State of Entertainment Marketing Keynote Roundtable - Full
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PeopleTranscript
00:00I'm so excited to have you all here. This is the big one. We're going to go page by page through
00:03all your budgets. I just want to do a quick speed dating with everyone if I can. We have
00:10Jenny Storm, CMO of NBCUniversal Streaming and Television. My old pal Dwight Kane,
00:15President of Domestic Distribution at Universal. Newly minted Best Picture winner Christian
00:20Peak, CMO of Neon. Martha Morrison, who oversees incredible portfolio at Pixar,
00:2620th Century, and Walt Disney Animation. Rebecca Keery, who has, I don't know, 45 titles?
00:32Distribution, CMO in Business Affairs, from Searchlight, and JP Richards, Worldwide Head
00:38of Marketing at Lionsgate. These are the people that make things happen. So I want to start,
00:45you know, I've been at this long enough to know that I think every time you've done one of these,
00:49you answer that your biggest challenge in your job is fighting for people's attention. But I wanted to
00:55know about sort of waging that fight in this world with war, tariff escalations, possibly disintegrating
01:02federal government, and just so much on people's minds. How are you guys approaching asking people
01:08to come to the television, come to the movie theater, or even pay attention to the campaigns
01:13you have going on? JP, why don't you start? You're all the way down there.
01:17I mean, that's a loaded question, right? I started with war and tariffs.
01:25It gets easier for me here, Martha. Hi, can you hear me? Starting with a loaded question,
01:32are you? Well, first and foremost, I'm a gigantic consumer of entertainment. Everyone on this stage,
01:38I have been touched by the movies they put out, the shows they put out. And I have to say,
01:44first and foremost, Bob Dylan, incredible campaign, loved everything about it. Romulus,
01:50I was like, I need that remote control slug or whatever it was. I'll sell it to you.
01:55Onora, Oscar winner, long legs. Dwight is someone that I've modeled my entire career on from the day I
02:02started. I absolutely adore this man. And Peacock is a burden on my screen. The thing about all of
02:09those things is people need an escape. So when you talk about everything that's happening in the world,
02:17entertainment provides that escape. And the beauty of us as marketers are how do we leap out against
02:24all this negative stuff with inventive, creative, bold, original marketing. And everyone up here
02:33has done that over the course of this last year that has made me show up to the theater, has made
02:37me turn on the television and escape from the reality that you mentioned at the top, which was terrible
02:43news. Everything that JP said. I don't think you're about to say that. No, I was just going to add,
02:52we are working a business that we hope is, is recession proof. If you're going to give something
02:58up, we have the affordable pastime. You may not travel, you may put your, you know, big purchases
03:06on hold, but what we do is affordable. And so I think to JP's point, we try to give people the easy
03:16escape that they can easily opt into. And we want that habit to continue.
03:22JP, you make a really good point. Historically, when any, even when we're flirting with recession
03:26in this country, entertainment tends to go up because people need escape. How do you guys
03:30personally stay optimistic? And I know you're going to say your filmmakers inspire you, but like,
03:34how do you get in there every day, every day and tell your teams, like, we're going to try to make
03:39this a hit. We're going to try to get people here when, you know, it's, it's hard for us to even
03:42turn on the news and it's our job.
03:45I think it's a little bit following on from what JP said originally, which is, you know,
03:51movies are an art form. It's, we're lucky to be working in a, in an artistic medium, right?
03:58We're working with great filmmakers. We're, we're producing advertising. We're trying to come up,
04:04come up with creative solutions for problems every day. We're, we're, we're challenging ourselves.
04:10Um, and it's incredibly inspiring to be able to work in an industry like this. So, um, the focus
04:16is always, uh, about, you know, how can we present something in the most, um, interesting and
04:25captivating way. And that is just an incredible challenge that if you're a marketeer, it just
04:29drives you from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to bed. And I, and I, and I think
04:33it's just a, it's a pleasure. I'm speaking for myself, but I think it's true of everybody here
04:37to be able to work in this business. I think you're also inspired when you hear
04:42from the consumers directly, it might be a social media post. It might be something that's going on
04:46where you find out that what you're doing is something that's resonating with them, right?
