BoxOffice® Pro - February 2012

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TAYLOR KITSCH
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MY FAVORITE
MARTIAN
Disney has astronomical plans for their
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INSIDE UNSCRABBLE THE ALPHABET SOUP THAT IS SOPA AND
PIPA
MEET OUR NEW MARQUEE AWARD PARTNER: CINEMA TREASURES
CAN NICHE WORK FOR YOU? A SAN FRANCISCO PROGRAMMER’S TIPS
The Official Magazine of NATO

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FEB 2012 VOL. 148 NO. 2
BOXOFFICE MEDIA
PUBLISHER
Peter Cane
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Kenneth James Bacon
BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
EDITOR
Amy Nicholson
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTORS
Patrick Corcoran
Todd Halstead
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Inkoo Kang
Ross Melnick
J. Sperling Reich
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Ally Bacon
18 MOVIE THEFT
Anti-piracy’s alphabet soup
Making sense of SOPA and
PIPA, controversial bills causing
a lot of Internet chatter
I spy an increase in employee
honesty Sony helps theater
owners Envysion high profits
22 THE BIG PICTURE:
JOHN CARTER
Mars Attacks! And one
earthling fights back
Hey Soldier Taylor Kitsch’s
campaign to carve out a
Hollywood career
Take me to your leader
Andrew Stanton leaves the
animation desk to go to Mars
4 Industry Briefs
8 Executive Suite
10 Law & Order
12 The Pulse
14 Secret Weapon
16 Marquee Award
32 On the Horizon
36 Coming Soon
40 Book It!
44 Sneek Peak
BOXOFFICE.COM / BOXOFFICEMAGAZINE.COM
EDITOR
Phil Contrino
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Alonso Duralde
Alex Edghill
David Ehrlich
Kate Erbland
Joe Galm
Daniel Garris
Todd Gilchrist
Ray Greene
Pete Hammond
Jonathan Howard
Ross A. Lincoln
Mark Olsen
Vadim Rizov
James Rocchi
Nick Schager
Drew Tewksbury
Sterling Wong
EDITORIAL INTERNS
Erica DeNardo
Joshua James
Kevin Noonan
Max Weinstein
ADVERTISING
VP OF ADVERTISING
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2 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

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FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 3

INDUSTRY BRIEFS
Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. has
signed more than 10,000 digital cinema
screens in its combined Phase One
and Phase Two digital cinema deployment.
In total, given the company’s
previously contracted agreements,
Cinedigm will deploy nearly 33 percent
of all digital cinema screens in North
America. “Passing the 10,000 mark in
digital screen conversion contracts is a
huge milestone for both Cinedigm and
the entire exhibition industry,” said
Cinedigm Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Chris McGurk. “This digital
transformation has created a tremendous
paradigm shift that will have
long-lasting ramifications on all aspects
of the theatrical industry.”
Malco Theatres wrapped up its 13th
successful year of the annual Wrapped
with Love campaign, which benefits
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The program sold gift bows handmade
from actual strips of film for $1.00
each.The materials and volunteer production
hours for the bows were donated,
so there was no cost to Malco Theatres.
The fundraiser ran from Thanksgiving
Day through Christmas Day at
all Malco Theatres locations in Tennessee,
Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and
Mississippi. This year over 80,000 bows
were sold during the four-week holiday
campaign, an increase of 7,000 bows
from 2010. Since 1999, Malco Theatres
has raised over $450,000 for St. Jude
thru the annual Kids Summer Film Fest
and Wrapped with Love campaigns.
A founder of NinjaVideo.net, a website
that provided millions of users with
the ability to illegally download highquality
copies of copyright-protected
movies and television programs, was
sentenced to 22 months in prison,
announced U.S. Attorney Neil H. Mac-
Bride for the Eastern District of Virginia,
Assistant Attorney General Lanny
A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s
Criminal Division and U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director
John Morton. Hana Amal Beshara,
30, of North Brunswick, N.J., was sentenced
by U.S. District Judge Anthony
J. Trenga in the Eastern District of
Virginia. Judge Trenga ordered Beshara
to serve two years of supervised
release, complete 500 hours of community
service, repay $209,826.95 that
she personally obtained from her work
at NinjaVideo.net and forfeit to the
United States several financial accounts
and computer equipment involved in
the crimes. On Sept. 9, 2011, Beshara
was indicted along with four of the
other top administrators of NinjaVideo.
net. Beshara pleaded guilty on Sept.
29, 2011, to conspiracy and criminal
copyright infringement. Three of Beshara’s
co-defendants have pleaded
guilty and await sentencing. An arrest
warrant remains outstanding for the
fourth co-defendant, Zoi Mertzanis of
Greece. Another co-founder of Ninja-
Video.net who was charged separately
has also pleaded guilty.
Fandango has given moviegoers the
option of using PayPal when purchasing
movie tickets through its iPhone
and Android showtimes and ticketing
apps. “We first offered PayPal as a payment
option on the Web, and we’re
now pleased to extend it to mobile,”
says Rick Butler, Fandango Executive
Vice President and General Manager.
“More than 20 percent of Fandango’s
ticket sales come from mobile devices
and, PayPal will offer an additional
safe, easy and fast payment method for
our moviegoers on the go.” Fandango
has seen a 73 percent year-over-year
increase in mobile ticket sales in 2011.
The year overall marked the bestperforming
year in the company’s 11-
year history, with record highs for its
ticket sales, online and mobile traffic,
advertising sales and the number of
theater screens it represents across the
country.
Paramount Pictures ended 2011 in
the No. 1 position among all studios,
having achieved the highest total combined
gross of any studio for the year
by earning a record $5.17 billion worldwide.
The studio, which released a total
of 16 new releases domestically this
year, placed first in the North American
market share with $1.96 billion, while
also amassing record grosses at the
international box office with $3.21 billion.
Said Paramount Pictures Chairman
and CEO Brad Grey, “This year our
studio reached some key milestones,
including the release of three vibrant
Paramount franchise pictures and our
first original CGI animated film. Our
studio had its first ever $1 billion worldwide
grossing film in Michael Bay’s hit
Transformers: Dark of the Moon, we
successfully re-launched our Mission:
Impossible franchise with Tom Cruise,
JJ Abrams and Brad Bird, our latest
installment in the Paranormal Activity
franchise had another $100 million dollar
success, our first original animated
film Rango from director Gore Verbinski
earned rave reviews and more than
$100 million at the domestic box office,
and we released global phenomenon
Super 8, directed by JJ Abrams,
who will now direct the newest Star
Trek for 2013. We also benefited from
our distribution partnerships with
DreamWorks Animation and Marvel
and I want to thank them both.”
Lionsgate completed a transaction
to acquire Summit for a combination
of cash and stock valued at $412.5
million. The deal unites two leading
studios with powerful brands and
complementary assets. By acquiring
Summit, Lionsgate enhances its feature
film and home entertainment offerings
and further broadens its 13,000
title filmed entertainment library to
include such titles as The Twilight
Saga, The Hurt Locker and Red. Both
the Lionsgate and Summit labels are
expected to continue and be active
in the production and distribution of
films, although the combined company
expects to realize significant synergies
through the consolidation of administrative
and other costs. Said Lionsgate
Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Jon Feltheimer and Vice Chairman
Michael Burns. “We are uniting two
powerful entertainment brands, bringing
together two world-class feature
film franchises to establish a commanding
position in the young adult market,
strengthening our global distribution
infrastructure and creating a scalable
platform that will result in significant
and accretive financial benefits to Lionsgate
shareholders. Rob Friedman
and Patrick Wachsberger have built
a remarkable organization, and we’re
pleased to welcome Summit’s talented
team to the Lionsgate family.”
4 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

4K IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
While others are “4K ready,” Sony 4K is ready today. We continue to drive the industry with thousands of projection
systems installed worldwide, delivering stunning 4K imagery and lifelike 3D. But we’re not stopping there. Sony is a
leader in the deployment of turn-key international VPF programs with fl exible fi nancing. We also provide digital
signage managed services for concessions, box office and lobbies, plus exciting alternative content, digital
surveillance, a sophisticated NOC to monitor your systems, combined with global support. When it comes to
investing in the future of exhibition, all eyes are on Sony 4K.
Visit sony.com/4K to learn more.
© 2011 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifi cations are subject to change without notice.
Sony, make.believe, Sony Digital Cinema, and Sony Digital Cinema 4K and their respective logos are trademarks of Sony.

EXECUTIVE SUITE
TODD
HALSTEAD
Deupty
Director
of
Government
Affairs
LAWMAKERS’ NEW YEAR’S
RESOLUTIONS REGULATIONS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS IN 2012
Public policy tracking and advocacy constitutes
one of NATO’s most important functions on
behalf of its members. As we begin a new year, many
policy initiatives affect the interests of exhibitors here
in the United States. Here is an overview of some of
the most important new, revised or proposed laws and
regulations at the federal and state level.
ADA STANDARDS
DOJ 2010 Revised ADA Standards Become Effective
Effective March 15, 2012, Compliance with the DOJ
2010 Revised ADA Standards will be required for new
construction, alterations and barrier removal. Between
September 15, 2010, and March 15, 2012, covered entities
may choose between the 1991 Standards or the 2010
Standards. The new rules cover such topics as ticketing,
service animals and wheelchair accessibility.
CONCESSIONS
Beverage and Candy Taxes
The perennial debate over whether to tax sugarsweetened
beverages and candy is gearing up to be at
the forefront in 2012 legislative matters as lawmakers
seek for ways to address obesity and state budget
shortfalls. Most recently, in December the Richmond
City Council in California voted 5-2 to support placing
a soda tax on the ballot next November—a measure
that proposes a one cent charge for every ounce of
sugary beverages sold in city. Meanwhile in Massachusetts,
doctors have reportedly launched a campaign
against sugary sweets and beverages. To combat rising
childhood obesity in the state, the campaign is leading
a legislative effort to end the 6.25 percent sales-tax
exemption on soft drinks and candy.
Guidelines on Marketing to Children
In December, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations
Act of 2012, which included language requiring
the Interagency Working Group (IWG)—comprised
of the FTC and other governmental agencies—to
conduct a cost-benefit analysis of its proposed guidelines
governing food marketing to children. The new
provision delays release of final guidelines, which were
expected to be issued by the end of 2011. NATO joined
other groups in objecting to the “voluntary” guidelines,
which are nothing less than back door regulation.
Menu Labeling
NATO will continue its battle in support of FDA’s
conclusion that Congress did not intend to cover movie
theaters under menu labeling regulations mandated by
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Under the rules, restaurants or similar retail food establishments
with 20 or more locations doing business under
the same name and offering for sale substantially
the same menu items are required to disclose nutrition
information on food items offered for sale.
E-VERIFY
New E-Verify Laws Enforced
Several states in 2012 will enforce newly passed
laws requiring employers to use E-Verify to confirm a
worker’s status, including Alabama, Louisiana, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. Both
Arizona and Mississippi already have E-Verify laws on
the books. Visit the National Conference of State Legislatures
website for detailed information on each state’s E-
Verify requirements. During the coming year, Congress
and state lawmakers around the country will consider
legislation to further expand use of the federal E-Verify.
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives
and U.S. Senate have introduced legislation during the
112th Congress to require all employers to use E-Verify.
The House Judiciary Committee has approved H.R.2885,
the Legal Workforce Act, while S. 1196, the Accountability
Through Electronic Verification Act, has been
referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Visit the Department of Homeland Security Website for
more information on E-Verify.
FEDERAL HEALTH CARE REFORM
Supreme Court to Rule on Affordable Care Act
The Supreme Court in late March 2012 will hold
three days of oral argument on the constitutional issues
surrounding the controversial federal health care law:
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
By late June, the court is expected to issue a ruling.
Regardless, the court’s decision could greatly impact
movie theater operations since many opponents contend
that the entire act must be declared void if the individual
mandate provision is ruled unconstitutional.
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has a customizable
interactive website designed to explain how
and when provisions of the health reform law will be
implemented over the next several years—including
the employer mandate provision and health insurance
exchanges.
FEDERAL TAX UPDATES
W-2 Reporting of Employer-Sponsored Health
Coverage
Speaking of tax provisions, the health care law requires
employers who file more than 250 W-2 forms to
report the value of employer-sponsored health coverage
6 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

eginning with the 2012 tax year. These benefits are not taxable,
and employers are not required to report the cost of health coverage
on any forms required to be furnished to employees before
January 2013. Employers required to file fewer than 250 W-2s in
2011 will not be obligated to report the cost of health coverage
prior to January 2014.
For more information, review the IRS FAQ. Detailed information
about the interim and additional transition rules for this
reporting requirement can be found in IRS Notice 2011-28.
Section 179 Deductions Drop in 2012
Beginning in January, the total cost of new equipment a business
can deduct will drop significantly from $500,000 in 2011
to $125,000 in 2012. Unless Congress acts to change the law, the
deduction will plummet to $25,000 in 2013.
Law Helps IRS Track Business’ Total Gross Sales
The IRS now has a new way to track whether businesses are
reporting their entire sales proceeds. Implemented last year, the
Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 requires payment processors
to report the total gross sales volume of merchants’ payment card
transactions to the IRS. The initial reports will be submitted to
the IRS soon, and businesses will receive a 1099-k form by mail
beginning in January 2012. The rule covers businesses that process
more than $20,000 in gross payment volume and more than
200 transactions in a calendar year.
LABOR
NLRB Issues Rights Notice Posting Requirement
As of April 30, 2012, a new National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) rule will require most private sector employers to post
a notice advising employees of their rights under the National
Labor Relations Act. All covered employers will be required to
post the 11-by-17-inch notice in a conspicuous place, where other
notifications of workplace rights and employer rules and policies
are posted. In addition, employers are required to publish a link
to the notice on an internal or external website if other personnel
policies or workplace notices are posted there.
For further information about the posting, please see NLRB’s
Frequently Asked Questions. You may download and print the
notice at the NLRB website or call 202-273-0064 and copies will be
mailed free of charge.
MINIMUM WAGE
Select States and Cities Increase Minimum Wage Rates
Eight of the 10 states that have minimum wages linked to a
consumer price index have increased their rates. Here is a list of
the amount of the increases and the new wages effective January
1, 2012:
Arizona: 30 cents $7.65
Colorado: 28 cents $7.64
Florida: 36 cents $7.67
Montana: 30 cents $7.65
Ohio: 30 cents $7.70
Oregon: 30 cents $8.80
Washington: 37 cents $9.04
Vermont: 31 cents $8.46
Not to be outdone, San Francisco has hiked the minimum
wage to a record $10.24. Santa Fe’s projected increase is not far
behind at $10.15.
The federal minimum wage—which increased to $7.25 on
July 25, 2009—supersedes state minimum wage laws where the
federal minimum wage is greater than the state minimum wage.
In those states where the state minimum wage is greater than
the federal minimum wage, the state minimum wage prevails.
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum
wage rates above the federal level.
Visit the DOL’s State Minimum Wage Rates chart for
information on the minimum wage rates throughout the
country.
MOVIE THEFT
Rogue Website Legislation
In the coming year, the Senate and House will consider
legislation that would modernize civil and criminal statutes to
address emerging technological and foreign threats to America’s
photo: Amanda Edwards/Wireimage.com
intellectual property.
When the Senate returns in January, it will hold a vote on
the PROTECT IP Act (S, 968), which would allow the Attorney
General to seek an injunction from a federal court against a
domain name used by a foreign website that promotes copyright
infringement or the sale of counterfeit goods. To overcome a
filibuster of the bill, proponents in the Senate need 60 votes.
The Act currently has 40 co-sponsors, but has run into stiff
opposition from a small group of lawmakers led by Sen. Wyden
(D-OR).
In December, the House Judiciary Committee adjourned its
markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261)—companion
legislation to S. 968. The Committee will reconvene the markup
when Congress is next in session.
PAID LEAVE
Connecticut to Enforce Paid Leave Law
Effective January 1, 2012, Connecticut became the first state
to mandate paid sick leave for employees. The Law requires
businesses with 50 or more employees in the state to provide up
to five days of paid sick leave per year.
Last November, Denver voters rejected a proposal for
mandatory paid sick leave for all employees. Meanwhile, the
Seattle City Council voted in September to replace Milwaukee—
which repealed its paid leave law last year—as the third city to
require paid sick leave, joining San Francisco and Washington
D.C.
PAYMENT CARDS
Debit Interchange Fees Capped
Many exhibitors should see savings on fees related to
accepting debit cards in 2012. Under federal regulations that
went into effect last October, debit card interchange fees that
the country’s largest banks charge businesses are now capped
at no more than 21 cents per transaction—plus 0.05 percent
of the purchase price and an additional one cent for fraud
prevention. Financial institutions with less than $10 billion in
assets were exempt. NATO lobbied in support of caps on debit
card fees.
FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 7

