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當?shù)貢r間8月23日-26日，延期了16個月的全球電影產(chǎn)業(yè)大會CinemaCon 在美國拉斯維加斯凱撒宮舉行。這是一次涵蓋電影業(yè)熱點研討、新片推介及觀摩、洽談交易、設備展示及貿(mào)易等方面的行業(yè)展會，吸引全球包括電影創(chuàng)作、宣發(fā)、影院投資商、電影院線、技術(shù)人員的前往。由于疫情的影響，展會規(guī)模有了較大幅度的縮減，很多其他區(qū)域的觀眾和展商都無法前往。根據(jù)其官網(wǎng)信息，今年共有129家參展單位。

在當前環(huán)境下，CinemaCon 2021的召開對美國電影行業(yè)來說意義深遠。主辦方NATO的總裁兼首席執(zhí)行官John Fithian發(fā)表歡迎致辭。他在演講中講述了這一年來電影行業(yè)面臨的困境、行業(yè)各界為抗擊疫情所做的努力、目前的恢復狀況以及未來要努力的方向。

以下是演講全文：

2020年2月的最后一周、3月的第一周，我們看到了新冠疫情的迅速蔓延，成為大流行病。我們根據(jù)當時的情況科學制定防疫策略，訂制了數(shù)千瓶洗手液、雇了更多的保潔人員（當時沒有人真正談論口罩問題）。米高梅和索尼先后宣布《007：無暇赴死》和《彼得兔 2：逃跑計劃》延期上映。South by Southwest 和 NAB 展覽都取消了，3月10日NATO執(zhí)行委員會做出了取消CinemaCon 2020的決定，這個決定艱難但適宜。

當時，我認為取消 CinemaCon 2020將是最困難的挑戰(zhàn)，如果電影院被迫關(guān)閉那也是只幾個月的時間，然后一切將重新開始?，F(xiàn)在看起來是多么天真。今天，放映行業(yè)仍在忍受其歷史上最長的生存危機，從現(xiàn)在起需要一年或更長時間才能完全恢復。

（圖片來源于網(wǎng)絡）

在宣布取消 CinemaCon 2020 的 16 個月后，我們非常高興你們能夠回到 CinemaCon。對于那些無法在 2021 年回到拉斯維加斯的人，我們期待在明年 4 月的 CinemaCon 2022 上與您一起慶祝。

我在撰寫發(fā)言稿時，美國 50 個州中有 49 個州允許電影院以 100% 的上座率開放，80% 的顧客對重返電影院感到滿意，為中小放映商提供的聯(lián)邦撥款，一半已經(jīng)到位，已向各種規(guī)模放映商提供了不同的國家補助和稅收減免計劃，許多電影堅持了上映計劃，并且越來越多的電影擁有獨家放映窗口。

國際上也正在取得積極進展，盡管一些地區(qū)重新開放影院比美國晚幾個月。而另一些地區(qū)仍然面臨很大挑戰(zhàn)。在歐洲，大多數(shù)主要電影市場已經(jīng)開始重新開放（這是疫情大流行期間的第二次）并且業(yè)務正在恢復。亞洲區(qū)域一部分有優(yōu)勢，也有一些仍然面臨挑戰(zhàn)。澳大利亞的情況一直不錯，但最近爆發(fā)的疫情再次導致一些影院倒閉。拉丁美洲仍然是一個喜憂參半的地區(qū)，一些市場正在復蘇，而另一些市場則徹底倒下。但在開放的國內(nèi)和國際市場之間，有足夠的業(yè)務來維持電影發(fā)行。隨著疫苗的持續(xù)推出，情況有望繼續(xù)改善。

（圖片來源：艾維圖庫）

我相信我們已經(jīng)走過一條很長的隧道，到了盡頭，看到了光明。雖然行業(yè)不會馬上恢復到 2019 年的水平，但我們有人們想看的電影，我們正在經(jīng)歷西方國家票房數(shù)字的不斷增長。數(shù)月以來，中國的電影觀眾已經(jīng)證明，開放和安全的電影市場因好影片而強勁復蘇。這就是 CinemaCon2021 最重要的事情——電影。索尼、米高梅、華納兄弟、霓虹（NEON）、迪斯尼、環(huán)球、焦點影業(yè)、派拉蒙和獅門影業(yè)的電影展示會（按本周當前日程排序）讓我們感到非常興奮和感激。