04:51It might feel small or it might feel enormous like an SNL 50th anniversary, but those types
04:56of things when they're coming across and people are finding that escapism and finding that joy
05:01and sort of community, bringing community together in a moment like that during the special and
05:07the radio city music special as well. That's when you say this is inspirational because you've
05:12done something that's brought value to people's lives and they're appreciative and therefore
05:17they come to you for that. Um, so I think that keeps you going and keeps you wanting to do more
05:22of the same. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a really fair point and well said, and the fans
05:30are really something that I think we all work in, in different capacities in business that are really
05:35fan oriented. Uh, and so, you know, something like D23 or being at a comic con with any of the
05:40Marvel movies is extremely exciting. So you can feel pessimistic about the business, but then you go
05:46and you watch how people are reacting to, to everything that you're putting out in the world. And it's
05:50seems impossible that there is an optimism about what's next. Uh, you see things perform incredibly
05:56well, like what happened with, with Barbie or what happened with wicked. And it's, it seems like
06:01there, it, the optimism is, is driving all of us, but it is also something that just comes with the
06:08entertainment space. As long as I have you, Martha, it's so interesting too, because I feel like for
06:13your consumer base, you've got this, these incredible brands of, you know, iconic animation houses and
06:20family content, do you find that as the months tick by into this year and it's like, you know,
06:24there's a broaching storm, like our family is just as eager to, you know, or, or reticent or more
06:30eager to get into theaters to, to find things to do together. Um, cause it must be hard, even just
06:35economically. I think people are starved for family content. I mean, you see that something comes out
06:38that families can go to and just, there is a massive surge of people going and, um, and post pandemic,
06:46I think it was slower to come back, but it has come back with a vengeance. Um, we have things like
06:51elemental for us a couple of years ago and the opening weekend wasn't certainly not what we wanted
06:55it to be, but then it played the entire summer and it was available to families. It's a great movie and
07:00people were able to discover it on their own terms throughout the summer. Uh, and many, many other
07:05films also played the same way. Um, and so I think if we are bringing the product to the theatrical
07:11environment or to our streaming services, um, people are, are looking for it. They want something
07:16to do with their kids. Um, they are excited to go back to the movies and we're really seeing that
07:20kind of across the board. And when we saw it with Mufasa over Christmas that, um, again, we, you know,
07:26saw it play all through that entire time period with Christmas being one of our biggest days. Who are
07:30people going with? Their families. You know, they were really excited to go out and do that together.
07:33So we're definitely seeing that if we bring it to them, they want to come out and experience it with us.
07:39Sorry, Christian, were you about to talk about your family film, Anora?
07:44No, he was going to talk about Long Legs.
07:47Yeah, between Long Legs and Anora, we've got the whole family covered.
07:51No, it was, um, you know, for us, it's, we don't have these brands, we don't have these big IPs, but we treat
07:58every film as if they're a brand unto themselves. Long Legs, when we got that, it's, you're creating a world,
08:03you're creating a brand there. Anora in itself became a brand, but Sean,
08:08Sean, even though Sean Baker, the writer-director, he would never,
08:13he would recoil at the thought of being called a brand, but he is a, he is a brand.