Regulatory Reminders
FACTA: Exhibitors Must Comply With Receipts Requirements
Exhibitors are reminded to comply with the Fair and Accurate
Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which prohibits businesses
from displaying expiration dates and more than the last five
digits of payment card numbers on receipts. In 2008, NATO and
other groups successfully urged Congress to enact legislation
clarifying that businesses could not be sued for “willful noncompliance”
with the law if they restricted the card numbers but
failed to delete the expiration dates before May 2008. Be aware
going forward from May 2008, however, merchants who do not
truncate payment card digits to five or fewer or fail to remove
expiration dates from electronically printed receipts are liable for
full penalties.
Youth Employment Safety
Movie theaters are prime targets for DOL youth employment
safety investigations because they employ a high percentage of
workers under age 21. To ensure the safety of underage employees
and avoid hefty fines, exhibitors should assess the compliance of
each theater location with FLSA provisions that prohibit employment
of minors under conditions that are determined to be detrimental
to their health or well-being. According to DOL, compactor
and baler operation is the most common youth employment safety
violation found by its investigators in workplace investigations.
FLSA Hazardous Occupations Order No. 12 (HO 12) prohibits minors
under 18 years of age from loading, operating, and unloading
certain power-driven paper processing machines including scrap
paper balers and paper box compactors. To view a DOL fact sheet
that provides requirements under HO 12 or for additional information,
visit the DOL Youth & Labor website.
Tritium EXIT Sign Regulations
Businesses with tritium EXIT signs are general licensees of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or an Agreement State,
and are subject to certain reporting and handling requirements,
including proper disposal of unwanted or unused signs. For more
information on disposal and other regulatory requirements for
tritium EXIT signs, visit the United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission website.
TO LEARN MORE:
National Conference of State
Legislatures
Department of Homeland
Security
Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation
IRS
National Labor Relations
Board
Department of Labor
United States Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
ncsl.org
dhs.gov
healthreform.kff.org
irs.gov
nlrb.gov
dol.gov
ncr.gov
8 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

“
We will just come right out with
it. The venerable movie theatre
owner bible Boxoffice blows the
reader away from the cover of its
superb iPad-only magazine app …
The app is loaded with movie assets,
from trailers of the latest releases
to nostalgic images and even full
video streams of classic films past
… Twitter feeds from editors and
48
TIMES
A YEAR
ONLY ON
THE IPAD
show biz and arguments over films
by the staff … clever in just about
everything they do and they know
how to make the most of everyone’s
favorite topic – film … one of the
boldest and most creative uses of
the iPad we have seen from a trade
publisher.
”
—Steve Smith, minonline.com

RUNNING NUMBERS
PATRICK
CORCORAN
NATO
Director of
Media &
Research
California
Operations
Chief
IT WAS THE BEST OF …
HECK, YOU KNOW THE DRILL
WHY CHARLES DICKENS WATCHED FEWER MOVIES IN 2011
THAN HE DID IN 1789
It’s almost a requirement when summarizing the year
just past to invoke the opening sentences of A Tale of
Two Cities, but I’ll resist the impulse. 2011 was an intriguing
year at the movie theater and the lessons to be drawn
from it are many and sometimes contradictory. Let’s
start with the headline numbers. Overall box office came
in at about $10.2 billion for the year (final numbers were
pending as this was written), which is a decrease from
2010 of 3.59 percent. Admissions declined by an estimated
4.4 percent to 1.28 billion. But this year in particular,
the year-end numbers are a particularly blunt
instrument in assessing what actually
took place.
Yet, those broad numbers
were being used before
the year ended to draw
equally broad conclusions
about the
health of the industry
and what
needed to be
done about it.
Just as 2009’s
spectacular
box office and
admissions
growth were
cited too easily
as signs of
some broader
trend, so too
have the relative
declines of the last
two years been marshaled
as evidence of
secular decline and crisis:
Ticket prices are too high, 3D
has been rejected by consumers,
young males have abandoned the movie
theater in favor of video games, texting teenagers
and poor customer service are driving away older
patrons, there are too many sequels, there aren’t enough
established franchises, Hollywood is in a slump.
As attractive as it is for box office pundits to grasp
at broad explanations, a narrower focus may lend more
insight. That 3.59 percent drop in box office works out
to about a $380 million difference from year-to-year
and $420 million compared to 2009. Where did it come
from—or more accurately where did it not come from?
The short answer is: the first quarter. The shorter answer
is: Avatar.
James Cameron’s 2009 record breaker actually took
in most of its domestic earnings in 2010—$476,883,415
to be exact. With a little help from Alice in Wonderland
(which grossed over $300 million in March 2010), the
quarterly comparisons put 2011 box office down 22 percent
at the end of the first quarter. What happened next
makes hash of most of the broad analysis of the movie
industry’s woes.
The second quarter, box office roared back and rose
4.4 percent. Admissions went up two percent. What
accounted for it? Did movie theaters suddenly up their
game? Did ticket prices fall, inducing frugal patrons to
engage in a pastime they had so recently abandoned?
Well, in reality the average ticket price in the second
quarter actually increased (a reflection, mostly, of an increased
number of 3D movies and R-rated adult comedies
in the marketplace).
The summer yielded a record $4.4 billion at the box
office—an increase of 4.4 percent over the previous
summer and an increase in admissions of 1.8 percent.
The third quarter continued the box office tear, jumping
5.8 percent in revenue and 2.7 percent in admissions over
the previous year. Again, if you want to make the case
that 2011 was proof that the cinema industry is in crisis,
you’ll have to explain those numbers.
The fourth quarter was like the entire year in miniature.
A sluggish October and early November yielded
to a strong Thanksgiving (roughly equal to the previous
year) which yielded to a terribly slow early December,
which was nearly redeemed by a big holiday rush which
saw box office climb by 5.5 percent over the same period
in 2010. The question has to be asked again: What
changed between the first quarter and the second and
third? What changed from the second and third quarters
and the fourth? What changed between the first three
weeks of December to the last? Did the average patron
become poorer then richer then poorer, then rich again?
Were movie theaters intolerable hell-holes of texting and
price gouging which suddenly transformed into oases of
fellowship and good cheer and value for the dollar and
then back again?
What changed—and what is ever-changing in the
movie business—is the movies. Put as simply as possible:
movies drive moviegoing. When the movies excited
people, moviegoing increased.
Now, there are some intriguing differences in audience
behavior this year, as compared to last. At the top of
the market there were fewer really big hits. In 2010, there
were five movies that pulled in more than $300 million
with the pack led by Avatar and Toy Story 3, each with
more than $400 million in grosses. In 2011 there were
10 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

only two massive hits—the last Harry
Potter and the third Transformers—neither
of which broke $400 million. Ten movies
topped $200 million in 2010. In 2011, there
were six.
However, there were more $100 million-plus
grossers in 2011 than in 2010—30
compared to 25—and they took in almost
as much money: $4.98 billion versus
$5.08 billion, a difference of $100 million.
At this end of the box office spectrum,
2011 looks an awful lot like the recordbreaking
year 2009, when there were 32
$100 million-plus grossers, of which only
two topped $300 million. Those 32 movies,
however, grossed a whopping $5.65 billion
in 2009.
So as in 2009, last year’s moviegoers
spread their ticket-buying over a greater
range of movies, suggesting a willingness
to experiment—but the ceiling on those
movies was lower. There are probably as
many reasons as there are films, but one
possible reason is the embarrassment of
riches that summer represents. From the
second week in May through the first week
in August, every $100 million grosser was
followed a week later by another. Did they
step on each other’s toes and limit the
potential gross of each individual film?
Or, was their appeal simply limited?
Note that I am not talking about whether
movies were good or not. The perception
of quality is inherently subjective,
and it is fruitless to compare the movie
approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes to
divine a magic formula for box office success.
“Make better movies!” is a frequent
refrain, but it really means, “Make more
movies I like.”
Another possibility was suggested in
the Los Angeles Times on December 30th.
In an article titled “Solid Start, Fast Fade
for Movies,” researcher Ipsos MediaCT
revealed data that implies that movies
are losing their “legs.” Since 2002, box
office multiples—opening weekend times
X equals final gross—have declined by
25 percent. Some of that is surely due to
much wider openings, but movies are not
staying and grossing in theaters as long
as they used to. Some of the blame goes to
poor word-of-mouth, accelerated by the
explosion of the Internet and social media.
Enough negative Tweets on Friday night
and a movie is dead by Saturday afternoon.
The solution to that, of course, is “Make
more movies I like.” But the article raises
another possibility that is much more under
the control of the movie industry than
the shifting tastes of an infinitely changeable
audience. According to the Times,
“(w)hen researchers at Ipsos asked moviegoers
why they were hesitant to see movies
after their debut weekends, they found
a top reason was a belief that the film
would be available on DVD or via video on
demand within two months.”
This is disturbing. The average theatrical
release window has held relatively
steady over the last seven years between
four and four-and-a-half months. Yet
consumers perceive it as half as long and
it seems to be affecting their moviegoing
choices. Although this is only one study,
it echoes the concerns of theater owners
over plans to shorten the release window
dramatically, such as the extended public
battle over “premium” VOD.
This study suggests that the movie
industry will benefit from a longer—not
shorter—theatrical release window, just as
studios have bolstered disk sales by holding
off rental kiosks and low-cost subscription
plans to a later window in the home.
It’s not rocket science. It’s protecting your
high margin channels from lower margin
channels—all of which are under your
control.
It would be a far, far better thing they
do than they have ever … you get the point.
FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 11

THE PULSE
PHIL
CONTRINO
Editor
Boxoffice.com
BY THE NUMBERS
THIS QUARTER, KEEP AN EYE ON THESE FILMS
After 2011 ended on a relatively disappointing note,
the first quarter of 2012 will be expected to pick up
some of the slack. Facebook and Twitter activity for key
releases indicates that it won’t be a problem. There are
a few sleeper hits in the making, and also a couple sure
things that are looking very strong.
ONES TO WATCH >
CHRONICLE
We all know that the found-footage genre is a trend,
and that trends eventually die out. But for now, it’s
alive and well. 20th Century’s Fox’s Chronicle, a hybrid
of X-Men and Cloverfield, looks poised to capitalize
on the hunger for YouTube-style
cinema. Chronicle’s latest trailer
benefited a great deal from playing
in front of Paramount Insurge’s The
Devil Inside—after opening weekend,
Chronicle’s Facebook page added more
than 30,000 likes. On Twitter, the scifi
flick mustered 1,905 tweets during
the same period. Still, it’s important
to remain cautiously optimistic about
Chronicle. Any film aimed at teens is
bound to have a huge online following,
but there’s always doubt as to
whether the online base will show up opening weekend.
Just ask the producers of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to tell
you about the deceptive dangers of banking on a strong
web fandom.
THE VOW
Channing Tatum & Rachel McAdams
in love + Release date near Valentine’s
Day = Box office hit. Take it to the
bank. The Vow is doing incredibly well
on Facebook and Twitter. The romantic
drama has amassed a staggering
260,000 likes on Facebook as of this
printing, and it’s adding them at a pace
of about 6,000 a day. Female auds are
consistently keeping the film in the
top 10 on our tweet count chart—an
impressive accomplishment considering
that most films hit a high after their first trailer is
released and then disappear until two weeks before opening.
Unlike 2010’s Valentine’s Day, this one could show real
staying power after the holiday passes.
TITANIC 3D
The growing popularity of the official Titanic Facebook
page continues to amaze me. It’s no small feat that
a film first released in 1997 is able to add more likes on
a daily basis than The Dark Knight Rises, The Twilight
Saga and The Hunger Games—combined. Yes, you read
that right. A lot of moviegoers may have a bad taste in
their mouths from murky-looking 3D conversions, but
the trust that
James Cameron
commands will
cut right through
their doubt. A
whole new generation
of moviegoers
will soon
be introduced to
one of the most
awe-inspiring
films of all time.
G.I. JOE: RETALIATION
Saving Bruce Willis for the end of the theatrical trailer
has proven to be a stroke of genius. This sequel is adding
likes on Facebook at the pace of about 5,000 a day. Critics
weren’t kind to the original, but audiences are on a completely
different page. And new director John Cho is a young
kid with plenty
of pop culture
hits including the
Step Up franchise—staging
dance sequences
isn’t too far away
from shooting
action. This new
installment will
be welcomed with
open arms.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2012, here are the top five flicks fans can’t wait to see. Many are teen stalwarts, but keep
your eye on another Screen Gems flick, Think Like a Man. Based on a semi-self-help book by comedian Steve Harvey,
this rom com is tracking so well, it displaced some huge heavy-hitters to rank #2 on our list.
5 MOST
ANTICIPATED
UPCOMING
FILMS
THE HUNGER
GAMES
THINK LIKE A
MAN
THE TWILIGHT
SAGA: BREAKING
DAWN - PART II
TITANIC 3D
THE HOBBIT: AN
UNEXPECTED
JOURNEY
12 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

PERCENT
OF ONLINE
OPINIONS
THE WOMAN
IN BLACK 15%
SAFE HOUSE 9%
> @BoxofficeAmy
> the hunger games
CHRONICLE 5%
> Can’t Wait
THE VOW 69%
JOURNEY 2: THE
MYSTERIOUS
ISLAND 2%
> @MovieGuy23
> the avengers
> Trailer Rocked
> the hobbit
> the dark knight rises
AMONG THE TOP FIVE FEBRUARY FILMS WITH THE MOST ON-
> #kristenstewart
LINE BUZZ, THE ONE TO BEAT—OR, AT LEAST, TRY TO BEAT—IS
> It Sucked
SCREEN GEMS’ ROMANCE THE VOW, IN WHICH RACHEL MCAD-
> prometheus
AMS PLAYS AN AMNESIC WHOSE HUSBAND, CHANNING TATUM,
MUST PATIENTLY RE-WOO HER BY REMINDING HER OF THE LIFE
THEY SHARED BEFORE HER ACCIDENT. EXPECT THE VOW TO SE-
DUCE A HUGE SWATCH OF MOVIEGOERS. BY THE LOOKS OF OUR
CHART, IT’S ALREADY CONVINCED THEM TO SAVE THE DATE.
POS:NEG OPINIONS
For a different look at our Web Watch tally, check out this ratio
of strongly positive opinions versus strongly negative opinions
about each film. Universal’s Safe House might not have as large of a
footprint on the Internet as The Vow or The Woman in Black, but it
looks like Denzel Washington fans have high expectations that the
action flick will rock their world.
THE VOW 15:1
THE WOMAN IN BLACK 6:1
SAFE HOUSE 38:1
CHRONICLE 8:1
JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND 13:1
NOW TRACKING
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FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 13