我們也很高興地看到大多數(shù)展商和贊助商重返展會。當然，當前的經(jīng)濟情況迫使參展商壓縮了展廳空間，甚至有一些在 2022 年 4 月的展會之前無法重新加入我們。但大多數(shù)人還是在拉斯維加斯參加展會，并且與客戶重新建立聯(lián)系。我很高興我能夠在展館里拿一杯健怡可樂和一些玉米片，看看最新的豪華躺椅。

（圖片來源：艾維圖庫）

我們有很棒的公共研討會、許多重要的NATO私人會議、美食盛宴和派對。終于可以再次與這么多行業(yè)同仁面對面交流整整四天，這會不會很有趣？

那么，我們是如何熬過這 16 個月并證明“殺不死你的終將會讓你變得更強大”這句格言的呢？我們?nèi)绾尾拍茉俅尉奂诰S加斯學習、交流和慶祝電影體驗？我們一起努力！  NATO和 CinemaCon 工作人員以及數(shù)百名會員志愿者一起進行了前所未有的日常危機管理。在我代表影劇院運營商的 30 年時間里，我們的行業(yè)從未面臨過如此艱巨的任務——真正的生存挑戰(zhàn)。

首先是世界各地的電影院關(guān)閉，給我們行業(yè)從業(yè)者帶來了困難。在美國，“Will Rogers 電影先鋒組織”加強了一項員工救濟補助計劃，該計劃幫助了數(shù)千名員工；NATO和索尼各出資 100 萬美元； 獅門影業(yè)舉辦了一場非?？岬哪季杌顒印獮榧彝ヌ峁┲芪逋砩系碾娪埃晃覀兌荚趲椭覀兊膯T工。 然后，NATO倡議國會立法，為休假的工人提供聯(lián)邦補充失業(yè)補助。國際放映商巨頭在其所在的區(qū)域做著類似的努力。這是一個照顧自己人的行業(yè)。

接下來，我們需要制定一個安全地重新開放電影院的計劃。一個由會員組成的工作組與NATO工作人員和兩位領(lǐng)先的流行病學家合作制定了“CinemaSafe”協(xié)議，這是一套健康和安全協(xié)議。NATO和我們的會員通過公開宣傳和精選的數(shù)字廣告支持該計劃，并得到NATO儲備基金的資金支持。（順便說一句，在新冠大流行期間該儲備基金在許多方面都發(fā)揮了至關(guān)重要的作用，該基金來自 ShoWest 和 CinemaCon 的收益，由NATO董事會和投資委員會成員管理，他們在過去的20年里幫助我們發(fā)展基金，只是為了應對這樣的危機。）

（圖片來源：艾維圖庫）

CinemaSafe計劃給了我們的顧客信心，讓他們在影院獲準開業(yè)后能夠重新回歸。NATO全國各地的下屬單位不遺余力地與NATO和CinemaSafe工作組合作，說服國家監(jiān)管機構(gòu)可以讓電影院再次安全開放。

CinemaSafe協(xié)議還協(xié)助我們與工作室合作，將一些電影推向市場。華納兄弟和克里斯托弗·諾蘭的《信條》值得打高分，同樣的還有Solstice Studios發(fā)行的《精神錯亂》。

在全球影院聯(lián)合會（Global Cinema Federation）以及重要的國際展覽組織（如歐洲的UNIC）的幫助下，世界各地的參展商參照了安全協(xié)議、重新開放戰(zhàn)略、重返電影市場活動和電影供應問題方面的最佳實踐和戰(zhàn)略。

當然，第二波病毒浪潮襲擊了許多地區(qū)，我們不得不重新經(jīng)歷一遍。

從 2020 年到 2021 年，放映商都面臨著前所未有的收入緊縮，許多公司連續(xù)多個月虧損超過 90%。在創(chuàng)造性團體的數(shù)百名朋友的支持下（感謝電影協(xié)會、美國導演協(xié)會和你們的會員們），NATO和我們的會員游說聯(lián)邦和州政府幫助維持電影院及其工作以便在大流行的另一端保持活力。國會頒布了歷史性的停業(yè)運營商補助計劃，以及一些重要的稅收優(yōu)惠，許多州也效仿推出他們自己的補助計劃或稅收減免法規(guī)。