08:18Um, but the key thing for us, and Neon is, is different from the rest of these incredible
08:24companies, much smaller, um, smaller film, smaller budget, smaller team, but the, we try and operate
08:33at a, at the highest possible level so that we can sit on the stage with, with these incredible
08:38companies and with the films these companies releasing and, and, and, and shows. But everything
08:44for us is about the audience, and it's about understanding the audience, and I think what
08:48you're seeing right now, obviously there was, there was a tough first quarter, but the response
08:53to Minecraft, the response to Sinners, audience first, and that's what happened. They listened,
08:59and they tapped in to audiences, excuse me, tapped into audiences, and you do this incredibly well,
09:09um, but it's understanding those audiences, defining those audiences, and then speaking to them
09:14in a way that, um, that excites them. And so when you ask the question, what gets us going every day,
09:22yes, it's the filmmakers, we're stewards of films, it's really about the filmmakers and what they've
09:27created, but it's the audience, and knowing that I feel that we have an obligation, and I think it was
09:35you that said entertainment, we are actually in the entertainment business, and we're here, you ask how do
09:41you get people to escape? Well, that's ultimately what film and television is, it's an escape from
09:47everything that's going on outside, and sometimes it can push, and it can challenge, but it's a distance
09:51you from ultimately, and I would say in particular right now, the harsh environment that we all find
09:57ourselves in. One quick follow-up for you while, while we're on the topic, um, I think, you know,
10:03not to get too, uh, granular, but we obviously have a variety cover the awards industrial complex very
10:08closely, despite being a big part of it. Um, we're very proud of that. Uh, you had to carry on
10:14this campaign for Enora through a really wild, uh, precursory award season, where I think there was
10:20a very clear presumptive winner, if you asked a couple of, not a couple, a lot of people, and then
10:25out of nowhere, you guys came back with such a vengeance through the PGA awards, the DGA awards,
10:30and you're talking about a film that you made for six million, and I just, as of today, I think you
10:34eked over 60, which is a wonderful, uh, return for an independent film, but what was it like?
10:38Having to push through, not just getting audiences to see it on the back of your many accolades,
10:43but also facing this prospect that you might not take home what you did, which is a record-breaking
10:48four Oscars, only Sean Baker and Walt Disney, like that, you had to have gloated that night a little
10:53bit. It was, it was a really good night. It was a really good night. Um, and more than anything,
10:59we were happy less for ourselves and more for Sean and for Mikey and for the filmmaking team,
11:05because as I just said, we're stewards for these films, excuse me, it's Sean's film, and
11:12it's Sam's film, and it's Alex's film, and it's everyone else who worked to bring that
11:16film to life. We then have to shepherd this thing and get it to the, the best audience
11:21that we feel the film will resonate with. For the awards component of it, um, I'm not going
11:29to lie. The awards races, they're hell, because you, you also, you have no idea whether things
11:36are working up until the point that someone opens an envelope and does or doesn't call
11:41your name. And so the highs and lows are ridiculous, but you're throwing stuff out there, hoping
11:47that this voting body that is spread across the world, that, um, some are in the industry,
11:55some are out of the industry, all different, all different trades within, uh, within the
12:00film industry. You hope that they love what you're talking about. And it was funny. There
12:07was a filmmaker on another film. I said, how's it going? And he was like, I'm just trying
12:12to spend every second of every day not getting canceled. And, and that's how we feel as well,
12:18because the wrong piece of material can suddenly unravel. And then there's this whole hyperbole
12:25that spins out, but the hardest part, and we've been incredibly fortunate in the success
12:32that we found at Cannes, and then carrying that through first with Parasite to a lesser
12:37extent with an anatomy of a fall, but Palm Door winner and obviously a Nora Palm Door winner
12:42into the Oscar campaign. Um, I was saying, you know, talking with JP earlier at the front
12:51of an awards campaign, you don't want to be the front runner because all eyes are on you
12:55and everyone's trying to take you down. So you want to be kind of slow and steady and
12:59build momentum as you go. And a Nora was at the front. And then the perception was that
13:04it fell back. But people that really understood that film from a craft standpoint, and this
13:12is where the, the DGA, the PGA, like that weekend when everything shifted, it was like,
13:18those are the significant moments and those are the significant voting bodies that recognize
13:25the craft of Sean's work. And it wasn't like, it wasn't, you know, Neon did a lot of work,
13:32but if Sean didn't make the film that he made, it would not have succeeded. Um, but it's a lot
13:40of work. It's a, it's a, it's a ton of work. And it's a, this one was incredibly strategic
13:46because we were coming at it from a completely different place. So we had to target a series
13:50of different audiences at different times, and then different essentially plot lines
13:55or narratives, those were woven through. So it was, you know, we mapped it out, but you're
14:00also changing in real time because you don't win an award somewhere or someone is in a, in
14:09a competitive race is climbing. And so it's like, okay, what do we have to do to, to, to
14:14get around that? But the through line in everything is being respectful of the film, respectful
14:20of the filmmakers, um, and just trying to present that film in the very best way possible.