SECRET WEAPON
What got you into the movie theater
industry?
I actually started with Celebration!
through a summer job in college. I had
only intended to stay for the summer as
I wanted to focus on school during the
academic year, but enjoyed the company
so much that I didn’t want to leave. Once
I finished my student teaching—I went to
school for Secondary Education for Theater,
Art, and Communications—I realized
that while I enjoyed teaching, my real passion
was in the marketing and promotions
projects I was doing at the theater. Things
fell into place, and I moved to Grand Rapids
to oversee marketing for two of our Grand
Rapids theater locations before moving
into my current position approximately
eight years ago.
THE HYPE MAN
MEET JEREMY KRESS, CELEBRATION! CINEMA’S PROMOTION MAN
g g gp 95 p
by Inkoo Kang
What’s an average day for you?
Every day is a different adventure with
new movies and promotions popping up.
Since I oversee a wide range of project
areas, I rarely fully know what my day
will look like until I am actually doing it.
Whether it is meeting with media partners,
teaching our interns, designing promotional
materials, or visiting theaters, every
day is exciting and far from average.
What was your most successful moment
of the past year?
One of the biggest highlights for me from
2011 was the finale of the Harry Potter saga
on the big screen. Harry Potter was one of
the first promotions I coordinated when
I was at our Mount Pleasant theater, and
being a Harry Potter fan, I was excited to see
the conclusion to the story. To celebrate this
epic series, we lined up several promotions,
including two theaters that ran all eight
movies back to back from 5am to 2am. We
worked with media partners who provided
meal breaks throughout the day, had
special limited edition lanyards and prizes
for the guests and had a great time. We were
surprised by how quickly we sold out these
shows and ended up adding more locations
for this event. We even had some people
drive over 15 hours to come and celebrate
this event with us. Moments like that, when
I can see a promotion come to fruition, are
very exciting for me. We packed a theater,
went on to add auditoriums, and ultimately
sold over 95 percent of all available seats
circuit-wide for midnight showings, as
well as showings all
week-long leading up
to the release and
double features of the
final movie. Having the ability to create an
experience for our
guests and give them a
memory they will
l keep with them is some-
thing I will never
get tired of.
How do you come up with your pro-
motional ideas?
The goal for any promotion should always
to be to increase awareness and attendance
for the event/release. Oftentimes promotions
can get derailed and off track, so the
key is to always remember that goal when
setting up a promotion. For our Promotion
Managers, we always tell them to focus on
three areas: In-Theater Displays, In-Theater
Events and Business and Community
Partnerships. Every great promotion has a
good blend of all three of those (with Media
and E-Marketing thrown in for support),
but cannot stand on just one alone. If you
have an awesome display in your lobby but
you aren’t telling anyone about it, the only
guests who will see it are those who were
already planning on being in your theater.
Having great displays to pique interest,
some fun interactive events on site with
some prizes, stunts or special offers, and
reaching out to the community and getting
other businesses, community partners, and
charities involved in spreading the word
are key to creating a standout event.
What’s a classic movie you wish you
could have promoted and how would
you have done it?
Mary Poppins would have been a fun one
to promote. I’m visualizing a strong mix of
animation and live action blended together
in the lobby: a carousel in the center with
box office and concession staff dressed in
proper English attire and ushers dressed
as chimney sweeps will be sure to attract
some attention. Turn the box office area
into a façade of 17 Cherry Tree Lane with
the classic image of Mary coming in with
her umbrella. Host a Mary Poppins tea party
on a Saturday afternoon with an afternoon
of kite-flying, live penguins, carousel
rides, and activities like creating your own
JEREMY KRESS
Director of Marketing and Promotions for Celebration! Cinema, Grand Rapids, MI
Responsibilities: Overseeing eei marketing for 150 screens in Central and Western Michigan,
including in-theater marketing and promotions, media promotions, concessions
marketing, and alternative content program marketing; managing the
Celebration! brand; directing the Marketing Intern Program
NOMINATED BY STEVE VANWAGONER,
VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING
14 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

umbrella for the kids. Another fun activity
would be to have a “Spoonful of Sugar” relay
race, where kids would each have a spoon
and a sugar cube that they have to move
from Point A to Point B. The relay team with
the fastest time could win a free sugary treat
from the concession stand. For special concessions,
you can do a popcorn combo with
tea, finger sandwiches (peanut butter and
jelly cut down to bite-size), and a Spoonful
of Sugar treat with Pixie Stix. Working with
libraries, children’s clothing stores, etiquette
classes, toy stores, zoos, book stores, and
other community groups is key, and each
business partner could have a booth set
up or sponsor an activity at the event. Not
only will this increase the number of things
going on at the theater, but it will also help
to have each partner promoting your event
as well. Having local media personalities onsite
flying kites, drawing on sidewalks with
chalk, and interacting with the penguins
will also drive attendance. Having a photoop
where you have a green screen set up to
put guests in a scene from the movie and
printing the photos for guests before they
leave (or posting to Facebook to drive them
to your online areas) will also give every
guest a memento to remember the event by.
Also doing radio ticket giveaways for guests
who correctly spell “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”
on air or can answer Mary
Poppins trivia will help to create excitement.
With the power of social media, it is also
important to promote the release through
Facebook and Twitter with contests and
specials—and maybe even offer guests
that check-in through Facebook a special
edition Mary Poppins Prize Pack on opening
weekend.
How do you motivate young people in
your intern program?
I have tried to develop a program that is
more than a typical internship. We view our
interns as members of our team, and expect
the same high standards from them that
we would expect of any of our employees.
We have also implemented weekly classes
where interns learn from various members
of our company, opportunities for them to
get out to promotional events, and projects
that they own and are totally responsible
for.
Where do you sit in a movie theater?
My favorite spot in the theater is on the
aisle, in the row behind the handicap
section so I can rest my feet on the bar in
front of me and not have to worry about the
people in front of me.
What’s your favorite concession stand
snack?
I have always been partial to chocolatecovered
raisins.
What do you think of being nicknamed
Celebration! Cinema’s “Secret
Weapon”?
At first I wasn’t quite sure how to take the
nickname, but it definitely grew on me. I
have always preferred to be the one behind
the scenes—calling the shots, setting things
up, ironing out the details—and letting
someone else take the stage. So being the secret
weapon in the background that nobody
sees is probably the most accurate way to
describe me. I now own that nickname with
pride.
Who’s a superstar at your theater? Nominate
them for Secret Weapon by sending
an email to amy@boxoffice.com
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FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 15

MARQUEE AWARD
THE MASTERS OF THE MARQUEE
MEET CINEMA TREASURES, BOXOFFICE’S NEW PARTNER IN PRESENTING THE
MARQUEE AWARD
In October 1999, amidst the frenzied
excitement of dot com entrepreneurs
buzzing separately in segmented offices
inside the tech-boom beehive at TechSpace
in Manhattan, a small idea began to germinate.
What if we could use the Internet
to collate information and a community
interested in preserving movie theaters and
the theatrical moviegoing experience?
At the time, I was Director of Business
Development for Newmentum, a “new media”
consulting firm working with Internet
startups like Shortbuzz, a short film website
later acquired by iCast. Shortbuzz’s Chief
Technology Officer Patrick Crowley came
to the company after working on films such
as Forrest Gump and Midnight in the Garden of
Good and Evil and for several digital media
companies. My background included working
in publicity for Miramax and MGM and
by Ross Melnick
in the burgeoning field of Internet publicity
and promotions for DreamWorks, which
included partnering with AOL’s Entertainment
Asylum to produce official websites
for DreamWorks films.
By the fall of 1999, Patrick and I were
housed in separate bullpens inside Tech-
Space at 11th Street and University in Manhattan,
a geographical mishmash of NYU
students and professors, trendy Village
residents and wannabe new media barons.
Up on the 11th floor of that large pre-war
building was the buzz and excitement
of a new era—or, better yet, a new gold
rush—captured most recently by David
Fincher’s The Social Network. One company
that brokered freight deals between
online clients and shippers spent much of
each week ringing a bell and cheering
each time an order was placed.
The deafening hoots of
free-market capitalism
spurred the successful
and demoralized the
failures. It was an
electric atmosphere
for us: me, a 24-yearold
director of
business development from a small town
in Massachusetts, and Patrick, a 26-year-old
tech-savvy filmmaker and web designer
from South Carolina.
Sometime in October 1999, Patrick and I
began talking about how we could create a
website that could do more than sell cheap
pet food (sorry Pets.com) or strike it rich
through multiple rounds of venture capital
financing. The terms “wiki” and “blog”
were not yet in circulation, so models for
the kind of crowd-sourcing website we
envisioned were not yet available. During
late nights and weekends, we began to
create the content and the design for a new
website we dubbed Cinema Treasures. We
both had a passion for theatrical moviegoing
and wanted to celebrate those theaters
that had captivated our youth and our
imaginations—and we also wanted to
create a space for theater owners, operators
and patrons to share information about
a theater’s status. One of our inspirations
was David Naylor’s 1987 book, Great American
Movie Theaters. By 1999, much of the
information in that book was out of date.
The creation of a website housing much
the same information but continually
updated by users would provide something
new for moviegoers and operators.
Between 1999 and December 2000, we
built the site and readied enough content
to launch with daily theater news and
dedicated pages for 125 theaters. We hoped
to attract an audience of cinephiles and
exhibitors. The timing was auspicious: our
debut came at a moment when a number
of powerful circuits were filing for bankruptcy
reorganization. That story—and our
efforts to find potential buyers for recently
closed theaters—prompted a February
cover story in The Hollywood Reporter. This
helped us gain exposure to the industry,
as did innumerable theater profiles and
articles we worked on with the New York
Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and
countless other press outlets over the past
Ross Melnick is co-founder of Cinema Treasures (www.cinematreasures.org)
and Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at Oakland
University in Rochester, Michigan. Contact him at ross@cinematreasures.org.
16 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

TM
11 years. We also produced, along with
Andreas Fuchs, the 2004 book Cinema Treasures
that sought to examine the changes in
moviegoing in the century between 1904
and 2004.
Since then, our site has also grown
exponentially, as has our
volunteer staff headed by
LA-based Blog Editor Michael
Zoldessy and Londonbased
Theater Editor Ken
Roe. (If anyone knows more
about global movie theaters
than Mr. Roe, I’d be shocked.)
Cinema Treasures no longer
has just 125 theaters—today,
the site contains invaluable
historical and contemporary
information, statistics,
comments, and photographs
of over 32,000 theaters from
over 200 countries around the world. In 2011,
the site was given a complete overhaul and
launched with a new photo submission feature.
Less than a year later, there are now over
30,000 images of theaters submitted entirely
by patrons and theater owners.
The site was, is, and always will be
user-generated and continually looking for
updated information and images. As it was
when we launched in 2000, Cinema Treasures
is dedicated to preserving the theatrical
moviegoing experience and reaching a techsavvy
user base looking for venues to see first
run, independent, classic, or foreign films.
Today, we are very excited to announce
through this column that we are now
partnering with Boxoffice to honor theaters
with the Marquee Award. Each month, we’ll
be profiling theaters whose showmanship,
marketing initiatives, programming or
historical importance provide an example of
how theaters are working to maintain—and
grow—their attendance despite economic
challenges and technological competition.
On a personal note, I have used Boxoffice
extensively in my research over the past
decade for Cinema Treasures (MBI Publishing,
2004), my new book, American Showman:
Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel and
the Birth of the Entertainment
Industry (Columbia University
Press, 2012), and for a
forthcoming book on global
film exhibition from 1925
to 1975. It is a great honor
to continue the work of this
journal to highlight the everchanging
nature of the film
business and the importance
of exhibitors and theatrical
exhibition for the art and
industry of motion pictures.
We look forward to
seeing you next month when we begin
profiling theaters that find innovative ways
to swim with and against the tide. Or as one
journalist noted in a quote from American
Showman, we look forward to demonstrating
how these profiled theaters are as “important
as a straw showing which way the
wind blows—and how hard it is blowing.”
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FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 17

ANTI-PIRACY’S ALPHABET SOUP
MAKING SENSE OF SOPA AND PIPA, CONTROVERSIAL BILLS CAUSING
A LOT OF INTERNET CHATTER
As 2011 drew to a close, the debate in the United States Congress
over two anti-piracy bills commandeered political news coverage
from the 2012 presidential election. Acronyms like SOPA and
PIPA left a large percentage of the public confused as to what the
laws would mean to the future of the Internet. Even the legislators
pushing the bills seemed perplexed at times about the their various
clauses. Yet, those of us who work in and around the motion picture
business—and, more specifically, those in exhibition—should have
no problem understanding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and
the Protect IP Act (PIPA). After all, we’re used to working with acronyms
such as DCP (digital cinema package), POS (point of sale) and
EBOR (electronic box office report). With a few details and a little
explanation you’ll be referring to this latest batch of alphabet soup
like a pro.
IN THE BEGINNING …
Any attempt to comprehend SOPA and PIPA must begin with an
understanding of the laws and bills that came before them and, in
some part, from which they are derived. The road to the most recent
round of anti-piracy legislation actually began in 1947, when Title
17 of the United States Code was enacted outlining U.S. copyright
law. Though revised in 1976, Title 17 did not presage the creation
and adoption of the Internet.
The Internet dragged content owners from an analog world filled
with celluloid and magnetic tape to a digital world where copies of
content are stored as 1’s and 0’s on hard drives. But there is one major
problem with digital content—as Peter Dekom and Peter Sealey
outlined in their book Not On My Watch: Hollywood vs. The Future:
digital means “easily stolen.” By now, just about everyone knows the
result: peer-to-peer applications and BitTorrent networks allow millions
of consumers to quickly copy and distribute pristine copies of
music, movies and televisions shows, disrupting the entertainment
industry’s established business models.
To combat widespread copyright
theft and piracy, the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) was signed into
law by U.S. lawmakers in
1998. The legislation
by J. Sperling Reich
amended Title 17 to include penalties for copyright infringement
via the Internet, outlawing the development, manufacturing and
distribution of any technology or service meant to bypass digital
rights management (DRM) that protect access to copyrighted works.
One of its key provisions is “safe harbor,” limiting the liability of
online service providers for copyright infringement perpetrated by
their users.
Intended solely to prevent online copyright infringement, the
DMCA has grown into a controversial law due to its misuse. As
the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a 2010 report on the
unintended consequences of the legislation, “In practice, the anticircumvention
provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of
legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright infringement.”
The most common complaint is that the DMCA allows copyright
holders to prevent “fair use” of content.
For example, last December when Universal Music Group
claimed a YouTube video posted by file-sharing website Megaupload
contained copyrighted material, it was able to block not only the
original video, but also an episode of the news program Tech News
Today which was commenting on the matter.
As we went to print, the U.S. Justice Department seized Megaupload’s
domain name, which was registered in Hong Kong, and
arrested its German founder Kim Dotcom on charges of copyright
infringement and money laundering.
FALSE START
When the DMCA could not squelch piracy, the U.S. Senate
proposed the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion
Act (CBDTPA) in 2002. The legislation would have outlawed
the sale or distribution of any electronic device that did not include
copy-protection technology to prevent the duplication of copyrighted
works. This would have forced computer and electronics
manufacturers to include technology in their products to prevent
you from copying the new Lady Gaga CD you legally purchased
onto your iPod. The bill was supported by entertainment industry
heavyweights including the Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Hilary Rosen, then-head of the RIAA, said that if CBDTPA was not
signed into law, “online piracy will continue to proliferate and spin
further out of control.”
CBDTPA was killed when Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), then
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced he would
not support the bill and would block its consideration.
In 2004, Leahy, along with Senator Orrin
Hatch (R-UT) introduced the RIAA-backed
Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and
Expropriation Act (also known as the Pirate
Act). It didn’t go unnoticed by some that Leahy
was up for reelection that same year—and that
Walt Disney, Time Warner, Viacom and General
Electric (then owner of NBC) were among the
18 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

