In Wake Of Huge ‘Inside Out 2’ Debut, CineEurope Kicks Off Riding Wave Of Positive Emotions — But Need For More Movies Continues
At the top of an executive roundtable kicking off CineEurope in Barcelona on Monday, Paramount’s President of International Theatrical Distribution Mark Viane gave a shout-out to the massive opening of Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2. “If anyone is here from Disney,” he said to the audience, “congratulations, you really helped kick-start the summer.”
Relief is not an emotion portrayed in the sequel, which exceeded expectations with a $295 million global bow, but it might as well be standing right alongside joy in the minds of the industry. There’s a sense of “phew” among some execs here, while some said they expected a turnaround to hit, while many also lament a negative narrative that’s been surrounding the industry overall.
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As one studio exec said to me Sunday about IO2, “People needed this, especially going into CineEurope.” The conference annually brings together international (largely European) exhibitors and the Hollywood majors to check out what’s on deck for the coming year, and discuss the state of the industry.
An international exhibitor told me this morning that they had been waiting for something to turn the situation in the right direction. “Movies have a floor and sometimes no ceiling, like (Inside Out 2). … It feels good to have it back.”
Enthused another when I asked if they were feeling good today, “I mean, how could you not?”
And yet, amid the one-two punch of successful worldwide releases that started with Sony’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die the previous weekend, the need for a consistent flow of movies remains.
On deck over the next few months are Despicable Me 4 from Universal/Illumination and Disney/Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, as well as Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One and Universal/Amblin’s Twisters (which Warner Bros is handling overseas), all of which look promising.
Still, the greatest lament among executives Deadline has spoken with recently is that there is not enough product in the market in general.
Tim Richards, CEO and founder of Vue International, told us, “I think we’re still going to have an okay year, but we as an industry set records for every genre of movie with every demo so our confidence level in terms of people returning is there, we just need movies, that’s all.”
Despite an erratic flow of product coming into the marketplace, it’s worth celebrating the fact that when it’s there, so are audiences. Inside Out 2 “reinforces” that, said Richards, predicting to CineEurope attendees this morning that this past weekend will be looked back upon as the moment “the narrative in the industry changed.”
During the same executive panel, Giovanni Dolci, Global Chief Sales Officer at Imax, commented, “The endless negative narrative that surrounds our industry is frustrating. We really need to be out there fighting this narrative which (doesn’t) exist when looking at hard data points.”
All execs agreed they are excited about the upcoming slate over the next year and beyond.
Sony’s President of International Distribution, Steven O’Dell, said, “I do believe the audience is going to respond to when we have a consistency of product, product for everybody, the big, the small the everything that is interesting to that particular audience. I think there’s nothing but a lot of excitement within the industry. Nothing is perfect, you try to make great films — you don’t know what will happen — but I think the slate looks very powerful from everybody.”
Viane concurred, “The most exciting thing that we have going for us is we have a full slate of movies coming for the rest of this year, especially when you compare the third and fourth quarters with last year, we really have a full slate. … I just feel like momentum is coming.”
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