14:25Congratulations. Um, Troy, speaking of awards, I know that Wicked had this incredible run
14:30last year with nominations, huge box office success, and you guys have to do it again in
14:33like five minutes. So what juice is left in the berry? Like, well, uh, you know, we always
14:42approach every movie, uh, with commercial success first, you know, awards are great, but we know
14:50we have big box office aspirations. Um, we shot two films at once. They have to work. And
14:59so there were moments where Wicked was a front runner. Uh, I like how you guys were sort of
15:04dancing around that. Um, great weekend in my house, but, but you know, this is a movie
15:09that did three quarters of a billion dollars. And so that allows us to say, great, we're
15:14set up for the next one, which is already shot, right? Imagine if that didn't work. And so the
15:19enterprise is focused on making that a success. And one of our superpowers to do that is, is
15:25symphony, which, which Jenny oversees, right? Activating the entire company against a project,
15:31whether it's theatrical or TV or streaming and making everybody contribute towards its
15:37success. And so that's, that's really our focus. And then when the awards happen, yeah, we,
15:41we sort of haven't stopped. We're still in market. Wicked is at home. We're gearing up
15:46for the next movie. Uh, and hopefully people will love Wicked for good and hopefully it'll be
15:52changed for good. But, um, uh, yeah, I think, I think our company is uniquely positioned to
15:57activate against all pillars to make that happen. I cannot wait for Wicked for good.
16:04Sing some of it now. I am like, they haven't even released a trailer yet. I'm like, where's
16:09the trailer? Where's the trailer? Yeah, where's the trailer? Can we get the trailer right now,
16:14Dwight? Ladies and gentlemen, let's run the trailer. I'm sure he has it on his phone. We
16:20can just mirror it up to the screen. No. Please, Dwight. I think Jenny was about to talk about my
16:25favorite thing, which is symphony. I, I, I'm obsessed with that. I wish it was a plot point
16:30on 30 Rock. I love you. Thank you. Please tell me. I do kind of feel like a contortionist right
16:34now. I just wanted to start with that. I just want to follow up on one thing Dwight was
16:38saying it is a super, symphony is a superpower, but I do believe the one, um, sort of superpower
16:43that we have just foundationally as a company now, because you and I both sit under Donna Langley
16:48is the fact that we have a content strategy that will allow our strong IP and franchises
16:53to live longer and be more in the presence of consumers because of the fact that it started
16:59with you and your team went into the sort of pivot and home entertainment, and now it's sitting
17:04with us on Peacock. So we're going to give back through the infinity loop and
17:08be able to sort of showcase that just for context. We had 882 million minutes watched
17:13of Peacock. It's the highest pay one film, um, for wicked. So we are then providing a bit
17:18of that re renewed launch pad as wicked for good trailer comes along. And then we're going
17:24to continue the sort of flywheel back over. Um, symphony is our secret sauce is that our
17:29belief, it is our belief that we are better together as a company. Um, but the most important
17:33thing that we do is we built a culture of collaboration that, you know, we've operationalized
17:39it. And this is really hard to do. It's taken over a decade, but we will stand down as individual
17:45businesses in order to provide another business to elevate because as individuals, we might
17:52be sitting in a business unit, but we believe it's the sum of the parts, you know, is greater
17:57than the whole type of a thing. So that's why we come together. And it's one of the most
18:01incredible things we do across the company. And the reason why we do it is has impact
18:05on a yearly basis. We continue to over deliver on what your expectations are. Our expectation
18:12is actually to two, three, four, five, or 10 X that, which we were hopefully, I think
18:17we were able to do for wicked and we'll do for wicked for good. Can I quote you?
18:23Yes. You can take that one to the bank, Dwight.