senator’s top five campaign contributors. The bill was passed in the
Senate but failed in the House of Representatives.
Fast forward to the fall of 2010 when Leahy was up for reelection
again with the same media giants among his largest campaign contributors.
The senator introduced the Combating Online Infringement
and Counterfeits Act (COICA) which proposed to amend Title
18 of the United States Code allowing for the seizure of Internet
domain names that are “dedicated to infringing activities.” The law
was never enacted, but what is important about COICA is that its
key provisions form the foundation of PIPA.
PROTECT IP
When Senator Leahy was unsuccessful in shepherding COICA
through the Senate, he rewrote it into what is now the Preventing
Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual
Property Act of 2011, otherwise known as Protect IP (PIPA). Unlike
COICA, which was aimed at both domestic and foreign websites,
PIPA is focused on “rogue websites operated and registered overseas.”
Protect IP considers infringement to exist if “facts or circumstances
suggest [the site] is used, primarily as means for engaging in,
enabling or facilitating the activities described.” Such activities include
the distribution of anti-DRM technology, counterfeit goods or
illegal copies of copyrighted material. Like COICA, Protect IP targets
domain name registrars, financial institutions and advertising networks
to enforce its rules. The biggest change from its predecessor is
that Protect IP requires an Attorney General to file an action directly
against the person or company that has registered an infringing
website before pursuing additional measures. COICA allowed the
Attorney General to immediately seize a domain name through
an in rem action—meaning, against a property, not a person—approved
by a U.S. District Court.
Because most of the infringing websites are registered and hosted
outside the U.S., seizing a domain name through the registrar may
be impossible. Instead Protect IP enforces its provisions by requiring
entities within the U.S. to “(i) remove or disable access to the Internet
site associated with the domain name set forth in the [court]
order; or (ii) not serve a hypertext link to such Internet site.” (More
on all this in a moment.) Copyright owners can take action on their
own by obtaining a court injunction against a domain name, forcing
ad networks to pull advertising and financial service companies to
stop processing transactions.
Protect IP worked its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee
until Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) placed a hold on it. Should
Protect IP ultimately be passed into law, the Congressional Budget
Office estimates it will cost $47 million to institute and enforce
through 2016.
Like Protect IP, the bill enables the Attorney General and copyright
holders to obtain a court order to block access to an infringing
website from within the U.S., prevent ad networks and financial institutions
from doing business with the website and prohibit search
engines from linking to such websites.
CONCERNS AND OPPOSITION
It’s not a surprise that the MPAA and the RIAA are proponents
of both Protect IP and SOPA. So is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
But the bills, especially SOPA, have some pretty serious opponents,
including members of both houses. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House
Democratic leader, posted a message on Twitter in December which
read: “Need to find a better solution than #SOPA.”
One of the major concerns is that the bills may stifle the freedom
of speech on the Internet. The language of the bill has been faulted
for being so broad that websites such as Google and YouTube could
be victims of its potential enforcement since it would be unlawful
to even link to an infringing website. The loudest outcry from
technology advocates and civil liberty groups is over the provision
to block access to infringing websites from with in the U.S., similar
to how the search term “Tiananmen Square” does not return any
results while inside China. Patrick Norton, host of the popular tech
program Techzilla, compared it using a nuclear bomb to kill a field
mouse. The controversy is not only over the filtering of Internet content,
but also over how it would be carried out.
Both PIPA and SOPA would require domain name servers (DNS)
to prevent access to infringing websites. This runs counter to how
the Internet actually works. When you type a website address into
a web browser on your computer, your ISP’s DNS server looks up
the Internet Protocol address (IP address) for the server hosting the
SOPA
Meanwhile, over in the House of Representatives Rep. Lamar
Smith (R-TX) has introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
One might wonder why Rep. Smith would take such an interest in
anti-piracy legislation given that his district between Austin and
San Antonio is known primarily for farming and cattle ranches. In
addition, tech companies such as Apple, Dell, Facebook and Google
have offices in Austin and have publicly opposed SOPA. It may
have something to do with the fact that entertainment companies,
including the RIAA, are Smith’s biggest campaign contributors.
FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 19

ANTI-PIRACY >
requested domain name. Think of an IP
address as the phone number for a website.
Rather than having to remember every
website’s phone number, we can just type
in a friendly name like Amazon.com. DNS
servers resolve the domain name to this
phone number (IP address) directing web
browsers to the appropriate servers. For instance,
you could get to the website for this
publication by typing in the domain name
boxofficemagazine.com or by entering its
direct IP address 184.73.202.169.
What the legislation is asking for is that
when you type in the domain name of an
infringing website, a DNS server will simply
not have the proper IP address. Even worse,
it requires the DNS server to falsify the IP
address. Effectively this would create two
versions of the Internet: the one viewable
inside the U.S. and one accessible to the rest
of the world.
In a letter to Congress, computer scientist
Vint Cerf, known as one of the fathers
of the Internet, claimed that SOPA would
“undermine cybersecurity including the
robust implementation of DNS Security Extensions,
known more commonly as DNS-
SEC… Any response that provides a false
IP address triggers potential damage to the
intent of DNSSEC.” Put simply, you might
not know whether you were actually reaching
a requested website or being redirected
to a false one that looks like the website you
typed into your browser. That could prove
to be a bit of a problem when you want to
conduct online banking or purchase a best
seller from Amazon.
Dozens of respected computer scientists
such as Cerf have voiced similar concerns
and haven’t hesitated to point out that
infringing websites would still be accessible
to those within the U.S. via their true IP address.
In short, those who want to download
copyrighted material from infringing websites
can do so by typing a string of numbers
instead of “thepiratebay.org.”
THE FUTURE
During the markup process meant to
amend SOPA, the House Judiciary Committee
realized they may not understand the
technical ramifications of their legislation,
as is so often the case. They agreed to pick
up the legislation in January of 2012 starting
with a hearing pertaining to DNS blocking
and falsifying. PIPA will continue to be
discussed in the Senate starting in January
according Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-NV). Should either of these bills make
it out of their respective houses, they will
likely be combined with other similar legislation
to form what is known as a consensus
or omnibus bill.
The only predictable thing about drafting
and passing anti-piracy legislation is
that it is completely unpredictable. Every
day, there is additional news concerning
SOPA and PIPA—their road to being enacted
will be bumpy. As we went to print, three
co-sponsors of SOPA and PIPA—Senator
Marco Rubio and Representatives Lee Terry
and Ben Quayle—withdrew their support
for the legislation as a response to online
blackouts by Wikipedia and thousands of
other websites in protest of the bills. And
the Obama administration released an official
White House statement questioning
some of the bill’s provisions, stating: “While
we believe that online piracy by foreign
websites is a serious problem that requires
a serious legislative response, we will not
support legislation that reduces freedom of
expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or
undermines the dynamic, innovative global
Internet.”
It’s safe to predict those won’t be the last
words we hear on SOPA and PIPA this year.
I SPY AN INCREASE
IN EMPLOYEE
HONESTY
SONY HELPS THEATER OWNERS
ENVYSION HIGHER PROFITS
Over the past few years the subject
of theft in movie theaters has been
focused on piracy prevention, though
exhibitors have never stopped contending
with a form of thievery that stems from
within their own organization: pilfering
and shrinkage. A new video surveillance
solution developed by Envysion, a managed
video as a service (MVaaS) provider, in
partnership with Sony, is meant to put an
end to the losses theater owners face at the
hands of rogue employees.
While monitoring a theater’s concession
stands, hallways, entrances and cash registers
with security cameras is not exactly a
novel concept, their use has been generally
limited to liability mitigation. If a slip and
fall occurs or some obvious theft is noticed,
then theater operators have the ability to
review hours of often grainy video searching
for a snippet of pertinent footage. Envysion
Insight is designed to allow businesses to
use video more proactively.
“We’re looking to leverage video as a
business intelligence tool,” says Carlos Perez,
Envysion’s Vice President of Marketing.
“To turn video from what has historically
been a reactive security or insurance policy
into a strategic management tool. We do
that by tying video to business data.”
So how exactly can video footage be tied
to data that is usually relegated to spreadsheets
and bar charts? Envysion links their
system directly into the systems that are
crucial to a cinema’s operations, especially
the point of sale. Cameras record every
transaction on a server located within the
theater, while at the same time capturing
the transaction’s POS data. The POS is
thus used as a trigger to index the video
footage being recorded. Using a standard
web browser, theater personnel can easily
run reports that show video of, hypothetically,
every sale of Peanut M&M’s or senior
citizen ticket from the past 30 days. Each
entry provides both video footage from
the transaction and also its corresponding
receipt or POS data.
The cash nature of many payment transactions
within a cinema leave it open to
employee theft. Historically, such schemes
have included a cashier who will sell an
adult ticket but actually ring up a child
admission, pocketing the difference. It’s a
similar story at concession stands where
dishonest employees have been caught
ringing up a small sale when in reality
$30 of popcorn, soda and candy have been
ordered. It’s easy to imagine how a theater
manager could use the Envysion system
to review suspicious transactions during a
specific time period.
“By tying data to video, we can create exception
reports—and reporting that identifies
meaningful information across functions,”
Perez explains. “You are able to laser
in on a loss prevention method or areas
of concern that require additional review.
When you’ve got not only the numbers but
the unfiltered visibility behind it, you take
action. We’ve seen our customers be able to
take significant profit impacting steps that
adjust the behaviors of their employees,
specifically in loss prevention.”
When Cinemark deployed Envysion
during a pilot program last year, they saw
a decrease in ticket refunds, an increase in
concession profits and a ticket mix that included
a higher percentage of adult admis-
20 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

sions. Cinemark saw average cash increases
of thousands of dollars per month in pilot
theaters, allowing for a return on their investment
and a payback period of less than
six months. They are now in the process of
rolling out the system circuit-wide.
Beyond monitoring financial transactions,
Envysion can be tied to a time clock to
record exactly whether the employee clocking
in is actually the same person on the
the time card, or one of their friends who
might be running a few minutes late. Aim a
camera at a door and Envysion can quickly
pull up video of every time the door was
opened during a given time period. “That’s
what is cool about the system,” says Tyler
Hart, business development manager for
Sony’s Cinema Network Services. “You teach
it what you really want it to do and you
evolve together into an operational model
that ends up putting money back in to the
cash register—but also becomes useful on a
lot of other levels.”
By using high-def cameras, theater
operators can see exactly who is buying
their products. This comes in handy should
an exhibitor wants to see if a particular
promotion is reaching a targeted demographic
or if they wish to see the type of
customers using their loyalty program.
“There’s a lot of really smart ways to use
video,” says Hart. “All of a sudden, you’re
putting video in the hands of people who
have never used it before so they don’t
have any preconceived idea of what they’re
supposed to be looking for and they get
really creative and start to collaborate with
some of the people they’re working with to
identify things that really matter.”
Sony and Envysion are in the latter stages
of integrating a more robust set of analytics
into the system which will enable theater
operators to monitor threshold counts and
line movement. Operations managers will be
able to track how many people are coming
into a theater versus how many tickets are
sold. They can see the effectiveness of their
cashiers by understanding how many people
are moving through a sales line and at what
rate. All of this will assist sales conversion
studies and staffing ratios.
Hart and Perez feel it’s important to
make cinema personnel aware of the Envysion
system’s presence. “Good employees
and productive employees appreciate
review. They appreciate audit and they appreciate
when someone who is not productive
is called out on that,” says Perez. “As a
tool, video surveillance needs to be used
in a manner that is consistent with your
culture and philosophy. Our customers
typically have rules or guidelines in terms
of how the video is going to be used.”
Hart believes demonstrating the system
for employees will help enhance what is
known as the Hawthorne Effect, a theory in
which employees improve or modify their
behavior when they are aware of being observed.
“Show them a video of zooming in
on their name tag and your ability to read
their name tag without any problem whatsoever
because you have a high definition
camera,” he suggests. “When they see that,
they get the message clear as a bell. We can
see the denomination of bills as they are
being placed into the cash register. We can
see the difference between a dime and a
penny. Our ability to see what’s going on in
the theaters is outstanding and it’s because
the cameras are really good.”
Sony’s partnership with Envysion goes
beyond providing high tech cameras.
Already a leading digital cinema integrator,
they have begun monitoring the health of
the surveillance system’s cameras switches
and DVRs. “The second a piece of equipment
goes down, we know,” says Hart.
“We’re monitoring this system in the same
way we are monitoring our digital signage
and digital projection systems. We get an
alert and address the problem immediately
whether it’s over the phone or deploying
a technician. We get it resolved quickly so
we’re not caught by surprise.”
FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 21

THE BIG PICTURE
JOHN
CARTER
MARS
ATTACKS!
And one earthling fights back
by Amy Nicholson
22

In 1911, Edgar Rice Burroughs—whose pen who would later create
Tarzan—was scratching out a wild tale while working as a wholesale
pencil sharpener salesman. Already 35, he didn’t have much optimism
about creating a writing career, though when he paged through adventure
tales magazines, he’d sigh, “If people were paid for writing rot such as I read
in some of those magazines, than I could write stories just as rotten.” When
a publishing company nibbled at his first-ever submission about a princess
on Mars, he sold it—and the serialization rights—for just $400, not realizing
he was forsaking his rights to what would become one of the most popular
characters of the early 20th century: John Carter of Mars. At least most
attempts to put John Carter on film failed—for the first 100 years of film
history, directors simply didn’t have the technology to do justice to Burroughs’
imagination. But now they do, and Wall•E director Andrew Stanton is ready to
take audiences back to the future with this Civil War Era sci-fi adventure.
23

