IAG December 2015

EDITORIAL
Flick Flicked
Chief Executive Officer
Andrew W Scott
Founder and Adviser
Kareem Jalal
Chief Operating Officer
Michael Mariakis
Chief Marketing Officer
Derrick Tran
Director
João Costeira Varela
Administrator
Cynthia Cheang
Administrative Assistant
Suie Ng
Editor at Large
Muhammad Cohen
Contributors
Muhammad Cohen, Dennis Conrad, Paul Doocey,
Kareem Jalal, I Nelson Rose, Andrew W Scott
Graphic Designer
Rui Gomes
Photography
Dave Aglosolos, Gary Wong, Ike,
James Leong, Wong Kei Cheong
Inside Asian Gaming
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Some of you many have heard of the infamous Voynich manuscript. Named after Wilfrid
Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in the early 20th century, the Voynich
manuscript has been radiocarbon dated to the early 15th century and has been described as
the world’s most mysterious book. Why? Because no-one can read it. That’s right, hundreds
of years of analysis by the world’s best code-breakers have yielded nothing but frustration, despite the
book being neatly and clearly handwritten using distinct characters organized into well over 200 pages
of orderly but coded words and paragraphs. The book’s secrets have remained hidden for centuries.
The Voynich manuscript may be a book no-one can read, but right here in Macau we have a
21st century equivalent – a movie no-one can watch! “What movie is that?” I hear you ask. It’s The
Audition, the very movie that itself played a starring role during the opening of Macau Studio City
in late October. Starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Brad Pitt, and
produced by Brett Ratner of RatPac Entertainment, the actors were reportedly paid US$13 million
apiece for clocking on for a mere two days – nice work if you can get it.
James Packer is the Co-Chairman of Melco Crown, the company that operates Studio City and
owns 60% of it. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times on Studio City’s opening day, Packer
described The Audition as “the best marketing campaign in the history of the world.” It ought to be,
as the total budget for this 14-minute masterpiece has been widely reported as a whopping US$70
million. It is noteworthy that Ratner and Packer are partners in RatPac Entertainment, and of course
De Niro also owns the world-famous Nobu restaurant and hotel brand that can be found at Melco
Crown’s City of Dreams Manila and Crown Melbourne – the latter of which Packer is the largest
shareholder of. We’re certainly keeping things in the family here.
From what I hear De Niro and his Hollywood buddies had the power to effectively block most
distribution of the film outside China, including on Studio City’s website, if they weren’t happy with it.
They weren’t. And they are not the only ones. Let me quote the one review I was able to find online:
This is not too great of a movie. The actors and Scorsese all play themselves in slightly more
over-the-top versions. The dialogs weren’t really that great and basically it is just what you could
expect: a promo ad for a new casino. Wish this had better dialogs and more interesting action,
but it’s not the case unfortunately and the actors also seem pretty hammy and over the top here.
Not recommended.
Without exception, every person I have spoken to who has had the privilege of seeing The
Audition has described it in less than flattering terms. “Lame” is a word that has come up more than
once. “Boring” is my description. I would not be surprised if De Niro, DiCaprio, Scorsese and Pitt
want to see The Audition buried and forgotten like a Presidential Candidate’s compromising sex tape
from the ’80s. The film is conspicuously absent from Studio City’s website. When we quizzed Studio
City about the availability of the The Audition, we were told, “It is available in all the guest rooms.
There no need to show it around the building as it is available online.” It is true that the movie is
in the rooms at Studio City and also can be viewed in China online (such as on the Chinese video
platform iQiyi) – but this is hardly the major worldwide distribution one would expect for a film from
four members of Hollywood royalty.
The Macau concessionaires have had a very chequered history with the marketing of their product.
Let’s be honest, who needs marketing when your revenue grows from US$6 billion in 2005 to US$45
billion in 2013 – an average year on year growth of 29% for eight consecutive years? Who could blame
the concessionaires for being less-than-polished in the marketing department?
But all that has changed now. The GGR contraction for 2014 was 3% year-on-year and for 2015
we’ve experienced a dramatic 36% contraction year-on-year to date. Then factor in the massively
increased stream of supply that has already begun to come online with Galaxy 2 and Studio City and
will continue for several years to come with Wynn Palace, Parisian, MGM Cotai, Lisboa Palace and
the uber-luxurious (and uber-hyped) Louis XIII. All of a sudden it’s going to be important to spend
on marketing and spend big in this vastly more competitive environment. No company, not even the
multi-billion dollar Studio City, can afford to waste US$70 million.
The Audition is not absolutely worthless. Having DeNiro and company at the Studio City opening
added serious A-list star power. But “the best marketing campaign in the history of the world”? US$70
million worth? Absolutely not.
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asian gaming December 2015
Andrew W Scott
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