18:26I want to hear from you, but let me ask you in all, in all seriousness, have you already
18:30started those conversations for the new Chris Nolan film, The Odyssey?
18:33Of course.
18:34I mean, obviously.
18:35Yes.
18:36Of course.
18:36Expect all the Olympic athletes to come and do a triad for this entire...
18:39We do two years of planning in that type of work for Symphony.
18:42What do you know about the movie?
18:44Can we see the trailer right now?
18:47Christian, do you want to...
18:48I think there's a book by Homer out there that...
18:51It doesn't ring a bell.
18:52Who reads?
18:53But, you know, the other thing, jumping on what you're saying as well, so I was in the
18:59Philippines when Wicked came out.
19:01I saw the film in the Philippines, and you're not just talking about this on a domestic level,
19:07on a truly global scale, and it's incomprehensible.
19:12That campaign was mind-boggling in its scale and its reach and how it impacted just culture
19:21as a whole.
19:23In that window, it dominated every single corner, and you can't get that without truly working
19:31in the collaborative space, but also having the resources and the teams and the synergy
19:37or the symphony, as you say.
19:38And it's incredibly impressive.
19:42So kudos to you guys.
19:44It was amazing.
19:45And that wasn't a slam dunk.
19:47That wasn't a given that Wicked was going to work.
19:49You know, the play's been around for 21 years.
19:52It's a privilege to be able to see live theater, right?
19:55So we knew the rabid fan base wasn't going to take us to the numbers we needed.
19:59We had to expand beyond that.
20:01That's why this collaboration is so important.
20:03We needed to reach audiences who said, you know what?
20:05I don't go to musicals, but I see myself in that movie.
20:10I see myself in those characters.
20:12I've been othered, and I see myself in the rise of One Girl to Power and the discovery
20:20of one woman's heart.
20:21Like, those things were real.
20:22And it did become a cultural moment, especially, and this is when entertainment works the best.
20:29When the country or the world is feeling things, we can offer that escape, right?
20:36Or that warm hug.
20:37And I think everything just worked out perfectly.
20:39No, Dwight.
20:39There's a world where that movie could have worked out like a No Shade, but like a Rob Marshall's
20:44Nine.
20:45And you got instead like Jurassic numbers.
20:47So congratulations.
20:48I disagree with that.
20:50I love that movie, I'm just saying.
20:51No, no.
20:52It's not wicked.
20:52Rebecca, sort of in this vein of symphony and larger corporate, the firehose of corporate
20:58power, I think as a longtime sort of devotee to Searchlight, how has Hulu really been for
21:05you guys in terms of not only introducing more people to the brand, but also in sort of
21:11helping you underwrite your ambitions as a company?
21:14It's been pretty incredible, actually, for us, because obviously we're on Hulu, we're now
21:20Hulu on Disney+, we're on Disney+, around the rest of the world, outside the U.S., and
21:26to be able to collaborate with in-company partners on windowing, marketing on platform, what provides
21:40kind of the best for both worlds.
21:43We had our 30th anniversary last year.
21:45We worked on a big 30th anniversary campaign with them.
21:48We have Black Swan anniversary coming up this year.
21:51We have lots of stuff in the pipeline.
21:54That, and Hulu obviously has a lot of our catalog.
21:58So, we're able to work really, really closely with them on marketing and publicity, which
22:04is just incredible for us.
22:06And it's given us an additional spoke to our business that we've never had before.
22:11Obviously, our old deal was with HBO.
22:14That was our old Fox pay one deal, which was great.
22:18They were also really good partners, but there's nothing like being able to literally walk over
22:22to somebody's office and go, hey, what do you think about this date, and could we cycle
22:27back in X, which would really help, we think, with that.
22:31And, you know, we have a searchlight hub on Hulu.
22:35It's been phenomenal.
22:37Do you think that's going to lead to an increased output from you guys at any point, at least
22:40on the acquisitions front, even?
22:42Well, theatrical is still the driver for us, obviously, for everything.
22:47So, in terms of increased output, theatrical will always drive our movies, and I, you
22:55know, we like producing our own movies.