BIG PICTURE > JOHN CARTER
HEY SOLDIER
One of the simplest, best things John
Carter gets to do on Mars is jump
around with less gravity—how much
fun was that to shoot?
What I love, too, is that there’s a growing
scene where he learns to master the lack
of gravity. It’s really comical and it’s really
about waking up on Mars. I mean, it was be-
John Carter is an ex-Civil War soldier
who goes to outer space and has to
Taylor Kitsch’s campaign
fight in another Civil War—it’s like war
to carve out a Hollywood
is something he can’t escape.
The first war, he feels like he’s doing the
career
right thing by going to protect his family.
The word most people use
But serving in the Civil War, he pays the
ultimate price, ironically, for leaving the
to describe Taylor Kitsch is
family. He becomes this recluse, and once
“brooding.” The former Friday
Night Lights star has got fight again, there’s no real reason to because
he’s put in the situation where he has to
the shaggy hair and stubble everything has been taken from him to
of a artist and the muscles
begin with. Why would you engage in
and intensity of an athlete, something that was your own demise? His
reaction is “No,” to be very simple about
all of which are key to his
it—there’s no point in it because everything
career. And despite the fact
bad has come from him fighting in the first
that he’s poised to own 2012 war, so what’s the point of another? There’s
with the lead roles in John
a famous line in the book and in the movie
Carter, Battleship and Oliver
Stone’s latest, Savages, fighting your war.”
where he says, “No good will come from me
Kitsch comes across as a
Do you feel that at some level, John
guy who knows he’s got to
Carter is anti-war?
prove himself—and who relishes
the fight ahead. Kitsch questions. Besides the escapism, that’s what
Yeah—and hopefully it will raise a lot of
explains how he went from movies do. And I think people are going to
being homeless in New York take whatever they’re going to take from it.
But for John Carter, it’s way more of a personal
thing than the grandeur of it all. For
to being Hollywood’s next
big thing. Step one: prepare
him, it’s about the family that he lost, and
like you’re going g off to war.
with that, there’s a purpose within itself. It’s
personal
for John Carter.
He’s a Confederate soldier, which is
now considered a bit anti-PC. Do you
wish he
fought for the Union?
No, because believe me I studied with his-
torians, sat
down with these guys, studied
with one
of
the professors at UT, and I
enveloped ed myself in the Civil War. Everyone
was fighting for their own reasons. To say
that it was
just for one thing is too much of
a broad stroke, and I played it—and I still
feel strongly—that Carter was there to
protect his family and what was, in his
opinion, worth fighting for.
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote
this story in 1912 when we
knew a lot less about Mars—
And now they’re going in deeper
and there’s all these new galaxies
and that planet, the “Second
Earth,” they’re calling it. Isn’t
that insane? But needless to say,
Burroughs was so far ahead of his
time—it’s so relevant now. A cool
little story: we were filming in Utah and 100
meters away from where we were filming in
this part of the desert, NASA was retouching
their Mars Lunar. You know you’re doing
your shoot at the right location when you
have NASA also trying to recreate Mars.
And yet, unless we figure out how to
travel faster in time, humans won’t
make it to the Second Earth in our
lifetime. The science fiction books of
today will seem as outdated in 100
years as Burroughs does today.
What Andrew Stanton [the director] and I
would always talk about is how what’s cool
in the books is that John would always be
staring through his office window or his
bedroom window at Mars. We’re all here doing
our thing on earth, but how cool would
it be if you could really look at a telescope
into the sky and see all of this happening
somewhere else in another world? It could
be actually going on somewhere else. It just
goes full circle—we’re just discovering more
about space now. And as filmmakers, we
have the opportunity to recreate all that.
With Stanton coming from his Pixar
background, were there moments
were you could really see the imagination
he brought to the set that came
from his animation work?
I don’t know if his imagination came from
animation. I think it comes from Stanton.
He’s where he’s at because he’s never lost
that, and he will fight for it. And I love it.
That’s what drives him: storytelling. It’s not
live action, it’s not animation—it’s storytelling.
It’s getting people in the grips of a character
and their arc and emotion. And I guarantee
people will be affected emotionally
by what he’s created. This guy, I walked into
his office in London when we first started
and there’s literally floor-to-ceiling cue cards
of John Carter’s emotional journey. It had
nothing to do with action—it was really just
the emotional toll taken on Carter, where he
is emotionally in each scene. That’s when
you know as an actor you’re in good hands.
24 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRIARY 2012

BIG PICTURE > JOHN CARTER
yond exhausting for me to do this, but yeah,
there’s definitely moments when you’re
filming on a dry lake bed in this tiny town
living on a base camp literally in trailers,
and you see these 200-foot cranes get pulled
out and you’re between them jumping 40,
60, 80, 120 feet filming this sequence—it’s
pretty darn special.
When the project first came to you,
did you look at the old art on the
covers of the original books and think,
“Oh god—I have to wear a loincloth?”
I don’t know if it was, “Oh my god—I’ve got
to wear this!” It was more of, “I gotta get this
gig.” I’ve been through enough personally
and through the business that you’ve
gotta know when an opportunity presents
itself—and may only present itself once.
Dressing in barely nothing is kinda part
of the deal—you’ve seen it, I’m out there.
And obviously, you’re a lot more vulnerable
when you’re half-naked. And it is very intune
and parallel with where John Carter is
himself, which is cool. But it’s all part of it,
man. If I make a big deal about it, everyone
else will. I’m not really worried about that.
This summer, Chris Evans said he
was reluctant to take on the Captain
America job because when you’re a
young actor, signing on to a film with
franchise potential can take over your
life. Were you wary of that yourself?
This was more of a character-driven story,
and to me, it was like an independent
character that I could drive in to. It’s really
an origin story of how John Carter became
John Carter of Mars, and I think we’ve truly
created such a base to draw from
that it would be a crime
not to do a couple
more
just on the simple character basis of where
he’s going now. If there was no emotion in
it, if it was just a standard action flick than,
yeah—I’d be very hesitant to do it.
2012 is poised to be a big year for
you with John Carter, Battleship and
Oliver Stone’s Savages. In all of them,
you play a soldier or ex-soldier. What
is it about you that makes casting
agents see you as the perfect military
guy?
I don’t know? But I tell you what: you watch
John Carter, and if you see any John Carter
in Chon [from Savages], then I haven’t
done my job. Chon is a motherf--ker—he’s
more jaded and for such different reasons.
He’s such a different character. They look
nothing alike, half his body is covered in
tattoos, he’s got scars up and down his face
and back. And that’s the beauty of it: I hope
I can never be pegged into a role.
Having started as a model, was it
initially hard for you to get your foot
in the door with acting?
I moved to New York to study acting
and the struggle was quite blatant. Being
Canadian, I couldn’t work there and I
ended up homeless in New York for quite a
while. And then I lived in my car in LA for
months. I feel like if anyone has paid their
dues and sacrificed, I’d definitely throw my
hat in there.
I didn’t realize you were homeless—
that seems like something that would
really stick with you.
Absolutely. Among learn-
ing from other guys
in the business who
John Carter of Mars, and I think we’ve truly Absolutely. Among learn- tive an
are where they’re at now—like
Hugh Jackman, I’m very close
with Hugh—I really do feel like
that work ethic has come from that
struggle and where I’ve been. I just feel that
I’m more of an all-or-nothing guy and I’m
very specific in my choices because I will
go all-out in it. And that’s the thing with
John Carter and Savages and everything I’ve
done—I just won’t take it for granted.
Seems like something you should have
tattooed on your body: no matter
how successful I get, I won’t forget
my path.
I work a lot in Africa and I got, literally,
a tattoo of Swahili on my ribs that says,
“Without regret.”
What does that mean to you?
It’s like, I can look back at John Carter and
I can look back at Savages and Bang-Bang
Club and be like, “I literally gave it everything
I have.” So I have no regrets. Whatever
the film is going to do, it’s going to do.
The worst feeling on the f--king planet is
looking back at something you’ve taken
upon yourself and not put everything
you have into it, to look back and say, “If I
would have sacrificed a bit more, I should
have done this, or I could have done this
or gone harder at this point.” I look back at
John Carter and can guarantee the people
who’ve worked closely with me will say
the same: there’s nothing I could have done
more to get where I needed to be. So I have
no regrets.
You once said in the New Yorker that
you fought with all of your directors.
Yeah, and that pissed me off. I’d love to
clear that up. It just sounds so f--king negative
and I guarantee I’m one of the easiest
people to get along with on a set. Pete Berg
[the director of Friday Night Nights] would
always tell us on Friday Night Lights—any
actor who’s gone through FNL will tell
you this—“Fight for what you believe
in.” So I was telling that journalist
that I will fight for what I believe in.
I’ve done my homework. Trust is everything,
but there is a time in every
set
when you need to stand up and ask
questions, you need to f--king talk about
where this guy is. And with Stanton, because
there was so much trust and his vi-
sion
was so visceral to me, I really never had
to be
like that. Stanton will tell you: “Kitsch
will make you tell him where and why.” I
just keep asking questions. A funny story
is that on Battleship, Pete [again Berg, also
the director of Battleship] and I were jabbing
26
BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2011

2012
02.10.12 Warner Bros.
02.10.12 Fox
02.17.12 Sony
Journey 2:
The Mysterious Island
Star Wars: Episode I - The
Phantom Menace 3D
Ghost Rider:
Spirit of Vengeance
03.02.12 Universal Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
03.09.12
Walt Disney
Pictures
John Carter
03.30.12 Sony/Columbia The Pirates! Band of Misfits
03.30.12 Warner Bros. Wrath of the Titans
04.06.12 Paramount Titanic
05.04.12 Disney Marvel’s The Avengers
05.25.12 Sony Men in Black 3
06.08.12 DreamWorks Madagascar 3
06.08.12 Fox Prometheus
06.22.12 Disney Brave
06.22.12 20th Century Fox
Abraham Lincoln:
Vampire Hunter
07.03.12 Sony/Columbia The Amazing Spider-Man
07.13.12 20th Century Fox Ice Age: Continental Drift
07.27.12 Summit Step Up 4
08.17.12 Focus Features ParaNorman
08.31.12
UTV
Communications
Joker
09.14.12 Disney Finding Nemo
09.14.12
Sony / Screen
Gems
Resident Evil 5
09.21.12 Sony Hotel Transylvania
09.21.11 N/A Dredd
10.05.12 Disney Frankenweenie
10.05.12 Lionsgate
10.26.12
The Weinstein
Company
The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre 3D
Halloween 3D
11.02.12 Disney Wreck-It Ralph
11.21.12
Paramount/
DreamWorks
Rise of the Guardians
11.21.12 Warner Bros. Gravity
11.21.12 Universal 47 Ronin
12.14.12 Warner Bros.
The Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey
12.21.12 20th Century Fox Life of Pi
12.25.12 Warner Bros. The Great Gatsby
01.11.13 Paramount
2013
Hansel and Gretel:
Witch Hunters
01.18.13 Disney Monsters, Inc.
01.25.13
02.14.13
Sony/Screen
Gems
Weinstein
Company
Planet B-Boy
Escape From Planet Earth
03.08.13 Disney Oz: The Great and Powerful
03.22.13 Warner Bros. Jack the Giant Killer
03.22.13
Paramount/
DreamWorks
The Croods
05.10.13 Warner Bros. Pacific Rim
05.17.13 Paramount Untitled Star Trek Sequel
05.24.13 Fox Leafmen
06.21.13 Disney Monsters University
09.13.13 Disney The Little Mermaid
10.04.13 Disney Untitled Henry Selick Film
10.11.13 Fox Walking With Dinosaurs
11.08.13
RELEASE
CALENDAR
Paramount/
DreamWorks
Me and My Shadow
11.27.13 Disney Frozen
12.13.13 Disney
2014
The Hobbit:
There and Back Again
05.02.14 Sony The Amazing Spider-Man 2
05.30.14 Disney Disney/Pixar Untitled Film

BIG PICTURE > JOHN CARTER
back and forth because I had a lot of questions
and I will fight for the dignity of the
character—not that he didn’t have the best
interest in that, but you gotta understand,
no one’s gonna know understand where
your character is more than you. If you’ve
done your f--king prep and you’ve done your
work, you should know them better than
anyone because the director has a million
other things to do as well. And so Pete kept
saying, “Holy f--k, Kitsch—who taught you
to fight so much?” And I’m like, “Who do
you think taught me to fight for this, Pete?”
And he just had this epiphany and we both
just started dying laughing because it was
a full-circle moment of be careful what you
wish for. He truly had helped me from the
start of my acting career with, “Do your
homework, come f--king ready to play.” It
was just like, I’ll always be that guy that is
going to trust the director, but on the same
coin I’m going to ask questions—and I think
as an actor, you need to be both.
With Battleship, you’ve said the hardest
part was keeping track of your
character in the middle of all of these
explosions.
The reason why I signed on with Berg—I
mean, I was so close with him and I love going
to work with this cat—is that when he
flies to London and says, “Let’s go to battle
together, let’s do a fun movie that everyone
can enjoy,” then yeah man, absolutely. He
gave me that opportunity with Friday Night
Lights. And so with that came a collaborative
overhaul of the script and who my character
Hopper was. There was a bunch of guys who
were vying for this part, and when he came
to me, I was just like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” To
create a fun, endearing guy who would be
the last person—literally—on the planet
who you want to save the planet, that was
such a great little arc that people are going
to see in Battleship. In the first 30 minutes,
there’s moments of, “Holy s--t, this is the guy
that’s in control?” And I love that. It’s very
real. Instead of: all of a sudden I’m the captain
of this Navy ship and I have the world
in my hands and I don’t even fret about it for
one minute and I just start giving orders and
then we save the planet. It’s like, how much
fun is that? I like that this guy’s way more
human. Let him be insecure, you know?
Why not? Saving the planet is a stressful
situation.
To say the least!
TAKE ME TO
YOUR LEADER
Andrew Stanton leaves the
animation desk to go to Mars
In 1990, Pixar hired John Lasseter
as their first animator.
Then they hired their second:
Andrew Stanton. Together, the
two men shaped the studio
and set up some seriously
high standards for the company
and themselves. Though
Stanton has had a hand in every
one of Pixar’s films from
writing Toy Story to voicing a
truck in Cars, he’s only directed
two—Finding Nemo and
Wall•E—and both won the Best
Animation Oscar. And now,
he’s startled the industry by
taking that track record and
veering his career in a new
direction with John Carter, the
live action and high-pressure
space adventure he’s wanted
to make since he was 12 years
old. It’s a passion project that
predates Pixar—and, as Stanton
jokes, people took bets on
whether he’d survive it.
With your animation background,
people might expect that you’d rely
heavily on post-production and CG.
Instead, you went the other direction
and tried to use practical effects
whenever possible, even putting
actors in stilts. Why was that a key
decision for you?
I just feel like there’s a certain point—and
it’s different on every film—that if too
much CG gets in there, it just feels synthetic
and there’s a slight cold artifice to the film.
I just wanted this to be as believable and
as warm and as close as possible to what it
would feel like to capture history on a nice
period film—all dirty and imperfect. So I
thought that the odds would be in my favor
that the more I did in camera, the more it
would feel real, because to be honest, that’s
one of my favorite parts about the first Star
Wars: the limited budget that they had to
deal with when they did all the stuff on
Tatooine. It was all in really front of the
camera—there were very few things that
they could do in post. And you felt it, you
felt like you were really there.
Audiences definitely know when the
ingenue is running from a guy in a
mask or when she’s running from
nothing—and even if it’s a bad mask,
the mask is still scarier.
Exactly. And there’s way more digital in
here than I ever thought at the beginning
of this thing, but hopefully we’ve done a
much better job of not letting you know
that.
If you had animated the film, what
are some things you would have
done differently?
I wouldn’t have animated the film. I never,
ever imagined it that way. Since I was a kid,
I always imagined it as what it would be
like if it really happened. So I never saw it
as a cartoon world.
So John Carter is a film you’ve been
wanting to make since you were
little.
Since I was 12—since I first read it. Up until
about 2006, when I got a little more serious
about seeing this movie and thinking I
could be involved in making the film, up
until that point I’d spent 30 years just as
a fan wanting to see somebody else make
it. That’s a long time to just want to see it
as a fan. So it was more being a fan than
a filmmaker that helped me take the leap
because once it fell apart in Jon Favreau’s
hands at Paramount, I thought I’d never get
to see it in my lifetime. And I thought, “I’m
in this rare place where I have a lot of clout
with one studio, Disney, and maybe I can
convince them to make it.” It was more that
than a career choice.
Were you that 12-year-old kid who
was always scribbling in his notebook
during class?
Yeah—I still am!
Ray Harryhausen once thought of
doing his own version of John Carter,
which of course also would have used
a lot of practical effects. Did you
28 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