通過這些不同的努力，我們國內(nèi)的絕大多數(shù)會員都得以維持生計。許多其他國家也制定了計劃來幫助放映商及其員工?，F(xiàn)在，不斷增加的疫苗接種和票房數(shù)字預示著影院盈利能力在恢復。但它從哪里開始呢？

NATO董事會和工作人員正在努力確保影院放映商不會在大流行中幸存下來后被犧牲在流媒體戰(zhàn)爭的祭壇上。新冠大流行期間，發(fā)行模式和窗口必然會發(fā)生變化，因為發(fā)行商無法從獨家影院發(fā)行中獲得相同的回報。那些提供流媒體服務的工作室陷入了訂閱用戶爭奪戰(zhàn)中，形成了一些不利于個別電影盈利的商業(yè)模式。

走出大流行后，這些模式必須再次改變。窗口期不會回到大流行前的狀態(tài)，但也不會繼續(xù)他們的“大流行模式”。必須為觀影體驗和大多數(shù)電影制作人所偏愛的藝術(shù)形式的生存設置一門新課程，以平衡強勁的獨家窗口期與新的家庭流媒體生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。

這就是為什么NATO正在與聯(lián)邦政府合作建立一個反壟斷安全港的原因，這將確認放映商作為一個團體聚集在一起并與發(fā)行商坐下來以有益于每個人的方式制定這條前進道路的能力。電影的未來取決于此。

我期待著在展會上見到你們，慶祝電影業(yè)的回歸，并討論如何保護它的未來。

附原文：

In the last week of February and the first week of March 2020, we watched the news as an epidemic moved from Asia to Europe and became a pandemic. We planned new protocols for CinemaCon 2020 d on the science at the time, by ordering thousands of hand sanitizer bottles and booking more cleaning crews (no one was really talking about masks back then). MGM/UAR and Sony then announced the first two delays of theatrical release dates, for No Time to Die and for Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway. South by Southwest and the NAB show both canceled. So, on March 10, the NATO Executive Board made the difficult but appropriate decision to cancel CinemaCon 2020.

At the time, I thought that canceling CinemaCon would be the most difficult challenge of the year and that if domestic movie theaters had to close, it would be just for a few months and then we would be up and running again. How incredibly naive that now seems. The exhibition industry today is still enduring the longest existential crisis of its history, and it will take a year or more from now to fully recover.

Sixteen long months after we canceled CinemaCon 2020, we are so very excited to welcome back to CinemaCon those of you who are able to attend. And for those of you who couldn’t make it back to Vegas in 2021, we look forward to celebrating with you at CinemaCon 2022 next April.

As I write this, 49 of 50 states in the U.S. have allowed movie theaters to open at 100 percent capacity, 80 percent of our patrons feel comfortable returning to the cinema now, half of the federal grants for our midsize and smaller domestic exhibitors have been awarded, many different state grant and tax relief programs have been offered to exhibitors of all sizes, movies are finally sticking to their release dates, and more and more of those movies have exclusive theatrical windows.

Internationally, progress is also being made, though some territories are a few months behind the U.S., while others remain very challenged. In the important European sector, most major cinema markets have begun to reopen (for the second time during the pandemic!) and business is coming back. Asia has some strong spots and some still-challenged spots. Australian business has been decent, but recent outbreaks have caused some closures once again. Latin America remains a mixed territory, with some markets recovering and others still completely down. But between the open domestic and international markets there is enough business to sustain movie releases. And as vaccines continue to be rolled out the situation hopefully will continue to improve.

I believe we have reached the light at the end of a very long tunnel. Though the business will not go back to 2019 levels immediately, we are experiencing growing box office numbers in the Western world when we have movies people want to see. And moviegoers in China have demonstrated for many months that open and safe cinema markets recover strongly with good movies. And that is the most important thing about CinemaCon—the movies. We are simply stoked and grateful to have studio film presentations (in order of the current schedule for the week) from Sony, MGM/UAR, Warner Bros., NEON, Disney, Universal, Focus Features, Paramount, and Lionsgate.