22:58We like acquiring.
22:59Obviously, the acquisitions market is much more challenged than it's ever been.
23:03It's been challenging for a long time, actually, but it doesn't get any easier.
23:08So, it's really about, you know, partnering on, sometimes we'll partner on movies that
23:16work well for them, like Summer of Soul, The Dock, that we loved theatrically distributing.
23:22But it also, it was a partnership kind of acquisition with Hulu.
23:26So, there are certain things that we can work on together, but a lot of it is really about
23:30us producing and acquiring and then working with Hulu as that streaming pay one destination.
23:37It's also, you know, having all of our films in both these ecosystems, in Hulu and Disney
23:43Plus, it is everybody's success begets everybody else's success, which is, I think, something
23:48you guys were speaking to as well.
23:50You know, we have a massive hit in Moana, too, and I think we've been very open about
23:54Moana working really well on our service and having a billion streams, being the first
23:58movie to have a billion streams, and we saw another massive surge of success with what
24:02was happening on the service with Moana and all Moana-related content, and a similar
24:06thing happened with Inside Out, and the Apes movies, and the Aliens movies on Hulu.
24:10So, everybody sort of benefits whenever there is a level of success, and having Disney Plus
24:16and Hulu within our family means that we can all capitalize on that in a great way.
24:21It's also pretty incredible in terms of what it means around the world, right?
24:24The fact of the matter is Disney Plus exists around the world.
24:28We're able to speak to our Disney Plus partners and affect change or come up with strategies
24:34that benefit both of us.
24:36And again, you know, take us back six years ago, and we would have to talk to, like, pay TV
24:44partner in X territory, X territory, X territory, you know.
24:47And it's just not that easy to coordinate that around the world.
24:51So, it's been pretty life-changing.
24:55JP, I want to talk to you for a minute about, you know, Lionsgate is no stranger to franchise
24:59content, obviously.
25:01People still can't shut up about Twilight.
25:03I don't want them to, but I love it so much.
25:05But if you look at something like, you guys are about to release Ballerina, and I feel
25:09like it's a good example, that entire series, plus your Hunger Games prequel work, where
25:15I think that you guys are internally setting a pace and an ambition for one project and letting
25:20audience dictate how much bigger it becomes after that.
25:23And you can even see that in some of the Paul Feig stuff you do, like a sequel to Another
25:27Simple Favor.
25:27So, first question, what was it like to market a Blake Lively movie in the past six months?
25:32I didn't market a Blake Lively movie.
25:34That's an Amazon MGM movie.
25:37Oh, that's correct.
25:37I'm sorry, the first one was...
25:38It was made by Lionsgate, but I didn't have to market it, so...
25:41See, my dream question got the better of.
25:41Don't have to answer that question.
25:44How much should you sympathize with them?
25:45No, but to talk about the John Wick universe, I do think that you're the incredible expansion
25:51of that world, and you've franchised off into video games and graphic novels and hotel
25:55pop-ups and all this kind of stuff.
25:57How do you keep your arms around it while still ensuring some kind of quality from your end?
26:01Well, I think Martha made a really salient point, which is about fanship, and I think
26:06we all work in the fanship business.
26:08For me and for the team, John Wick, Hunger Games, it's all about fans, right?
26:16And so often in the olden days, which is probably like five years ago, but whatever, our social
26:24strategy around fans would exist only around the marketing of the movie itself, but now
26:29it's 24-7.
26:30It's always on.
26:31It's community management.
26:32It's engagement.
26:33And for the team, working on John Wick on a 24-hour basis almost is incredible.
26:41And then when you get the opportunity to expand the universe, both in television and also in
26:47the films, it's even better and greater.
26:51And having Ballerina come out in six weeks is great for us.
26:54We're very excited.
26:55We're starting to roll out more news about The Hunger Games with initial casting for the
26:59next movie after the launch of the book.
27:01That's the stuff that fuels us.
27:05You know, I think Dwight can relate to this.
27:08There's a lot of fans on the internet that don't always say the things you want them
27:11to say.