ever consider speaking with him?
I’m very skittish about tainting the waters. I
can doubt myself pretty well just by myself,
so I figured that if I started muddying the
waters, then I’d start questioning even more
stuff. At some point you have to just be
insanely crazy and just jump into the pool
with whatever you’re passionate about,
and I’d spent most of my life wishing John
Carter would look a certain way and feel a
certain way, so I had to just use that as part
of my engine to get through it all.
Speaking of following your passion,
has it become harder to have the
freedom to make those big decisions
now that the industry—even
people outside of your studio—is
closely watching your choices? Even
cutting two words
from the film’s
title triggered
a flood of
speculative
articles.
There’s
a great
line in Laurence of Arabia when he puts
out a match with his fingers and the other
guy tries it and he goes, “That bloody well
hurts!” and he goes, “The trick is not minding
that it hurts.” I had to learn a long time
ago just to not worry about what other
people say.
A hundred years ago, Burroughs had
the freedom to imagine what Mars
was like, but now we’ve all seen
pictures. How did you reconcile his
vision of Mars with what today’s
audiences expect to see?
I didn’t even worry about what today’s
audiences expected to see—I just did what
he wrote. If people can believe that fish are
able to talk underwater, they’ll be able to
follow this.
John Carter the character preceded
Burroughs’ Tarzan and in some
ways is the ancestor of characters
like Luke Skywalker and
Indiana Jones. But until now,
he’s never had the same level
of name recognition—what
did you see in him, and what
about him do you think will
connect with the people of
today?
I had to believe that there’s a reason
that a 12-year-old kid could read that
60 years after it was written and
just be smitten. And there’s
still kids that read it every
once in a while. It’s
had less and
less of a
readership with every generation, but it
still seems to affect kids who are at the right
age when they read it. You just have to put
a lot of value in that. And I think there are
just some primal things—whether they
were done unconsciously by Edgar Rice
Burroughs or not—the idea that you’re a
normal person on one world, but when you
move to another you’re suddenly special.
The idea that your best friend could be this
really cool other creature, cooler than any
other best friend. The idea that you could
have the most loyal, cool dog in the world
and fall in love with the most beautiful
woman in the universe and travel to another
world to try to win her hand. These are
very romantic notions that I think almost
instinctual fall into a lot of kids’ heads.
There’s a current Texas Congressman
named John Carter—this is almost
free advertising for him.
It’s funny! [Laughs] I can’t run away from
the influence of that. I can’t run away from
the influence of that. It’s been fascinating—
people have come out of the woodwork
from the strangest places that are also fans.
Have you and Brad Bird had a minute
to bond over making your first live
action films?
That’s about exactly the amount of time
we’ve had: a minute, maybe two, to compare
notes. He’s been so busy and I’ve been
so busy. But we were able to briefly talk
about get the thinnest veil, the thinnest impression
of: “Was it like this for you?” “Was
it like this for you?” It was a very similar
experience for us on the learning curve.
Why did you feel it was important to
drop 20 pounds before you started
to shoot the film?
Because I knew the biggest change was going
to be the physical aspect of it. And sure
enough, whether it’s a virtual camera with
a
virtual set and virtual lights and virtual
actors, it’s still the same choices you’re
making in that rectangle that’s going to go
in the big dark room for everybody to go
see. The hard part was the physical aspect
of it. Can I last from 7 in the morning
until 10 at night every day for 100 days
in a row, whether it’s cold or hot? Just
the physical stamina—I knew I had to be
in really good shape.
And now you even had to put on sun-
FEBRUARY 2012 2 BOXOFFICE OFFI
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29

BIG PICTURE > JOHN CARTER
screen before you went to work.
I put on tons—I was very good. Never got
burned once!
That’s important, given that you’re a
redhead.
Very important. I was a little OCD, I think.
Did that effort to get fit make it easier
for you to cut all the overweight martians
from the final film?
I don’t know? I didn’t think about it that
way? I just went with what I thought would
be a very historically accurate film for
something that happened to be fictional.
And so I thought of Martians just as another
race of creatures, a race of beings that lived
somewhere. What are most desert-dwelling
people like on our planet? There’s a lot of
similarities in some respects, so we derived
our Martians off of that.
When you watch documentaries about
the Maasai in Kenya, you think, “That’s
what human beings are supposed to
look like.”
It’s fascinating. So it was more about doing
these slight adjustments and not these big,
extreme fantastical things. I felt like the
subject matter was fantastical enough, so
we could afford to counter it with things
that are more in our vocabulary of nature
on our planet. Because frankly, there’s
some crazy looking stuff in nature in our
world—we don’t need to make things too
hard. So what we would try to pull from
whether it was a multi-legged creature, or
multi-eyed or multi-tusked, was from some
sort of amalgamation of the vocabulary of
what you’d find on this world. And I think
that helped ground it all so you think,
“Well, maybe this could have happened in
a parallel universe.”
That reminds me of the design work
on Avatar—they drew the inspiration
for their animals and plants from the
deep sea and put them on land.
That makes complete sense to me. I think
you’re already much further along with
people accepting it.
You strike me as a guy with a lot of
creative energy. If there was a sequel
to John Carter, would you want to
direct it yourself or would you want to
hand it over to someone else and take
on something new?
If I’m being brutally honest, I thought, “If I
survive this, it’ll be just enough to have gotten
through the first one and then I’ll hand it
off to someone else.” I think there was even
betting going on about whether I’d survive it.
But I gotta say I got the bug. And we planned
three—we got the rights to the first three
books and we planned all three together so
that they would work really well if we continued.
But we were also very conservative and
said, “Well, let’s write them as if they’re standalones
so that if we don’t go farther than one
or two, it’s not going to ruin anybody or leave
anybody hanging.” Knock on wood. We’re
very happy with this one and I’m kind of
rejuvenated. It was like summer camp—I had
such a good relationship with the crew and
the actors, even when it was really hard, that
the idea of getting together and putting on a
show with them again is just really attractive.
Antonio Sabato Jr. and Traci Lords
did their own version of Princess of
Mars—did you see it?
No. No, I stay far away from anything
that’s in that kind of category. I’ve had
people offer me scripts to movies that are
similar that are like things I’ve written
while I’ve been working on them, and I’m
so superstitious about even unconsciously
putting something in my movie that was in
something else. Or that I did the opposite
because I saw it in another movie. It’s so
temporal, this copycat and people comparing
stuff. You have no say once you’re
done about how in ten years, who’s going
to watch what film at what time and know
which one came out when. You just hope
that the film’s good and you want to know
that you made it as honestly as you could. I
go into a vacuum the minute I start writing
a movie until the minute that I finish and
I never look at anything else that might be
similar.
This might sound like a silly question,
but Pixar has yet to make a
movie with a likeable cat even though
they’ve had several dogs. Neither
have most other animated films. Is
there something about that species
that’s tricky to make into a protagonist?
A cat! Really? I’ve never, ever had that posed
to me before—that’s fascinating. [Laughs] I
have never even thought about that. When
you put it that way, it makes complete sense
that it should be possible. I don’t have a
theory on that? I’ve seen it as a sidekick—it
makes a pretty good sidekick. I don’t know?
Maybe because there’s that anti-social aspect
to cats. I’m a cat lover myself, so I think I’m
not offending anyone by saying that. Who
knows? Wow. I consider that a challenge. All
right: challenge accepted.
30 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

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ON THE HORIZON
BY SARA MARIA VIZCARRONDO
AMERICAN REUNION
ANOTHER SLICE, ANYONE?
Ten years after Jim, Oz, Finch and Stiffler survived their Porky’s
style journey towards prom-night deflowering, the fourth and final
film in the American Pie franchise tracks the team’s tenth high
school reunion. As seen in the third film (American Wedding),
Jim (Jason Biggs) and band-geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are
married and now have a 2-year-old son. The duo live comfortably in suburban
digs just like those where we first saw Jim dance for his webcam like it was
1999—which it was. Production took place in East Great Falls, Michigan and,
rumor has it, includes scenes in the same high school used in the original
film. Even the foreign exchange student played by Shannon Elizabeth (a fairly
hot commodity in made-for-cable movies) reprises her role, as does John Cho,
the guy who coined “MILF” in the first film. In fact, the cast is 100 percent
complete, which suggests nothing is troublesome enough to break the bonds
of friendship between these crazy kids. Or it suggests the actors haven’t made
it big enough to graduate East Great Falls and the American Pie films. Either
way, fans who liked their first serving of Pie will probably make room for this
sequel, which is now directed by one of the men responsible for Harold and
Kumar.
SHE’S MY CHERRY PIE
MENA SUVARI AND THE REST OF THE CLASS RETURN FOR
THEIR FOURTH REUNION
Distributor Universal Pictures Cast Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Alyson
Hannigan, Jason Biggs, Eugene Levy, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tad Hilgenbrink Directors/Screenwriters
Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg Producers Chris Weitz,
Chris Moore, Craig Perry Genre Comedy Rating R for crude and sexual content
throughout, nudity, language, brief drug use and teen drinking. Running time
TBD Release date April 6, 2012
SURE SHE LOOKS SWEET, BUT—
GRETA GERWIG IS NO INNOCENT HEROINE
DAMSELS IN DISTRESS
SAVE THEM? SAVE YOURSELVES!
Indie hero Whit Stillman made a splash with Metropolitan in 1994. His
highly affected dialogue sounded ironic in a time when irony wasn’t
the go-to method of comic engagement. That story of an upper-crust
fishbowl infiltrated by an outsider is an all-too-relevant touchstone
when discussing his newest: a comedy about a group of do-gooding
college girls who take on a new student as a project. With a sterling cast and
a pithy script, Damsels marks something of a second coming for the winking
satirist of class-confused Americana. And for a nation that believes it’s
completely “over” class issues, Stillman really strikes a chord. The Damsels of
the title is a sort of joke, a throwback to a bygone era that the characters in
this film fully affirm. The girls, frosh coeds in a low-end east coast university,
speak in the stilted parlance of society mavens as if sounding posh will make
them posh. Starring indie darling Greta Gerwig and up-and-comer Analeigh
Tipton, this film is both a disorienting and a comical walk through one tough
junior year in college. To assist the community, the ladies bring donuts and
coffee to the school’s suicide prevention center, where visitors impotently
fling themselves from the building’s second story and where the help provides
support and tap-dance lessons. Like much of Stillman’s past films, the
film is likely to earn a lot of love.
Distributor Sony Pictures Classics Cast Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody, Billy
Magnussen, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Analeigh Tipton, Hugo Becker, Carrie MacLemore
Director/Screenwriter/Producer Whit Stillman Genre Comedy Rating
R for crude and sexual content throughout, nudity, language, brief drug use and
teen drinking. Running time 98 min. Release date April 6 NY/LA
32 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

TM
THE THREE STOOGES
WHY I OUGHTA
We should all be surprised this film is seeing
the light of day. The Farrelly Brothers (Dumb
& Dumber, There’s Something About Mary)
began the project over 10 years ago, and
during the protracted development process,
they threw around a lot of different ideas. For a while it was going
to be a poignant comedy about the Stooges’ true lives, and when
(after three years of development) rumor had Benicio del Toro as
Moe and Sean Penn as Larry, the retelling of the famous slapstick
trio began to sound like an Oscar-grade drama. TV picked up on
the hype, producing biopics about the tragic lives of Moe Howard,
Larry Fine and Curly Howard. But the feature film’s development
issues persisted and their sterling cast couldn’t be left waiting: del
Toro didn’t pan out and Sean Penn decided to focus on his charity
work in Haiti. With less bling to attract the hype machine, The
Three Stooges vanished. But in 2011, with a solid script that locates
a classic Stooges set of conflicts in the modern day, a cast of celebrity
impersonators and comedians were contracted. Moe will be
played by Canadian actor Chris Diamantopoulos, who got some
attention playing Robin Williams in TV’s Behind the Camera: The
Unauthorized Story of Mork and Mindy. Will Sasso is a strong choice
for Curly Howard—he already looks like a Looney Tunes character
and had a powerhouse run on sketch comedy show MadTV.
The riskiest choice of the group is Sean Hayes. Best known for
playing Jack on TV’s Will and Grace, playing Larry Fine, and if it
weren’t for that impersonation he did of Jerry Lewis in the TV
movie Martin and Lewis, no one would ever think he’d be more
than “Just Jack.” For a while, Richard kins was the slated to play Mother
Superior (a role now
Jenheld
by Jane Lynch), but
the drag quotient of the
film has now been handed
off to Seinfeld-creator
Larry David, whose Sister
Mary Magdalene should
be mannish and, ironically,
Semitic. For these
icons of the Jewish comic
lexicon, that seems like a
pretty great hat-tip. A sojourn
into a reality TV show pits the
Stooges against their modern
counterparts in dumb-assery:
Snookie, JWoww, Pauly
D and Mike “The Situation”
Sorrentino.
Distributor 20th Century Fox Cast Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean
Hayes, Will Sasso, Stephen Collins, lins, Craig Bierko, Larry David, Jane
Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Hudson Directors/Screenwriters
Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly Producers Earl M. Benjamin Genre
Comedy Rating TBD Running time TBD Release date April 13, 2012
A 3D Picture That Wows
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FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 33

ON BY ON THE SARA THE HORIZON MARIA > VIZCARRONDO
>
SHE LOVES ME, SHE WEDS ME NOT
EMILY BLUNT AND JASON SEGEL STAR IN NICHOLAS
STOLLER’S LATEST
THE FIVE-YEAR
ENGAGEMENT
RUSH TO THE ALTER
Team Apatow rides again with this, the first wedding (or engagement)
comedy of the wedding movie season. The poster’s emblazoned with
“from the producer of Bridesmaids,” setting us up to expect more bathroom
horror stories with high-end wedding finery. But that might not
be the case for this story of delayed nuptials. Director Nicholas Stoller
worked with Apatow graduate Jason Segel on their co-writing venture The Muppets,
which pitched Segel as a love interest so earnest we might never let him be a casual
BF again. Here, he plays the patient beau of Emily Blunt, last year’s romantic go-to
girl. He’s eager to be wed but willing to wait out her job offer in Michigan … and her
promotion … and her family disasters. The waiting will wear on a couple, just as the
waiting might wear on audiences, who were treated to the trailer and poster so early
you’d think the marketeers thought it was the next Avengers. But the cast is stellar,
with Blunt as the funny-girl (more now than ever) and Segel uniquely passive/supportive—after
his chaste turn as The Muppets romantic lead, it probably feels natural
for him to lay off the dirty jokes. (He might be man … but then he might be Muppet.)
Giving both leads ample room to prove their physical comedy chops, this one might
be the film that lets the men have their slapstick and the women hold their own—if
that’s true, it won’t just be the girl on the poster who’s eating cake.
Distributor Universal Pictures Cast Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, David Paymer, Rhys Ifans, Jacki Weaver, Kevin Hart, Jim Piddock, Brian Posehn, Randall
Park, Chris Pratt, Mimi Kennedy, Alison Brie, Mindy Kaling, Dakota Johnson, Michael Ensign Director Nicholas Stoller Screenwriters Jason
Segel, Nicholas Stoller Producers Judd Apatow, Rodney Rothman Genre Comedy Rating TBD Running time TBD Release date April 27, 2012
34 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

