Sony Pictures Classics Presidents Michael Barker, Tom Bernard Confident in Theatrical But Blast Exhibitors for Not Expanding Internet Business

variety.com:

Ed Meza @edmezavar Sony Pictures Classicspresidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard offered sound advice to U.S. theater chains, while explaining the reasons behind their continued success, during a discussion at the Zurich Film Festival on Saturday about their colorful and storied partnership that has spanned more than four decades.

Zurich is honoring the duo for their services to film culture with its Game Changer Award on Sunday. Speaking to Roeg Sutherland, co-CEO of CAA Media Finance, at the festival’s Zurich Summit industry event, Barker and Bernard took an engaging and humorous trip down memory lane, from first working together at United Artists Classics and then at Orion Classics, before establishing Sony Pictures Classics in 1992, to working with Akira Kurosawa, and managing to reacquire “Howards End” from Ismail Merchant, despite Harvey Weinstein’s efforts to significantly outbid them.

In discussing the current state of the industry, however, Bernard expressed exasperation with the failure of most exhibitors to fully grasp the vast possibilities offered by digital technology in the face of the severe challenges posed by the pandemic. “These are people who haven’t grasped the internet; they haven’t grasped the way business works.” He noted that one Canadian theater chain was starting to collect names of customers in order to send them messages about new releases according to their tastes. “That’s what Netflix did.

You get three in the mail, we’ll send you three more, and you’re going to like these. And they kept the data. Theaters are not using their data.