27:12But we're seeing all of the fans really communicate in smart, strategic ways, and we listen to
27:16them.
27:17And you'll hear that come up in some of the decisions we make, how we engage them, how
27:22we even put them in the movie.
27:24So it's really, really fun to work on the franchises.
27:27To that point, it feels like, and I say this delicately, but it feels like there has not
27:32been, as we've sadly seen in the past, a sort of core audience rejection of someone like
27:38Anna to Armas, whose incredible character, full universe spinoff, that maybe has not been
27:47as subject to some of the misogyny or hate that places like Disney have had to contend with.
27:52And that must be heartening for you guys, right?
27:53You don't have to set filters inside the office or anything?
27:56Well, I would say, please go see Ballerina.
27:59It's in theaters in June.
28:02And for anyone that saw the CinemaCon piece that we showed, she embodies this character
28:08beyond belief.
28:11She truly is something else.
28:14She's a force, both as an actor, her physicality, and then also the emotionality of her character.
28:20Yet at the same time, she so perfectly fits into the John Wick universe that it feels seamless,
28:26although it's a whole other side of that universe, whole other side of that universe.
28:30So, you know, she's incredible, and we're very fortunate that we get to work with her.
28:34Jenny, not to make you feel left out, you're in the TV world over here, but I had something
28:39I specifically wanted to ask you.
28:41We just came back in April from CinemaCon, which is a convention of the movie theater
28:45owners every year.
28:47And Tom Rothman, always good for a sound bite, God bless, we love Tom Rothman, got up and
28:51introduced his new series of Beatles films from the perspective of each character.
28:56Danny Boyle's directing, you know, every magazine cover or perfume ad you've seen, those four
29:01guys are in the film, and he said on stage that the way they're going to roll them out
29:06week after week over one month next summer, he's calling it the first bingeable theatrical
29:11experience, and it just got me thinking about, like, is there anything you think that the
29:16theatrical business can and should borrow from your world of series and TV streaming
29:20to eventize stuff like that?
29:22I mean, it's not an easy thing to do to make four feature films back to back.
29:26I'm not quite sure that's even going to happen, so we'll see what magic they use to create
29:29these four prints, but any advice you have?
29:32No, and I think, you know, your two options there, if not probably many more options, and
29:37you think about it in the streaming universe, you do have a binge opportunity where someone
29:40can sit down and watch the entire season of Real Housewives, you know, in one episode
29:46or, you know, in one sitting, which many people do.
29:49I think there's that option for truly binging, but there's also then, to do something week
29:54to week, I think what we found is there definitely needs to be the urgency.
29:58There needs to be the need state around attending, going to it, getting back to it again.
30:04Repetition is always good.
30:06I'm sure sort of night of the week, branding, things like that.
30:09But it's definitely an incredible idea.
30:12The thinking that I would have is, we're a little easier because we're in the home, so,
30:16or we're on the go with you.
30:18We're in your pocket, or we're sitting, you know, in that television screen in your house.
30:22So, it's a little bit more easily accessible, shall we say, for television.
30:26But from a film standpoint, it's a neat idea, and I think you could do some pretty cool live
30:31events stunting around it to try to bring people into it.
30:34So, definitely an interesting idea.
30:37Anybody else?
30:38You don't have to talk about anyone else's movies.
30:40It's fine.
30:41Oh, I can say I can't wait.
30:42I think it's a bold, exciting idea, and I think with the right filmmakers and the right
30:48cast, I cannot wait to see what they do with it.
30:52And by the way, we're at a point in our time, in our industry, where we have to be bold.
30:57We have to be different.
30:58We have to push new strategies and learn from one another.
31:00So, I applaud them for that.
31:02Well, and it's being done with the participation of Apple Corps, with the Beatles company.
31:07So, they're really going to have unprecedented access to be able to tell a story nobody else
31:11could.
31:11And so, they do have something special to create some urgency.
31:14One thing I think of that's just got to be a dicey prospect from the talent position,
31:18right?