BY SARA MARIA VIZCARRONDO
COMING SOON
Marketing minds at Universal Pictures must
have felt this film’s previous title Everybody
Loves Whales, was too much like Must
Love Dogs (a failed RomCom), and so they
changed the name of this romance inspired
by Thomas Rose’s biography Freeing the
Whales. In Big Miracle, John Krasinski plays
a journalist who coaxes his ex-girlfriend
(Drew Barrymore) into joining him on
assignment to free a pod of grey whales.
Whether or not their rekindled romance is
viable depends on the hands of director Ken
Kwapis, who’s He’s Not That Into You turned
heads while his License to Wed inspired annulment.
THE VOW
A SECOND CHANCE AT A FIRST KISS
DISTRIBUTOR Sony CAST Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill, Jessica Lange, Scott
Speedman, Kim Roberts, Dillon Casey DIRECTOR Michael Sucsy SCREENWRITERS Abby Kohn, Marc
Silverstein, Michael Sucsy PRODUCERS Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, Jonathan Glickman, Paul
Taublieb GENRE Romance RATING TBD RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE February 10, 2012
No mentally unstable woman alive gets romanced like Rachel
McAdams (Notebook, Time Traveler’s Wife). Here, brawny Channing
Tatum plays her ex, who’s determined to win her back after a car
accident steals her memory. He’s going to have to use his powers of
deduction to re-woo her and leave out all that stuff he knows she
hates. May success and selective-memory recovery be with them.
KILL LIST
IF YOU SEE YOUR NAME—HIDE
DISTRIBUTOR IFC Films CAST Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Harry Simpson DIRECTOR Ben Wheatley
SCREENWRITERS Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump PRODUCERS Claire Jones, Andrew Starke GENRE Horror
RATING TBD RUNNING TIME 95 min. RELEASE DATE February 3 ltd.
One of the hot midnight titles of last year’s Toronto International,
Ben Wheatley’s Brit hit-man horror starts with a quick mark—technically
three hits in succession—and ends with a hit man hunted
in the never-again-serene British countryside. The buzz building
for Kill List online is big—but with its early VOD release, will that
translate into box office dollars?
BIG MIRACLE
WITH THIS SHAMU, I THEE WED
YOU KISS BETTER THAN GOSLING
RACHEL MCADAMS HOPES HER LATEST ROMANCE WITH CHANNING TATUM
WILL BEST HER NOTEBOOK BOX OFFICE
DISTRIBUTOR Universal Pictures CAST Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Tim Blake Nelson, Kristen
Bell, Mark Ivanir, Stefan Kapicic DIRECTOR Ken Kwapis SCREENWRITERS Jack Amiel, Michael Begler
PRODUCERS Steve Golin, Michael Sugar GENRE Romance RATING PG for language. RUNNING TIME TBD
RELEASE DATE February 3, 2012
THE WOMAN IN BLACK
GREAT GIBBERING GHOSTS!
DISTRIBUTOR CBS Films CAST Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciaran
Hinds, Sidney Johnston, Shaun Dooley, Alisa Khazanova,
Mary Stockley, Alexia Osborne, Aoife Doherty DIRECTOR James
Watkins SCREENWRITER Jane Goldman PRODUCERS Simon Oakes,
Richard Jackson GENRE Horror RATING PG-13 for thematic material
and violence/disturbing images. RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE
DATE February 3, 2012
The Victorian era is great for ghost stories.
Photographs were new to the consumer
public and people had creepy superstitions,
and western culture was wrestling
with a mixture of faiths that only grew
more diverse and confusing as immigration
increased. We had all kinds of ideas about life after death—and how
it might be really awful—and so in this Victorian-era ghost story, a
post-Potter Daniel Radcliffe reaches a British village to find it antagonized
by the ghost of a very cross lady. Why is she grumpy? Radcliffe
can’t ask Dumbledore, but it’s on him to suss out the mystery—
again, a whole town depends on it.
STAR WARS EPISODE I PHANTOM
MENACE 3D
BECAUSE WHY NOT?
DISTRIBUTOR 20th Century Fox CAST Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Frank Oz,
Pernilla August, Anthony Daniels, Hugh Quarshie, Ian McDiarmid, Jake Lloyd, Oliver Ford Davies,
Ahmed Best, Kenny Baker DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER George Lucas PRODUCER Rick McCallum
GENRE Adventure RATING PG for sci-fi action/violence RUNNING TIME 136 min. RELEASE DATE February
10, 2012
Lucas could squeeze gold out of a rock, which means it’s good for
him to be cautious about which rock he chooses. It’d be a travesty to
transform Episode 4 A New Hope to 3D—those fans don’t need your
3D, their memories are better—but the kids who loved last decade’s
pod-race could stand to see a show. The tentacles and dirt-caked
faces of all those alien racers will look great flying inches from your
face. Hey, the series reboot was already cheesy—why not add on few
more layers of cornball?
REGENERATION
HEY DJ, KEEP PLAYING THAT SONG
DISTRIBUTOR ATO Pictures DIRECTOR Amir Bar Lev GENRE Documentary RATING Unrated RUNNING TIME
75 min. RELEASE DATE February 16 ltd.
The man behind My Kid Could Paint That and The Tillman Story,
brings us the history of music as told by five of the most influential
36 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

producers/DJs in the music industry, all specialists in mashing up
the classics for a new sound and a new generation. Produced with
the support of The Grammys, this doc is hardly grassroots, but it
promises to be a rock-star studded tribute to interconnected music
genres and the people who perform them. Featuring The Doors, The
Crystal Method, Martha Reeves, Mark Ronson, Erykah Badu, Mos
Def, Zigaboo Modeliste, and many others.
PERFECT SENSE
MAKING LOVE OUT OF NOTHING AT ALL
DISTRIBUTOR IFC Films CAST Ewan McGregor, Connie Nielsen, Eva Green, Ewen Bremner, Stephen
Dillane, Alastair Mackenzie, Denis Lawson DIRECTOR David MacKenzie SCREENWRITER Kim
Fupz Aakeson PRODUCERS Gillian Berrie, Malte Grunert
GENRE Science Fiction RATING TBD RUNNING TIME 89 min. RELEASE DATE February 10 NY
From Sundance 2010, this romance at the end of the world stars British
hotties Ewan McGregor and Eva Green as a couple who fall into
the early spasms of love just as everyone in the world loses their five
senses. The first to go is smell, followed by taste, then sight. As bodies
lose defenses, the lovers fumble for each other—let’s hope touch
is the last sense to go. Boxoffice critic Ray Greene raved, “Director
David Mackenzie’s quietly accomplished film straddles the arthouse
world and cult movies with a unique poetic vision.”
SAFE HOUSE
HOME INVASION, CIA-STYLE
DISTRIBUTOR Universal Pictures CAST Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Sam Shepard, Brendan
Gleeson, Liam Cunningham, Vera Farmiga, Robert Patrick, Joel Kinnaman DIRECTOR Daniel Espinoza
SCREENWRITER David Guggenheim PRODUCER Scott Stuber GENRE Action RATING TBD RUNNING
TIME TBD RELEASE DATE February 10, 2012
Ryan Reynolds plays an agent assigned to “host” a rogue CIA legend
(Denzel Washington) for questioning in his safe house. But the
house their company provided doesn’t stay safe and Washington’s
wanted alive—though he’s itching to get out—while the junior
league Reynolds is disposable. The men have to make their way
through Cape Town, South Africa, evading the CIA, their supposed
protectors who have dispatched Reynolds’ “friends” to kill them.
Compared to this, jail seems like a breeze.
THE TURIN HORSE
A KINDER, GENTLER NIETZCHE
DISTRIBUTOR Cinema Guild CAST János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos DIRECTORS Béla Tarr,
Ágnes Hranitzky SCREENWRITERS László Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr PRODUCER Gábor Téni GENRE
Drama; Hungarian- and German-languages, subtitled RATING Unrated RUNNING TIME 146 min.
RELEASE DATE February 10 NY
Hungarian director Béla Tarr is something of a legend his Satantango
was a 7.5 hour opus to a deteriorating village and has been a rite
of passage for haute cinefiles since it came out in 1994. His Man From
London was a more popular (and shorter) effort. And the 56-year-old
filmmaker shocked audiences at TIFF by saying this film would be
his last. A fiction based on Frederick Nietzsche’s anecdote about a
horse he tried to protect during a whipping, this film is inspired by
the philosopher’s one moment of empathy and prescience—shortly
afterward, Nietzche descended into mental illness.
JOURNEY 2
THE MYSTERIOUS
ISLAND
THE ROCK GOES VOLCANIC
DISTRIBUTOR Warner Bros. CAST Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson,
Luis Guzman, Michael Caine, Kristin Davis DIRECTOR Brad Peyton SCREENWRITER Richard Outten
PRODUCER Charlotte Huggins, Beau Flynn GENRE Adventure/Fantasy RATING TBD RUNNING TIME TBD
RELEASE DATE February 10, 2012
FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 37

COMING SOON >
Dwayne Johnson may be “The Rock,” but
he can’t stop his kid from running off to an
island that shouldn’t exist. A magic place
no map can trace, the Mysterious Island
has mountains of gold, oddball “aliens”
and adventuresome castaways who likely
swing wildly towards the kid-filled audience
before comically squashing alien sidekicks.
A sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Center of the
Earth.
UNDEFEATED
WE AREN’T THE CHAMPIONS
DISTRIBUTOR The Weinstein Company DIRECTORS Daniel Lindsay,
T.J. Martin PRODUCERS Ed Cunningham, Seth Gordon, Daniel
Lindsay, Rich Middlemas, Glen Zipper GENRE Documentary
RATING PG-13 for some language. RUNNING TIME 113 min. RELEASE
DATE February 10 ltd.
This doc follows an inner-city Memphis
high school football team with a 110-year
losing streak. The Manassas Tigers are so
underfunded and unmanaged, they practice
with ancient equipment on a patch of
dead grass and get sold out to rival teams
as an easy win. Who could have morale in
a situation like that? Volunteer coach Bill
Courtney, however, feels a responsibility to
turn this around and give the underprivileged
students a season—and a team—to be
proud of. One of the film shortlisted for the
Best Documentary Oscar, Undefeated, like
the students it features, has an astoundingly
bright future.
GHOST RIDER:
SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE
RIDER’S IN THE STORM
DISTRIBUTOR Sony Pictures CAST Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Christopher
Lambert, Ciarán Hinds, Violante Placido, Johnny Whitworth,
Fergus Riordan DIRECTORS Brian Taylor, Mark Neveldine
SCREENWRITERS Seth Hoffman, Scott M. Gimple PRODUCERS Avi
Arad, Ashok Amritraj, Ari Arad, Steven Paul, Michael De Luca
GENRE Fantasy RATING PG-13 for intense sequences of action
and violence, some disturbing images, and language. RUNNING
TIME TBD RELEASE DATE February 17, 2012
Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage), the man
punished and plagued by a contract with
Beelzebub, has gone to Eastern Europe
where residents beg him to track and stop
the devil from his possibly “red” dealings.
Here, Satan has to hunt for a new human
form, since abandoning Peter Fonda’s
post-hippy swagger in 2010’s Ghost Rider.
Here, Evil is English, with Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy’s Ciarán Hinds playing the
Dark Lord.
THE SECRET WORLD OF
ARRIETY
MY MINI-BEST FRIEND
DISTRIBUTOR Walt Disney CAST Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Bridgit
Mendler, Amy Poehler DIRECTORS Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Gary
Rydstrom SCREENWRITERS Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa PRODUCER
Toshio Suzuki GENRE Fantasy; Japanese-language, subtitled
RATING G RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE February 17, 2012
What looks like a girly version of Indian
in the Cupboard is far sweeter and more
whimsical than that kid’s classic. It’s a
twist on Tinkerbell that trades pixie dust
for homesteading grime. Based on the
Mary Norton novel The Borrowers, the main
characters are the Clock family, 4-inch-tall
people who borrow items from a regular
sized family to make their homes—it’s not
quite a Looney Tunes mouse house with
matchbooks for beds and thread spools for
tables, but it’s close. And magically, when a
human finds these tiny foragers, they share
a secret that feels bigger than anything in
the world outside. This one is co-scripted by
Japanese animation hero Hayao Miyazaki
(Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle). Magic
is inevitable.
TYLER PERRY’S GOOD
DEEDS
WITH THIS RING, I THEE CHANGE MY MIND
DISTRIBUTOR Lionsgate CAST Thandie Newton, Tyler Perry, Jamie
Kennedy, Gabrielle Union, Phylicia Rashad, Beverly Johnson,
Eddie Cibrian, Brian White, Rebecca Romijn DIRECTOR/SCREEN-
WRITER Tyler Perry PRODUCERS Paul Hall, Ozzie Areu GENRE
Romance RATING PG-13 for sexual content, language, some
violence and thematic material. RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE
February 24, 2012
Prolific writer/director Tyler Perry knows his
audience and this, one of his rare lead roles
out of drag, plays to his trademark moral
high ground and comic low-brow. Wesley
Deeds (Perry) is a successful businessman
whose pending marriage to a posh good
girl looks like just the stability producing
stagnation parents love and husbands hate.
When he meets a harried but loving single
mom, he has to rethink his tidy nuptials,
but how can you make that situation good
without betraying anyone’s trust? Love
shouldn’t resemble charity—but it also
shouldn’t involve standing up your fianceé
at the altar.
CAN NICHE WORK
FOR YOU?
A SAN FRANCISCO PROGRAMMER
SHARES HIS TIPS FOR FINDING AN
AUDIENCE IN ANY COMMUNITY
By Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
Joel Shepard, film curator for San Francisco’s
non-profit art screening space Yerba Buena
Center, is out to prove what he’s doing in the
City by the Bay can be accomplished by any
theater in any town. Shepard was the YBCA’s
first programmer and built the program from
the bottom up. But instead of thinking broad,
he thought niche. One program of underground
Chinese documentaries hit the city’s
massive Chinese expat community to great
acclaim and helped alert the world to the
existence of a not-so-passionately-communist
Chinese underground. You can argue that as a
non-profit, he can afford to do work like that—
but also that as an arthouse, he can’t afford not
to. Shepard’s done some highly unconventional
work (see him explain his Smut Series
below) but what he’s also doing is proving
that taking the hands-on, get nitty-gritty with
your public approach is the way to survive,
contribute to culture and be part of your town
in an integral and necessary way. You can be a
chain and do this, too—when you’re thinking
like Shepard, very little is “out of bounds.”
What’s the most successful program
you’ve curated at YBCA?
I’ve been here 14 years, so, the most popular
film we’ve ever shown is Zidane. It was
kind of a documentary art film by Douglas
Gordon and Phillip Parreno about the really
famous soccer player and the gimmick was
that you watched an entire soccer match—
the film was one whole game—but the camera
is only focused on Zidane, so you don’t
see the game, just the player. It sounds a little
boring but it was hypnotic and fascinating
and it really found an audience. Notably, the
Chronicle reviewed it in the sports section
and called it “the best sports film ever made,”
and from that point on we could not sell
enough tickets to this film. Our screening
room is small—92 seats—but we sold out
over 30 screenings to the film and brought it
back a couple of time. In terms of a series, the
Muppets retrospective we did a few years ago
was a huge overview of Jim Henson and the
Muppets and it was amazingly popular.
A write-up in a sports section—not the
38 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