We are also so pleased to see the majority of our trade-floor exhibitors and sponsors back at the show. Sure, challenging economic times mean some of the trade-floor participants have cut back a bit on space, and some can’t afford to rejoin us until the April 2022 show. But most will be in Vegas for the August 2021 show and will be excited to reconnect with customers. I know I will be thrilled to grab a Diet Coke and some nachos on the trade floor and check out the newest luxury recliner model.

And we have great public seminars, many important private NATO meetings, tasty food functions, and parties. Won’t it be fun to finally network in person again with so many industry colleagues? Four full days with no Zoom. Just imagine.

So how did we survive those 16 months and prove the aphorism that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”? How is it that we can gather once again in Vegas to learn, network, and celebrate the moviegoing experience? Well, we did it together. The NATO and CinemaCon staff joined with hundreds of member volunteers in daily crisis management of epic proportion. Never in my 30 years representing motion picture theater operators have tasks so huge confronted our industry—true existential challenges.

First there was the closure of cinemas across the world and the resulting hardship to our industry’s passionate workforce. In the U.S. the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers stepped up with an employee-relief grant program that helped thousands of workers. NATO and Sony each chipped in one million dollars. Lionsgate held a very cool fundraiser with Friday-evening films for the home. And we helped our employees. Then NATO supported legislation in Congress to provide federal supplemental unemployment compensation to furloughed workers. Exhibitor leaders internationally lobbied for similar programs in their territories. This is an industry that looks after its own people.

Next we needed to create a plan for the safe reopening of cinemas. A task force of members worked with NATO staff and two leading epidemiologists to develop “CinemaSafe,” a set of health and safety protocols. NATO and our members backed the program with public outreach and selected digital advertising, supported by money from NATO’s reserve fund. (That reserve fund, by the way, has been crucial in many ways during the pandemic. Proceeds from ShoWest and then CinemaCon, managed by the NATO Board and Investments Committee members, helped us develop the fund over the past 20 years just for a crisis like this.)

The CinemaSafe program gave our patrons confidence to come back to the cinema when they were allowed to open. The various NATO-affiliated regional units across the country worked tirelessly with NATO and CinemaSafe to convince state regulators that cinemas could be opened safely once more.

CinemaSafe also helped us work with studios to get some movies into the marketplace. Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan deserve high marks for Tenet, and so does Solstice Studios for releasing Unhinged.

With the help of the Global Cinema Federation, as well as important international exhibition leadership organizations such as UNIC in Europe, exhibitors around the world compared best practices and strategies on safety protocols, reopening strategies, return-to-moviegoing campaigns, and movie supply issues.

Then of course the second virus wave hit in many territories, and we had to go through it all over again.

Throughout 2020 and into 2021, exhibitors confronted a revenue crunch of epic proportion, with many companies losing more than 90 percent for many, many months. Supported by hundreds of friends in the creative community (thank you Motion Picture Association, Directors Guild of America, and your various members!), NATO and our members lobbied the federal and state governments for help to keep motion picture theaters and their many jobs alive to the other side of the pandemic. Congress enacted the historic Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, as well as several important tax benefits, and many states followed suit with their own grant programs or tax-relief legislation.

With these various efforts the vast majority of our domestic members have stayed afloat. And many other countries devised programs to help exhibitors and their employees. Now, rising vaccination and box office numbers offer the promise of a return to profitability. But where does it go from here?

Your NATO Board of Directors and staff are working to ensure that theatrical exhibition doesn’t survive the pandemic only to be sacrificed on the altar of the streaming wars. Release models and windows necessarily changed during the pandemic because distributors couldn’t get the same returns on exclusive theatrical releases. At the same time, those studios with streaming services got caught up in a battle for subscribers that led to some bad business models for the profitability of individual movies.

Coming out of the pandemic, these models must change again. Windows won’t go back to their pre-pandemic state. But they won’t continue in their pandemic model either. A new course that balances a robust period of exclusivity with the new in-home streaming ecosystem must be set for the survival of the moviegoing experience—and the art form preferred by most filmmakers.

That is why NATO is working with the federal government on an antitrust safe harbor that would confirm the ability of exhibitors to come together as a group and sit down with distributors to chart this path forward in a manner that benefits everyone. The very future of the cinema depends on it.

I look forward to seeing you at the show, to celebrate the return of moviegoing, and to discuss how to protect its future.

By John Fithian—President CEO, NATO

來源：https://www.boxofficepro.com/welcome-to-cinemacon-2021/