Cinemark CEO Insists Strikes Won’t Change “Fundamentals” Of Theatrical Recovery, Studios “Doing Everything They Can To Minimize Disruption” To Release Schedule

deadline.com:

Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble said Hollywood strikes currently delaying the production, and promotion, of new films won’t affect “key fundamentals” of a revived exhibition business although they might extend the “recovery trajectory of theatrical film volume a bit.” “We know that our studio partners are doing everything they can to minimize the disruption of content flow and avoid shifts to the extent possible” in the release schedule,” he said on a conference call Friday.

That extent depends on how long strikes by actors and writers take to resolve. He’s hopeful at some movement on that as the WGA is set to sit down with the AMPTP today for the first time since the guild took to the picket lines on May 2.

Studios have started to tweak release dates but “it’s still hard to say for the end of the year with regard to any further shifts.

There’s a lot of work and a lot of planning underway to try to limit the amount of impact they will be on that. A lot will depend on how long the conversations and negotiations continue and the availability of different resources that may be required in the form of writing and promotion to support” releases. “So we are going to have to see.” But he stressed, as have other exhibitors, that after experimenting during Covid, studios now agree “the best way to maximize a film’s value is an exclusive theatrical release and do not plan to scale down film product.” The market will be bolstered by Amazon (eight to 10 releases a year) and Apple (“indications of a similar amount, maybe not that number”).