor Kino Lorber, which had just opened its Cannes award-winning dark comedy thriller Bacurau in New York City on March 6, 2020. According to CEO Richard Lorber, some 60 to 80 additional theaters had been slated to show the acclaimed film when everything halted in mid-March.
As Lorber told Boxoffice Pro in April 2020, those theaters “had already spent funding sources to promote the film and engage their membership base. We came to the conclusion that we could, in effect, hybridize our theatrical distribution model with our VOD technology.” The “totally theater-centric” platform, branded as Kino Marquee, was up and running within days and used by more than 100 theaters by the end of March 2020. To date, more than 750 theaters and festivals have used the platform, with revenue from virtual screenings split 50/50.
In December 2020, the New York Film Critics Circle gave Kino Lorber a special award for this service “designed to help support movie theaters, not destroy them.”
Source: Art House on Demand: Specialty Exhibitors Turn to Digital Platforms in the Pandemic – Boxoffice