31:18Because one of those guys is going to have the least grossing movie.
31:22You don't want to be the Ringo of the theatrical, bingeable.
31:29I'm sure Barry will be fabulous.
31:31I know we're running out of time here, but I did, someone, I spoke to another marketing
31:36executive the other week who said something really interesting about, they're not here,
31:41so I can't name them.
31:43Shit, no.
31:44They talked about, you know, in a very recent big hit movie, that it sort of helped them
31:50break apart their entire, like I think JP, you said, community engagement, fan strategy.
31:55And for the first time, I think, as a studio, approach something like TikTok as almost like
31:59a cable entity where you have to program for individual channels and approach, even if
32:04anybody's using X anymore, sadly, I still do.
32:07But like, you know, approaching that as an individual content vertical, as opposed to
32:11saying like, oh, let's do a flash mob, and then that'll be our thing we do for TikTok.
32:15So, I mean, how much of that?
32:16I know you guys are all having meetings about Gen Alpha and Gen Z, probably monthly check-ins
32:22at this point.
32:23So how prevalent are these things in your lives every day, every week?
32:26Like how much on the agenda is going?
32:28Yeah, let me just jump in because it's something we think about a lot.
32:31You know, a Gen Z consumer enjoys parasocial relationships with, you know, the thing they
32:39love, right?
32:40It's a one-sided relationship with a celeb or an influencer or with a brand.
32:45And so we have to approach them with an awareness of that and try to actually see them and make
32:53them feel a relationship that drives them out of the house, drives their fandom, drives
33:01their tune-in, drives them to the box office.
33:04Because for the most part, this is a generation, 12 to 27, that's grown up during the most
33:11cataclysmic time ever.
33:13And they, you know, they long for real relationships and they find them in social, but they're not
33:21always real relationships, right?
33:23So we have to approach with a kind of care.
33:26When I think about what everybody on this panel does around fandom, you know, we have
33:32to provide them with the asset and be okay with them owning the asset and not panic when
33:38they create content with that asset, right?
33:41So that's an evolution I think we're all still coping with a little bit.
33:45And creating your own content, your own UGCA, is an iteration of fandom.
33:51It's just a reality now that you have to allow that so that you are celebrating with the
33:57audience rather than restricting them from something that they love.
34:01It's done out of great fanship, which we've all talked about.
34:04But yeah, I think it's absolutely fair to say that every campaign we're looking at, we
34:07are programming all these social channels.
34:09We're building custom assets.
34:11We are looking at how people are communicating and we're treating it completely different than
34:14any other part of the campaign.
34:16You have to be doing that now.
34:18Otherwise, people will know it's marketing and reject it.
34:20It's an interesting thing about Gen Z and Gen Alpha because I'm personally obsessed with
34:25them, right?
34:27Because we have to be.
34:28It's our jobs to get them to consume our movies and theaters because we just do.
34:34One thing that we saw in terms of the research was they like to hang out with each other.
34:40But guess what?
34:41Not in person.
34:42Boys like to hang out with each other in the game.
34:47And girls, females like to hang out with each other on FaceTime.
34:51So how do we break into that, right?
34:54But then we look at movies like Minecraft where the social conversation that they are so part
35:00of became part of the theater conversation.
35:03They were actually in theaters on TikTok sharing real time so people could be jealous of their
35:10experience.
35:10Piracy.
35:11Well, it's not.
35:12I don't think it's really piracy.
35:14It was it was they weren't capturing the screen as much as they were capturing each other and the
35:18pandemonium happening around that.
35:21Our jobs are to be able to create a moment where they can be invited to do the same thing in our
35:27other experiences or whatever we're selling is as far as movies go.
35:31So that's not an easy thing to crack, but it's our jobs to try to do it.
35:36But yeah, it's a fascinating generation.
35:40Anybody else?
35:41I just want to say you guys are really good sports, but seriously, thank you so much for
35:44keeping us inspired, keep us excited, helping us not be so cynical and holding us all together.
35:50Seriously, thank you for your innovation and for your time.
35:51Give it up.