arts section—is unusual. Do you think
the review appearing in the sports section
helped alert a new audience to your
theater’s presence?
Definitely. In a major way. We wondered
where were the people coming from? It was a
new audience with a lot of kids and families.
We play more grown-up stuff here, but it was
awesome and new to see kids.
What do you think accounts for your
high turnouts for specialty films?
I’m definitely very involved in knowing my
crowd and trying to play to them. It’s really
important to me to make the film program
here something that’s completely unique
and something that you have to come here to
see. I’m not just circulating films with other
venues. I want to put a Yerba Buena touch on
everything. I’ve gotten to know the audience
pretty well but there’s no “audience” really—
there are “audiences.” The screening room is
small enough that I can do a lot of the niche
programming and do okay. I don’t have to appeal
to everyone—I can do something that’s
going to appeal to the smaller group and find
them, whether we’re talking about an ethnic
film series or something focusing on a director.
It’s hard to articulate, but I think people
look to us for a certain kind of film: offbeat,
challenging, surprising.
But that happens after you’ve developed
a reputation. How did you do
that?
I was the first film curator they hired at
YBCA. They didn’t have a department before
me and so I got to build things from the
ground up exactly the way I wanted them
and have a distinctive programming approach.
It’s cliché to call it edgy, but it is provocative.
We don’t do a lot of programming
you wouldn’t think a contemporary arts center
would do. This past summer I did a whole
series called “Smut Capital of America” about
San Francisco from 1969-1973 and the kind
of pornography culture that arose in the city
during that time. We showed docs about the
period and films that were made.
So you showed porn?
We did show porn. It wasn’t a porn series, but
it was relevant to the subject. San Francisco
was the first city in the US to exhibit hard core
porn. We were the first ones in very late 1969
and from that point on it spread everywhere.
You could judge that, but we were the ones
to start the trend and the series took that as a
starting point and addressed the sex culture
of the city that exploded for a few years after.
And nobody had really done that in a film
series, so it was unprecedented.
How were you been able to show porn
and not get stigmatized for it?
There’s not that much of a stigma around that
anymore. I think things were different when I
first got into that game. I started my programming
career in Minneapolis and doing that
there would be very different than doing it
here. We got one complaint, but now that stuff
is so mundane and everywhere it’s a different
thing. In SF there’s a big sex community and
it’s a big part of the city’s history. It’s present
and so people are actually very supportive of
that kind of programming, largely because it’s
done is a smart and respectable way. It was an
older crowd that came to that Smut Capital
series and they were grateful of that stuff presented
intelligently. We had historical context
and we talked about it openly as something
that shouldn’t be hidden.
And the series exposed a part of exhibition
history that SF was at the front
of—that’s as much to do with business
survival as it is to do with cultural shift.
The economic aspect is really crucial. All
kinds of theaters opened from that point
on and a lot of theaters wanted in. Even our
historic Roxie Theater was a porn theater for
quite some time. But this is just an example
of uniqueness of programming.
But it also bring us back to knowing
your audience, or audiences. How did
you learn them?
There are niches, lots. There’s a cinephile niche
and hipsters looking for offbeat entertainment.
We do a lot of nation-specific or local-specific
stuff. We did a series last year of underground
docs from China, basically zero budget activist
documentaries, all of which were exposing
various government corruption and it’s almost
all material that’s been smuggled out of China.
Obviously, I want everyone to see the stuff but
we have a big Chinese community and with
pretty much every program we do we have
outreach to community we think is going to be
the most interested.
What does the direct outreach look
like?
It’s finding groups, cultural, social, students,
that you think would have a particular interest
and trying to get a word out to them. But
it’s tricky. The ideal way to do it is more of a
two-way process. You help me get your club
to come to this movie and we’ll put information
up about something you’re doing in our
monthly newsletter. Ideally you don’t want
to just ask people to be doing something for
you—you need to get them involved and be involved
yourself. You can’t do it with everything
but the goal is to make it a two-way engagement.
Not just a marketing thing. It’s the difference
between outreach and marketing and it’s
just me and a part time assistant so there’s only
so much I can do. It’s really nitty gritty stuff
that can be frustrating and doesn’t necessarily
pay off, but it’s important. And the reality is: it’s
getting harder to get people to come to movies.
People can get their content in 20 different
ways you really have to do something special
to get them out of their homes to pay $8 for
something that. It’s all incumbent upon giving
them something special.
You don’t program regular theatrical
releases?
Every once in a while I program a theatrical
run, but they’re all indies. Like I did a week
engagement of Gary Hustwitt’s newest [director
of the design docs Helvetica, Objectified and
Urbanized] and we ran all three. We were the
SF-exclusive venue of all of them as they’ve
come out.
How could a for-profit theater involve
a kind of programming that would be
useful to them?
Some commercial theaters are doing things
a little different than what they’ve done before—live
opera and ballet for example—that
are successful. But I think it has to be about
involving the community where you are.
The way to do it, and this is general thinking
on the matter, it’s not going to work to come
up with some idea and hope people come.
It’s more to do with community-based approaches
and working with the people around
you. What group has a specific presence
around you—say, Bollywood films and the
Indian community. It’s a very different thing
everywhere. Sports things and sporting communities
are good, but everything requires
partnership and also actually engaging with
your constituency.
That’s why people choose arthouses.
There’s definitely opportunity to engage.
That’s what people want and respond to—it’s
engagement. Not just being talked out, but
being talked with.
FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 39

SMALL FILMS, BIG POTENTIAL
BOOK IT!
BY SARA VIZCARRONDO
Contact Patrick Meaney
Email patrickmmeaney@
gmail.com
Director Patrick Meaney
Producer Patrick Meaney, Jordan
Rennert
Genre Documentary
Running time 90 min.
WARREN ELLIS:
CAPTURED GHOSTS
The man behind the masks
There’s a joke that when you grow up, you
stop reading comic books and start reading
graphic novels. It’s only half a joke because the
divide between your father’s Batman and today’s
The Dark Knight can’t be more obvious, even if
the medium is the same. Somewhere between
the ‘80s and ‘90s, comics seemed to grow up, and
writer Warren Ellis was one of the geniuses that
stood out in the renaissance. His Transmetropolitan
series about a gonzo journalist in a dystopian
future is like the deranged lovechild of Hunter S.
Thompson and Lex Luther, relocated some time
after Orwell’s 1984. And before you say it’s all an
excuse for randomness, debauchery and visual
flare, the theme of his work is that it questions
the very idea of heroism—and what are comic
books known for if not their heroes? Ellis is a
magnet for comics fans, including for the forum
he created online—a place where many new
artists were discovered and boosted by Ellis, in
part because the man sees no need to separate
himself from his fans. Patrick Meaney’s doc Warren
Ellis: Captured Ghosts hits all the right notes:
his friends range from movie stars (Dame Helen
Mirren) to filmmakers (Joss Wheadon) to comedians
(Patton Oswalt) to porn stars (Stoya), and
they all glow about his generosity while he calls
them liars and acts curmudgeonly. It’s not terribly
surprising that the man behind maniacs and
madmen is a softy, which makes the doc tasty
bait for audiences already into comics—sorry,
graphic novels—and those enthusiasts represent
a huge market. Heck, they already pack Comic-
Con and WonderCon, so they’re clear and easy to
reach. That said, a doc about a comic book writer
can’t promise the draw of a tentpole actioner like
The Avengers, but what’s smart about Captured
Ghosts is it courts the hardcore types that memorized
The Watchmen source material before the
film hit the megaplex—and they’re precisely the
fanbase whose arch enthusiasm and willingness
to travel will help make a hit for a small theater
smart enough to program this film. Program it
to correspond with the opening of a comic-based
blockbuster or timed to the release of new three
books on Ellis’ career which publisher Sequart
will put out shortly. Advertising with the help of
comic book shops, bookstores and even writer’s
groups is a tidy way to lure the right crowd to
your savvy theater.
40 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

LOST BOHEMIA
America kicks art to the curb
It’s where Enrico Caruso made his first
sound recording. It’s where Isadora
Duncan lived with her mother. It’s where
Lee Strasberg taught Marilyn Monroe and
Marlon Brando Method Acting. Even “The
Shakespeare of TV,” Paddy Chayefsky had
a studio. It was a bohemian paradise with
low rents, high ceilings and a system of
saw-toothed skylights that inspired visual
arts on one half of the building and naturally
segregated the dancers/musicians
across the way. The Carnegie Hall Artist
Tower was erected specifically to house
America’s first artist communes in 1895.
The story goes that after Andrew Carnegie
built his hall for musical performances
in 1891, he honeymooned in Europe and
his new wife, inspired by the continent’s
cultural riches, planted a seed in her new
husband’s head that America should be
just as culturally rich as any older nation.
Culture is something earned through
legacy and time—if we’re to respect culture,
we must also respect age. But in 2010,
the last of the artists in literal residence
at the Carnegie lofts, most of whom had
lived there between two and six decades,
were thrown out of their homes and lost
the stabilized rents that made their lives
teaching ballet, piano or acting possible.
The figurehead of the group is the “Duchess
of Carnegie Hall,” a 96-year-old celebrity
portrait photographer whose gravitas
matches the charm and resilience of the
black and white tile in her museum-like
studio. While New York’s mayor says he
supports the culture and arts in New York,
the Carnegie Corporation repurposes the
landmark’s interiors for luxury offices.
Must corporate progress come at the hands
of human progress? The melodrama here
is clear: faceless villains evicting men and
women in the winter of their lives. It conjures
images of sniggering men twisting
handlebar mustaches as they tie damsels
to train tracks. After the head of the Carnegie
Corporation (a British knight, no less)
insists the spaces won’t be used for offices,
we see newly installed cubicles in the studio
Isadora Duncan once inhabited. The
Writer’s Group Mark Twain once visited
is now marred by a trashy particleboard
conference table. It’s all so old, so seemingly
permanent and so shockingly fragile.
With resident Bill Cunningham, the New
York Times fashion photographer, and
his titular doc Bill Cunningham NY on the
Oscar’s 2011 Documentary Shortlist, the
time couldn’t be better to program this doc
about the loss of Cunningham’s longtime
home. Consider Lost Bohemia something
of a sequel. Director Josef “Birdman” Astor,
whose last name is every bit as regal
as that of the building he called home,
poured more than just his love into this
film: the tenants speak of their legacies,
the stories from years before their time
and, most painfully, the history of eccen-
tricity and creation of each space. When it
was built, no two studios were alike—and
now that the artists have been replaced by
office chairs, no two are different.
Contact Josef “Birdman” Astor
Email zoltan2006@verizon.net
Director Josef “Birdman” Astor
Producer Jody Shields, Jonathan Ferrantelli
Genre Documentary
Running time 77 min.
FEBRUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 41

BOOK IT >
Contact Yam Larenas
Email yam12@me.com
Cast Carmina Villaroel, Rhian Ramos, TJ Trinidad, Barbie Forteza, Lexi Fernandez,
Derick Monasterio
Director Yam Larenas
Screenwriters Aloy Adlawan, Yam Laranas
Producer Yam Larenas, Jose Mari Abacan
Genre Horror; Tagalog-language, subtitled
Running time 110 min.
THE ROAD
This Filipino horror hurts so good
In 2007 when ImaginAsian was getting off the
ground, the company distributed a high-caliber
drama called Journey from the Fall about a family
leaving Vietnam for America by boat. That semi-biographical
story of Asian American history was made
in Vietnamese for a presumed arthouse audience—
but ImaginAsian didn’t just hit the generic arthouses
of NY or LA—they did their research and brought
the film to cities known for active Vietnamese communities.
The film’s success proved direct targeting
for specific markets isn’t just a good idea—it’s good
business. It’s with this inspiration I suggest Yam
Larenas teen horror The Road. This small Filipino
production not only tells the story of a joyride gone
horribly wrong, it’s also a Tagalog-language teen flick
with a concept of ghosts and hauntings that’s as regional
as the road the story takes place on. Three kids
borrow their mother’s car to practice driving and get
scared onto a dirt lane where the ghosts of a murder
drive them to deadly distraction. A framing story
about a good but unconventional cop binds three
generations of ghost story together—but this is no
police procedural. The emphasis here is on simple,
slumber-party-style scares, and the ghosts—along
with their maker—are surprisingly sympathetic and
just slightly magical in their grasp of realism.
42 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 2012

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Littleton, CO 80127-4218
Bruce Proctor
303-973-8989
sales@proctorco.com
www.proctorco.com
PG 34
QSC
1665 MacArthur Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Francois Godfrey / 714-754-6175
francois_godfrey@qscaudio.com
www.qscaudio.com
PG 25
QUARTZ LAMPS INC.
4424 Aicholtz Rd.
Cincinnati, OH 45245
888-557-7195
sales@qlistore.com
swww.qlistore.com
PG 43
QUEST
A DIVISION OF THERMA-STOR
4201 Lien Rd.
Madison, WI 53704
800-533-7533
www.questprotect.com
PG 43
READY THEATRE SYSTEMS
4 Hartford Blvd.
Hartford, MI 49057
Mary Snyder
865-212-9703x114
www.rts-solutions.com.com
PG 19
SCREENVISION
1411 Broadway, 33rd Fl.
New York, NY 10018
212-752-5774
www.screenvision
BACK COVER
SENSIBLE CINEMA
SOFTWARE
7216 Sutton Pl.
Fairview, TN 37062
Rusty Gordon
615-799-6366
rusty@sensiblecinema.com
www.sensiblecinema.com
PG 43
SONY ELECTRONICS
One Sony Dr.
Park Ridge, NJ 07656
201-476-8603
www.sony.com/professional
PG 5
TK ARCHITECTS
106 West 11th St., #1900
Kansas City, MO 64105-1822
816-842-7552
tkapo.tharch.com
www.tkarch.com
PG 43
USHIO
5440 Cerritos Ave.
Cypress, CA 90630
714-236-8600
www.ushio.com
PG 8
WHITE CASTLE
555 West Goodale St.
Columbus, OH 43215
Timothy Carroll / 614-559-2453
carrollt@whitecastle.com
www.whitecastle.com
PG 42
JANUARY 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 43

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
BRAD PITT AS PROFESSIONAL
ENFORCER JACKIE COGAN IN THIS
SPRING’S COGAN’S TRADE FROM THE
WEINSTEIN COMPANY
SNEAK PEEK
44 BOXOFFICE PRO FEBRUARY 202

Somewhere...
deep below the restless subduction zone at the
eastern edge of Puget Sound, in the shadow
of the volcanic Cascade Range, there exists
hidden beneath a slippery zone of Lawton clay
a hatchway hewn from the ancient timbers of
the now threatened Whitebark Pine.
As truth became legend, and legend became
myth, the stories of what lay hidden for nearly
a century remained unchanged. The stoic,
unbending believers of these tales—scholars,
philosophers and kings—are now, finally,
being rewarded for their resolute and steadfast
faith in the veracity of what lies beneath.
Using techniques first described by
Muckleshoot tribal elders at a potlatch nearly
100 years ago, stout-hearted adventurers and
treasure seekers recently uncovered evidence
of a vast network of tunnels and caverns
behind this portal, hundreds of meters below
a farmer’s field. At long last, the gateway to
the catacombs has been breached to reveal…
A big pile of magazines. About 3000 of them.
film history at your fingertips
www.BoxOfficeMagazine.com